Re: Another two legends of Legends

From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)

Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1992 22:52:15 +0000

And two more, both from Crown of Avalon:

In a small village on the plain, the quiet of the night was shattered
by cries for help and the bloodcurdling screams of dying men.  The country
manor of Count Vangreer of Shawnhurst had been attacked in the night by the
Spiderfolk, slinking from their forest lairs in the spiderwood to kidnap
the Count's daughter.  That was ten years ago.

That night, after hearing his wife's last words as she lay dying in
his arms of a poison dart from a Spiderfolk assassin, the Count swore to
end the incursions of the Black Ones on the domain of civilized men.

He gathered his army, and found men in the city to teach certain of
them new skills; those of silence, and surprise, and killing in darkness,
even as the Spiders themselves do it.  The men he trained thus were sent
out to kill any of the Spiderfolk found out of the forest; and for seven
years they did their job well, though many of them were killed, and more
diesappeared without a trace of their fate.  and for each Spider killed,
Vangreer hung the head on the city gate, and declared a day of feast for
the town.  and though the Black Ones venture forth from the Spiderwood no
longer, it is said that they hate Vangreer with a hate darker than their
dark webs, and they await his coming to the Wood with great anticipation.

For his part, though, Vangreer has yet to make the journey; none call
him coward, but some murmur in private about the kind of man who would leave his daughter with the Black Ones for so long.  And the hunting of the
Spiderfolk has been ended, the Weeping Plains once again safe from them.

and

And the bards sing of how Gorgoroth came in the night to his servant,
the Dark King.  Fresh from his failure to bend the Fourth Lifestone to His
will, He was in a foul mood.  And the Dark King saw this, and used the
powers which he had been given to ascertain the cause of Gorgoroth's
distress.  And he thought, after he had heard the story, that the Stone
might well be made most useful for himself, even if his Master had gotten
no use of it; for his own powers had been invested in him on Avara, and
were not so alien to the land as were Gorgoroth's.

With sweet tongue and fawning suggestions, the Dark King brought his
God to the conclusion that, if He could not use the Stone, perhaps His
defeat would be somewhat mitigated if His faithful servant could get some
use from it.  And so the Stone passed for the first time into the hands of
a mortal being, and an incredible and varied career was begun; for the Dark
King hied himself straightaway to a familiar place; and he joined his power
with that of the Stone, and created his own new race in secret; and they
are known as the Spider-folk.  And he took the Winterstone to his first
great victory, the Fall of Marthong; but at that time he lost it, and its
tale since that time could fill volumes, were it but known in full.

-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com

Watership Down:
  You've read the book.  You've seen the movie.  Now eat the stew!

References

Re: Legends
dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Tue, 30 Jun 1992 18:36:43 +0000
Another two legends of Legends
goedhart@dutiws.tudelft.nl (Peter Goedhart.TI-tel-3925)
Thu, 02 Jul 1992 15:10:25 +0000