Niall And Ys

Unusually in a modern novel, the Irish King Niall of the Nine Hostages delivers a soliloquy over the sleeping Dahut before he sets off to destroy Ys. Shakespearean dramatis personae soliloquise because that is the only way that the audience can know what they are thinking but a novelist usually reports a viewpoint character's thoughts directly to the reader.

Niall, although this passage is narrated from his point of view, speaks quietly in his own language:

" 'It's sad I am to be leaving you, my darling...' " (Poul and Karen Anderson, Dahut (London, 1989), p. 436)

- and continues, quietly, for over a page, ending with:

" 'Farewell, Dahut.' " (p. 438)

(She will not fare well when she drowns with her fellow Ysans.) Of course, he wants neither to wake her nor to be understood if she did awake but his speech informs the reader. It identifies Dahut as her Gods' instrument of Niall's vengeance on Ys.

Now we understand the storms that have continued for hundreds of pages. With wind and waves, Lir will quickly overwhelm Ys when Niall opens the sea gate with the key stolen for him by Dahut when he had lied about why he needed it.

Ys, no longer isolated, is open to new ideas, has both a Mithraeum and a church within its walls and has a King who has inwardly foresworn its Gods, having openly defied them on several occasions. As King Gratillonius himself had said earlier, this conflict is ultimately between the Gods so it is Their responsibility to resolve it.

A new Age is dawning, with Christianity and other developments beyond that, but it is not an Age that the Three can control. They withdraw. Their time is passed.