Saturday, 7 May 2016

Edh And Dahut

(I had illustrated this post with a "Star of the Sea" image (see here) but have replaced it with this more appropriate Dahut cover. We travel to Wales for a week in a few hours.)

"...Edh would stray off by herself, over the heath till her moodiness blew from her. Commonly she ended by the sea, and there might well sit, lost in the sight, until shadows and breeze plucked at her sleeve to say she had better go home."
-Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), p. 583.

"...[Dahut] would keep motionless for an hour or more, listening to a shell or the surf or the wind, staring out over the deeps where seals and dolphins played, gulls and cormorants winged, ships and great whales passed by." (Gallicenae, p. 211)

Both commune with nature and its gods. Edh will become the prophetess of a sea goddess. Dahut, we know, has communicated with her dead mother who has returned as a seal. Dahut listens to shells, surf and wind and stares at the deeps. She is one with the Triad of Ys Who speak to her through the sea sounds she hears. She will enter that sea and be transformed.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Let's not mince words. Dahut was taken into the sea when Ys was drowned--and transformed into a monster. She did not become anything great, high, or noble.

Sean