Wednesday 12 December 2018

Brake

Poul Anderson, Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 5.

Pp. 55-57 present a beautiful description of "...the tangled woods..." (p. 55) where Carl hunts with bow and arrow:

the smell of "...rich green life..." (ibid.);
golden sunlight flecked by leaves;
blue sky;
cool shadows;
a sunning snake and a rising pheasant, the latter like "...rainbowed lightning..." (ibid.);
a brook running into a quiet pool under a willow thicket;
a trail beaten by wild cattle;
cool sunset air;
shadows "...creeping from the brake..." (p. 56)

A "brake" is a thicket:

SHERWOOD in the twilight, is Robin Hood awake? 
Grey and ghostly shadows are gliding through the brake;
-copied from here.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

At least Poul Anderson's use of "brake" here made sense and did not baffle me the way his idiosyncratic use of "glade" did!

Sean