Who dares burst
the mound, and bid me
rise from death
by runes and song-spells?
-copied from here.
See also Dead Phone.
"'Dark, dark, and dark -'"
-Poul Anderson, The Stars Are Also Fire (New York, 1995), 43, p. 526.
"Who...Who calls me? Who...
"Who dares...call me back...from the high shore...of the silent river?"
-Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: A Game Of You (New York, 1993), chapter three, p. 82.
I think that there are other examples.
3 comments:
Paul:
There's a variant in the first chapter of Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light:
"...Your atman was projected, not into another body, but into the great magnetic cloud that encircles this planet. That was over half a century ago. You are now officially an avatar of Vishnu, whose teachings were misinterpreted by some of his more zealous followers. You, personally, continued to exist only in the form of self-perpetuating wavelengths, which I succeeded in capturing."
Sam closed his eyes.
"And you dared to bring me back?"
"That is correct."
"I was aware of my condition the entire time."
"I suspected as much."
His eyes opened, blazing. "Yet you dared recall me from that?"
"Yes."
Sam bowed his head. "Rightly are you called deathgod, Yama-Dharma. You have snatched away from me the ultimate experience. You have broken upon the dark stone of your will that which is beyond all comprehension and mortal splendor. Why could you not have left me as I was, in the sea of being?"
"Because a world has need of your humility, your piety, your great teaching and your Machiavellian scheming."
David,
That is a parallel. I am also remembering something from another source but I can't identify it.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul and DAVID!
I've also thought of an example from Tolkien's Middle Earthy mythology: the Tale of Beren and Luthien. After Beren was slain by the Wolf of Angband, Luthien faded away and died, to appear before Mandos, the Vala who acted as the judge of the spirits of dead elves, men, dwarves, etc. Luthien's plea to Mandos was so moving that even this inexorable Vala was moved to compassion, and consulted Mandos, the King of the Valar. The latter, after searching for the will of Iluvatar in this matter, offered Luthien and Beren the chance of returning to their bodily life, on condition of Luthien consenting to accept the the mortality of Men, which she did.
Sean
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