The morning of the 28th dawned bright and fair. It looked promising for a treck up the 7,000 stairs. By noon I was on high ridges looking down the in the valleys to the north. A few hours later I had made it high enough to enter the permanent snow line and by mid afternoon had reached the Skyforge, the place I had to turn back before. The weather was holding so I pressed onward. The views are astounding. There are rugged mountains to the north and what appears to be the tower of some ancient fortress that I think I would like to visit sometime in the future. Along the way there have been etched monuments telling a story of the war between men and dragons. There is reference to a master dragon named Alduin who was opposed by early men who were gifted supposedly by a god with the power of voice and so able to fight the dragons on their own terms.
The trail wound around the mountain and on the west side looking down toward where I suspect Riverwood would be, clouds obscuring the valley below, I saw substantial dragon ruins on the ridges above the town. These too I shall have to look into. Especially with them so close to town.By the 9th hour of the evening I bedded down below an overhang on the west side of the mountain and slept with one eye open as I had encountered both bear and trolls on the journey up. I was up early on the 29th and resumed my climb. By the 9th hours of the morning a snow storm had moved in, but I was not about to pushed off the mountain again. I pressed on.
At 1030 the fortress of High Hrothgar came into view. The storm had let up some. And I kept a promise I had made to my friends still waiting the Pale estate. I lit a beacon using my gift with fire. I don't know if the can see it from here through what is left of the storm, but I set a pillar on fire with the strongest fire I have. And proceeded to meet the monks.Only one would speak with me. Arngeir, eldest of the Graybeards. I stayed several days with them. For an imposing building, it is austere and their accommodations humble. They are not used to guests. He instructed me further in the theory behind the word which they call "the voice" and helped me to expand my ability in one area of the pure projection of force. And he spoke to me of what he knew.
He too shared the legend that men were first gifted with the power of the voice by the gods, indeed he named the god Kynereth but also referenced it being a gift of Akatosh himself, which in northern legends appears to be a varient (though corrupted) for the All-Father. He said there was time when the dragons ruled over men and some of them were empowered with the power of dragons to become lords and its was these lords who first brought order the early human settlements in the north, but in the end brought tyranny. Which began a war, at first brutal against the rebels, but the gods had mercy (according to legend) and the power of the voice was given to give humans a chance.I learned there is one more monk here, Paarthurnax, but he will not see me, at least not now. I was given a test, to retried a mighty horn from the burial site of Jurgen. Perhaps with the horn, he may see me.
When asked about the origin of dragons and their ability with the word or the voice as he calls it, Arngeir could only say that they were always able to shout. It is somehow an expression of their very nature. Given there was not truly comfortable place to sleep, I spent the evening exploring the halls and reading books. In a dusty corner, laying looking as it if it had not been touched since the place had been built, was an ancient tomb written in an ancient tounge and it revealed much. Much that starts to make sense.
It spoke of the first coming of men to these lands and is written by an elvish scholar of the time, who it appears had little love for men. But the story began before man came. It began in a place of bliss and light and joy. The elves where here first and had been brought from the north to a land of bliss and light because the north had been invested with evil by a rebellious high servant of the Creator who out of jealousy sought domination of all. (This sounded quite familiar to what my elf friend had shared in Windhelm.) These evil lord, named Morgoth in the tomb's ancient ruins, had attacked the land of light itself and darkened it. And the high elvish lord Feanor had learned that the gods themselves conspired against the elves to take from them their great greatest creations to restore the light of their world. But in the midst of the struggle came word that Morgoth had assailed the homes of the elves as well and their rings of light were stolen, and hence began the exodus of the elves from the land of bliss to the land of sorrow, the land of the north. For they journeyed to make war on the Dark Lord and reclaim their rings. But more they had learned that a new race was coming, a race of men, and they believed the gods had pulled them from the north robbing them of lands and destiny.
As I pondered this I could not help but believe that there is likely some truth and some aberration. I have no doubt there was once and may still be a Dark Lord. And it would seem right that All-Father would take action to preserve his creatures. But that there are many gods is known to be false among those most skilled in the ancient books for these myths are more recent. And if the guardians of that blessed realm, who I suspect were created agents of the All-Father, opposed the elves it was because of their folly. I continued reading.
The story grew sketchy, but it appears a long war was raged in the North in which the rings were lost but a measure of victory was won. But one interesting fact came to the surface. That war was invested with great power and magic. The enemy did not just use sword and twisted creatures, but had mighty fire spirits, corrupted guardians, named Balrog. And he employed magic, power. This would make sense. If the high evil spirits were once noble creatures, they would have been gifted with the source by their nature. And if as other legends have shared with me that dragons were created as a merging of these fallen Fire Lords and elves and possibly men then that is would explain the dragons inborn ability with word/voice. Corrupted but essential to their nature.
So a war where the source flowed in twisted ways torn apart and reshaped the north. It certainly looks it. Rugged. Rough. Land pushed up and torn down. And it could explain why here in the north this power is still present for "the dragon born". The power may still resonate in the very rocks and mountains which absorbed so much punishment in this war. Here the power of the source, the Word, the Voice was once used in a great battle between darkness and light.
I have to wonder if the guardians were involved. Other legends speak of guardians, servants of the All-Father, seven or nine, the story is mixed, who were sent in the form of men to battle the remaining Dark Lords (not Dragon Lords) but likely these fallen spirits of the All-Father that remained after the defeat of the Dark Lord, here name Morgoth. How he was defeated I know not. I suspect the guardians themselves became involved. For how one of the races, elves or men, could prevail against a creature whose very nature is linked at its core with the source, is impossible to tell. It may be that the dragons were a remnant of this war. It may be that the gift of the source in the form of understanding the nature of the source and laws that bind the very fabric of reality, what we call "The Word" what the monks call "The Voice" was gifted to men and possibility elf, by the All-Father, probably through a guardian or representative, for the pure survival of the races, and the ability remains limited but yet present in our bloodlines.
No comments:
Post a Comment