"Dunsany, Lord - Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

things that he might make amends, because he had loved the
bones that he had strewn afar. And Athelvok turned and set
one foot upon the crumbled slope, and then another, and
walked a little way to be nearer to the Sea, and then a
dream came upon him and he felt that men had wronged the
lovely Sea because he had been angry a little, because he
had been sometimes cruel; he felt that there was trouble
among the tides of the Sea because he had loved the galleons
who were dead. Still he walked on, and the crumbled stones
rolled with him, and just as the twilight faded and a star
appeared he came to the golden shore, and walked on till the
surges were about his knees, and he heard the prayer-like
blessings of the Sea. Long he stood thus, while the stars
came out above him and shone again in the surges; more stars
came wheeling in their courses up from the Sea, lights
twinkled out through all the haven city, lanterns were slung
from the ships, the purple night burned on; and Earth, to
the eyes of the gods as they sat afar, glowed as with one
flame. Then Athelvok went into the haven city; there he met
many who had left the Inner Lands before him; none of them
wished to return to the people who had not seen the Sea;
many of them had forgotten the three little kingdoms, and it
was rumoured that one man, who had once tried to return, had
found the shifting, crumbled slope impossible to climb.
Hilnaric never married. But her dowry was set aside to
build a temple wherein men curse the ocean.
Once a year, with solemn rite and ceremony, they curse
the tides of the Sea; and the moon looks in and hates them.