"Jack Vance - Elder Isles 0 - Suldrun's Garden" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

- - - - Vance uses many footnotes in this volume

- - - - Vance uses many footnotes in this volume. I have
attempted to make these available - - - - -
- - - - to the e-book reader by setting them off with an asterixk
(*) and indenting them. -----


PRELIMINARY

The Elder Isles and its peoples: a brief survey, which, while not
altogether tedious, may be neglected by the reader impatient with
facts.

The Elder Isles, now sunk beneath the Atlantic, in olden times
were located across the Cantabrian Gulf (now the Bay of Biscay)
from Old Gaul.

Christian chroniclers have little to say regarding the Elder
Isles. Gildas and Nennius both make references to Hybras, though
Bede is silent. Geoffrey of Monmouth alludes both to Lyonesse and
Avallon, and perhaps other places and events which can less
certainly be identified. Chretien of Troyes rhapsodizes upon Ys
and its pleasures; and Ys is also the frequent locale of early
Armorican folk-tales. Irish references are numerous but confusing
and contradictory. St. Bresabius of Cardiff propounds a rather
fanciful list of the Kings of Lyonesse; St. Columba inveighs
against the "heretics, witches, idolaters and Druids" of the
island he calls "Hy Brasill," the medieval term for "Hybras."
Otherwise the record is quiet.

Greeks and Phoenicians traded with the Elder Isles. Romans visited
Hybras and many settled there, leaving behind aqueducts, roads,
villas and temples. In the waning days of the Empire Christian
dignitaries landed at Avallon amid vast pomp and panoply. They
established bishoprics, appointed appropriate officials and spent
good Roman gold to build their basilicas, none of which prospered.
The bishops strove mightily against the olden gods, halflings and
magicians alike, but few dared enter the Forest of Tantrevalles.
Aspergillums, thuribles and curses proved futile against such as
Dankvin the giant, Taudry the Weasoning, the fairies of Pithpenny
Shee. Dozens of missionaries, exalted through faith, paid terrible


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- - - - Vance uses many footnotes in this volume

prices for their zeal. Saint Elric marched barefoot to Smoorish
Rock where he intended to subdue the ogre Magre and bring him to
the Faith. According to subsequent tale-tellers, Saint Elric