"Jack Vance - Elder Isles 3 - Madouc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

Lindisfarne far to the north, off the coast of Britain.

*Somewhat later, King Phristan of Lyonesse allowed a Christian bishopric at
Bulmer Skeme, on the east coast of Lyonesse, insisting only that no wealth be
exported to Rome. Perhaps for this reason, the church received little support
from abroad, and the bishop exercised no great influence, either at Bulmer Skeme
or at Rome.

For many years the Elder Isles were ruled from Castle Haidion at Lyonesse Town, until Olam III,
son of Fafhion Long Nose, removed the seat of government to Falu Ffail at Avallon, taking with him
the sacred throne Evandig and the great table Cairbra an Meadhan, тАШthe Board of NotablesтАЩ ,** and
the source of a whole cycle of legends.

**In years to come Cairbra an Meadhan would serve as model for the Round Table which


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graced King ArthurтАЩs court at Camelot.


Upon the death of Olam III, the Elder Isles entered upon a time of troubles. The Ska, having been
expelled from Ireland, settled on the island Skaghane, where they rebuffed all attempts to
dislodge them. Goths ravaged the coast of Dahaut; sacking the Christian monastery on Whanish Isle,
sailing their longboats up the Cambermouth as far as Cogstone Head, from which they briefly
menaced Avallon itself. A dozen princelings vied for power, shedding much blood, wreaking much
grief and bereavement, exhausting the land, and in the end achieving nothing, so that the Elder
Isles became a patchwork of eleven kingdoms, each at odds with all the rest.

Audry I, King of Dahaut, never abandoned his claim to sovereignty over all the Elder Isles, citing
his custody of the throne Evandig as basis for his assertion. His claim was angrily challenged,
especially by King Phristan of Lyonesse, who insisted that Evandig and Cairbra an Meadhan were his
own rightful property, wrongfully sequestered by Olam III. He named Audry I traitor and caitiff;
in the end the two realms went to war. At the climactic battle of Orm Hill the two sides succeeded
only in exhausting each other. Both Phristan and Audry I were killed, and finally the remnants of
the two great armies straggled sadly away from the bloody field.

Audry II became king of Dahaut and Casmir I was the new king of Lyonesse. Neither abandoned the
ancient claims, and peace between the two realms was thereafter fragile and tentative.

So went the years, with tranquillity only a memory. In the Forest of Tantrevalles halflings,
trolls, ogres and others less easily defined, bestirred themselves and performed evil deeds which
no one dared punish; magicians no longer troubled to mask their identities, and were solicited by
rulers for aid in the conduct of temporal policy.

The magicians devoted ever more time to sly struggles and baneful intrigue, to the effect that a
goodly number had already been expunged. The sorcerer Sartzanek was one of the chief offenders; he
had destroyed the magician Coddefut by means of a purulence, and Widdefut through the Spell of
Total Enlightenment. In retaliation, a cabal of SartzanekтАЩs enemies compressed him into an iron