作者: raiderho@smth.edu.cn
標題: MAHARION AND ERRETH-AKBE silverharpe(轉寄)
時間: Fri May 7 08:17:23 2004
MAHARION AND ERRETH-AKBE
Queen Heru, called the Eagle, inherited the throne
from her father, Denggemal of the House of Ilien.
Her consort Aiman was of the House of Morred.
When she had ruled thirty years she gave the crown
to their son Maharion.
Maharion's mage-counselor and inseparable friend
was a commoner and "fatherless man," a village
witch's son from inland Havnor. The most beloved
hero of the Archipelago, his story is told in The
Deed of Erreth-Akbe, which bards sing at the Long
Dance of midsummer.
Erreth-Akbe's gifts in magic became apparent
when he was still a boy. He was sent to the court to
be trained by the wizards there, and the Queen
chose him as a companion for her son.
Maharion and Erreth-Akbe became "hearts
brothers." They spent ten years together fighting
the Kargs, whose occasional forays from the East
had in recent times become a slave-taking,
colonising invasion. Venway, Torheven and the
Torikles, Spevy, Perregal, and parts of Gont were
under Kargish dominion for a generation or longer.
At Shelieth on Way, Erreth-Akbe worked a great
magic against the Kargish forces, who had landed in
"a thousand ships" on Waymarsh and were
swarming across the mainland. Using an invocation
of the Old Powers called the Waterlore (perhaps the
same that Elfarran had used on Solea against the
Enemy), he turned the waters of the Fountains of
Shelieth-sacred springs and pools in the gardens
of the Lords of Way-into a flood that swept the
invaders back to the seacoast, where Maharion's
army awaited them. No ship of the fleet returned to
Karego-At.
Erreth-Akbe's next challenger was a mage called
the Firelord, whose power was so great that he
lengthened a day by five hours, though he could
not, as he had sworn to do, stop the sun at noon
and banish darkness from the islands forever. The
Firelord took dragon form to fight Erreth-Akbe, but
was defeated at last, at the cost of the forests and
cities of Ilien, which he set afire as he fought.
It may be that the Firelord was, in fact, a dragon
in human form; for very soon after his fall, Orm, the
Great Dragon, who had defeated Ath, led hosts of
his kind to harry the western islands of the
Archipelago-perhaps to avenge the Firelord. These
fiery flights caused great terror, and hundreds of
boats carried people fleeing from Paln and Semel to
the Inner Islands; but the dragons were not doing
as much damage as the Kargs, and Maharion
judged the urgent danger lay in the east. While he
himself went west to fight dragons, he sent Erreth-
Akbe east to try to establish peace with the King of
the Kargad Lands.
Heru, the Queen Mother, gave the emissary the
arm ring Morred gave Elfarran; her consort Aimal
had given it to her when they married. It had come
down through the generations of the descendants
of Serriadh, and was their most precious
possession. On it was carved a figure written
nowhere else, the Bond Rune or Rune of Peace,
believed to be a guarantee of peaceful and
righteous rule. "Let the Kargish king wear Morred's
ring," the Queen Mother said. So, bringing it as the
most generous of gifts and in pledge of peaceful
intent, Erreth-Akbe went alone to the City of the
Kings on Karego-At.
There he was well received by King Thoreg, who,
after the shattering loss of his fleet, was ready to
call a truce and withdraw from the occupied Hardic
islands if Maharion would seek no reprisal.
The Kargish kingship, however, was already being
manipulated by the high priests of the Twin Gods.
Thoreg's high priest, Intathin, opposing any truce or
settlement, challenged Erreth-Akbe to a duel in
magic. Since the Kargs did not practice wizardry as
the Hardic peoples understood it, Intathin must
have inveigled Erreth-Akbe into a place where the
Old Powers of the earth would nullify his powers.
The Hardic Deed of Erreth-Akbe speaks only of the
hero and the high priest "wrestling," until:
the weakness of the old darkness came into
Erreth-Akbe's limbs,
the silence of the mother darkness into his mind.
Long he lay, forgetful of bright fame and
brotherhood,
long, and on his breast lay the rune-ring broken.
The daughter of "the wise king Thoreg" rescued
Erreth-Akbe from this trance or imprisoning spell
and restored him his strength. He gave her the half
of the Ring of Peace that remained to him. (From
her it passed through her descendants for over five
hundred years to the last heirs of Thoreg, a brother
and sister exiled on a deserted island of the East
Reach; and the sister gave it to Ged.) Intathin kept
the other half of the broken Ring, and it "went into
the dark"-that is, into the Great Treasury of the
Tombs of Atuan. (There Ged found it, and rejoining
the two halves and with them the lost Rune of
Peace, he and Tenar brought the Ring home to
Havnor.)
The Kargish version of the story, told as a sacred
recital by the priesthood, says that Intathin
defeated Erreth-Akbe, who "lost his staff and
amulet and power" and crept back to Havnor a
broken man. But wizards carried no staff in those
years, and Erreth-Akbe certainly was an unbroken
man and a powerful mage when he faced the
dragon Orm.
King Maharion sought peace and never found it.
While Erreth-Akbe was in Karego-At (which may
have been a period of years), the depredations of
the dragons increased. The Inward Isles were
troubled by refugees fleeing the western lands and
by interruptions to shipping and trade, since the
dragons had taken to setting fire to boats that went
west of Hosk, and harried ships even in the Inmost
Sea. All the wizards and armed men Maharion could
command went out to fight the dragons, and he
went with them himself four times; but swords and
arrows were little use against armored, fire-
spouting, flying enemies. Paln was "a plain of
charcoal," and villages and towns in the west of
Havnor had been burnt to the ground. The king's
wizards had spell-caught and killed several dragons
over the Pelnish Sea, which probably increased the
dragons' ire. Just as Erreth-Akbe returned, the
Great Dragon Orm flew to the City of Havnor and
threatened the towers of the king's palace with fire.
Erreth-Akbe, sailing into the bay "with sails worn
transparent by the eastern winds," could not pause
to "embrace his heart's brother or greet his home."
Taking dragon form himself, he flew to battle with
Orm over Mount Onn. "Flame and fire in the
midnight air" could be seen from the palace in
Havnor. They flew north, Erreth-Akbe in pursuit.
Over the sea near Taon, Orm turned again and this
time wounded the mage so that he had to come
down to earth and take his own form. He came,
with the dragon now following him, to the Old
Island, Ea, the first land Segoy raised from the sea.
On that sacred and powerful soil, he and Orm met.
Ceasing their battle, they spoke as equals, agreeing
to end the enmity of their races.
Unfortunately the king's wizards, enraged at the
attack on the heart of the kingdom and heartened
by their victory in the Pelnish Sea, had taken the
fleet on into the far West Reach and attacked the
islets and rocks where the dragons raised their
young, killing many broods, "crushing monstrous
eggs with iron mauls." Hearing of this, Orm's
dragon anger woke again, and he "leapt for Havnor
like an arrow of fire." (Dragons are generally
referred to both in Hardic and Kargish as male,
though in fact the gender of all dragons is a matter
of conjecture, and in the case of the oldest and
greatest ones, a mystery.)
Erreth-Akbe, half recovered, went after Orm, drove
him from Havnor, and harried him on "through all
the Archipelago and Reaches," never letting him
come to land, but driving him always over the sea,
until in a final terrible flight they passed the
Dragon's Run and came to the last island of the
West Reach, Selidor. There, on the outer beach,
both exhausted, they faced each other and fought,
"talon and fire and word and sword," until:
their blood ran mingled, making the sand red.
Their breath ceased. Their bodies by the loud sea
lay entangled. They entered death's land together.
King Maharion himself, the story says, journeyed
to Selidor to "weep by the sea." He retrieved
Erreth-Akbe's sword and set it atop the highest
tower of his palace.
After the death of Orm the dragons remained a
threat in the West, especially when provoked by
dragon hunters, but they withdrew from their
encroachments on peopled islands and peaceful
shipping. Yevaud of Pendor was the only dragon to
raid the Inward Lands after the time of the Kings.
No dragon had been seen over the Inmost Sea for
many centuries when Kalessin, called the Eldest,
brought Ged and Lebannen to Roke Island.
Maharion died a few years after Erreth-Akbe,
having seen no peace established, and much unrest
and dissent within his kingdom. It was widely said
that since the Ring of Peace was lost there could be
no true king of Earthsea. Mortally wounded in battle
against the rebel lord Gehis of the Havens,
Maharion spoke a prophecy: "He shall inherit my
throne who has crossed the dark land living and
come to the far shores of the day."