. . . .
..::In Kabbalah, Renaissance magic, and alchemy, the language of the birds was considered a secret and perfect language and the key to perfect knowledge, sometimes also called the langue verte, or green language.
In medieval France, the language of the birds (la langue des oiseaux) was a secret language of the Troubadours, connected with the Tarot, allegedly based on puns and symbolism drawn from homophony, e. g. an inn called au lion d'or "the Golden Lion" is allegedly "code" for au lit on dort "in the bed one sleeps"
In Norse mythology, the power to understand the language of the birds was a sign of great wisdom. The god Odin had two ravens, called Hugin and Munin, who flew around the world and told Odin what happened among mortal men.
The legendary king of Sweden Dag the Wise was so wise that he could understand what birds said. He had a tame house sparrow which flew around and brought back news to him. Once, a farmer in Reidgotaland killed Dag's sparrow, which brought on a terrible retribution from the Swedes.
In Greece, Tiresias was also said to have been given the ability to understand the language of the birds by Athena::..
. . . .
"Women are peerless dreamers," Esperanza assured me.
"Women are extremely practical. In order to sustain a dream, one must be practical, because the dream must pertain to practical aspects of oneself.
"My teacher's favorite dream was to dream of herself as a hawk. Another was to dream of herself as an owl. So depending on the time of the day, she could dream about being either one, and since she was dreaming while she was awake, she was really and absolutely a hawk or an owl."
Florinda Donner
Being-In-Dreaming
. . . .
"...I just want a little bungalow, where I can call home...and tell my wife I won't be there for dinner."
Groucho, as Capt. Spaulding
Marx Bros
Animal Crackers
"Snow!"
-- Emlyn exclaimed.
Daryl had decided to deposit them outside on that particular offchance which now blanketed the expanse before them.
Em was delighted; she smiled, shut her eyes, and held her face up to the softly alighting crystalline flakes...this, this was what she had longed for!
Daryl spoke not, but quietly turned round and, bending over, briskly fashioned sommat with his hands, then stepped back...
-- Twack! 'Pon Emlyn's back splat the speeding snow sphere!
'The devil -- !!' Em cried, as she scooped up her own frozen artillery, and the formerly anxious couple were magically transformed into laughing, yelling children again as they chased each other about the grounds, ducking behind bushes and letting fly with their melting missiles...a folie au deux.
Em was hiding around her trees, snowball in hand, looking for Daryl; who meanwhile, had crept up silently behind...
'-- Gotcha!' He cried, as he grabbed her about the waist and swung her about, the two screeching and laughing as though they were Diego and Josephina again.
(-- If their young selves had frolic'd in snow and not sand, that is.)
They stood hugging one another, catching their breath, when...
'-- Listen!' Daryl held up a finger...
'Ahh!' Em gasped, '-- Bells! Sleigh bells!'
Daryl looked down and grinned at her. 'Athena!'
Hand in hand, they ran to view the narrow gravel lane that served as a road to the estate, now snow-blanketed, and soon beheld in the distance such a scene as would only emerge from a Norse fairy tale...
Accompanying the light silvery belling, in the distance appeared a pale blue dappled and piebald horse drawing a blueish-silver sleigh piled all about with white sheepskins.
Holding the lines was an exact visage of the Snow Queen -- leaning forward, an eager, softly smiling pale woman sat driving, wrapped in a coat of white and trimmed with ribbands of Norse/Celtic embroideries about the front and and wrists. A fluffy milk-white collar encircled her neck and framed her white-gloved hands.
Her long silver hair flew streaming behind her in the wild wind like a trailing cloud sparkling with snowflakes; she held her face to the wind, and laughed for the sheer joy of it...
...A lone kestrel flew behind her, calling.
Emlyn and Daryl were enraptured by the sight.
'Oh! Isn't she glorious?!' Glancing up, Em noted Daryl was smiling now, his face relaxed for the first time that day.
'-- Let us go to her, Diego! May we?' She put her arm through his.
Daryl regarded her from on high, his smile quirked slightly to the left. 'I think that a fine idea, Josephina.'
. . . .
By the time the two reached the Gatehouse, they found horse and sled put away in the stables.
'It IS a real horse!' Emlyn marveled, as her awestruck eyes roamed over the odd dappling of actual pale stars upon the horse's blueish-slate coat.
'Yes,' answered Daryl as he ran a hand over the horse's back, patting his neck. 'Although with a name like 'Hermes', he may have been lent a magical bent...'
Daryl stood, gazing about the old stone stables, tack room and yard. 'They're a fairly new breed; a Chocolate Silver Dapple Pinto.'
'Chocolate Silver! He seems unreal...a fairy horse.' Em was delighted to see such a myth come to life. A unicorn couldn't have thrilled her more.
Such a brave new world, indeed! Crop circles, horses with star-coats! And no one appreciated these awesome everyday miracles, according to Daryl and Athena; most folk of their day were either too poor and struggling to survive, or so rich they were jaded to the gills. By all accounts, everyone lived a virtual life untouched by anything natural. Indeed, nature had long since vanished from the World of Man.
'Shall we knock up Athena?' Em inquired.
'Eh?' Daryl looked nonplussed momentarily. 'Ah, yes, let's...' They shuffled off through the snow to the Gatehouse proper.
. . . .
Em's light tapping was soon answered by a smiling Athena.
'I had a feeling you were coming! Entre', do!'
Em and Daryl kicked as much snow from their boots as they could against the door step and shook their coats free of flakes, then sat and removed boots in the entryway.
...Homecoming.
'I'm heating cocoa...' Athena called over her shoulder as she headed for the kitchen.
'Excellent, luv!' Daryl answered. 'When did the snow begin?' He ran hands through his hair and sauntered in to the parlor.
'Oh, sometime around mid-November, actually! This is nothing new around here!' Athena brought a tray into the room and set it upon the large sea chest that served as table before the fireplace. 'Do have a cuppa and warm up. You saw us on the road, I suppose?'
Seating herself on the sofa, she took up her mugful and curled her legs beneath her, ala Emlyn.
Em soon followed her example and helped herself to a steaming cup of chocolate. Daryl sat in the armchair across from the ladies and sipped, feet propped upon the hearth.
'Mmm...marshmallows...' He smiled a Diego-like mischievous grin.
'This feels so good...your cosy place, the warm fire...snow!' Emlyn enthused. 'Thank you for the hospitality...did you really think we were coming?'
'I did.' Athena leaned back, a small smile at the corners of her lips and eyes. 'I dreamed it. Last evening.'
'You knew before we did, then!' Daryl replied. 'Very spur of the moment, this trip.'
The three friends sat companionably for a while, enjoying chocolate in silence and defrosting; no sounds but the crackling of logs on the fire and the occasional 'whump!' of snow falling from branches about the cottage.
Emlyn wondered how much Athena knew. A canny lady, she; Em wouldn't be surprised to find she knew all. Actually, however, Em simply wished to soak up life in the moment; the Here and Now, as she and Diego had sworn to do...
Daryl stretched his legs out before him, crossing ankles and sighed.
'We were feeling rather bereft of real weather in the west...I was hoping that Old Man Winter may have made an appearance here by now.'
Athena returned from the kitchen with a tin of biscuits. 'Oh, yes...well, you popped in and out again not so long ago, you know.'
Daryl accepted a rich Scottish shortcake. 'Just to check on you, luv. Couldn't stay long, and didn't even notice the weather outdoors then. T'was late at night, last time I recall...'
'It was. Luckily I am a night owl...' Athena's gaze went to the many representations of owls about the mantle. Owls carved in wood, an owl clock face, owl statues...one, very life-like, turned its head suddenly and looked at Emlyn with wide orange eyes.
'The...that's...' Em stammered, '...a real owl!'
'Minerva, yes...' Athena smiled, a genuine fondness showing for her feathered companion. 'I found her with a wounded wing a month or so ago. She visits now, occasionally. Sleeps here days, and leaves me to hunt at night. I've rigged a door for her up an unused chimney; she knows how to open it, comes and goes as she pleases.'
'She is recovered?' asked Daryl, craning his neck behind him, afraid to stand and upset Minerva.
'She is. And mice are no longer a problem.'
Minerva shook her feathers and closed her jack-o-lantern eyes once more, leaving the visitors to their own business.
'She seems most at-ease for a wild creature,' noted Daryl. 'What of your hawk now?'
'Falcon, actually. American kestrel. Grace, I call her. Amazing how they can hover, you know, even inside a barn, say. They were once referred to as 'Windhovers'. She, too, comes and goes as she pleases, but I've made a place for her in the stables, when she wishes to visit.' Athena gazed out the frosty windows, sleepy-eyed and mellow from her outing in the great white Winter world.
She regarded them after a pause. 'So you are come here seeking Winter.'
'We are, we do,' Emlyn replied. 'It is still so dry back west...'
'...While we're in a state of stormy siege here, always, I know.' Athena acknowledged. 'But, after my brief foray into that other world, I am more than content here.' Her eyes went to Daryl's, and he read truth therein.
'Also,' Daryl began, 'I needed to secret some...antiques, back at the House,' Daryl frowned, remembering. 'They must remain there, I now know.' He shifted uneasily. 'It's been quite the adventure twixt the Solstice and now...'
'But, the Solstice was only, what, yesterday?' Athena puzzled.
'For most, yes.' Emlyn left it at that.
'For us, however,' Daryl continued, 'it has been...
rather a rough go.' His eyes took on a haunted look, and Em knew he was recalling his near-death experience staked upon a pyramid as sacrifice to the death cult.
'We're come here, to put all that behind us, and for a fresh outlook on things,' Em briskly asserted.
Athena took the hint and did not inquire into their
alleged 'adventures', but she did wonder...
'Well, you came to the right place,' she smiled.
'Here, nature holds sway. All this,' her hand made a graceful arc, 'is ruled by wind and snow, the thunder and rains, the owl and the falcon. I fancied I even heard a wolf howl the other evening.' Athena paused. '...And, at times, even stranger things do surprise. The Northern Lights, upon occasion. The skies round about are full of silent mysteries...'
'Ah,' Daryl sat back, and, clasping his hands across his belly, he intoned: '"There are strange things done neath the midnight sun, by the men who toil for gold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights...,"' he paused, frowning; '...eh, how does it go now?'
Thinking of queer sights, Emlyn couldn't resist;
'Athena, I hope you don't mind, but, we did stop in the stables to look at your horse and sled! I have never beheld such a gorgeous creature! He seems unreal!'
'I assume you mean Hermes? My dappled chocolate star-horse?' Athena smiled wide, gazing into the fire.
'Yes, he is a beauty. Did you meet Freya? She's my Norwegian Fjord Horse...also quite lovely; another fairy-tale beastie.'
'Indeed?' Daryl sat up. 'We missed Freya.' His eyes went to Em. 'But we'd love to become acquainted sometime. Soon, perhaps?' Em nodded with anticipation.
'But just now...' he finished his cocoa and took a ginger snap, putting it in his pocket as he rose.
'I'm afraid duty calls.' Again his glance went to Em, who regarded him with questioning eyes. 'There are some items I am having transferred to the big House. Manuel is probably there by now...'
Daryl went behind Emlyn and put his hands upon her shoulders, bending to her...
'Just to settle us in, luv. Warm up the place sommat. You may join me, or stay here with Athena awhile longer?' His gaze searched that lady's own, who nodded smiling.
Athena took Em's hand. 'Do stay on a bit. It has been long since we've had a chance to chat, no?'
Em touched Daryl with her free hand. 'Oh, I'd love to stay, Diego! Just for a bit, to warm up. I don't mind walking back alone...'
Athena spoke up, 'Nonsense, I shall come with you. The paths look much changed in the snow.' She regarded Daryl, 'Off you go then! We shall meet anon!'
Daryl kissed Em on the cheek, and bussed Athena as well before he donned his winter gear and made his exit with an 'Abientot, cheries!' He stamped his feet and began singing as he shut the door...something about 'The Great White Cold Walks Abroad...'
Athena gazed after him for a bit, then sighed and stretched. 'Now, we shall have a good talk. I shall make us some coffee, yes?' She floated off the sofa and came behind Em, as Daryl had. 'I have missed you, little sister.'
Em patted the hand upon her shoulder. 'And I, you, Athena.'
. . . .
As Athena puttered about the kitchen, Emlyn went to the fire and stirred it up, added a fresh log. She studied Minerva upon her perch, surrounded by fresh straw studded with cedar leaves. The owl had gone back into dormant statue mode, her eyes closed. Upon the mantle piece she had found the warmest spot in the house.
'Is the gatehouse heated by wood fire only, Athena?'
Em inquired as she moved about the welcoming room of amber-hued cut log and grey stone.
'Aye, so it is!' The older woman called over her shoulder. 'The forest is generous with windfalls, and it's truly all we need. This woodstove cooks and bakes better than anything, really. Upstairs, in the loft, the heat rises so I hardly need a thing...the hot water
heater is attached to the woodstove, see?'
Athena soon re-entered the parlor with a tray; upon it a French press coffee server and two cups, some nuts and sliced apples.
'I do have a generator for backup, however. Rarely needed. We are wired for electric, but we are off the grid here.'
'"The Grid"?' Em inquired.
'Umm. The electric or gas or whatever companies who dominated the energy corporations. Daryl has his own way of generating energy here. A good thing, since the CME decimated the grid long ago.'
Athena's explanation made little sense to Em, but she did catch an inkling of what all that entailed, in the broadest sense. She was cognizant of electric magnetic storms which had disrupted communications in her time.
'I see...' Memories of Jack came to Em then. 'Back in California, Jack succeeded somewhat in getting more local folks to use vegetable oil in their cooking instead of lard, and then to save the used oil for a sort of bio-diesel fuel to run machines.' She accepted a cup of the dark fragrant coffee from Athena.
'It smells divine...' Em sipped, sighed, then continued: 'Jack maintained that it was my time, in the late 1800's, that the Industrial Revolution began to create the great schism between humans and nature. Indeed, that humans began then to lose their humanity then, and to become mere cogs in the machine...'
'Indeed,' Athena was quick to agree. 'It was called 'progress' but it was merely subterfuge; cloaking incipient invasion, and eventual devastation of humanity.' Her eyebrows rose as she made this pronouncement, studying Em's face.
'I can see this now...' Emlyn did, or was beginning to, after all she'd learned from her timewalking friends and, Others.
'Not to mention, the child laborers in factories, the relentless long hours forced upon all...the miners to feed the ironworks, held in thrall by corporate trusts to a life of danger and disease, simply to survive...oh, progress, indeed...enriching the pockets of the few at the expense of the many...'
Em had heated up to the subject, and fondly recalled her time with Lev Kopalski and her adolescent self then in league with his ideals. As well as the unionizing and other socialist activism, they had raided the rich haciendas for food and silver, to distribute to the poor.
She smiled, and sighed, to think on their youthful shenanigans...they had envisioned themselves as a modern Robin Hood and Maid Marian back then.
She wondered then about Lev, and what had become of him? She recalled that Alice had mentioned he and Orez had become rather close! Dear Lev, he hadn't changed.
All to the good, that...
She wished she had had time to speak with Alejandro/Raimundo privately; before leaving the Inn of Sopa and Fog.
'Tuppence for your thoughts?' Athena inquired, smiling.
Emlyn regarded her friend, an older sister so she seemed, now; they had been through so much. But Athena and Daryl had seemed rather...intimate also. She wondered just what their relationship was, in fact. She did not wish for anyone to come between anyone else! All rather convoluted, her relationships...
And...best not to even think of Jack, just yet.
'Oh, just memories...' Em poured more coffee, refreshing Athena's cup and her own. 'This, here and now, is the first chance I have had to sit and think!'
Em sighed, falling back upon the sofa.
'I'm rather weary of all this timewalking and tearing about!'
'I see...I think,' Athena nodded once. 'Although the Solstice was, what, a day ago? I'm beginning to intuit that for you and Daryl, it has been rather longer?'
Emlyn bit her lip. 'The bloody Solstice again! What is it with the sabbats anyway? "The thinning of veils betwixt the worlds", I know...'
'Exactly, cher.' Athena sounded like Daryl now. 'So it is. At these times, there are...forces, and energies that either you can act upon, or which will act upon you. Especially upon folk like us, who operate somewhat out of the agreed-upon Timeline.' Athena then became pensive, and frowned into the fire. 'It's all a matter of energy and perception.'
'Athena...' Em decided to voice something that had been upon her mind since meeting the enigmatic Athena.
'...I, hope you don't mind my asking but, are you ever lonely out here, by yourself so much?'
That lovely lady with her silken mantle of silver locks blinked at the flames before her, then turned smiling to Emlyn.
'But I am not alone, cherie...'
Em decided to leave it at that...
. . . .
Later, as the sun began to lower over the creamy landscape shining with a peach and golden glow beneath the slate colored clouds gathered above; as promised, Athena accompanied Emlyn over the frozen trails back to big House.
It was quiet all around them, except for the crunch of their boots in the snow. Emlyn breathed in the crisp, clear almost painful air, smelling like ice, and longed for wee Dylan's company then; a frolicking pup would have loved this winter playground.
'Do you see that silverish, somewhat darker spot over between the big oak trees there, beyond where the wood ends?' Athena was pointing to a place where the snow seemed to stop, and a darker patch began; it traveled along the edge of the lighter snow drifts, and Emlyn wondered if this was the lake that Daryl had spoken of.
'That's the lake!' Athena confirmed. 'Frozen most of the winter months, it is wonderfully safe. Do you skate?'
Emlyn laughed. 'I? A California girl? Oh, alas, no.'
Athena smiled back. 'You mean, 'not yet!'' She nodded.
'It's easy. All you need is a good stiff pair of skates.' Athena picked up the pace and Em had a time keeping up, trying to follow in her footsteps wasn't easy; Athena's Amazonian stride was rather longer than her own.
Eventually, however, they weaved their way through a grove of silent silver birch trees, crowned with tufts of white upon bare branches. Athena put an arm out, halting Em mid-step. She put a finger to her lips, and pointed --
There, looking like something from a picture book to Em's western gaze, sat a vision come to life: a scarlet Cardinal sitting upon a tree branch, unconcerned with either snow or human.
Em was duly enthralled.
Athena turned and smiled and continued on their way; the bird did the same in the opposite direction.
'We're there,' she announced, and so it was; back at the great House, Em could find but little trace of the sport she and Daryl had stirred up in the snow upon their arrival but hours ago.
'Red sky at night...' Athena studied the massing dark clouds now lowering upon the last rays of the sunset. 'There will be a snowstorm tonight!' She grinned in anticipation.
Emlyn remembered Athena's fondness for storms. 'Athena Stormcrow!' She teased her, thinking in Tolkien terms.
The elder woman laughed aloud. 'Right you are, little elf!' And putting an arm about Em, they trudged up the row of snowy steps to the front portico.
'Do stay with us here tonight, Athena? We would so welcome more of your company. I know Daryl would...it has been a long time, for us, you see.' Em felt renewed and refreshed by Athena's gentle serene presence; she welcomed her here as a buffer against Daryl's mercurial moods.
'We'll see...' Athena replied, noncommittally. She released Emlyn then and turned about, scanning the grounds they had traveled.
Em glanced the way her older sister was looking and bethought she detected a flash of silver in the sky.
'Go on in, won't you, Em? I will follow in a moment, yes?' Athena nodded, and began to descend the steps, heading back toward the birch grove.
'Don't be long!' Em called. Athena held up an arm and waved, but did not turn around as she glided back the way they had come.
Emlyn gained the big front doors and was about to enter, when something made her turn again, to see if she could still find Athena, curious as to what had given her friend pause...
To her surprise, she caught that same flash of silver now beyond the birch grove, amongst the tops of the evergreen forest they had trekked though en route.
Straining to see, she could barely discern in the distance, a moving figure that was surely Athena...and, incredibly, coming to meet her, Someone Else.
Someone Else, indeed, no mistake there; for whoever it was coming alongside her friend, was a giant of a figure...at least 7 feet tall...
Emlyn caught a glint of gold in the long locks of the giant who had dared the silent frozen realm of Daryl's secret fortress.
Viking invaders? Odin himself, perhaps?
Something about that figure seemed oddly familiar to Emlyn, in the strictest sense. Athena's silver hair, beside the tall man's long golden locks, gleamed in the last flash of setting sun.
A name came to her then, to tag this chimera -- Axelis.
Her father.
Or, at least, one of them...
. . . .
WATCH AND LISTEN!
Great White Cold
Hanover Winter Song - Dartmouth Aires
Words by Richard Hovey (1864-1900), 1898
Both were 1885 graduates of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
Ho, a song by the fire;
Pass the pipes, pass the bowl.
Ho, a song by the fire
With a skoal, with a skoal.
Ho, a song by the fire;
Pass the pipes with a skoal,
For the wolf-wind is wailing at the doorways,
And the snow drifts deep along the road,
And the ice gnomes are marching from their Norways,
And the great white cold walks abroad.
But, here by the fire, we defy frost and storm;
Ha, ha we are warm, and we have our heart's desire.
For here, we're good fellows, and the beechwood and the bellows;
And the cup is at the lip in the pledge of fellowship.
Oh, here by the fire, we defy frost and storm;
Ha, ha, we are warm, and we have our heart's desire.
For here we're good fellows, and the beechwood and the bellows.
And the cup is at the lip in the pledge of fellowship,
Of fellowship
Pile the logs on the fire;
Fill the pipes, pass the bowl.
Pile the logs on the fire
With a skoal, with a skoal.
Pile the logs on the fire;
Fill the pipes with a skoal,
For the fire goblins flicker on the ceiling,
And the wine witch glitters in the glass,
And the smoke wraiths are drifting, curling, reeling,
And the sleigh bells jingle as they pass.
But, here by the fire, we defy frost and storm;
Ha, ha we are warm, and we have our heart's desire.
For here, we're good fellows, and the beechwood and the bellows;
And the cup is at the lip in the pledge of fellowship.
Oh, here by the fire, we defy frost and storm;
Ha, ha, we are warm, and we have our heart's desire.
For here we're good fellows, and the beechwood and the bellows.
And the cup is at the lip in the pledge of fellowship,
Of fellowship
Oh, a God is the fire;
Pull the pipes, drain the bowl.
Oh, a God is the fire
With a skoal, with a skoal.
Oh, a God is the fire;
Pull the pipes with a skoal,
For the room has a spirit in the embers,
Tis a God and our fathers knew his name,
And they worship'd him in long-forgot Decembers,
And their hearts leap'd high with the flame.
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