Pirin - Book III - The Gests of Nhalbar

Sebastiano B. Brocchi PIRIN - BOOK III - THE GESTS OF NHALBAR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I dedicate this book to my mum. who is one with me as this book is one with the story of my life, not because the book tells one about the people I met or the events that occurred to me, not at all. One may think it is an autobiography when a book tells the reader about the author through the tale of his experiences in the world, but this book tells my story through the tale of my soul. It is the narrative of an unfathomable journey. To you, reader, I say: in this labyrinth of tales lost and found again, perhaps somewhere also you and your journey are being told. NOTES This romance is a work of fantasy. Any possible reference to names of actual people, places, events, historical facts, past or present, is completely unintended and purely fortuitous. Sebastiano Brocchi Pirin – The Gests of Nhalbar First Italian Edition November 2017 – Second Italian Edition June 2019 © Sebastiano B. Brocchi contact: sebastiano.b.brocchi@gmail.com Translated into English by Giovanni Carmine Costabile Reproduction and translation rights are reserved. No portion of this book can be utilized, reproduced or disseminated by any means without explicit, prior authorization in writing by the author. Lyrics, cover and illustrations by the author. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Sebastiano B. Brocchi (Author) was born on 18 March 1987 in Montagnola (Switzerland), where he currently lives. He left high school to become an independent writer and researcher in the field of Art History, Hermetic Philosophy, Sacred Symbology and Inner Alchemy. In 2004 he published his first work, the brief treatise Collina d’Oro – I Tesori dell’Arte. In the following years he also published Collina d’Oro Segreta (2005), a book causing amazement in the Canton Ticino local press, and Riflessioni sulla Grande Opera (2006), considered by specialists as a masterwork on Alchemy. In 2009 he dedicates the essay Favole Ermetiche to the esoteric interpretation of traditional fairy-tales. In 2011 the historical detective-story L’Oro di Polia is published, while in 2012 he presents to the general public the first Italian edition of the first volume of the Pirin fantasy saga, thereafter titled in English Memoirs of Helewen. The second volume, in English Hairam the Queen, is first published in Italian in 2016. He is also the author of several articles, studies, and interviews to important international characters, published on journals and web-pages, both in Switzerland and Italy. Giovanni Carmine Costabile (Translator, MPhil) born in Italy in 1987. Independent scholar, translator, writer, teacher. He presents at conferences in Italy and abroad, and published on Tolkien in academic journals Tolkien Studies (2017), Mythlore (2018, 2022), Settentrione (2020), Inklings Jahrbuch (2017), Journal of Inklings Studies (2022) and Journal of Tolkien Research (2022). He contributed to Tolkien Society's Roe series (2017, 2019), to the 2021 Italian volume on Tolkien by Aracne, and to Walking Tree volumes (2019, 2022). He was finalist at Medieval Philosophy Arosio Award 2019. He published a monograph on Tolkien in Italian, “Oltre le Mura del Mondo” (Il Cerchio, 2018), and a commentary to Tolkien's essay on Fairy-stories in English, “The Road to Fair Elfland” (Phronesis, 2022). He writes for the Maryland foundation “Fellowship & Fairydust”, and he published the fantasy trilogy “Cronache di Arlen” (Phronesis, 2022-2023). He translated and co-translated twelve books, both fiction and non-fiction, and both from English into Italian and from Italian into English. He is the official translator into English of the “Pirin” fantasy saga by Swiss talent Sebastiano B. Brocchi. Read more about the author and the Pirin saga on websites and dedicated social channels: Sebastiano B. Brocchi, the official site https://sebastianobrocchi.blogspot.com/ Author's f*******: page https://w**************m/sebastianobbrocchi The Pirin saga, the official site http://pirinsaga.blogspot.com/ Official f*******: page of the Pirin saga https://w**************m/pirinsaga Official Pirin Saga Fandom f*******: Group https://w**************m/groups/469416968052926 Official i********: profile of the Pirin saga https://www.instagram.com/_pirinsaga_/ TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE I offer you the tale of The Gests of Nhalbar “The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth and wisdom is dying out” wrote Walter Benjamin in the twentieth century. And now we, men and women of the twenty-first century, are being told that the process Benjamin described already would be over and, as the only logical outcome following from such premises, storytelling would be effectively dead. But is it? Are we really allowed to think of a world devoid of narratives in any meaningful sense? Maria Konnikova instead said: “Storytelling is the oldest form of entertainment there is. From campfires and pictograms – the Lascaux cave paintings may be as much as twenty thousand years old – to tribal songs and epic ballads passed down from generation to generation, it is one of the most fundamental ways humans have of making sense of the world.” Therefore, to say that storytelling is dead would be like saying that humans ceased making sense of the world. And did we? I certainly don’t think so. Writing in the New York Times on December 8, 2022, Paul Blow expressed himself in similar terms: “We have been telling stories since our beginnings. Some researchers posit that the origins of language date back more than 20 million years, while writing surfaced around 3200 B.C. Today, elaborate cave paintings, ancient parchment scrolls and centuries-old poems have evolved into literature and operas and Twitter threads, but our innate drive to recount narratives about who we are, where we come from, and what we mean to each other remains an essential trait of being human.” In the rest of his NY Times article, Blow reports the opinions on the subject of why stories matter collected from a variety of writers. Answers range from “The universe is a story that exists from start to finish” (Michelle Thaller) to “We tell stories to build dynasties of meaning” (Amy Chua), passing by “We tell stories because we are human” (Amanda Gorman), “Storytelling is the gateway to truth-telling” (Wendell Pierce), “Stories are life’s inheritance” (Naomi Watanabe), and “Storytelling is how we make ourselves whole” (Diana Gabaldon), among others. In this respect, one is also reminded of the outstanding incipit from one of Neil Gaiman’s stories, Tales of Sand , from his Sandman collection of comic-books: “ There are tales that are told many times. Some tales you tell children, stories that tell them the history of the tribe, what is good to eat, what is not. Cautionary tales. There are the tales the women tell, in the private tongue men-children are never taught and older men are too wise to learn, and these tales are not told to men. There are tales men tell each other, in the men's hut at night; crude raucous tales of the lizard who lost his male member, or of the malabayo, the trickster, who sold ape dung to king lion, telling him it was the soul of the moon. There are tales the whole tribe tell each other, at the festivals, at feasts: The story of the Rook that jumped, of how fire came, a thousand others. One tale is only ever told once .” So, Sebastiano B. Brocchi has given us a tale. I have the honour to be the English translator of his stories, and in some ways I have become a part of it. I can say I am giving you this tale as well, although not in the same sense in which the author is the author. And it is a splendid, grandiose, magnificent tale. One that is certainly worth telling, and one that is certainly worth reading. By the time you are reading these words, it is probable that you have already come to appreciate Brocchi’s writing, although it is still conceivable that this may be your first read. In any case, this is where tables are turned and we come to the final showdown, when the forces of good and evil are going to clash in their epic battle for domination over the whole world. Do not be afraid, then, to turn the pages and get lost in the overwhelming storm of words and swords that is going to rip your heart and mind apart. There will be tears of sorrow, tears of joy, a few times you may find yourself yelling at the pages, or sighing from relief, but I promise that you will be enriched intellectually, emotionally, and, why not, spiritually, when the tale is over. But the tale is not over, it is just going to start, and so, dear reader, I am leaving you to it. I offer you the tale of The Gests of Nhalbar . May the glimmer of the Shining Sword Nhirgal always flicker in your eyes, so that we meet each other in some far place over the sea, along the streets of a crowded city, or on the paths of our dreams, and we will be able to tell it’s us when we see that glimmer. It is the light of Lothriel and the God Ghaladar, that was given to the one whom they call the White Thief in order for him to bring it to you. By the power of this light, he will steal your heart and vanquish any evil that may oppress you. And so, even now, in the times of darkness, when twilight falls over the whole world of Gaimat, in the language of the Pirin people we may still say “Remember, Dawn”: Atthùdimth, Nhalnar . Giovanni Carmine Costabile Moncalieri, 18/06/2023 ...THE STORY INSOFAR… Book I – Memoirs of Helewen The young scribe named Nhalfòrdon-Domenir, an olive-skinned boy forced by leg paralysis to use a wheelchair, is entrusted by his parents to the fostercare of Helewen. The latter, having retreated to a great river mansion called “Magnolias Estate”, is a man of astounding looks and a troublesome past: his white hair and golden eyes reveal him to belong to a race of demigods, the Pirin, a thriving civilization which once flourished upon the high peaks in the East, whose King the very man was. Their land, Lothriel (meaning 'The Realm of the Lotus Flowers') was a mythical, glorious Kingdom, a verdant paradise preserved by glaciers, defended by the snowy peaks encircling its boundaries. During his first few days at Magnolias Estate, Domenir soon gets familiar with his new environment and his mysterious, yet fatherly and caring landlord. In order to get to know his foster-child better, and also to preserve knowledge and memories otherwise soon lost, King Helewen decides to dictate Domenir his memoirs, as much as the general account of the legendary past of his people. Among many episodes recounted, one in particular shall constitute the main thread, not only in Helewen's personal vicissitudes, but also in the general plot of the whole of the peoples in the known world: during one of his journeys, Helewen, accompanied by his dearest friend from his childhood, Hairam, eventually gets to the royal court of the wide underground Kingdom of Hagardtyh. The Queen of Hagardtyh gives to Helewen as a gift the first half of a secret item, invisible until the second half is found. A little while later, Hairam asks Helewen to join her on a journey in search of a lost hamlet nowhere to be found on maps. Rirhos, Hairam's grandmother, wrote her grandchild a letter confiding her to have left her an important legacy, having hidden it in the aforesaid village, more precisely in the saffron field of a local farmer named Ofat. Having finally come to the village after their share of adventures, Helewen and Hairam shall actually find a chest buried in the saffron field, and within it no less than the second half of the secret item given them by the Queen of Hagardtyh. Contrary to their expectations, though, the item is neither finely-wrought nor precious: they have only gotten the two halves of a cheap, rusty metal circlet. Even so, Rirhos' journal, also found within the chest, shall reveal to them the nature of the most ancient relic: the metal half-circles belong to the Crown of Sibereht, the King of the World announced by prophecies, who shall defeat the dark power of the fallen God Belhagard.