PIRIN

As a token of love

As a token of love CHAPTER VII

It is told that one day, many millennia ago, the great and powerful God Ghaladar, Lord of light, fell deeply in love for the fair Goddess Uhilyn, Nymph of the lotus flowers and Queen of the Flower-Fairies. Indeed, before the first lotus flower bloomed, only at times and barely did the light cast her gaze upon the dark waters of the marshes. But then, upon seeing the chest of white petals opening and blooming, as if a whiteness like that had never before appeared in the pools, and within that flower the fairest of the Nymphs did stand, the eyes of Ghaladar could never cease to behold that marvel.

Convinced he should marry his beloved, the God asked for the advice of the other Gods concerning how he should confess his feelings to her, thereafter winning her unsullied heart. All the Gods agreed in suggesting the bright Ghaladar to perform a feat so wonderful as to deeply impress his beloved, to make her an amazing gift that proved the greatness of his feelings. Ghaladar spent much time meditating and contemplating from afar the fair Uhilyn. He sat on the sun and, from dawn to dusk, he followed with his gaze the magnet of his feelings. As a Queen of the Flower-Fairies, Uhilyn was constantly travelling in different countries, in order to pay a visit to each arboreal species, checking their inflorescences, cheering up the corollas to open and spread their sweet aroma. Only a thought could trouble the Nymph: how to cross the frosty lands of the snowy realms, during winter, without seeing, neither in woods nor in meadows, a single colourful petal? More than once did Ghaladar hear the fair Uhilyn stop and think to herself: “Oh, if there ever could be a place where I saw the land and the waters covered with an overwhelming wealth of flowers, without then, as soon as the cold snowy curtain fell, the fair, many-coloured inflorescences must wither! A place where the air was filled with golden, perfumed pollen… Oh, how I would love to dwell in a similar realm… If there ever was one, I would not hesitate to set my court there, surrounded by my many sisters, who would surely equally rejoice in the experience”. Ghaladar heard her conceiving such thoughts, and had an idea.

Thus it happened that, one night, he appeared in a dream to a prophet named Mindhab, a man who lived in the region of On-Ifar. Ghaladar had chosen him as his messenger since childhood: as a child, Mindhab stayed for hours staring at the sun, so much that he almost lost his sight, and his parents, worried, had come to the temple of Ghaladar to ask for the God’s intervention. Ghaladar had then spoken to the mind of his devout follower: “My dear Mindhab, I know well you dedicated your heart to me, but if you keep looking at me, you will lose your sight. If you really wish to see me, you have to look the other direction, and see the things I shine upon. For it is there where all my light goes, and it is there where I pour myself out. Thus it shall be for all Gods. They are the source of things, but their accomplishment is in the things they originate”. From that day on, Mindhab never stopped looking at the things Ghaladar shone upon, in order to understand what Ghaladar himself was.

Mindhab was now a grown man, when Ghaladar came again to him, visiting his dreams. Immediately the prophet kneeled before the God, awaiting his dispositions: “Listen carefully to what I say to you, Mindhab: at the break of dawn you shall go to the village market and buy a basket. It must be a well-braided basket, wide and large. Not a basket such as those the merchants utilize to move vegetables from a stand to another, but a coloured basket, one you could use to put a gift there. You shall also buy flowers, fruits and seeds. You shall choose the best fruits, with the liveliest colours and the most delightful looks, without any stain or dent. You shall choose the most colourful flowers, with the richest corollas and the sweetest perfume. When you choose the seeds, you shall be careful to pick the seeds of the most exquisite plants, the most revered trees that grow in the gardens of princes. Thereafter you shall fill the basket with the flowers, the fruits and the seeds, then add some branches of the abundant and shiny leaves you shall pick in the woods, and a handful of gold coins. When the basket is thus filled and adorned with ribbons and other decorations improving it, you shall take it to a snowy scree and leave it there. Your brother shall help you carrying it, so that the weight does not overcome you, nor the composition gets ruined. But be careful, the scree must be visible from a beaten path, so that anyone there passing might see it. To whom, amongst those, shall ask you the meaning of your gesture, you shall say I commanded it, and that the great and powerful God Ghaladar, the Bright Lord, by this gesture announces he shall put a fertile and thriving country, incomparably rich, among the highest and steepest mountains of the East; doing it as a token of love for she who stole his heart! If my beloved reciprocated my love, be aware that, amongst the Men of this land, I shall invite to my wedding only those who stopped to ask you the meaning of the basket left in the scree”.

After the devout Mindhab performed, one after another, the tasks commanded him by his Lord, Ghaladar led Uhilyn to the snowy scree, showed her the basket shining amidst the bare dale, and told her the meaning of that symbol. “By my powerful voice”, the God said to the Nymph whose fairness won everybody, “I shall command the mountains to open. I shall create amongst the snowy peaks a realm eternally preserved from the cold. The mountains shall listen to my voice, the roaring of which is as thunder. The peaks shall bend, the mountainsides shall be torn apart in sweet dales. A dale shall be born between the whitening mountains. The peaks shall move aside in order to welcome a verdant garden, and winter shall never come there, and the trees shall bear fruit twice a year. A great lake, like a silver mirror, shall wet the bottom of that luxurious place. Its shores shall be covered in white lotus flowers, the inflorescences of which are so big that a child could not manage to hug them, and each petal of such outstanding corollas shall be wide as a hand’s palm and more. But what is more important, my beloved, is that each sod of the earth, each drop of water, each breath of the wind, each leaf and each blade of grass of this paradise, I give it to you, so that you make this place your home, if you wish so”.

The Fairy-Queen was very impressed by that gift, yet, before accepting the marriage proposal, she considered: “Excellent Ghaladar, o brightness giving light to the world, I indeed think I do not deserve your gift. What am I, when compared to you? What is a flower, blooming and withering in a swift season, compared to light, eternally casting its uncorrupted rays upon everything? I give birth to, and rule, little, unimportant things, while you control the most important thing”. To such questions, he replied: “And what good would it be to cast light on the world, if no beauty therein were shown? Indeed, in a blooming flower more beauty can reside than in a century of light falling in the void”.

“If your feelings truly match your words, well, I shall be honoured to become your bride, my Lord”.

Pleased to hear that, the God took the basket from the scree, flew over the mountain-tops, and from there poured over the glaciers the content of the basket, casting several spells. And, as soon as flowers, fruits, branches of many leaves, seeds and gold coins fell upon the snowy ground, the ground itself trembled, as a snail’s horn does upon being touched. As a loud sound was heard, the mountains were opened, verily as a chest, and, where earlier one would have peaks and rocks, shaken by grey storms, now the lake appeared, and the flowered meadows, and the green forests, indeed as promised by the God to his bride. Soon the marriage was celebrated, and only those among Men who had stopped to wonder about the meaning of the basket in the scree could participate. Starting from the day when the God of Light married the Queen of the Flower-Fairies, all flowers in this world turn their corollas, with love, towards light”.

While Domenir carefully entrusted the tale to the pages, the old Pirin came to an alcove in the wall, whence he delicately took a little statue which he then handed to the boy, who immediately left the pen on the board. The statue, sculpted in alabaster, black stone, gold, silver and tiny emeralds, depicted the fairest of Nymphs, Uhilyn. “Where does this statue come from?”, Domenir asked, who had never seen jewels so finely wrought. “From my country. The Kingdom of Lothriel”.

Domenir put the item back into the hands of its owner, who in his turn put it back with great care in the alcove dedicated to it. He stayed for a while there, contemplating the image, shimmering with the reflections of the saffron glow of some candles, then he reminded the tale he had begun. He turned to look at the window, almost as though he were reading the follow-up to his narrative in the dark-hued play of the ash-like clouds, and he started telling the young boy about the origin of the Pirin people…