Tiryns

“ The insurgents were finally subdued, but soon afterwards (Ol. 78, 1; 468 B.C.) the Argives destroyed the city, demolished part of its Cyclopean walls, and forced the Tirynthians to emigrate to Argos. [42] But according to Strabo [43] they fled to Epidaurus. Pausanias [44] mentions that between Tiryns and the gulf are the "θάλαμοι" of the insane daughters of Prœtus, of which no vestige is to be seen now; they cannot have been underground buildings on account of the morass. Theophrastus [45] speaks of the laughing propensities of the Tirynthians, which rendered them incapable of serious work. ”

“ When the disclosures at Tiryns and Mycenæ were announced in England, my own first impression was that of a strangely bewildered admiration, combined with a preponderance of sceptical against believing tendencies, in regard to the capital and dominating subject of the Tombs in the Agora. I am bound to say, that reflection and a fuller knowledge have nearly turned the scales the other way. There are indeed, not only gaps to be supplied, but difficulties to be confronted, and to be explained ”

“ Euripides speaks of the walls of antient Mycene, as built by the Cyclopians after the Phenician rule and method: the Phenicians alluded to were the Φοινικες of Egypt, to which country they are primarily to be referred. Those who built Tiryns are represented as seven in number; and the whole is described by Strabo in the following manner. [584] Τιρυνθι ὁρμητηριῳ χρησασθαι δοκει Προιτος, και τειχισαι δια Κυκλωπων· ὁυς ἑπτα μεν ειναι, καλεισθαι δε Γαστεροχειρας, τρεφομενους εκ της τεχνης. Prœtus seems to have been the first who made use of Tiryns as an harbour ”

“ Meyer (Gesch. d. Alt.2, I pp. 701, 719 f.) . The problem will no doubt be discussed more fully in his next volume. Here I need only mention that the recent discoveries of wall-paintings at Tiryns and elsewhere seem to me to weigh rather heavily against the view that the inhabitants of these buildings were of a totally different nationality from the 'Minoan' Cretans. It is gradually becoming clear also that—contrary to what had been supposed at first—the use of writing was not unknown on the mainland ”

“ So they went forward to the palace, and there was great joy at their coming. And at the palace a feast was prepared because Powel was come back from the confines of Dyfed And they went into the hall and washed, and Powel rejoiced to see Teirnyon. And in this order they sat: Teirnyon between Powel and Rhiannon, and Teirnyon's two companions on the other side of Powel, with the boy between them. And after meat they began to carouse and discourse. And Teirnyon's discourse was concerning the adventure of the mare and the boy, and how he and his wife had nursed and reared the child as their own. ”

“ And unto his house there belonged a mare, than which neither mare nor horse in the kingdom was more beautiful. And on the night of every first of May she foaled, and no one ever knew what became of the colt. And one night Teirnyon talked with his wife: "Wife," said he, "it is very simple of us that our mare should foal every year, and that we should have none of her colts." "What can be done in the matter?" said she. "This is the night of the first of May," said he. "The vengeance of Heaven be upon me, if I learn not what it is that takes away the colts." ”

“ When Tirant had gazed at the striking beauty of the princess, he let his mind play over all the ladies and maidens he could remember seeing, and he thought to himself that he had never seen or hoped to see anyone as well endowed by nature as she, for in lineage, in beauty, in grace, in wealth, along with infinite wisdom, she seemed more angelic than human.
When mass was finished they returned to the palace, and Tirant took his leave of the emperor and of the ladies, and went to his quarters with his men. ”

“ The coastguard grew suddenly graver. “Like enough,” he said, stroking his chin. “Like enough; and right, too, for him, sir. You see, he’s a Tyrrel, and he’s bound to be cautious.’
“Why so?” Le Neve asked, somewhat puzzled. “Why a Tyrrel more than the rest of us?”
The man hesitated and stared hard at him.
“Well, it’s like this, sir,” he answered at last, with the shamefaced air of the intelligent laboring man who confesses to a superstition. “We Cornish are old-fashioned, and we has our ideas. The Tyrrels are new people like, in Cornwall, as we say ”

“ And they journeyed towards Narberth, and it was not long before they reached that place. And as they drew near to the palace, they beheld Rhiannon sitting beside the horse block. And when they were opposite to her. “Chieftain,” said she, “go not further thus, I will bear every one of you into the palace, and this is my penance for slaying my own son and devouring him.” “Oh fair lady,” said Teirnyon, “think not that I will be one to be carried upon thy back.” “Neither will I,” said the boy. “Truly, my soul,” said Teirnyon, “we will not go.” ”

“ Tirant’s military genius and his prowess were always in evidence. Never was a lance handled more dexterously, nor a battle-ax wielded more vigorously. He was ever in the thick of the fray unless there was some special work for him to do. Senyor Dagramunt, one of the shipwrecked men who had succeeded in rejoining his great Captain, and Scariano, too, performed many feats of valor, and slew almost as many of the enemy as Tirant. The Moorish kings could not understand how the Christians, so few in numbers compared with their own, could withstand them. ”

“ For two days, though I each day saw Tyrrell, fate threw into my way no opportunity of executing my design. The morning of the third came,— Tyrrell was on the race-ground; sure that he would remain there for some hours, I put up my wearied horse in the town, and, seating myself in an obscure corner of the course, was contented with watching, as the serpent does his victim, the distant motions of my enemy. Perhaps you can recollect passing a man seated on the ground and robed in a horseman's cloak. ”

“ A handsome young man, Walter Tyrrel, of the true Cornish type—tall, dark, poetical-looking, with pensive eyes and a thick black mustache, which gave dignity and character to his otherwise almost too delicately feminine features. And he stood on the open moor just a hundred yards outside his own front door at Penmorgan, on the Lizard peninsula, looking westward down a great wedge-shaped gap in the solid serpentine rock to a broad belt of sea beyond without a ship or a sail on it. The view was indeed, as Eustace Le Neve admitted, a somewhat bleak and dreary one. ”

“ Tyrrel—it shall be as you say. My brother obliges me sometimes to go into company at that hateful place down yonder; and I do so because he likes it, and because the folks let me have my own way, and come and go as I list. Do you know, Tyrrel, that very often when I am there, and John has his eye on me, I can carry it on as gaily as if you and I had never met?”
“I would to God we never had,” said Tyrrel, in a trembling voice, “since this is to be the end of all!”
“And wherefore should not sorrow be the end of sin and of folly? ”

“ Though rash and hasty, Tyrrel was by no means a fool, and agreeably surprised both Wythe and Duplin by his prudence.
Cautiously, silently as so many shadowy phantoms, the gold-hunters crept on, until, their heads above the level of a broad ledge, they gazed in upon a peculiarly strange scene. Fairly holding their breath, their eyes eagerly drank in every detail.
Before them was a small, low-roofed cavern, dimly lighted up by a rude wooden lamp that sat upon a projecting spur of rock.
There were two occupants; a man and a woman. These first enchained the eyes of the gold-hunters. ”

“ Tyrrell said to Sir Richard, lifting his nose into the thin air as he tottered upon the young knight's arm toward his waiting barb.
With Harold's assistance Sir Richard contrived to seat Tyrrell upon his horse; though it was no easy task, all encumbered as he was in the heaviest of armor.
"Put hand upon my shoulder, man," Sir Richard said to him after they had started, riding close to his side.
"Without aid have I come through life ... alone I'll sit till I fall ... sire," Tyrrell answered gloomily. ”

“ Tirant’s wonderful sense of organization and his ability to cope with any and all difficulties were not long in revealing themselves. His army arrived at the city of Pelidas, which was only a league and a half from the camp of the Turks who were besieging the city in which the forces of the Duke of Macedonia had sought refuge. The sultan and the Grand Turk, who were in command of the troops of the enemy, knew that a Greek army had entered Pelidas, but they were little concerned, for of the ten parts of the emperor’s dominion they already held nine and one-half parts. ”

“ If Tyrrel had been petted as you think he ought to have been, every respectable young man and woman in the county would have married where their fancy led them; and the fancies of young people mostly lead them to the road it is ruin to take.”
“From what Fred Mostyn says, Tyrrel’s descendants seem to have taken a very respectable road.” ”

“ The following day Lord Agramunt led his men into battle, and many died on both sides, and again they retreated into the city. Tirant was troubled that he could not take part, and that they were losing men, and he told the king:
"Sir, I don't think we should go out and do battle so often.
We're only losing men."
And so they waited until Tirant was healthy again. Then, when he was nearly cured, he put on his armor and mounted his horse, and with most of the men he attacked one side of the camp. The Moors, in a tumult, came out to fight the Christians. ”

“ She turned to examine the slaves, and her eyes immediately encountered Alwin's. She did not blush; she looked him up and down critically, as if he were a piece of armor, or a horse. It was he who flushed, with sudden shame and anger, as he realized that in the eyes of this beautiful Norse maiden he was merely an animal put up for sale.
"Yonder is a handsome thrall," she said; "he looks as though his strength were such that he could stand something."
"True it is that he cannot a lame wolf be who with the pack from Greenland is to run," Tyrker assented. ”

“ Mnetha said come in aged wanderer tell us of thy name.
"Why shouldest thou conceal thyself from those of thine own flesh?"
"I am not of this region. said Tiriel dissemblingly,
"I am an aged wanderer once father of a race
"Far in the north. but they were wicked & were all destroy'd,
"And I their father sent an outcast. I have told you all
Ask me no more I pray for grief hath seald my precious sight."
"O Lord!" said Mnetha how I tremble! are there then more people,
"More human creatures on this earth beside the sons of Har?"
"No more," said Tiriel, "but I, remain on all this globe ”

“ Tyrrel,” said Captain Jekyl, “you must allow me to speak with candour. There is too great a stake betwixt your brother and you to permit you to be friends; but I do not see it is necessary that you should therefore be mortal enemies.”
“I am not my brother's enemy, Captain Jekyl,” said Tyrrel—“I have never been so—His friend I cannot be, and he knows but too well the insurmountable barrier which his own conduct has placed between us.” ”

“ And I believe that there is none of this host who will not perceive that the boy is the son of Powel," said Teirnyon.
"There is none," said they all, "who is not certain thereof."
"I declare to Heaven," said Rhiannon, "that if this be true, there is indeed an end to my trouble."
"Lady," said Pendaran Dyfed, "well hast thou named thy son Pryderi (end of trouble) , and well becomes him the name of Pryderi son of Powel chief of Annuvyn."
"Look you," said Rhiannon: "will not his own name become him better?" ”

“ It has indeed—but, Tyrrel, when was it otherwise with engagements formed in youth and in folly? You and I would, you know, become men and women, while we were yet scarcely more than children—We have run, while yet in our nonage, through the passions and adventures of youth, and therefore we are now old before our day, and the winter of our life has come on ere its summer was well begun.—O Tyrrel! ”

“ Poor dear Tilly! she would never see thirty again; and she need hardly have troubled, thought Polly, to be insincere with her. But in the same breath she took back the reproach. A woman herself, she understood something of the fear, and shame, and heartburning that had gone to the making of the lie. Perhaps, too, it was a gentle hint from Tilly what age she now wished to be considered. And so Polly agreed, and said tenderly: yes, certainly, the difference was very marked. Meanwhile Tilly flowed on. ”

“ Tyrrel that you were once Euphrosyne, though now so much under the banners of Il Penseroso.”
[Pg 93]
“I do not know that I have been either one or the other,” answered Lady Binks; “one thing I certainly am not—I am not capable of understanding your ladyship's wit and learning.”
“Poor soul,” whispered Lady Penelope to Tyrrel; “we know what we are, we know not what we may be.—And now, Mr. Tyrrel, I have been your sibyl to guide you through this Elysium of ours, I think, in reward, I deserve a little confidence in return.” ”

“ But what other gods are there? Har answered: There is yet an asa, whose name is Tyr. He is very daring and stout-hearted. He sways victory in war, wherefore warriors should call on him. There is a saw, that he who surpasses others in bravery, and never yields, is Tyr-strong. He is also so wise, that it is said of anyone who is specially intelligent, that he is Tyr-learned. A proof of his daring is, that when the asas induced the wolf Fenrer to let himself be bound with the chain Gleipner, he would not believe that they would loose him again until Tyr put his hand in his mouth as a pledge. ”