Trials and Laments to Larihei II

[SteppeNomad 1552]

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For the Spirits keep hidden from elves the means of life. Else you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by bull and sturdy Giraffe would run to waste. But the creator in the anger of his heart hid it, because Malin the crafty deceived him; therefore he planned sorrow and mischief against Mali. He hid fire; that flaming wolf, but that the noble son of creation stole again for Mali from the creator the counselor in a hollow fennel-stalk, so that Neizdark who delights in thunder did not see it. But afterwards The Creator who gathers the clouds said to him in anger: “Son of Creation, first elf. Surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire, my pet Scathach—a great plague to you yourself and to mortals that shall be. But I will give mali as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction.

 

But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father sent glorious Tarnished-Slayer, the swift messenger of the pantheon, to take it to Malin as a gift. And Malin did not think on what Larihei had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of The Pantheon's Father, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something harmful to mali. But he took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil thing was already his, he understood. For ere this the tribes of mali lived on earth remote and free from ills and hard toil and heavy sicknesses which bring the Fates upon men and mali; for in misery men grow old quickly. But the tarnished woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered that 'gift', all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to mali and men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great pithoi jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Drazkur who gathers the clouds, hie Aegis helding them at bay. But the rest, countless plagues, and impures wander amongst men and elves; for world is full of evils, and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Ixli took away speech from them. So is there no way to escape the will of The Father of The Pantheon. Or if you will, I will sum you up another tale well and skillfully—and do you lay it up in your heart,—how the spirits, the gods and mortal elves sprang from one source.

 

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Edited March 26, 2022 by SteppeNomad