Not so awfully long ago, as the stars, who created time, tell it, the Fair People withdrew from the Old World (which they called the Middle Kingdom), migrating across the Ocean Sea to dwell in the hills and forests of the New Found Land. The first to set foot on its shore (if he said so himself, in the saga he often sang) was Ruddy Alf, a copper- haired Sea-Troll of Nortland. It was he, he bragged, who left Scandia to brave alone the teeth of the Hell- hounds at sheer cliff’s lip of the flat Earth’s edge; he the hero who pressed a single print from his rein- deerhide boots on the beach there, and he who came back to harp on it. Next, or simultaneously, or (to hear his kin and clan tell of it) years and years before, was Brandan, a Leprechaun from Kerry, who zigzagged all the way from the tip of the Dingle to the Brave New World in a sealskin canoe, with naught but poteen for provender. But most of the Fair People deemed the exploits of Alf and Brandan to be mere myth (even Legends, it seems, look down on legends) and at- tributed the Discovery of the New Found Land to the Italian fairy Colon Savanelli, an intrepidly nautical Folleto out of Genoa. Savanelli had been commissioned by the Queen
時をつくりだした星々がいうほどさほど遠
くないむかし、 妖精族は中王国とよばれる旧
世界をあとにし、 大海を渡ってアメリカ新大
陸の山や森に棲みついた。
いちばん最初にその地に足を踏みいれたの
は、銅色の髪をしたノルウェーの海の小人ル
ディアルフだった。 ただし、 彼自身が歌う
英雄伝説にしたがえばの話しだが。 アルフの
自慢はたったひとりでスカンディナビアを船
出し、 鬼が棲むといわれた地球のはしの砂浜
にトナカイ皮のブーツで足跡をしるしたこと
だった。
そのつぎに、いやあるいは同時に、あるい
は別説によればそれより何年もまえに、 アイ
レプラコーン
ルランド出身の小妖精ブランタンが上陸した。
人につかまると宝の隠し場所を教えるいたず
ら好きな妖精だ。 彼は密造ウィスキーをあざ
らしの皮でできたカヌーに積みこんで、 新世
18 界へ向かってやってきた。
しかし、ほとんどの妖精族はアルフとプラ
ンダンのてがらはただの伝説だと考えており、
ほんとうの新世界の発見はイタリアの妖精コ
ロン・サヴァネリによるものだと信じていた。
ジェノヴァ出身の勇敢な船乗りである。 彼は
うわさに名高いスパイス諸島を見つけるべく
イベリア (現在のスペイン) のハダス女王の
命をうけていた。 女王は終末がくると予言さ
れていた旧大陸から新発見の大地に、 臣民や
妖精族の汚れない人びとを送りこみたいと願
っていたからだ。
そして、ついに終末がやってきた。
人間の時代がはじまったのだ。 妖精族の卓
越した芸術品、 輝くばかりの美、 力、 栄光は
螢が日の出とともに消えるように消えていっ
た。
19
Not so awfully long ago, as the stars who created time tell it, the Fair People left the Old World — called the Middle Kingdom — and crossing the great ocean, came to dwell in the mountains and forests of America’s New World.
The first to set foot on that land was Ruddy Alf, a copper-haired Norwegian sea dwarf. Though that is only according to the heroic saga he himself liked to sing. Alf’s boast was that he alone had set sail from Scandinavia, leaving a single footprint from his reindeer-hide boots on the sandy shore at the very edge of the flat earth where demons were said to dwell.
Next — or simultaneously, or according to another account, years and years before — a leprechaun from Ireland named Brandan came ashore. A mischievous sprite who, when caught, will reveal the hiding place of treasure. He loaded his sealskin canoe with illicit whiskey and set out for the New World… 18 …world and made his way to the New World.
However, most of the Fair People considered Alf and Brandan’s exploits mere legend, and believed the true discovery of the New World was the work of the Italian fairy Colon Savanelli — a bold sailor from Genoa. He had been commissioned by the Queen of the Iberian Hadas (present-day Spain) to find the fabled Spice Islands. For the Queen wished to send her subjects and the Fair People of the Old World to the newly discovered land, away from the Old World that had been prophesied to meet its end.
And at last, the end came.
The age of Man had begun. The Fair People’s outstanding artistry, their radiant beauty, their power and glory — all faded away like fireflies disappearing at sunrise.
19
On page 11 I love his plaid little pocket on the front of his shirt.