Wednesday 30 May 2007

The Boatman: Part One of Three

Where Lethe forgets what it is and becomes Eridanos of no fixed designation, the water leaves the foggy gloom and is home to Nyami Nyami, merry snake with his basket of bread, and the banks are green; the Southern shore is the reflection of the fields of Aaru in earthier hues, still ripe with reeds; the Northern shore is Salley Gardens, where pleasant men weep silently to strains of The Waters of Tyne, strummed for coppers by Orpheus, on the lam with his lyre. Lethe remembers sometimes to dip her feet in the river that bore her name upstream, just to be sure it’s still moving. She’s on the Salley side. A jetty juts from either bank a little further downstream, where the meanders of Eridanos first mingle with the flowing of Ymir’s blood from the North Sea. For a flagon of wine, the boatman (Jones to his friends) will take you across from shore to shore. Throw in a golden apple, or even a simple apple crumble, and you might persuade him to take you out to sea, across chopping waves on his little wicker ferry, to the bay where cormorants swoop at the backs of fishermen unawares, the shore where the first of the Eastern guests, the Three Pure Ones and Rostam the champion, have already crossed the beach and are on the road that will take them to the Court of King Jelly Roll, for the feast.

A young woman came down to the jetty one morning where Jones sat smoking his pipe. They were on the south side.

“Boatman,” she said, and he looked up, smiling slightly, “Will you ferry me across the river?”

“Of course dear,” he said, “If you have the means to pay.”

“Certainly I do,” she said, reaching towards her pouch, “Should I pay you now or later?”

“Now, I should think,” said Jones, amusedly, “But what manner of vessel is that for transporting wine?”

Both were looking at the pouch, “It... isn’t,” said the young woman, “It’s full of money and such things.”

“Ah, yes. Hard currency. It’s wine I’ll be needing, though. That money stuff’s wasted on me, dear.”

“But I haven’t any wine,” she protested, “And I do have rather a lot of money, coins of all denominations, and traveller’s cheques too!”

It was no use, though, and Jones told her, kindly enough, to return again with wine, and passage would be assured. And so she headed off, somewhat frustrated.

The next day, or two days later, she arrived at the jetty just as Jones’s boat returned, unladen, from the other side. She walked down and crouched to repeat her previous request.

“Of course dear,” he said, “But I shall need a sip of that wine first, for it’s thirsty work being a boatman. More than you might realize. You do have the means to pay, yes?”

“I did…,” she began, hesitantly, raising the remnants of a flagon, “But it was spilt on the way…”

“Oh dear.”

“I was hoping, perhaps, to offer you this instead,” she said, holding out a diamond ring.

“Hmm,” pondered Jones, “I’m sure it’s pretty enough to look at, but I daresay it does very little for a dry mouth. It’ll have to be wine, I’m afraid.”

She sighed and headed off.

2 comments:

Jack Gander said...

I shall post this sooner rather than later... it occurred to me that a glossary of names used in the introductory passage may prove useful, even desirable to some readers:

Lethe (forgetfulness) – one of the rivers of Hades; an unrelated Naiad
Eridanos – Virgil cites it as a river of Hades, to my knowledge without a particular meaning designated in the fashion of Lethe, or Styx (hate) – it perhaps flows around the world
Nyami Nyami – a snake spirit, river god of the Tonga, and bountiful to boot
Aaur – the pleasanter part of the Egyptian underworld, domain of Osiris (c.f. Elysian Fields)
The Salley GardensDown by the Salley Gardens is a traditional Irish song, collected by Yeats in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems
The Waters of Tyne – a Northumbrian song
Orpheus – the fellow with a lyre; you’ll see him on Northumberland Street if you’re there at the right hour
Ymir – the Ancient Giant, with whose blood Odin made the oceans; his flesh made the earth, skull the sky, etc.
The Three Pure Ones – Taoist deities; the Jade Pure, the Upper Pure and the Great Pure
Rostam – great champion of Persian mythology, more or less a counterpart to Herakles/Hercules

Bic Biros & Moldova said...

This must be my favourite bit of literature- the whole saga.
Don't let that go to your head now.
WIll anyone think ill if I were to bring Mead to the feast?
No?
Splendid-Mead all round!