One more fill! "What the Beasts Forgot"

[pencildragon11.livejournal.com]

This was originally going to have Lucy remembering, too, and Ramandu's Daughter telling stories, but I went to a party instead of writing, and that didn't happen. Thank you to starbrowsings for insistent requesting, to rthstewart for brainstorming, and to WillowDryad for holding my hand. This is my OC Elinda, whose family arrived in Narnia about two years into the Golden Age. She hung out with Lucy a lot, eventually married Lord Peridan and was Queen of Narnia after the Pevensies up and disappeared.

It is fifty years now since they vanished into the woods, and as the Trees glory in their autumn splendor, I remember. Few remember as I do—few knew them as I did—but I am an old woman and I have much time to think here in my stone cottage by the sea, time to ponder the things I have seen and the the things I have done and the friends I have known. My sons and daughters all are married and the Great Lion hath blessed me with near a score of grandchildren and a half-dozen great-grandchildren. My eldest son, with his wife the Princess of Archenland, rules Narnia with sweet and steady hands, and the land is at peace.

Ever and again I visit the court and hear the bards sing of the golden days not so very long ago when Peter the High King, with his brother-King and sister-Queens at his side, held court in Cair Paravel by the sea. In those days, they say, there were two Kings and two Queens and four thrones; in those days Peter the Magnificent gave gifts to the needy and Edmund the Just righted wrongs; in those days Susan the Gentle entertained suitors from all the known lands and Lucy the Valiant healed the sick and sang songs so beautiful that to hear them was to want neither meat nor drink.

Libruns the Bard is old and deaf now, and spends his time in the writing of a history. It is his students, among them my brother's granddaughter, who sing in the court. They are young. How are they to remember the long years when High King Peter warred with the Giant King in the far north and Queen Susan danced with the Nymphs for abundant crops; when King Edmund rode the length and width of Narnia to bring justice to Narnians great and small and Queen Lucy rode beside him to bring them healing?

A generation of Beasts has come and gone since those early days. The Centaurs have written secret things in their strange and runic letters; the Trees and Rivers still remember our Kings and Queens; but of Humans I am one of the last, and I am old. My husband has already gone ahead of me to Aslan's country, and soon the Lion will come for me and I will follow. Corin of Archenland visits now and again, and we talk of old days. He will, perhaps, be the last who remembers how much milk Susan took with her tea, or why Lucy called the High King “Rabbit.”

A few more winters and springs and there will be no men left who fought under Peter the boy-King, no warrior who saw Edmund the Wand-Breaker shatter the Witch's power or sit in solemn, youthful judgment; no prince who gazed with his own eyes on the beauty of Susan the Gentle or matched aim with her in archery; no Narnian who remembers the terrible, heartbreaking, life-giving burn of Lucy's cordial. Narnia is prosperous and peaceful, and perhaps with the Lion's grace this age they call Golden will continue for a thousand years, but the sharp brightness of those early springs has faded, and nothing quite like them will ever come again.

How many things will the Beasts forget?

Comments

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

A beautiful lament for things past -- the pacing and tone were just right -- for example: "no warrior who saw Edmund the Wand-Breaker shatter the Witch's power or sit in solemn, youthful judgment" and "the sharp brightness of those early springs has faded, and nothing quite like them will ever come again". Thank you.

(And I hope it was a great party! :) )

[pencildragon11.livejournal.com]

Thank you! There was something special about the first years of the Golden Age, and something sad about the fact that it was those years the bards usually glossed over.

(And the party—old church building, stained glass windows, disco lights, smoke machine, loud music, thirty Christian teenagers, dumb games, and junk food—was great.)

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

This is so sad! I'm always interested in the what happens next visions where all does not dissolve immediately into chaos and despair. What is an Age after all?

Oh and I did especially enjoy this line: Queen Susan danced with the Nymphs for abundant crops

[pencildragon11.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the most stories were told of the Golden Age because that's when all the upheaval and rebuilding and famous deeds were, and afterwards there was an orderly succession and a thousand years of peace.

Glad you liked that line! It was either that or Queen Susan counted potatoes against the winter and I thought dancing sounded nicer.

[lady_songsmith]

This is lovely! I like the passing away of memory and the difference between being remembered and actual living memory. There are terms in Swahili for that sense of history, which has fascinated me since I first heard about it. Things which are close and directly experienced are 'sasa' and things that are more distant are 'zamani.' It's a really interesting way to think about things like this.

[pencildragon11.livejournal.com]

And since 'sasa' also means 'now,' it almost sounds like in Swahili, what one can personally remember is immediate and present tense, and THAT reminds me of Out of the Silent Planet when the hross talked about the full pleasure of an experience only coming out with years of memory. Fascinating.

[lady_songsmith]

I'd forgotten you spoke it! Yes, the interplay of memory and experience is fascinating.

[pencildragon11.livejournal.com]

Just enough to pretend I do!

[starbrowsings.livejournal.com]

Oh this was really lovely and bittersweet. You really captured that sense of passing away, the slip of history into forgetfulness, the need for written records when one rules a country of Beasts. The reminiscings about the Four, talking with Corin (awww), hearing the bards sing, wondering what the next generations will remember, it was all so moving and sad and beautiful at the same time. Well done :)

[pencildragon11.livejournal.com]

Thanks for encouraging me to get something done and posted! Memory is such a fragile thing.

I think Corin lived a very long time. His nose had been broken several times and he was missing a few teeth, so he presented rather a ferocious appearance, but I don't know that he ever married, and he and Elinda hung out together when they were old and their friends were gone.

I'm glad you liked it.

[saoirse7.livejournal.com]

This was beautiful, in a sad, haunting sort of way. It's too bad that you didn't have time for Lucy's thoughts, too, but maybe that can be at another time. :-)

[pencildragon11.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading! Maybe someday I'll write Lucy. Maybe.

[autumnia]

This was a lovely but somewhat sad and haunting image of what a fading Golden Age would look like. When the last people who had lived when the Four reigned are no longer alive, then everything will truly be over and everything will start to be lost to history and time.

[pencildragon11.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered, how much did the Beasts truly remember? They do seem to have forgotten lots of things during the Winter, and . . .

Thank you!