IX

He sat upon his throne and drank his wine,
Another dismal holy feast. He was,
They say, some god that stalked the minds of man
In strange and hollow places of the world
Though all his justice helped him not with joy:
His loneliness a barren mother swan.
Some friends from table absent, killed in spite
Or simply lost, or late, no king could tell.
And Mordred, since Gwyl Fair y Canhwyllau,
Had fled to raise black-hearted armies hence,
And if today he'd shown his face, a host
Would flail the king's own blood into his grave.
My son, my son, the agéd monarch thought,
We must dissolve our feud and live as one,
My son, my son, my only son. This feast
Has been undone by absences of kin.

From Gwyl Fair to Calan Mai he'd dreamt
A silver stag had claimed a forest knoll
And raised a silver foal, and made a home.
And hunters from the Darkness Land had come
To feed their tribe and gorge and multiply.
These dreams arrived whenever there was night,
And Arthur knew the hunters were his knights
Who chased the demon boar in different woods.
His tribe, and tribes of men would fill the earth
When all the gods were dead within their minds,
And his the hand that helped to shape this end.
He stroked his regal beard and sighed, and drank,
Bemoaning Calan Mai and murky wine
Though sunlit strands in feasting hall did play
And larks and loons were guests this holy day.
The burden of an honest king as great
As death of love with every judgment made,
And ursine Arthur frayed with weight and age.

The quests he'd set in motion often failed --
He mourned the ones who fell, their faces kept
In jars of memory -- yet on this day,
The holy Calan Mai, his knights returned.
Glewlwyd the gatekeeper let blare his horn,
Some startled birds took flight from tablecloth
To dye the court a host of joyful hues.
"Presenting, Lord, your mighty friends, the two
Who slew the demon boar, and ceased his ways,
And ever after cloaked our realm in peace
From hungry things who wish our table harm!
The order gained was sorely won by these:
Sirs Kay and Gwalchmai chaos killed this day!"
A mood erupted from the hall did raise
All cheers, all cups, all spirits there, and King
From off his throne did rise to greet his knights,
And met them halfway down the hall with cheer
So unrestrained that some had never seen
Their Lord in such a humor. When they met
They all embraced and Arthur said "Sir Kay,
My loving brother, ever conqueror,
My nephew, sly, my oldest friends returned,
With all the fire remaining in my bones
I welcome pair of souls that gods have blessed.
I dreamed this many night while hunted you,
And saw success, and wondered if it true.
And you have brought my heart returned to me
While still it beats and pumps its waning blood
And I am lost, though I am never free."

His knights returned him to the throne and kneeled,
And with the shining Clarent, sword of peace,
King Arthur blessed them both. The other blade,
The brand far-feared, Caledfwich, was lost
Beneath the lake, returned to Vivianne.
The King had mourned when it was gone, yet now
Its sister sword did twice the work, and shed
No drops of blood. The holy steel seemed kind
When lit upon their pauldrons, cleansing them
Of ills they'd met upon the road. And there
Was Guenivere to meet them as they rose.
In slender arms embraced them both with love
And gave her queenly thanks for bringing peace.
And at the Dream Queen's side, of course, was him,
Invincible in tournaments and fierce
With honor and with lance. He welcomed Kay,
And Gwalchmai, brothers with their brotherhood
United once again. These three are bound
In honor, and in lance, thought Arthur, King,
And are they bound as well to Gwenivere?
Unhappily he wondered to himself,
The cleft within his heart did always sting.
To shake the notions from his head and force
A joyous mood, he begged them tell their tale.

So Kay began: "We left when spring was new,
And forest woke from melting bed of snow,
We forded ancient streams grown rough and wide
And passed from woods that wrap our odal lands.
Upon the plains, a flock of friendly birds
Heard Gwalchmai's song, and came to meet with us.
Befriended we these birds that song inspired,
They led us to their treasure in the hills:
It was a Sacred Well, forgotten, bare,
Laid out as if the gods had said 'This draft
Sustain your weary fleshy limbs my son,'
But noble Gwalchmai thought refusal best,
And we set out without the vital cure
That might have purged our worldly ills and sins."
"Your story here runs false, Sir Kay. The Well,"
Said Gwalchmai grey, "was meant to tempt our souls.
A gift so great laid plain aroused my doubt
And thus I said we should not drink of it.
Recall, my King, thou knights, my former tale
And how acceptance of a mighty gift
Illuminated all my vulgar sins.
I saw a parallel, and that was all."
"If I may tell the story as I like,
We left that holy place that gods had sent
And wandered off to further crashing shore
Where forest with a stench of death we found.
Glewlwyd had spoken true, the blood
And bodies smeared the bark and jagged stones.
A monster Trwyth was when face to face.
Above the trees he stood, and Caerleon
He could have cracked with single iron hoof.
His blood began to burn when scent he caught
Of men that stumbled through his gorey nest,
But Gwalchmai had devised a cunning plan
To flay the beast 'til insides were without:
My might and shield distracted fearsome foe
While Gwalchmai set his trap and loosed his bow
And poison shafts did pierce the flesh of boar
And brought him low -- a titan fallen flat.
I carved his flesh and pricked his rage and thus
Recieved the grevious wound that kept us hence.
Though healed am I, regained in faculties,
A curse I may have sworn 'gainst brother here."
The court replied in laughter, Gwalchmai said
"And here you stand, delivering the tale.
I rather you had cursed me there and lived
To see this day, than blackened noble soul.
My role within the story now at hand,
A sooth I must relate: I set no trap.
Coincidence that fallen trees aligned
For me to sharpen trunk and have a lance.
My part was small, Twrch Trwyth forced himself
Upon the spear that pierced his breast and heart.
He cursed us on his final dying breath,
Yet hex was merely dissipating hate
That breezes caught, and into all dissolved.
We ended him," grey Gwalchmai finished soft.

And Arthur stroked his beard and said to them
"Twrch Trwyth gone, his kind is now annulled?"
All Kay could do was raise his sword in air
To mirror final thrust against a foe,
Asserting demon's death to all the court.
They cheered, and Arthur grew a knowing frown,
Yet Gwalchmai understood. "My liege, a child.
The fearsome beast was with his frightened young.
While Kay was out from loss of blood, we met,
The youngling boar and I. I thought it wrong
To slay a creature cold before 'twas grown,
So words were all we had, I let it go;
If ever spirits leave the world, we know
There is another nature god to grow."
And peace had crept upon King Arthur's eyes,
And underneath his beard a smile appeared
That lightened all his court. The birds gave cheer,
As did the knights and ladies, beasts and plants,
The stones that made the castle, mountain bones,
And all the land asleep in ancient myths
That coiled about the island in the mists.