Chapter XXXV.
OF THE CITY OF DAEDALA, AND HOW AN OLD DAME THEREIN DESPAIRED OF IT.

So they went swiftly and spoke no word, being astonished unto dumbness: for their life was changed suddenly and they were in no place of the world. But he that bore them held his course, and he flew Eastward by the space of an hour. Then they were aware how he sloped downwards in his flight, and they looked and saw beneath them a great city on the border of the sea, and in no long time they came lightly down and took land before a gate that was there. Then they three entered afoot into the city, and they came quickly to a good house and were received therein. Now the house was the house of an old and noble dame, by name Eirene, and she was the mother of Hyperenor, which had borne Ywain and Aithne upon his wings. And them she greeted courteously, and received them to be her guests while it should please them: but to her son she spoke after another sort. For in one and the same breath she dealt him sweet words and bitter, giving thanks to all the gods for his home coming, and also bidding him begone where she might never be troubled with him more. And after this manner she continued all supper-time, and she would have Aithne to know how she was the most miserable of all women living.

For I was born, she said, in a city far off from this, in a land of other men and other customs, and I came hither blindfold in my youth. And the veil wherewith I was blinded was the veil of marriage, as it fortunes to the most of us. For of this city I knew nothing, but I supposed it to be an ancient city and a pious, with gods and customs like our own: and I found it given over to a madness of inheritance, and by special wrath of heaven accursed and punished. For this is the city of Daedala, where is the tomb of Daedalus, whom they call the father of inventions: and though his bones be perished, yet they keep here his impiety, and do after it. And their madness is beyond belief, for there is nothing that they will do by way of nature if by any means they can devise to do it otherwise, as by mechanemes of iron or brass. And at my first coming they were assotted upon chariots of fire, and afterwards upon a hundred other devices, full of noise and dangerous exceedingly: and now they sin with the very sin of Daedalus. For when he had found out many inventions, he found out this also, to fly above the earth with wings: a thing plainly hateful to the gods, for if it had been their will, they would have made men like to birds in the beginning. But their will was not so, and they have sent upon this city the curse of Daedalus: for as the god took his son from him and cast him dead upon the sea, so now it is with us, and heavier a hundredfold.

Then the old dame wept bitterly, that it was pity to see, and her son ran to her and knelt beside her and handled her lovingly. And when he had some deal comforted her, then he spoke merrily and said how it was shame to lay so much on gods and to make them unreasonable and so bring them into judgment. And it may be, he said, that it is we, and none other, that are the gods, for certainly we are greater than our fathers, and there shall yet be greater that shall come after us. But his mother rebuked him and said: I will not hear such words; for your fathers kept due observance and lived long, and you of this generation do reverence to none, but you fly outrageously in the face of heaven, and your youth is cast down upon the earth as upon a dust-heap. And to what profit? for you die like the flowers and leave no name behind you. And Hyperenor said: So be it, but our fruit shall follow us: for it may be that our sons shall fly and not fall. But Eirene wept again and said: You are great givers, for you tear your mothers’ hearts to feed your children.

Then Aithne went to her to comfort her, for she was sorry in her heart for that old dame, and she saw how she had no other son but this one only, and him she looked daily to lose. And Ywain also had pity on her, for there is no man that can bear to look upon a woman weeping. But he was divided in mind, and in part he was pitiful, as need was, but in greater part he took side with Hyperenor and upheld him to have the right of it. For he saw how the young man was a great knight and strong and passing comely: and though his words were some deal big, yet his voice was slow and courteous, as the voice of one that would make good. Also in his doctrine Ywain upheld him: for in all wars there will be some that die, and they die gladly to subdue a kingdom, though for themselves they see it not nor enter into it. But most he loved him as one that would dare and do, and of his daring and his doing he would willingly hear more: for it seemed to him a great and marvellous thing that men should fly, that so they might come into all places of the earth, yea, and perchance into some that are beyond.