In the library at Newhill, in the Sealed Library and in one other place, this record of the words of the prophet Weneslas Stannev (of the Stannevs) is kept hidden. Weneslas spent his youth staring into the sun until he went blind, and thereafter spent twenty years in seclusion before he began to speak sooth. His Testament tells us that the Sun is God, and God is the Sun, and all the Shrouded Lands live and die in His glow. In distant eons, God lived always at the top of the sky, and the world burned with purifying flame; but evil came into the world due to the cruelty of the city-god, Alberon, toward his first wife who is now nameless. In order to save the world from the goddess’s wrath, the Lion in Splendor was forced to marry her, and to promise that he would visit her each night and keep her company until morning.
Now, so sayeth Weneslas, each night the Sun must become Flesh and descend into the mortal world, which is the world of sin. As He passes in His material body through the underworld, the nameless queen tempts him with lust, fine food and wine, enchanting music, and other pleasures of the flesh unknown to man. Each night he remains strong until the morning comes, and His flesh is immolated once more into the transcendent body of the Sun. But in the depths of winter, when the evil of the mortal world grows strongest, the Lion is tempted to remain with his queen, and only by the Ritual of the Horn of Morning is he returned to the sky.
Connections
- The Chant of Morning gives a similar but more detailed account.
Hooks:
- How much is true of Weneslas’ account?
- Did Weneslas write any other prophecies or visions?
- Why did the Lion in Splendour have to marry She Who Waits?
- What is the Ritual of the Horn of Morning? What would happen if it were not performed?