Introduction
The present text was first transcribed by Vanera the Scribe, a scholar of Sencankarr who had taken residence in Cheykor about the 450th year of the Third Eon since Sencan forged the Hurorupeim. The poem itself was, however, discovered by him at almost the opposite limits of the kingdom, for he found it in an obscure isle of the Leopard Archipelago, which on its rocky and largely desert terrain nonetheless housed an ancient Sacred Well dedicated to Anerkanera, the legendary first settler of the Sothbori people among those Isles. The poem was engraved most curiously around the outside of the shrine, together with many carved reliefs depicting its events, attesting to its ancient age.
It is a remarkable text for many reasons, for it offers a significant revision to the Sothbori legends concerning Orusen, which are elsewhere so central to the cultural identity of the Ambori, to say nothing of the religious cult of the Sacred Wells. In this revision Orusen does not seem to perish at the wedding of his daughter Alyeitalya, but rather flees south on a great floating city—may we here imagine the great raft cities of the Njeitbori?—to the Leopard Isles, where not Orusen (who henceforward takes a very secondary role) but his son, Anerkanera,[1] who was “born on the water” engages the great leopard known as the Son of Midnight in deadly combat. Anerkanera is gravely injured, possibly killed, but is revived in the waters of a holy spring (presumably that which was later dedicated to his name) and by the rays of the sun, the daily waxing and waning of which brings the ebb and flow of Anerkanera’s own powers (but see Note 2, below). Revived, Anerkanera pursues his foe (who, being a creature of the night, is now hiding from the sunlight) and battles him at dusk, finally slaying him with a curious weapon much those which some among the Njeitbori are said to bear even today.
An additional curious feature of this text concerns the Anvil of Lanenomen, an artifact or bridal gift which Orusen is first said to have brought to the Isles, but then later took with him again when he left to “follow the tides.” This is deeply reminiscent of some Njeitbori oral traditions regarding Orusen, and could be considered proof that at some point around the First Eon a Njeitbori colony was attempted here, of which the shrine which Vanera the Scribe found is now the only remnant. Finally, this story includes a curious (and otherwise unattested) detail concerning a lineage of monarchy specific to the Leopard Isles and its tokens.
Vanera transcribed the text and brought a copy back with him to the norinlakor at Cheykor, where it remained for many years before a copy eventually made its way to the Red Scriptorium.
The Song
of Orusen and Anerkanera
Orusena, first of fathers,Out of bloodshed, out of warfare,
First of fathers brought an anvil,
Brought a bride-price for his daughter,
Brought a gift of Lanenomen
When the tides of blood were flowing
Over Northlands, when the thunder
Fled from heavy stroke of hammer.
Orusena brought the anvil,
Brought the bride-price, fleeing danger,
Then he took a mighty forest,
Built a city on the waters.
That fair town upon the waters
Orusena sailed to islands
Fleeing battle on the Moorlands.
To the Isles he brought the anvil.
To the Isles, Orusena
Brought his homesick, weary people
After ages on the waters,
Sailing homeless on the breakers
In the floating forest-city,
Now upon the anchored Islands,
On the fixed land they rested.
Anerkanera strained for battle.
Anerkanera on the waters
Orusena’s wife had born him.
Long of limb Anerkanera,
Tall in boyhood, famed in manhood.
Most of all the Water’s Children
Anerkanera was loved by Eibram,
By the Ram who shining golden
Pulls his cart along the heavens.
Mighty power (so songs tell us)
To him was granted when the sun’s car
Highest stood in Lower Heaven,
Shining rays of love upon him.[2]
Keen his aim was, eye unerring.
First upon the anchored isle
Anerkanera stepped when landed
Orusena’s mighty warfleet.
In those days no man had trod there—
None but beasts and feathered flyers,
Birds that go on wing above us,
Those who fly through Lower Heaven.
But a king his sovereign power
Lorded then above the Isles
Ere the first of all our fathers
Brought the anvil over waters.
On the Isles a mighty monarch
Walked, not heeding man nor monster.
Orkon’s malice could not conquer
Native power of those isles.
Nor had Treian peoples safely
Landed there before their downfall.
A King of Shadows walked and hunted—
Greatest panther Under Starlight.
Panther dread and keen in hunting
Stalked the Isles, battle-hungry.
His coat was sleek, black as midnight.
Midnight some men named his sire:
Leopard-like that hungry hunter
Crouches after Morning’s chariot,
Seeks the Ram of Dawn to slay him—
As he will at end of ages.
So men say. This deadly panther
Ruled those wide and pleasant isles.
When he saw the floating forest,
Saw the fleet of Orusena,
Then he roared, unsheathed those weapons,
Man-killing claws, iron-rending.
With a snarl he leapt to challenge,
Challenged them to deadly combat.
Anerkanera, over-eager,
Drew his blade upon the Isle,
On a rock beside the waters
Which from deep abyss were flowing,
Life they carried, out of darkness.
Anerkanera heard the challenge
Which the Son of Midnight issued.
Knife of bone he raised in answer.
Orusena, ancient, counselled:
“You were born upon the waters;
Kings of Isles cannot harm us,
Cannot hold us on the dry land.
Let us seek our fortunes elsewhere.
Let us take the ancient anvil,
Keep it ever on the Water
It is Deep Men’s dearest treasure.”
“Ancient treasures, star-forged anvils,
These will not secure our people.
We, the Children of the Water,
Now must once again on Isles,
On the stones heaped up like pillars
Over ancient, deep abysses,
Make our homes and set our kingdoms.
The Deep is full of crawling horrors.”
Then in battle on the Isle
Anerkanera and the Panther
Circled on the field of battle,
Leapt and feinted, struck and bloodied.
Mighty was that Son of Midnight,
Old and ancient, Mankind hating.
Seven times he struck and drew blood—
Five-and-thirty gashes bleeding.
Five-and-thirty gashes bleeding—
Anerkanera reeling fell back.
Then the Son of Midnight mighty
Stood upon a high stone outcrop
High above the floating city
Of the sacred cypress tree-trunks
Orusena, first of fathers,
Brought from northlands, warfare fleeing.
High he stood and roared his challenge
But no hero then could answer.
Anerkanera, gashes bleeding,
Dying lay upon the seashore.
Orusena, first of fathers,
Brought a flower to that hero,
Brought an herb from darkest waters
Where the sunlight never reaches.
“Take this lotus, from the waters
Far beneath the seafoamed surface.
It will draw the deadly poison
From the wounds the Son of Midnight
Dealt you with his deadly handstrokes.”
Orusena, first of fathers,
Anerkanera’s wounds so tended,
Hardy hero, panther-fighter.
Then a spring did Orusena,
First of fathers, find on Isle.
There he washed those bloody claw-marks
While the Hunter high above them
Made his wayward midnight journey.
Midnight ruled Under Starlight—
Son of Midnight roared in triumph
Over all the Water’s Children.
All the Children of the Water
Wept that night in lamentation.
Anerkanera, long he lay there,
In the sacred streams of waters
While the waters blood and venom
From his body, to the Seafoam
Drew; but new life they brought him
Springing from the cold abysses.
Then the Dawn came, and the sunlight
Warmed his cold and breathless body.
Then the son of Orusena,
First of fathers, breathed in deeply,
Rubbed his freezing limbs to warm them.
“Show me now that Son of Midnight.
We shall see if he has boldness
While the Ram of Dawn is reigning.”
Anerkanera took a bone-blade,
Took a spine from ancient horrors
Which the cold depths, old and hungry,
Prowl and rule, far from Starlight.
He went seeking Son of Midnight
Over every rocky island
That the floating city sighted,
Calling out a mocking challenge.
Many songs of that great hunting
Now the Children of the Water
Sing ere harvest in those Isles
Where Anerkanera hunted.[3]
Many caves the Son of Midnight
Sought to hide from burning Eibram.
In many shady rocks and gullies
Panther sought to lay an ambush.
Many caves the Son of Midnight
Sought, but ever Orusena’s
Mighty offspring there pursued him,
Calling to him, roaring madly.
At last the dusk was thickly falling.
Anerkanera, mocking, challenged:
“Now the time of dusk has fallen.
Now come forth and give me battle.
“Now the Ram and Cat of Midnight
Equal sway in Lower Heaven
Hold, and equal powers give us—
Give to us for deadly combat.
Now come forth and give me battle.
Son of Sunlight, Son of Midnight:
One will rule upon these Isles—
One will hold the crown and kingship.”
Then the Son of ancient Midnight—
Leopard black with fangs all-gleaming—
Forth he came from deepest cavern;
And as in the sky was waning
Golden sun, beloved of mankind,
So he felt his power growing.
Then he met the deadly challenge,
Leapt with venomed claws extended.
Many leopards have the Children
Met in combat on those Isles:
Hungry-jawed and maned like horses,
Swimming leopards on the water,
Poisoned jaws with venom dripping—
All the might of Midnight’s offspring
Pale reflected his son’s glory
None surpassed that panther’s greatness.
None surpassed that panther’s greatness—
Never Children of the Water
Fought against a greater tyrant
Than the monarch of those Isles.
Eyes were gleaming, claws extended,
Hackles stood out, fangs were dripping.
All the weight of malice bore down
On the Son of Orusena.
Anerkanera, mighty warrior,
Stood aside and raised his knife-blade—
Bone of ancient Ocean-dweller,
Many-eyed and hating sunlight—
He set himself, mighty princeling,
To stand like stone and wait the onslaught.
He was born upon the water,
Now he stood fast like a mountain.
The water’s weapon broke within him—
Broke within the Son of Midnight.
Anerkanera, born on water,
He became the King of Islands
In the day when by the water
He slew the cat and won the kingship.
Then he wore the Panther’s mantle—
Skin of leopard, cloak of kingship.
Orusena, first of fathers,
Took the anvil to his city,
Floating city on the water.
“You have won the rule of Isles;
But I go back to the waters
Where for many generations
We will keep the star-found Anvil,
‘Til the Tomb of Stone-kings opens.”
Orusena, first of fathers,
Took the anvil to his city,
Tides he followed, never anchored,
Followed whales and rode the seafoam.
Anerkanera ruled those Isles,
His seed will last for generations
While the cloak he won in battle
Still is worn by Water’s Children.
[1] Although
legends concerning Anerkanera abound in the Leopard Isles, this is the first
one which has come to the editor’s attention which proposes Orusen, the
legendary founder of the Sothbori people, as his father. Other stories make him
out to be a “son of Orusen” only in the broader sense, having been a chieftain
of the Sothbori who attempted to settle the Isles during the time of Klorpeim
I.
[2]
According to the assessment of the carvings by Vanera the Scribe, lines 29-36
seem to have been carved by a second and much later hand in the margins of what
was originally a single eight-line stanza composed of lines 25-28 and 37-40.
Why these two extra half-stanzas may have been inserted to extend the original
stanza into two is difficult to surmise. The best explanation, put forward by
Vanera, is that it may have been added later to explain the cryptic remark of
Anerkanera found at lines 150-152 and 177-184.
[3]
See: The Hunting of Midnight, The Third Book of Odes
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