The Knight

The Knight Book One of The Wizard Knight Gene Wolfe

Dedicated with the greatest respect to Yves Meynard, author of The Book Of Knights

The Riders

Who treads those level lands of gold,
The level fields of mist and air,
And rolling mountains manifold
And towers of twilight over there?
No mortal foot upon them strays,
No archer in the towers dwells,
But feet too airy for our ways
Go up and down their hills and dells.
The people out of old romance,
And people that have never been,
And those that on the border dance
Between old history and between
Resounding fable, as the king
Who held his court at Camelot.
There Guinevere is wandering
And there the knight Sir Lancelot.
And by yon precipice of white,
As steep as Roncesvalles, and more,
Within an inch of fancy’s sight,
Roland the peerless rides to war.
And just the tip of Quixote’s spear,
The greatest of them all by far,
Is surely visible from here!
But no: it is the Evening Star.

Lord Dunsany

Ben, look at this first.

I have been reading through the first part of this letter, and there are an awful lot of names you will not know. So I have listed most of them here. If you come across one and wonder who that is, or where it is, you can look here. You would be wasting your time to read this now. It is just to look the names up in.

If a name is not here, I missed it or I do not know either, or I knew you would know already. Here they are.

ABLE

This is the name I use here. It was also the name of Bold Berthold’s brother.

AELF

Fifth-world people. They do not work much, protect trees and so forth, and see certain things differently.

AELFRICE

The fifth world, under Mythgarthr.

AGR

He was Marder’s marshal, and I have known worse people.

ALVIT

One of the shield-maidens who ride for the Valfather.

ANGRBORN

The giants who got forced out of Skai. All of them are descended from a famous giantess named Angr, or say they are.

ARNTHOR

The king of Celidon. His picture was on the money. Disiri gave me a message for him.

ATL

One of Thunrolf’s servants.

AUD

Thunrolf’s steward.

BAKI

A Fire Aelf girl I met at the Tower of Glas. She and Uri said they were my slaves.

BALDIG

One of the peasants who used to live in Griffinsford.

BATTLEMAID

Ravd’s sword. Swords get names, like ships.

BATTLEWITCH

Garvaon’s sword.

BEAW

One of Garvaon’s men-at-arms. He was a good guy too.

BEEL

The baron Arnthor sent to Jotunland.

BEN

My brother back in America, who I still miss. Did you read this, Ben?

BLACKMANE

Ravd’s charger.

BLUESTONE CASTLE

Indign’s castle. Some Osterling pirates wrecked it.

BLUESTONE ISLAND

A high, rocky island about a quarter of a mile from the mainland.

BODACHAN BOLD

Earth Aelf. They are one of the small clans.

BERTHOLD

The peasant from Griffinsford who let me cook my grouse and live with him in his hut. We said we were brothers, and he believed it.

BREGA

A peasant woman who lived in Glennidam.

BYMIR

The first Angrborn I ever saw.

CASPAR

The head warder at Sheerwall Castle.

CELIDON

A big country, longer than it is wide, on the west coast of the mainland. Irringsmouth, Forcetti, and Kingsdoom are all towns in Celidon.

COLLINS

My old English teacher.

CROL

Beel’s herald.

DISIRA

Seaxneat’s wife.

DISIRI

The queen of the Moss Aelf.

DOLLOP AND SCALLOP

The inn where we stayed in Forcetti.

DUNS

Uns’ older brother.

EAST HALL

Woddet’s manor.

EGIL

One of the outlaws.

EGR

One of Beel’s upper servants.

ETERNE

The Mother of Swords.

FINEFIELD

Garvaon’s manor.

FIRE AELF

The clan Setr took over completely.

FORCETTI

Marder’s town, a seaport.

FREE COMPANIES

Outlaw gangs. This was the polite name.

FROST GIANTS

The Angrborn, especially the raiders.

GARSECG

The name Setr was using when I met him.

GARVAON

Beel’s best knight.

GAYNOR

Arnthor’s wife, the queen of Celidon.

GERDA

The girl Bold Berthold was going to marry.

GERI

The girl you were dating when I lost America.

GILLING