NARRATOR
On the other side of the river, beyond the fog, lay a green plain. Around the plain stood the buildings of a city-state, all in red, white and grey stone. Here a young girl grew up. She was endowed with noble blood—yes, she was of the house of Telamon—but she ran off with a heathen during the war, for which she was condemned by many. He fought against Telamon's knights, against the traditional Christian heroes, and he never won, though he was never caught. They say he was wounded in the Battle of Hallic, when most of the heathen leaders perished, and who knows that it might not have been a fatal blow?In her old age, the woman defended her actions to those who condemned her.
HELEN
In my youth I scorned those who spent their lives loving foolish people who were as much in love as themselves. It was inconstant, a horse that bucked. They did not know what true love was. They did not know the love I felt when I sang the praises of the Irelandish warrior Mitchner, a different type of hero.I had many graces; I could paint and sing, and I loved the blue sky, the green earth, wind and trees, and every manner of living creature: men, horses, the silvery fish; yes, even the tiniest amoeba. Life was fun, and I could make any endeavor my world. Yet I chose to follow this man. My family, my society did little to urge me along this course, but he was my lord always, his merits self-evident in my eyes. My youthful heart thought all the world must see him as I did. I fancied the stars in the deep heavens glowed in envy of his beauty, that the lion in the forest paled before his proud elegance. I saw all nature in him; the rushing waterfall was in the contours of his face, the rolling hills were the muscles beneath his skin, the tall grass the hair that covered his arms and chest.
He was no knight, but he could sing ballads and play wonderfully on the lute, and he was a leader of men. Some may question what authority a musician has to order knights, but he had the nathural right that neither knowledge nor high birth can give. I learned that I had to climb walls, hang upside down, just to be where he wanted to go