Chapter 2 Volume 1 Three Women Chapter 1

On a Saturday afternoon in November, it was almost dusk, and the vast, boundless and gray Eden Wasteland was becoming darker by the hour.The blue sky above the head has filled with an empty gray cloud, and this gray cloud is like a tent, covering the whole wasteland. Covering the sky is this piece of gray tent, all over the earth is this piece of black heather plants, they meet at the skyline, presenting a clear and distinct boundary.In such a stark contrast, the wasteland was covered with night before night fell naturally according to the weather; passed away.Looking up at the sky, a twig-cutter will want to get on with the job at hand, but looking down, he will decide to bundle up his faggots and go home.The distant juncture of the earth and the sky seems to be a boundary not only between matter, but also in time.The blackness of the heather advances the onset of night by half an hour; likewise it delays the onset of dawn, makes the noon appear dim, and predisposes the storm to show its frowning face before the storm, while in the A moonless midnight, it made the darkness all the more terrifying.

In fact, it is precisely at this moment, when evening turns to night, that the unique and great splendor of the Aydon Moor really begins, and no one really knows the moor unless he is there at this moment.The wilderness can only be felt most vividly, and in all its power from this moment until the dawn of the next, when it is presented to the world in its shadowy form, and can it be truly felt. understand it; then, and only then, will the moor tell the world its true story.Indeed, this place is really a close relative of the night. When the night falls, the topography of this wilderness and the surrounding scenery obviously present a tendency to attract and blend with each other.The mounds and hollows of this melancholy heath seemed to rise up to meet the twilight of night with all sincerity, and the heath spit out darkness, and the sky poured it down, with equal swiftness on both sides.As a result, the sky is also dim and dark, and the half of the darkness that the two sides have tried their best to promote is closely connected into a whole darkness between the sky and the earth.

Then there was a kind of concentrated alertness all over the place, for, while all things were dozing off to sleep, the moor was slowly waking up and listening.Every night, its Titan god [Note: The giant god in ancient Greek mythology. ]-like forms seem to be waiting for something; however, long centuries have passed, and so many crises have occurred, it still waits quietly and motionlessly, which can only make people feel that it is waiting for the final The crisis of the coming of the doom of total destruction. It is a place that haunts the soul of those who love it, have a unique warmth about it, and connect with it.The plains of flowers and fruit trees, though cheerful, make it difficult for them to do so, for they can only appear eternally harmonious if they come to a better end than their present.Only the deep twilight combined with the vast scenery of the Eden Moor can contribute to such an atmosphere: solemn but not austere, deep but not revealing, its warning is so striking, its simplicity is so dignified.The appearance of a prison is always very solemn and solemn, and a palace, even if it has an appearance twice its size, can hardly possess its dignity; it is this kind of imposing manner that gives this wasteland a solemn and recognized beauty. The land of scenery will never have such a solemn momentum.Beautiful sights are happily combined with good times; but, God, if they weren't so good!An environment that is too bleak can be depressing and unpleasant, but for people's own reasons, an environment that is too bright and cheerful will more often make people feel ridiculed and make them feel more painful.Only with a finer and rarer instinct, a more recently awakened passion, can one feel the harshness of the Moor of Eden, which is incapable of feeling to a sentiment which loves only softness and beauty.

Indeed, it is questionable whether this traditional notion of beauty has not lost its absolute dominance.Tenby River Valley [Note: The valley in the northeast of Thessaly region in Greece has beautiful scenery. ] If it appears in Thule [Note: The ancients used the general term for the northernmost part of Europe. ], maybe a barren and desolate wasteland: when human beings are still young, they feel alienated from the bleak and gloomy external things, but as the years change, we will feel more and more connected to such things .The time seems to be approaching when a wasteland, or an ocean, or a mountain range, honed by many vicissitudes of life, will reveal a solemn nature, which will be most attuned to the minds of the more thoughtful among men. , even if it doesn't actually come.In the end, to the most ordinary tourist, a place like Iceland might be what he now sees as the vineyards and cherry orchards of southern Europe; Seaside resort and fishing port in the west of the Netherlands. ], perhaps he would never visit Heidelberg at all. ] and Baden [Note: A state in Germany. 】.

The most thoroughgoing ascetic feels quite naturally that he has a right to roam the Moor of Eden: when he opens his mind to the moods of the moor, his indulgence never exceeds normal limits.Appreciating such indifferent colors and quiet scenery is at least everyone's birthright.Only in the most luxuriant days of summer, there is a touch of glamorous atmosphere here.The dignified mood, always expressed by stately appearance rather than by ostentatious manner, is often expressed in winter darkness, snowstorm and dense fog; This kind of artistic conception is induced, because the wind and snow are its lover, and the strong wind is its friend.Then it is a land of wonders; nightmares in the middle of the night make us feel in a twilight the approach of catastrophe and flight, which we shall never have in our minds again, unless we behold another natural spectacle similar to it, Yet the Moor of Eden at this time was the birthplace of the tangle and infinity of dark and frightening dreams.

At this moment, here is a place that is perfectly in tune with human nature. It is neither terrible, hateful, nor abominable; it is neither ordinary, meaningless, nor dull; ; still only with its black monotonous color to show its unique extraordinary and mysterious.Just like some people who have lived alone for a long time, it seems to show a kind of loneliness from its appearance.It has a solitary appearance that conjures up the possibility of all sorts of tragedies. This sombre desolation is described in what is called the Doomsday Book [Note: The original record or summary of the surveys of England by William I the Conqueror. ] have also been described.Its scene is the same as the so-called Bruarea recorded in the book [Note: That is, a land full of heather. 】Completely match, the thorns are overgrown in the vast wilderness, and the heather gorse grows everywhere.At that time, leagues were used [Note: The old unit of length, one league was about three miles. ] to measure length and width, although it is impossible to determine whether this ancient unit of measurement is that accurate, but judging from the area of ​​the current Aden Wasteland, it seems that the difference is not much different.The right to mine peat, also known as Tebarea Buluarea, is affirmed in the book's concessions concerning this area.Leland [note: 1506 | 1552, British archaeologist], speaking of the whole black expanse, says that it is covered with heather and moss.

To say the least, these descriptions of the landscape are sufficient and profound proofs of veracity, and a real satisfaction.The current Eden Moor is the same as before, still so rebellious and abandoned.Evolution of civilization is its enemy; and from the time the land began to grow, it has always worn its old tawny coat, a natural And invariably unique robes.With such a time-honored top, it shows a smile of disdain for human beings' vanity pursuit of clothing.A man in fashionable dress and splendor comes to the moor with a more or less eccentric appearance.The earth is so primitive, it seems that people's clothes should be more ancient and simple.

From afternoon to evening, it is like this hour, leaning alone on a bush in the central valley of Eden Moor, looking around, the whole world can see nothing but the peaks and sides of the mountains covered with heather. Then he knew that everything around and below has not changed from prehistory to the present, just like the stars in the sky. The disturbed mood will suddenly become calm and calm.This great undisturbed place has an eternity of permanence which not even the sea possesses.Who can say that a certain sea is really that old?The sun evaporates the sea water, and the moonlight caresses the sea water.It changes from year to day, even hour to hour.The sea is changing, the land is changing, and the river, the village, and the people are all changing, but the Aden Waste remains the same.Its terrain is neither steep enough to withstand the erosion of wind and rain, nor flat enough to allow floods to wash and silt to accumulate.With the exception of an ancient road and an even older barrow to be mentioned, which themselves are almost the crystallization of the natural products of long ages, and it is the slight irregularity of this ancient road and this ancient mound. Nor has the change been caused by pickaxes, tillage, and spade digging, but by the slightest touch of recent geographic change.

The old road mentioned above runs through the lowland part of the heath, from one end of the horizon to the other.Many parts of this ancient road almost coincide with another adjacent ancient road, which originated from the great westbound road of the Romans, which is called the Isinian road or the Econilian road. old road.In the evening of this day, although the dark night has covered the small scenes on the wasteland into chaos, but if you look closely, the gray-white ancient road is almost still clearly identifiable.