Then the people of Aphelos all journeyed eastwards and went down to the sea-shore. For the northern coast of Aphelos was rocky and without haven or landing place. And behold, there lay a great vessel, large enough to accommodate them all, floating not far from the shore. She had one great green sail amidships, but nothing and no man seemd to be in her.
Then Lord Ingos and Queen Díamun kissed and embraced each of their people, their kinsmen most lovingly, and the Lady Dîamána last and most of all. Their farewell was silent, but for the faint weeping of those who parted for an age to come.
So Ingos’s people went out to the ship, taking with them the Staff of Ingos and the Golden Fruit and whatsoever else they brought away with them. But when they went on board, there came forth from the cabin a being taller than any man, arrayed in white clothes, with long white hair and beard. And Obrámus cried:
‘Master! It is the Master, Lord Ingos’s Messenger, come to guide us to the Midworld.’
And the Messenger said:
‘Astagant welcomes you aboard, people of Ingos. I am the helmsman and governor of this craft for all the voyage; and by my art the sail will speed the ship of itself. When we have made landfall, I will speak with Master Obrámus and counsel him.’
And he spoke no more with them till they had landed in the Midworld.
And when all was ready, the breeze out of the West grew strong, and filled out the belly of the sail, and so the Great Ship with the people of Aphelos aboard moved out on to the Sea.
And Lord Ingos and Queen Díamun watched from the shore.
‘I came hither with my people on a raft,’ said Queen Díamun to Ingos, ‘and you on a log. Now they go hence like princes.’
They stood long upon the shore, till the green sail vanished and the dusk came.
As it says in the Lay of Ulfodhyod (‘Parting’):
Un Diamûn atanya dolm’ un-astu
Ka Ingos anya-t Apalóre lehtin alor
Yar’ andanî undáluya, ka ein ka periên,
Ollóya illayor vanyúme satyana
Fame tarkerime a fólte, fólte ra bróvilwe.
Arila ’nwar vo yasta sefta
Arila-t hlauvo, kuli-t ruvalma.
‘An Bèimunê ruvalma deu arinya,’
Kwî Ingos Serimanya, ‘Erdú unelûn’ oya
Unelûna fi Nilingein, Tesdámo vúrde,
Thavo ka dilfo vúrde gein,
Dû angistil mun ulunnilyur.
Sai kestel elme yót’ unelûn efes
unvúrûna gathíri — dú yót’ undèlûna
vanyúde.’
‘Inwe vanyúde yun bróana hyifre,’
Kwî Díamûn, ‘Inwe auga moivore
Ka doye borne hyúva, tesdámo vastime;
Illa na tehde, fame torkerde
Oye geinana, dû tê afet ga’nyorde,
Afet anyorvore damo nìlinte.
Yót’ unsítu fena oye mun pena
Insíta yun yothi ra damo,
Ra thîs inur…’
Diamun was standing on the shore,
And Ingos, Lord of Aphellos, at her side.
Two aged ones they seemed, both wise and fair.
They watched their people as they went aboard the ship,
Their children making ready to sail away, over northern waves.
There was a star upon their cheeks,
A star of care, a tear of grief.
‘Even the Great know grief,’ said Ingos, Lord
Of Southern Lands; ‘Though we had all —
This Land of Finding, Land lost to the World,
To death and fear —
Yet Malice found us out.
Still you and I have what we had at first,
Have lost no part — but what we gained is gone.’
‘I see them gone into the misty north,’
Said Diamun, ‘I see numberless years
And long hard lives.
A riven race, a family dispelled
Into all lands, but one hope alone not quelled,
The quenchless hope of finding home.
What brought hither us both together
May gather them again beyond the world —
Beyond time, it may be…’
In the great ship the people of Ingos spoke little, for their thoughts weighed upon them. In the evening at sunset Obrámus the Wise said: ‘See; the Sun goes down into the West, and Aphelos follows him.’
And they say that as the Sun sank behind the great mountain of Aphelos a single golden ray pierced its head by the door and window of Ingos’s Cave.
The top of the mountain vanished long after the land of Aphelos was out of sight.
Then night fell; the Stars came out; the friend of Ingos, the Moon, smiled on them; and they voyaged onward into the East.
Here ends the tale of Ingos in Aphelos.
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