That Hideous Strength

I

“STAND! Stand where you are and tell me your name and business,” said Ransom.

The ragged figure on the threshold tilted its head a little sideways like one who cannot quite hear. At the same moment the wind from the opened door had its way with the house. The inner door, between the scullery and the kitchen, clapped to with a loud bang, isolating the three men from the women, and a large tin basin fell clattering into the sink. The stranger took a pace farther into the room.

“Sta,” said Ransom in a great voice. “In nomine Patri et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, dic mihi qui sis et quam ob causam venenis.” (Stand. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, tell me who you are and why you come.)

The Stranger raised his hand and flung back the dripping hair from his forehead. The light fell full on his face, from which Ransom had the impression of an immense quietness. Every muscle of this man’s body seemed as relaxed as if he were asleep, and he stood absolutely still. Each drop of rain from the khaki coat struck the tiled floor exactly where the drop before it had fallen.

His eyes rested on Ransom for a second or two with no particular interest. Then he turned his head to his left, to where the door was flung back almost against the wall. MacPhee was concealed behind it.

“Come out,” said the Stranger, in Latin. The words were spoken almost in a whisper, but so deep that even in that wind-shaken room they made a kind of vibration. But what surprised Ransom much more was the fact that MacPhee immediately obeyed. He did not look at Ransom but at the Stranger. Then, unexpectedly, he gave an enormous yawn. The Stranger looked him up and down and then turned to the Director.

“Fellow,” he said in Latin, “tell the Lord of this House that I am come.” As he spoke, the wind from behind him was whipping the coat about his legs and blowing his hair over his forehead: but his great mass stood as if it had been planted like a tree, and he seemed in no hurry. And the voice, too, was such as one might imagine to be the voice of a tree, large and slow and patient, drawn up through roots and clay and gravel from the depths of the Earth.

“I am the Master here,” said Ransom, in the same language.

“To be sure!” answered the Stranger. “And yonder whipper-snapper (mastigia) is without doubt your Bishop.” He did not exactly smile, but a look of disquieting amusement came into his keen eyes. Suddenly he poked his head forward so as to bring his face much nearer to the Director’s.

“Tell your master that I am come,” he repeated in the same voice as before.

Ransom looked at him without the flicker of an eyelid.

“Do you really wish,” he said at last, “that I call upon my Masters?”

“A daw that lives in a hermit’s cell has learned before now to chatter book-Latin,” said the other. “Let us hear our calling, mannikin (homuncio).”

“I must use another language for it,” said Ransom.

“A daw could have Greek also in its bill.”

“It is not Greek.”

“Let us hear your Hebrew, then.”

“It is not Hebrew.”

“Nay,” answered the other with something like a chuckle, a chuckle deep hidden in his enormous chest and betrayed only by a slight movement of his shoulders, “if you come to the gabble of barbarians, it will go hard but I shall out-chatter you. Here is excellent sport.”

“It may happen to seem to you the speech of barbarians” said Ransom, “for it is long since it has been heard. Not even in Numinor was it heard in the streets.”

The Stranger gave no start and his face remained as quiet as before, if it did not become quieter; but he spoke with a new interest.

“Your Masters let you play with dangerous toys,” he said. “Tell me, slave, what is Numinor?”

“The true West,” said Ransom.

“Well . . .” said the other. Then, after a pause, he added, “You have little courtesy to guests in this house. It is a cold wind on my back, and I have been long in bed. You see I have already crossed the threshold.”

“I value that at a straw,” said Ransom. “Shut the door, MacPhee,” he added in English. But there was no response; and looking round for the first time, he saw that MacPhee had sat down in the one chair which the scullery contained and was fast asleep.

“What is the meaning of this foolery?” said Ransom looking sharply at the Stranger.

“If you are indeed the Master of this house, you have no need to be told. If not, why should I give account of myself to such as you? Do not fear; your horse-boy will be none the worse.”

“This shall be seen to shortly,” said Ransom. “In the meantime, I do not fear your entering the house. I have more cause to fear your escaping. Shut the door if you will, for you see my foot is hurt.”

The Stranger, without ever taking his eyes off Ransom; swept back his left hand behind him, found the door handle, and slammed the door to. MacPhee never stirred.

“Now,” he said, “what of these Masters of yours?”

“My Masters are the Oyeresu.”

“Where did you hear that name?” asked the Stranger.

“Or, if you are truly of the College, why do they dress you like a slave?”

“Your own garments,” said Ransom, “are not those of a druid.”

“That stroke was well put by,” answered the other.

“Since you have knowledge, answer me three questions, if you dare.”

“I will answer them if I can. But as for daring, we shall see.”

The Stranger mused for a few seconds; then, speaking in a slightly sing-song voice, as though he repeated an old lesson, he asked, in two Latin hexameters, the following question:

“Who is called Sulva? What road does she walk? Why is the womb barren on one side? Where are the cold marriages?”

Ransom replied, “Sulva is she whom mortals call the Moon. She walks in the lowest sphere. The rim of the world that was wasted goes through her. Half of her orb is turned towards us and shares our curse. Her other half looks to Deep Heaven; happy would he be who could cross that frontier and see the fields on her farther side. On this side the womb is barren and the marriages cold. There dwell an accursed people, full of pride and lust. There when a young man takes a maiden in marriage they do not lie together, but each lies with a cunningly fashioned image of the other, made to move and to be warm by devilish arts, for real flesh will not please them, they are so dainty (delicati) in their dreams of lust. Their real children the fabricate by vile arts in a secret place.”

“You have answered well,” said the Stranger. “I thought there were but three men in the world that knew this question. But my second may be harder. Where is the ring of Arthur the King? What Lord has such a treasure in his house?”

“The ring of the King,” said Ransom, “is on Arthur’s finger where he sits in the House of Kings in the cupshaped land of Abhalljin, beyond the seas of Lur in Perelandra. For Arthur did not die; but Our Lord took him to be in the body till the end of time and the shattering of Sulva, with Enoch and Elias and Moses and Melchisedec the King. Melchisedec is he in whose hall the steep-stoned ring sparkles on the forefinger of the Pendragon.”

“Well answered,” said the Stranger. “In my college it was thought that only two men in the world knew this. But as for my third question, no man knew the answer but myself. Who shall be Pendragon in the time when Saturn descends from his sphere? In what world did he learn war?

“In the sphere of Venus I learned war,” said Ransom. “In this age Lurga shall descend. I am the Pendragon.”

When he had said this he took a step backwards, for the big man had begun to move and there was a new look in his eyes. Any who had seen them as they stood thus face to face would have thought that it might come to fighting at any moment. But the Stranger had not moved with hostile purpose. Slowly, ponderously, yet not awkwardly, as though a mountain sank like a wave, he sank on one knee; and still his face was almost on a level with the Director’s.