Preview
Displayed Title
The sword that was not sheathed
Description
From Chapter 17 - "About a Cock That Crowed Too Soon"
Jurgen and the ghost of Queen Sylvia Tereu are in the White Turret. Dame Anaïtis, the Lady of the Lake sleeps nearby in her room. Jurgen carries the charmed sword, Caliburn. The ghost is willing to be comforted and Jurgen finds himself composed of the "warmest and hardest sort of flesh everywhere." The Lady of the Lake awakens and interrupts them.
"The avenging sword of Jurgen, my charming Sylvia, is the terror of envious men, but it is the comfort of all pretty women."
"It is undoubtedly a very large sword," said she: "oh, a magnificent sword, as I can perceive even in the dark. … "But you upset me, with that big sword of yours, you make me nervous, and I cannot argue so long as you are flourishing it about. Come now, put up your sword! Oh, what is anybody to do with you ! Here is the sheath for your sword," says she.
At this point they were interrupted.
"Duke of Logreus," says the voice of Dame Anaïtis, "do you not think it would be better to retire, before such antics at the door of my bedroom give rise to a scandal?"
For Anaïtis had half-opened the door of her bedroom, and with a lamp in her hand, was peering out into the narrow stairway. Jurgen was a little embarrassed, for his apparent intimacy with a lady who had been dead for sixty-three years would be, he felt, a matter difficult to explain. So Jurgen rose to his feet, and hastily put up the weapon he had exhibited to Queen Sylvia, and decided to pass airily over the whole affair. And outside, a cock crowed, for it was now dawn.
Topical Subject
Historical fiction; Fantasy fiction; Linoleum block-printing
Personal Name Subject
Cabell, James Branch, 1879-1958; Ogden, Samuel Robinson, Jr. (1896-1985)
Language
eng
Genre
linocuts (prints); books
Local Genre
artwork; text
Type
Still Image
Digital Format
image/jpg
Rights Statement URL
https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Rights
This material is in the public domain in the United States and thus is free of any copyright restriction. Acknowledgement of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is requested.
Collection
Twenty-two Plates From Cabell's Jurgen
Source
Ogden S, James Branch Cabell Collection, James Branch Cabell Collection. Twenty-Two Plates from Cabell’s Jurgen. [publisher not identified]; 1929.
File Name
jurgenplates_015.jpg