"A circle of mist seemed to be settling around them" — Edmund Dulac's illustration for the Queen of Roumania's 's "The Dreamer of Dreams"

A circle of mist seemed to be settling around them

Edmund Dulac, 1882-1953

1900

Source: the Queen of Roumania's The Dreamer of Dreams, 72.

See below for passage illustrated

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With a sensation of comfort Eric laid himself down close to the quiet guardian, wrapping himself up warmly in the folds of his cloak, for the night was cold.

Indeed the rocks made but a hard and unfriendly bed, but Eric was young, and weary was his body, so it was not long before sleep came down and carried him off into the land of dreams.

Upon the rock near his head sat the motionless, wakeful bird of prey, staring with unblinking eyes into the dark. The whiteness of its feathers was faintly visible, and the blue diamond burned steadily like the lamp of a lighthouse seen from far over the sea.

Now there was a faint movement about the sleeping boy and that silent watcher of the Hills.

A circle of mist seemed to be settling around them, like a giant wreath of grey poppies; but it was not the vapours of the night that were forming a ring round the man and the bird — it was the bodiless army of following ghosts ; and there they sat a quiet company, forms out of another world, awaiting in mournful silence that this frail human being should arise to lead them over perilous ways to the height that would be their salvation. [72-73]

Bibliography

[Sylva, Carmen] The Queen of Roumania. The Dreamer of Dreams. London, New York, and Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, [1900]. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California Library. Web. 8 January 2013

Last modified 9 January 2013