Ballads, Spanish; Legends -- Spain; Spanish literature -- History and criticism
Agesilan, pursuing the quest of Diana, arrived at the Desolate
Isle. The god Tervagant (Termagaunt, Tyr Magus='Tyr the Mighty')
had fallen in love with the queen of this country, and on being
repulsed by her let loose a band of demons upon her possessions,
who ravaged them far and wide. The god's oracle had announced that he
would not be appeased unless the inhabitants daily exposed a maiden
on the sea-shore until such time as he found one as much to his taste
as the Queen. Each day a hapless damsel was chained to a rock on the
desolate shores of the island, and was promptly devoured by a monster
which rose out of the sea. This naturally rendered the supply of
maidens in the vicinity rather scarce, so in order to save one of the
local ladies for another occasion, Diana, who had been brought to the
island, was tied to the rock one morning and, like another Andromeda,
of whose myth the incident is a paraphrase, was left to the mercy of
the monster. Agesilan, soaring through the air on his hippogriff,
witnessed her plight, descended to her aid, and, after a terrific
combat, slew the monster which had been about to devour her.
Having accounted for the grisly satellite of Tervagant, he placed the
almost unconscious Diana upon his aery steed, whose head he turned
in the direction of Constantinople; but on the way thither this now
practised airman caught sight of the ship of Amadis from which he
and his mistress had been separated in the tempest. Alighting on
the vessel with all the skill of a sea-plane pilot on the deck of
a 'mother-ship,' he greeted his astonished kindred, and the party
eventually reached Constantinople, where the wedding of the principal
characters was solemnized.
Silvio de la Selva
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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