The King's Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá)
Philosophy
The King's Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá)
Education of princes; Encyclopedias and dictionaries -- Early works to 1600; Scandinavia -- Civilization
_Father._ I can indeed give such an explanation, just as I have heard it
from the lips of well-informed men, and as seems most reasonable
according to the insight that God has given me. The sun has received
divers offices: for it brings light and warmth to all the earth, and the
various parts of the world rejoice in its approaching; but its course is
planned in such a way that it sometimes withdraws from those regions
that it approaches at other times. When it first comes to visit the east
with warmth and bright beams, the day begins to lift up silvery brows
and a pleasant face to the east wind. Soon the east wind is crowned with
a golden glory and robed in all his raiments of joy. He eases griefs and
regretful sighs and turns a bright countenance toward his neighbors on
either side, bidding them rejoice with him in his delight and cast away
their winterlike sorrows. He also sends blazing rays into the face of
the west wind to inform him of his joy and happiness. He advises the
west wind, too, that in the evening he shall be clad in garments similar
to those which the east wind wore in the morning. Later in the day and
at the proper hour the southeast wind displays the glory of his
newly-gotten robes and sends warming rays with friendly messages into
the face of the northwest wind. But at midday the south wind reveals how
he has been endowed with riches of heat, sends warm gifts of friendship
across to the north wind, warms his cool face, and invites all the
neighboring winds to share in the abundance of his wealth. As the day
declines the southwest wind with glad face receives the gentle sheen and
genial beams. Having put away wrath, he reveals his desire for peace and
concord; he commands the mighty billows and steep wave-crests to subside
with waning power and calls forth quickening dews in a wish to be fully
reconciled with all his neighbors. Gently he blows a refreshing breath
into the face of the northeast wind, warms his wind-chilled lips, and
thaws his frosty brow and frozen cheeks. But when evening begins, the
west wind, clad in splendor and sunset beauty as if robed for a festal
eve, lifts a gleaming brow above a blithe countenance, and sends a
message on darting beams across to the east wind telling him to prepare
for the festive morrow to come.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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