Wednesday 14 November 2012

Nemeta


After Dahut has taken Rufinus, Nemeta speaks plainly:

Dahut, not a demon in her shape, haunts Ys;
she drowned but the Three would not let her stay dead (thus, what is seen, heard and even felt is her transfigured body, not her ghost);
she is the vengeance of the Three on their city;
Nemeta knows this from dreams, wands, a pool and the smoke of a sacrificial fire;
Nemeta still worships the Three because they give her powers whereas Epona etc have become sprites or phantoms, Wotan and his warriors are aliens and Christ would deny her freedom;
Dahut now chiefly exists to avenge Niall;
having helped Rufinus, Nemeta must stay away from the sea and from any river that Dahut could swim up;
Nemeta lives in the woods with cats like the witch that she has become.

Poul and Karen Anderson, The Dog And The Wolf (London, 1989), pp. 356-358).

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