Brother Winter (Triumph)

Excerpt from Polk's translation of the Jeggsagjan...

When the world was young,
And power flowed across the land
Sweet and strong,
Ylanheim was master of the ways of frost and floe
And Honaestag shown with the light and warmth of the Sun.
Long did these brothers of old compete in all things,
And Ylanheim well knew the cold heart of his brother Summer.

When Dwenala, fair and free,
Did capture Ylanheim's heart,
Honaestag did come and ply his ways of warmth,
To win her for his own.
And how Ylanheim was then overthrown,
When she did choose to be with Honaestag,
Forever young, in the Fortress of Fire,
Which burns,
But feels not time's effect.
To Ylanheim's warnings she was deaf,
Thinking him but jealous,
But he persevered,
And bid her to seek him in the Cavern of Bluest Ice,
Should she have cause to reconsider her choice,
As he feared she must.

Then did Ylanheim withdraw from the world,
Into the Cavern,
Where he drew his power about him like a cloak,
And wrapped himself in a mantle of ice
So deep and blue
That to look into it was to look into eternity.
In this cloak,
Proof against the ages,
Time would move but slowly.
In this mantle of ice, would he be, ever ready,
To spring forth should fair Dwenala come in need.

And it came to pass that Dwenala did flee Honaestag,
But, in fleeing, was pursued,
By his fell Hunt.
Never would Dwenala reach the Cavern of Bluest Ice,
Where Ylanheim did wait,
Wrapped in ice so deep and blue
That to look into it was to look into eternity.
In this mantle of ice, would he be, ever ready,
To spring forth should fair Dwenala come in need.

An ancient power, released from an icy hibernation in the modern day, he must try to make sense of his place in a world without Primal Forces.