Ch. 3 - Kinnakulla - Page 2

velvet carpet. The high
road leads over an extent of ground where the slate-stone lies like a
firm floor. In the Campagna of Rome, one would say it is a piece of
_via appia_, or antique road; but it is Kinnakulla's naked skin and
bones that we pass over. The peasant's house is composed of large
slate-stones, and the roof is covered with them; one sees nothing of
wood except that of the door, and above it, of the large painted
shield, which states to what regiment the soldier belongs who got this
house and plot of ground in lieu of pay.

We cast another glance over Venern, to Lockö's old palace, to the town
of Lendkjobing, and are again near verdant fields and noble trees,
that cast their shadows over Blomberg, where, in the garden, the poet
Geier's spirit seeks the flower of Kinnakulla in his grand-daughter,
little Anna.

The plain expands here behind Kinnakulla; it extends for miles around,
towards the horizon. A shower stands in the heavens; the wind has
increased: see how the rain falls to the ground like a darkening veil.
The branches of the trees lash one another like penitential dryades.
Old Husaby church lies near us, yonder; though the shower lashes the
high walls, which alone stand, of the old Catholic Bishop's palace.
Crows and ravens fly through the long glass-less windows, which time
has made larger; the rain pours down the crevices in the old grey
walls, as if they were now to be loosened stone from stone: but the
church stands--old Husaby church--so grey and venerable, with its
thick walls, its small windows, and its three spires stuck against
each other, and standing, like nuts, in a cluster.

The old trees in the churchyard cast their shade over ancient graves.
Where is the district's "Old Mortality," who weeds the grass, and
explains the ancient memorials? Large granite stones are laid here in
the form of coffins, ornamented with rude carvings from the times of
Catholicism. The old church-door creaks in the hinges. We stand within
its walls, where the vaulted roof was filled for centuries with the
fragrance of incense, with monks, and with the song of the choristers.
Now it is still and mute here: the old men in their monastic dresses
have passed into their graves; the blooming boys that swung the censer
are in their graves; the congregation--many generations--all in their
graves; but the church still stands the same. The moth-eaten, dusty
cowls, and the bishops' mantle, from the days of the cloister, hang in
the old oak presses; and old manuscripts, half eaten up by the rats,
lie strewed about on the shelves in the sacristy.

In the left aisle of the church there still stands, and has stood time
out of mind, a carved image of wood, painted in various