The Story of Alexander

by Robert Steele

CHAPTER XIX. TELLS HOW ALEXANDER DEFEATED GOG AND MAGOG, HOW HE WENT UP INTO THE AIR, AND DOWN INTO THE SEA.

Candoyl and Alexander rode from the city out into the open country, and all day passed through it, till as the sun went down they came near the hills, and they found there a cave, great beyond measure, hidden between two hills, and there they harboured all night. And when evening was come Candoyl spoke to Alexander and said, “Sir, in this cave men say that the gods appear, and tell men what shall come to pass.” Then was Alexander rejoiced and gave thanks to the gods, and went in to the darkest part of the cave, but Candoyl abode at the mouth. And as Alexander drew near he saw a great cloud and from it a light glimmering like stars, and as he gazed him thought he saw in the midst of it a throne, and on it was a great grisly god whose eyes shone out fierce like lanterns. Then was Alexander sore dismayed, and fell to the ground. “Hail, Alexander!” quoth that high god. “Sire, what is thy name, and now shall I call thee?” said the king. “Thinthisus is my name, and all the world is under my hand. Yet hast thou built a city in thy name, and thou hast set me there no temple.” “Sire, if I return to Macedon, I will build thee a temple as master of the gods: none shall be like it in any land.” “Nay, nay, long not thereafter; thou shalt never look on that land. Go further, and behold.” Then the king looked and he saw another cloud not far off, so he went thither, and lo! another grim god seated before him. Kneeling on the earth he asked, “Who art thou, Lord?” and the god answered him, “I am Serapis, the god of thy father, the father of gods.” Then said Alexander, “Tell me, I pray thee, the name of the man that shall slay me:” but the god answered him, “O king, in time past I told thee that should any man know the cause of his death beforehand, he would suffer greatly; be of good heart, thou hast conquered many nations, thou shalt yet do great deeds; thou hast built a mighty city which shall endure for ever; many men shall resort there, and many races of kings shall rule it; thou shalt die and be buried in a noble city far from thine own land.” Alexander bowed himself down before the god and returned to the mouth of the cave, and found Candoyl waiting for him in the morning dawn, and the plain lay before him covered with his armies, and he bade farewell to the son of Candace, each departing to his own.

It fell as Alexander rode on towards his camp that he began to doubt in his mind that something was wrong, for all things looked to be untended, and no guards were set round the army, and as he drew nearer he heard shouts and cries, so he spurred up his steed and rode into the camp, and no man stopped him, for all were drawn to one place. But when he had come thither he found that the Greeks were drawn up in array, and that the Indians and Persians were running hither and thither, shouting and crying; so that every now and then a band of them would turn against the Greeks and make as if to force their way among them, and when they were driven back they would again begin to cry and shout. So the Lord of Macedon rode up among them, and no man of the Indians knew him, for his helmet was closed, and he came to his own men and they knew him, and shouted for joy and opened a way for him. Then he sent for Ptolemy, and when he was come he asked him what was the cause of this trouble and why the Indians were so sore afraid. But it is to be said that at the sound of Alexander’s voice all men had returned to their tents and the guard had gone out round the camp. Then Ptolemy told the king how that men had come to the camp three days agone telling of a new and strange folk coming from the north, frightful beyond bearing, and how they destroyed all things they came across and spared nothing that was good, but what they consumed not they wasted, and whom they kept not for slaves they killed in their wanton sport. And they were short, shorter than any men, and no man might look on them without fear. So these men had fled from before them, and they had come to King Alexander to preserve them from their enemies, and Ptolemy charged them to tell their tale to no man. But when they had been in the camp two days and had not seen the Lord of Macedon, their fear broke out again, and they told their tale to whoever would hear them, and the story spread, and a saying arose among the Indians that this foe was right at hand, and they clamoured for Alexander to come out and lead them, and they threatened to tear the camp to pieces if he came not.

Then were these ambassadors of fear brought before Alexander, and he questioned them of this people and of its coming, and they told him how that they were scarce ten days’ journey from them, and that they were settled in that land and had sown a crop, for it was ever their custom to come into a land at sowing time and to make the men of that land their slaves, so that they reaped the harvest for them, and then to slay them or drive them out to starve. And the ambassadors told how this race of dwarfs raged horribly at the name of Alexander, and said they had come to destroy him and the Greeks from the face of the earth, and they told last how these men were enemies of the Gods themselves above all things, so that evil was their good and good their evil. Then Alexander asked which of them had seen this folk, but no man had seen them, save one who had been far off them. So he sent for the clerk who had told him of the double-dealing of Porus and straitly questioned him, and he told the king how these folk were scarce two cubits high, but stronger than mortal men. “For in winter they wear no clothing, but they are covered with hair from their waist downward; their mouths are huge and set with fangs like a wild boar, their hands are like lion’s claws, no man may look on their eyes when they are set on him, and their ears are so great that in sleep they serve as coverlets. Two princes have they, whose names are Gog and Magog.” Moreover the clerk said mayhap the saying of the ambassadors was true, that they would wait where they were till next spring time, yet mayhap they might move before winter came on. Then Alexander decided that he would attack these dwarfs in the land where they were and drive them back to their own land.

The tale tells that the march of the army lay through a strange land and many wonders there befell them, for they passed through the valley of serpents and fought the griffins; they came to the shores of the sea and saw there wondrous beasts, and many things of which it were long to speak. On the third day of their march they came into a dark valley smelling sweetly of all spices, there cloves and ginger, and the pepper plant grew. But among these shrubs were many serpents and adders, who lived on the plants and had none other food, and these snakes had on their heads an emerald crown, as it were of goldsmith’s beaten work. Now the people of that land, when they wish to gather the pepper, set fire to this wood, and the flame drives away the snakes, but blackens and rivels the pepper. In the hills of this place were many precious stones called smaragds, and Alexander set his heart on gathering them, and sent men to climb the hills, but when they came near the place where the stones were, beasts came out and fell on them, in shape like lions but with cleft claws a yard across, and among them were griffins, with birds’ wings and beak and claws but otherwise like to a lion, and each of them so strong that it might bear away a knight full armed on his horse. Then came up Alexander and encouraged his dukes, and bade them shoot with a will, and the archers and arbalasters shot altogether, and the knights struck down and killed many of the beasts with their lances and their battle-axes, but the griffins tore the knights from their saddles and with their tails blinded them so that they could not see where to strike, and at last the Greeks were driven down, and over two hundred of those who wore golden spurs were slain in that fierce fight. Yet were a few of the griffins beaten down, and four of them were bound in strong chains and borne away by Alexander.

On the morrow after the host had come clear away from these hills, it came to a great and mighty river running straight down to the shores of ocean, and its banks were covered with huge reeds, longer than the highest tree, and so heavy that twenty men could scarce lift them. Of these reeds Alexander bade them make barges and ferry over his host, for the river was twenty furlongs broad, and two days were spent in the crossing over of the army. And when Alexander and his men were on the further side of the river the people of the land came to him, and they were a simple folk, clothed in the skins of great fish and of beasts. Nor were they inhospitable, for they brought sponges, white and purple, mussels so great that six men might make a meal of one, eels from the river thicker than a man’s leg, and lampreys weighing twenty pounds each. Then Alexander thanked them for their gifts, and gave them great rewards, and asked them of their land and its wonders, and they told him of the sirens who lived in that river, women with long hair for clothing who lived in the water like fishes. Yet when these creatures saw any man they drew him into the water, if he knew not their craft, and kept him there till he died, and sometimes they bound him to the great reeds and forced him to make sport for them till at the last they killed him, for they had neither love nor hate nor any care or thought, naught of mankind save its outward semblance. Then Alexander bade his men to search for these beasts and offered great rewards, and at the last two of them were taken and brought before him, and they were white as snow, their hair came down to their feet round their body, and they were taller than men have custom to be, yet they could not live without water, and in few hours’ time both were dead.

And Alexander the king spoke with their wise men of the combat with the dwarfs from the desert of the north, since the men of that land were exceeding wise, and they told him of the way by which he could fall on them at unawares; and when they knew that he had with him in the host the griffins they rejoiced and told him of a marvellous thing. Then the Lord of Macedon caused his smiths to make him a chair of black iron, and on the top of it at each corner was a large smaragd stone, and they brought the chair to the top of an exceeding high mountain in that land, and when they had come thither they bound the griffins to each corner of the chair at the bottom with great and very strong chains, for Alexander was minded to be carried up into the air by the griffins that he might see all lands. So when he was set in his chair and covered round with great bars of iron, he bade them uncover the eyes of the griffins, and they saw the smaragd stones fixed high above them and all at once they flew up towards the stones, for the sight of that stone is meat and drink to these animals, and they hunger to gather it together and to bear it off to their dens, neither care they for any hurt they receive in the getting of it. So they flew and soon Alexander was borne out of sight of men, high above the clouds, and he saw the earth below him like a basin, and the lands, and the way to the dwarfs, the men of Gog and Magog, and still they flew higher and the earth grew small like a mill-stone and the ocean and the rivers seemed like a writhing adder, and then the gods struck the griffins with fear, and they shut their eyes and stretched out their wings, and sunk lower and lower till they lay at the last on the ground in a green field in a strange land, and Alexander looked round and saw far on the towers of Jerusalem. But the griffins arose, and flew away till they came to their nest in the mountains, and when they came thither the Lord of Macedon left his seat and made his way through the hills till he came to the river, when he crossed it and came to his army again.