Fifty-One Tales · Chapter
Alone the Immortals explained
The narrator, seeking to mourn the dead years in a distant valley, finds instead the immortal years themselves—colossi that tower over time and creation, and returns comforted.
What happens
The narrator, seeking to mourn the dead years in a distant valley, finds instead the immortal years themselves—colossi that tower over time and creation, and returns comforted.
Themes in this chapter
Time and Mortality
The narrator mourns the dead years, but discovers they are immortal and transcend time itself.
The Power of Myth and Imagination
The journey to the valley of dead years is achieved through 'ways of dream,' and the immortal years are depicted as mythic colossi.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“Alone the Immortals I heard it said that far away from here, on the wrong side of the deserts of Cathay and in a country dedicate to winter, are all the years that are dead.”
I heard that all the dead years are kept in a distant winter country beyond the deserts of Cathay.
Sets up the mythical geography of the dead years.
“And I said: I will go from here by ways of dream and I will come to that valley and enter in and mourn there for the good years that are dead.”
I decided to travel there through dreams to mourn the good years that have passed.
The narrator's quest is driven by a desire to mourn.
“And at last I made a slender wreath of daisies in the manner that I had seen them made in one of the years that is dead.”
I finally wove a delicate daisy wreath, copying a style from a dead year.
The wreath symbolizes the fragility of the dead years.
“But looking upwards in the blaze of the moon I suddenly saw colossi sitting near, and towering up and blotting out the stars and filling the night with blackness; and at those idols’ feet I saw praying and making obeisance kings and the days that are and all times and all cities and all nations and all their gods.”
Looking up in the moonlight, I saw giant idols that blocked the stars, with kings, days, times, cities, nations, and gods bowing at their feet.
The immortal years are revealed as colossal, godlike beings.
“He answered me: 'These are the years that are dead, alone the immortals; all years to be are Their children—They fashioned their smiles and their laughter; all earthly kings They have crowned, all gods They have created; all the events to be flow down from Their feet like a river, the worlds are flying pebbles that They have already thrown, and Time and all his centuries behind him kneel there with bended crests in token of vassalage at Their potent feet.'”
He replied that these are the dead years, which alone are immortal; they create all future years, crown kings, make gods, and even Time kneels to them.
The dead years are revealed as the ultimate creators and masters of time.
“And when I heard this I turned away with my wreath, and went back to my own land comforted.”
Hearing this, I left with my wreath and returned home, comforted.
The narrator finds comfort in the immortality of the dead years.