Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1912 · PDF PAGE 92

Sir Palamedes

…PALAMEDE the Saracen Hath passed unto the tideless sea, That the keen whisper of the wind May bring him that which never men Knew—on the quest, the quest, rides he! So long to seek, so far to find ! So weary was the knight, his limbs Were slack as new-slain dove’s; his knees No longer gripped the charger rude. Listless, he aches ; his purpose swims Exhausted in the oily seas Of laxity and lassitude. The soul subsides; its serious motion Still throbs ; by habit, not by will. And all his lust to win the quest Is but a passive-mild devotion. (Ay! …

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1912 · PDF PAGE 7

Sir Palamedes

…AMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT Beast. Standing up, that he may enjoy the reward, he findeth another answer to the riddle. Yet abideth in the quest. xxxviii. Sir Palamede is confronted by a stranger knight, whose arms are his own, as also his features, This knight mocketh Sir Palamede for an impudent pretender, and impersonator of the chosen knight. Sir Palamede in all humility alloweth that there is no proof possible, and offereth ordeal of battle, in which the stranger is slain, Sir Palamede heweth him into the smallest dust without pity, xxxix. I…

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1912 · PDF PAGE 31

Sir Palamedes

…II Know ye where Druid dolmens rise In Wessex on the widow plain? Thither Sir Palamedes plies The spur, and shakes the rattling rein. He questions all men of the Beast. None answer. Is the quest in vain? With oaken crown there comes a priest In samite robes, with hazel wand, And worships at the gilded East. Ay! thither ride! The dawn beyond Must run the quarry of his quest. He rode as he were wood or fond, Until at night behoves him rest. —He saw the gilding far behind Out on the hills toward the West! With aimless fury hot and blind He flung h…

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1912 · PDF PAGE 41

Sir Palamedes

…upon, Wherein some fiend of ages gone Is whelmed by God, yet from his breast Spits up the flame, and ashes grey. Hereby Sir Palamede his quest Pursues withouten let or rest. Seeing the evil mountain be, Remembering all his evil years, He knows the Questing Beast runs free— Author of Evil, then, is he! Whereat immediate resounds The noise he hath sought so long: appears There quest a thirty couple hounds Within its belly as it bounds. Lifting his eyes, he sees at last The beast he seeks: ’tis like an hart. Ever it courseth far and fast. Sir Pala…

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1912 · PDF PAGE 80

Sir Palamedes

…elf, the shrine was dark. Cold was the incense, dead the flame; The slain babe lay there black and stark. What of the Beast? What of the quest? More blind the quest, the Beast more dim. Even now its laughter is suppressed, While his own demons mock at him!

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1912 · PDF PAGE 53

Sir Palamedes

By simple faith, not heathen might, Catch him, and thus achieve the quest!” Then quoth that melancholy wight: “T will believe!” The hermit blessed His convert : on the horizon Appears the Beast. ‘To thee the rest!” He cries, to urge the good knight on. But no! Sir Palamedes grips The hermit by the woebegone Beard of him; then away he rips, Wood as a maniac, to the West, Where down the sun in splendour slips, And where the quarry of the quest Canters. They run lik e hippogriffs! Like men pursued, or swine possessed, Over the dizzy Cretan cliffs …

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1912 · PDF PAGE 3

Sir Palamedes

TO ALLAN BENNETT “Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya” my good knight comrade in the Quest, I dedicate this imperfect account of it, in some small recognition of his suggestion of its form. MANDALAY, November 1905

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1912 · PDF PAGE 56

Sir Palamedes

…rns Within the circle of his brows As fast he flies, the snow he spurns. Ah! what a youth and strength he vows To the achievement of the quest ! And now the horrid height allows His mastery: day by day from crest To crest he hastens: faster fly His feet: his body knows not rest, Until with magic speed they ply Like oars the snowy waves, surpass In one day’s march the galaxy Of Europe’s starry mountain mass. “Now,” quoth he, “let me find the quest!” The Beast sterte up. Sir Knight, alas! Day after day they race, nor rest Till seven days were fai…

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1912 · PDF PAGE 118

Sir Palamedes

… upon his knees in praying And glorifying God). The Son Of God Himself—men thought—spoke then. “ Arise! brave soldier, thou hast won The quest not given to mortal men. Arise! Sir Palamede Adept, Christian, and no more Saracen ! On wake or sleeping, wise, inept, Still thou didst seek. Those foolish ways On which thy folly stumbled, leapt, All led to the one goal. Now praise Thy Lord that He hath brought thee through To win the quest!” The good knight lays

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1912 · PDF PAGE 89

Sir Palamedes

…scabs, the warts and wens, The nameless vermin he had gathered In those insufferable dens, The foul diseases he had fathered. So now the quest slips from his brain: “ First (Christ !) let me be clean again!” 83

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1912 · PDF PAGE 104

Sir Palamedes

…ped, like steel Upon the ankles of a slave! That body broken on the wheel Of Time suppressed the groan it gave! “Not there, not here, my quest!” he cried. “Not thus! Not now! Do how and when Matter? Iam, and I abide, Sir Palamede the Saracen!”

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1912 · PDF PAGE 98

Sir Palamedes

…his ten good toes! He that was Arthur's peer, good knight Proven in many a foughten fight, Flees like a felon in the night! Ay! this thy quest is past the ken Of thee and of all mortal men, Sir Palamede the Saracen !

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1912 · PDF PAGE 114

Sir Palamedes

108 “Faugh!” cried the knight. “Thought, word, and act Confirm me. I have proved the quest Impossible. I break the pact. Back to the gilded halls, confessed A recreant! Achieved or not, This task hath earned a foison—rest. In Caerlon and Camelot Let me embrace my fellow-men ! To buss the wenches, pass the pot, Is now the enviable lot Of Palamede the Saracen!”

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1912 · PDF PAGE 63

Sir Palamedes

…o the nearer beast, that shuns The shock, and splits, and splits again, Until the baffled warrior sees A myriad myriad swarms of these A-questing over all the plain. The good knight reins his charger in. “ Now, by the faith of Paladin! The subtle quest at last I ken.” Rides off to Camelot to plight The faith of many a noble knight, Sir Palamede the Saracen. 57

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1912 · PDF PAGE 78

Sir Palamedes

…ear me,” he cried, “ to purge my bile To the old land of Hormakhu, That I may sit and curse awhile At all these follies fond that pen My quest about—on, on to Nile! Tread tenderly, my merry men! For nothing is so void and vile As Palamede the Saracen.”

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1912 · PDF PAGE 74

Sir Palamedes

68 The Me with Thou; then swift the quest To slay the Me should hook the Thou.” With that he crossed him, brow and breast, And flung his body from the prow. Anend? Alas! on silver sand Open his eyes; the surf-rings roar. What snorts there, swimming from the land? The Beast that brought him to the shore! “O Beast!” quoth purple Palamede, “ A morister strange as Thou am I. I could not live before, indeed; And now I cannot even die! Who chose me, of the Table Round By miracle acclaimed the chief ? Here, waterlogged and muscle-bound, Marooned upon …

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1912 · PDF PAGE 75

Sir Palamedes

…grims swing, Chanting their pagan gramarye Unto the dread volcano-king. “ Now, then, by Goddes reed!” quod he, “ Behold the secret of my quest In this far-famed stability| 69

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1912 · PDF PAGE 24

Sir Palamedes

…g sably down Above his vest of cramoisie. Now doth the king of high renown Demand him of his dignity. Whereat the dwarf begins to tell A quest of loftiest chivalry.

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1912 · PDF PAGE 67

Sir Palamedes

…on heaven slake, And in the moonlight mystical Their countless spears of silver shake. Thus reasons he: “ In each and all Fyttes of this quest the quarry’s track Is wondrous geometrical. In spire and whorl twists out and back The hart with fair symmetric line. And lo! the grain of wit I lack— This Beast is Master of Design. So studying each twisted print In this mirific mind of mine, My heart may happen on a hint.” Thus as the seeker after gold Eagerly chases grain or glint, 61

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1912 · PDF PAGE 33

Sir Palamedes

…the Saracen Sailed ever with a favouring wind Unto the smooth and swarthy men That haunt the evil shore of Hind: He queried eager of the quest. “Ay! Ay!” their cunning sages grinned : “Tt shines! It shines! Guess thou the rest! For naught but this our Rishis know.” Sir Palamede his way addressed Unto the woods: they blaze and glow; His lance stabs many a shining blade,’ His sword lays many a flower low That glittering gladdened in the glade. He wrote himself a wanton ass, And to the sea his traces laid, Where many a wavelet on the glass His pro…

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