1. |
Foldweg
04:58
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Chapter / Track 1 - Foldweg (The Path)
Narrator:
You become aware – as if waking from a dream – and find yourself walking along a path in the dark. It is raining steadily.
All around is darkness but somehow the path ahead seems to be illuminated by a cool bluish light. You turn around to see what is behind, but the path and everything else is shrouded in a deep inky blackness – everything beyond the boundaries of the path you are on is black.
Ahead, in the middle distance, you can see a fortified wall which stretches from horizon to horizon on both left and right and the top of it cannot be seen for it reaches into the clouds above.
You are thinking: -
Traveller:
“What is this strange world that I find myself in? How did I get here? Am I dead? Is this heaven or is it …. hell?”
N:
Although the light is dim, you judge the wall to be about 2 miles away. There seems to be little choice than to remain on the path and see what it leads to.
Musical interlude – 1m 24s - 3m 53s
N:
The city, if this is a city, looks vast as you approach – the walls stretch high above you and the top cannot be seen.
The rock from which it is constructed seems completely smooth, unscalable, and the gate is a vast door of a solid dark wood, measuring in your judgement 12 cubits high and 6 cubits across as if built for giants to pass through without stooping.
In this door there are what appear to be small hatches at varying heights - one of which is directly in front of you.
The hatch opens and a face appears.
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2. |
Burggeat Ingang
07:39
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Chapter / Track 2 - Burgeat Ingang (City Gate Entrance)
Geatweard: Aaah, I’ve been expecting you.
Traveller: Who are you and how did you know I was coming?
G: I am Geatweard. The Great King Bealdor told me you were coming.
T: Where is this place? And who’s Great King Bealdor?
G: This is Eryal Dúr.
You’ll be meeting King Bealdor before too long. He meets with everyone who comes to Eryal Dúr.
Look, why don’t you come in and I’ll try and answer all your questions; new arrivals always have many questions.
Narrator: A small door, large enough for you to pass through appears around where the hatch was and it opens to allow you in. This leads you into an enormous area - so enormous that no walls or ceiling can be seen but you are aware of distant sounds suggesting that there are many people elsewhere in this cavernous space.
You turn to Geatweard, who is standing beside a little booth, inside which you can see a table, 2 chairs and two mugs of steaming hot tea.
Geatweard continues
G: Our city, Eryal Dúr - is at an intersection between dimensions and acts as the gateway from your world to either of 2 others. One is Bealdor’s kingdom - Beorhtródor and the other is Dóm which is Cargást’s kingdom – no one should really want to end up there but … many do.
The gate by which you have entered is the only way through which travellers can pass into Eryal Dúr. Those from your world find the path to Eryal Dúr upon death. Some also experience a glimpse of what it is like in their dreams.
You have travelled along Cumb DéaÞscufa – the dark vale of death – to reach us.
Musical interlude - 2m 09s – 2m 40s
G: But listen, I can hear Bealdor’s procession coming this way – you’ll like this – many of the greatest musicians who have ever lived are in the Bealdor’s court.
Everyone lines the streets when He comes to get a better view and to hear the music.
Musical interlude - Bealdor’s procession 3m 01s – 4m 48s
G: now look at that thick fog approaching from the east – Cargást has sent a scouting party out from Dóm.
Musical interlude – 4m 56s - 5m 32s
G: Maybe they will attempt to engage Bealdor’s entourage.
Musical interlude – 5m 36s – 6m 15s - Cargást’s followers consider engagement with Bealdor’s procession
G: As I thought - Bealdor’s retinue are standing their ground and I expect Cargást’s scouts to back off
Musical interlude – 6m 21s – 6m56s
G: That might have got a bit interesting if they’d decided to engage in a skirmish there.
N: Cargást has been the arch enemy of Bealdor for as long as anyone can remember and although he has great power, he cannot challenge the power of Bealdor.
So he and his followers remain in their kingdom of Dóm and none of them can pass into Beorhtródor because there is a great ocean – the waters of Céosung - separating them.
You now find yourself, still with Geatweard, standing overlooking a vast expanse of ocean.
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3. |
Céosung
07:03
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Chapter / Track 3 – Céosung (The Waters of Céosung)
GW: Here’s my old friend Gesælig coming. He’s the standard bearer for king Bealdor’s army and one of his closest confidants. Hello there Gesælig! Here’s a new traveller for you to meet. Come and say hello!
Gesaelig: Hello traveller – what name do you go by?
T: Actually, I’ve no idea. Since I arrived here, I have no memory of where I’ve come from or who I am.
G: That often happens to those who come here in their dreams. But some of your memories may soon return.
T: Can you tell me what this place is and what I am doing here? Am I dead? Is this heaven or hell?
G: Oh, has Geatweard not told you?
Eryal Dúr is neither what you call heaven, nor is it hell but it is the place from which you pass into either of these ultimate destinations.
You are not dead but dreaming.
I am Gesaelig, the standard bearer for the King’s procession.
Geatweard and I are not from Eryal Dúr. We are from Beorhtródor but are permitted, nay commanded by the King to visit here and speak to all travellers who visit in their dreams.
Cargást also sends scouts into Eryal Dúr - as you have seen - but they are not normally so easily recognised as they disguise themselves to look just like us.
T: Look, can you just slow down a bit. I’m not following any of this
G: Ok, I realise that this is a lot to take in. Let me explain why you are here.
Musical interlude – 1m 49s – 3m 45s
G: Mortals from your world, who have not lost their belief in eternity, are given the opportunity to visit Eryal Dúr in their dreams to learn something of what awaits beyond the grave and take that knowledge back when they wake up.
Eternity for all mortals will be spent either in Beorhtródor or in Dóm; every spirit transcends to one or the other upon death. Mortal souls come first to Eryal Dúr to await their final destiny and be joined again with their spirit and a restored body.
I think you understand more of this than you realise – or you wouldn’t have been chosen to be here.
Musical interlude – 4m 30s – 5m 35s
G: The vast majority from your world have lost their connection with the spiritual – some may profess a belief in what your world calls the afterlife - an eternal spiritual existence - but it is only by living as if that belief is real to them, experiencing that life and learning further, that it can become knowledge.
With knowledge, anyone can then develop faith that their future holds what they believed it would hold. This is your chance to turn your belief into knowledge.
Musical interlude – 6m 11s – 7m 03s
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4. |
Foregecéosan
04:07
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Chapter / Track 4 – Foregecéosan (Choose Beforehand)
Musical interlude – start – 1m 28s
Narrator: As Gesaelig is speaking, you realise something about this dream .. and all the other dreams that you can remember …. You are ‘here’ (wherever ‘here’ is) and you are conscious, aware of your sense of sight and hearing - aware of your personality, but you have no physical body. It seems so obvious now.
In this world and the world of any of your dreams you take nothing with you, nothing of value – as the world measures value – no possessions – indeed, possessions are meaningless and pointless in a dream.
Musical interlude – 2m 03s – 2m 30s
N: You are for the duration of the dream – a purely spiritual being. And you now realise that in this state you are free – completely free from all the things that trouble and weigh you down in your ‘earthly’ life.
Musical interlude – 2m 48s – 4m 07s
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5. |
Eryal Dúr
06:01
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Chapter / Track 5 - Eryal Dúr (The Door to Fire)
Musical interlude – start – 1m 03s
Narrator: Gesælig has many duties as standard bearer to the King’s procession. One of these is to keep a record of everything that would help travellers to Eryal Dúr.
This record is the Chronicles of Eryal Dúr.
You hear Gesælig’s voice continue…..
Gesælig: At the appointed time, all souls from the world of mankind will meet with Béaldor and learn if and where they might fit in to his kingdom.
Many who die enter Eryal Dúr confused as they have lived assuming either that there is no afterlife or that they are going to what they believe is ‘heaven’ and where they believe they will experience everything their hearts’ desire.
That is exactly what they will experience, based on what they have desired and how they acted upon that in their life in their world. But what they will be experiencing for eternity is Dóm, the kingdom of Cargást.
Cargást offers everything that your heart desires.
The irony of that is twofold –
Cargást doesn’t have the power to deliver on what he promises – only Béaldor has that power.
Second, those from your world have spent their lives worshipping and obeying Cargást (in all his many forms) without realising it.
Musical interlude – 2m 46s – 4m 19s
Therefore, they spend eternity will all other likeminded souls in the kingdom of Dóm with their true desires unfulfilled and as a consequence their lives empty.
Musical interlude – 4m 33s – 6m 01s
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6. |
Foreburh
02:33
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Chapter / Track 6 - Foreburh (Vestibule)
Narrator: You are alone again, in your dream. Gesaelig and Geatweard have returned to join Béaldor’s procession and to man the city gate entrance where you came in.
You have much to ponder from what you have heard.
What do you believe?
Most whom you know in your world, probably don’t believe in a heaven or hell, those who do, don’t think about it very much. They certainly don’t discuss what they think.
You have also read some scholars who suggest that heaven and hell may in fact be the same place where for some, it is the most pleasurable experience imaginable while for others it feels like pure torture.
You have witnessed in your dream how Cargást’s scouting party could not stand to be in the presence of Béaldor’s procession - even although the Great King was not himself present. They were simply repulsed by the sight and sounds of happy people, playing music, enjoying themselves and singing praise to their absent King.
How do you think you would have felt?
Jealous – resentful - or eager to join the party?
You see another large double door in a section of the great wall which surrounds Eryal Dúr – there is a dank fog seeping out under the gate and through the crack where the two sides of the door meet in the middle. The fog carries with it a chill into the atmosphere of Eryal Dúr, an atmosphere which you have now just realised is warm and pleasant with the mild fragrance of summer flowers.
Above this door is an inscription Grornhof Dor – which you somehow now know is the language of Dõm – and means ‘sad home hell’ in your tongue. Through this door, in addition to the dank, freezing, fog - you can hear music.
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7. |
Grornhof
02:51
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Chapter / Track 7 – Grornhof (Senestra)
Narrator: Despite yourself, you move closer to the door which is identical to the one by which you entered all those hours ago.
But this one leading out of Eryal Dúr and instead of hatches there are apertures covered in a thick transparent substance set into the door.
You look through one of these apertures that is set at just the right height for you to see through. What you see instantly recalls for you Botticelli’s painting of the map of hell.
Thousands of grey people, an army of them, walking slowly, stooping, stumbling, following each other along endless pathways, grumbling, and complaining to one another and sweating from an intense heat.
Musical interlude – 1m 09s – 1m 42s
N: This is what awaits travellers through Grornhof Dor.
Musical interlude – 1m 49s – 2m 03s
N: Now you are lifted up and carried towards another section of the wall. As you float downwards, you see another door and Béaldor’s entourage of musicians and pilgrims processing towards it. As you get closer you see an inscription above the door which says …..
Befylgan Útfær
This you know to be the language of Eryal Dúr and means ….
‘to those who have persevered, the way out’.
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8. |
Befylgan Útfær
07:33
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Chapter / Track 8 - Befylgan Útfær (The Way Out)
Musical interlude – start – 2m 40s
Narrator: The musicians are playing and the people dancing and clapping. The door opens as they approach and a bright light and a great warmth spills out into Eryal Dúr.
Just inside the door you can see a high archway leading to a great hall teeming with people.
Tables are set for a great banquet and all the tables are loaded high with choice foods, casks of beer and flagons of wine.
On the crown of the arch are the words “Symbel Dæg” – Feast Day – and all who have chosen to enter, are welcome.
Musical interlude – 3m 49s – 7m 33s
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9. |
Symbel Dæg
03:14
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Chapter / Track 9 – Symbel Dæg (Feast Day)
Music only
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10. |
The Path
04:58
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Instrumental Track
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11. |
City gate entrance
07:21
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Instrumental track
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12. |
The waters of Céosung
05:51
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Instrumental track
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13. |
Choose beforehand
04:07
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Instrumental
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14. |
The door to fire
05:25
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Instrumental
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15. |
Vestibule
02:22
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Instrumental
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16. |
Choosing again
04:24
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instrumental
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17. |
Senestra
02:51
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Instrumental
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18. |
The Way Out
07:33
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Instrumental
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19. |
Feast Day
03:14
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instrumental
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20. |
Chosen afterhand
05:00
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instrumental
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houston ayre Scotland, UK
Prog Rock band from Glasgow, Scotland.Styles based on classic 1970's prog, rock, blues,
jazz
Influences include:
King Crimson
Pat Metheny
Terje Rypdal
Weather Report
Herbie Hancock Miles Davis
‘Canterbury Scene’ (British Rock movement late 60’s into 70’s)
Black Sabbath
Pink Floyd
B.B. King
Cream
Jimi Hendrix
Cunieform Records
... more
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