Far out beyond the battered shore that lay at Tintaggon's feet Slid
rested long and sent the nautilus to drift up and down before
Tintaggon's eyes, and he and his armies sat singing idle songs of
dreamy islands far away to the south, and of the still stars whence
they had stolen forth, of twilight evenings and of long ago. Still
Tintaggon stood with his feet planted fair upon the valley's edge
defending the gods and Their green earth against the sea.

And all the while that Slid sang his songs and played with the nautilus
that sailed up and down he gathered his oceans together. One morning as
Slid sang of old outrageous wars and of most enchanting peace and of
dreamy islands and the south wind and the sun, he suddenly launched
five oceans out of the deep all to attack Tintaggon. And the five oceans
sprang upon Tintaggon and passed above his head. One by one the grip of
the oceans loosened, one by one they fell back into the deep and still
Tintaggon stood, and on that morning the might of all five oceans lay
dead at Tintaggon's feet. That which Slid had conquered he still held,
and there is now no longer a great green valley in the south, but all
that Tintaggon had guarded against Slid he gave back to the gods. Very
calm the sea lies now about Tintaggon's feet, where he stands all black
amid crumbled cliffs of white, with red rocks piled about his feet. And
often the sea retreats far out along the shore, and often wave by wave
comes marching in with the sound of the tramping of armies, that all may
still remember the great fight that surged about Tintaggon once, when he
guarded the gods and the green earth against Slid.

Sometimes in their dreams the war-scarred warriors of Slid still lift
their heads and cry their battle cry; then do dark clouds gather about
Tintaggon's swarthy brow and he stands out menacing, seen afar by