Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/91

Rh Marinell was the son of Cymoent (one of the daughters of Nereus) and an earth-born knight, who had loved the beautiful sea-nymph, and won her to be his bride. Hence the sea and land were equally the home of Marinell, and he could wander at will among the grottoes and fern forests in the depths of the ocean where his mother dwelt. Neptune had given him also, as his birthright, the whole control of the stretch of sandy shore toward which Britomart now set her horse’s head, and all the spoils which the waves threw thereon. So that he possessed untold wealth of pearl and amber, and all sorts of sea-treasures, besides stores of gold and ivory, precious stones, and rare woods, which had been washed upon the sand from hundreds of wrecked vessels, which the waves had broken in pieces, before they could reach the enchanted coast.

This fortunate Marinell was passionately beloved by his mother, the sea-nymph, Cymoent. In his infancy she had prayed that he might be an immortal like herself, but the gods had denied her prayer. Then she went weeping to Proteus, the merlin of the sea, and besought him to reveal to her her son’s destiny. Proteus, after much hesitation, bade Cymoent guard her son from all women. “For know, O Cymoent,” said the enchanter, “from a woman shall come all his danger, and his death-blow.”