Hearing footsteps, however, she turned to follow Papa, who was walking toward one of the statues around the square, which was of a man on horseback in armour of the style used eight hundred years ago, his sword upraised, as if he were calling on troops to advance, his shield having a design Emma recognised as familiar.
It was divided in three vertically, the dividing lines running straight until they got to where the shield started curving toward a point, then the lines gravitated in a smooth curve toward the point.
A narrow X crossed the shield from the top corners to just before the curves to the point began. In her mind Emma could see the colours: green in the middle yellow on the left, white on the right, the X being black. It was the same shield that was in the coat of arms of Steinadlerhorst.
As a result, she was unsurprised when she saw the name engraved in 15cm letters close to the top edge of the pedestal was Kühn Fürst Siegfried Reiter von Steinadlerhorst.
More text in about 10cm letters was engraved beneath: One of the three main leaders of the Southern Forces that marched against the Enemy Powers against the Kingdom, Kühn Fürst Siegfried met Talbert Rottmann in single combat on the banks of the Bärhöhlefluss in a battle that lasted for nearly an hour before he struck the fatal blow as he was tripped and knocked into the river. Exhausted from the battle, he nearly drowned, but was rescued by Kühn Fürst Dieter Bach von Bachforellelauf, and went on to be titled Fürst von Steinadlerhorst by König Theodrich IV.
“This will be a part of your history course this year,” Papa said. “But since you happen to be here now, I see no reason not to show it to you.”
“Will I learn who Talbert Rottmann was?” Emma asked. “Aside from his being a supporter of König Walherich.”
“Ja,” Papa replied. “You’ll even learn about Dame Wind.”
He reached up and stroked the lifelike foreleg of the horse, whom Emma could see without ducking — thanks to the detail on the statue — was a mare.
“What colour was she?” Emma asked.
“Grey,” Papa replied. “Flüsternwind is one of her direct descendants.”
Emma startled. She knew the handsome grey stallion well, he was one of Papa’s favourites, and was the sire of her grey mare Nächtliche Briese.
“As is Nächtliche Briese,” Papa said, as if reading her thoughts.
“Really Papa?” Emma asked.
Papa turned and smiled at her. “Ja, we have kept good track of her lineage, considering her status in our family history.”
“And this is an accurate likeness of her?” Emma asked.
“I would say so,” Papa replied. “She looks reasonably like her great-grandson and great-granddaughter, even the mane and tail are appropriately full, and there’s no pull on the bit. I’d wager a good, wise horseman did the carving, either that or great-grandfather Valfred made sure the representation was accurate, unlike so many other horses in statues everywhere, who look so strained and ready to explode.”
Emma nodded. “What about great-grandfather Siegfried?”
Papa looked up at the figure, and Emma did too, noting that the face was of a similar shape to Papa’s which was rather elliptical. Indeed, despite the thick beard over the face, the longer Emma looked at the statue, the more she could see it as being Papa.
Pronunciations:
Kühn: kuun
Siegfried: zeegfreed
Dieter: deetehr
Bach: bahkh
Bachforellelauf: bahkhfohrehllehlauf
Dame: dahmeh
Wind: vihnd
Flüsternwind: fluustehrnvihnd
Nächtliche: nehchtlihcheh
Briese: breeze
No comments:
Post a Comment