Rider Haggard a screfas an novel-ma in nebes dedhyow termyn cot wosa y
sowena gans "Balyow Mytern Salamon" hag ev ow qwil devnyth unweyth arta
a'y experyens a Afryca hag a'y skians a'n fug-whedhlow coth. Saw yma
downder brâssa ha moy grysyl dhe verkya i'n lyver-ma kefrës. I'n whedhel
yma an try den dhyworth Kergraunt ow codhevel torrva gorhal, fevyr ha
debroryon tus in udn whelas "Honna", towl ha pedn aga viaj, kemynys
dhedhans dyw vil vledhen alena. "Honna" yw an carnacyon a onen a'n
fygurs moyha puyssant ha moyha omborthus in omwodhvos an West: benyn neb
yw in kettermyn dynyores ha skyla rag euth. "Ow empîr vy yw empîr a'n
desmygyans." An geryow-na yw leverys gans Ayesha, chif-person an
lyver-ma ha myternes a drîb in Afryca Cres. Yma hy les'hanow
"Honna-a-res-bos-obeyes" ow styrya hy thecter dyvarow ha gallos hy
fystry. Saw an dhew lavar-na kemerys warbarth yw dùstuny kefrës a'n
dhalhen crev a'n jeva an auctour, Henry Rider Haggard, wàr imajynacyon y
redyoryon dres an bledhydnyow. ---- Rider Haggard wrote this novel in a
few days shortly after his success with "King Solomon's Mines", and in
it he again uses his African experiences and his familiarity with old
legends. But there is a greater and more frightening depth in this book.
In the story the three men from Cambridge endure shipwreck, fever, and
cannibals as they search for "She", the object and end of their
adventure, bequeathed to them two thousand years previously. "She" is
the incarnation of one of the most powerful and most ambiguous figures
in Western consciousness: a woman who is at the same time a seductress
and a figure of terror. "My empire is an empire of the imagination."
Those words are spoken by Ayesha, the central figure of this book and
the queen of a central African tribe. Her soubriquet
"She-who-must-be-obeyed" alludes to her deathless beauty and her magical
powers. But taken together those two utterances bear witness to the
powerful hold the author, Henry Rider Haggard, has had on his readers
over the years.
