Lore:The Lay of Firsthold

Book Information
Seen In:	Elder Scrolls Online

The Lay of Firsthold

Poem dedicated to the founding of Auridon

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Their tribulations drove the Elves
'Cross Sloadful seas to Summerset.
O Aldmeris! Old Ehlnofey!
Your loving visage haunts us yet.
Your zephyr's kiss enthralls us still,
Though only in heart's memory,
And sorrow to the marrow deep
Infuses every Aldmeri.
When Magnus sinks and night-hour comes,
And owl and spectre prowl and creep,
When eyes can gaze at stars no more,
Then fancy flits across the deep,
Whence Aldmer came to eastern isles,
Escaping doom oblivious,
To Auridon, hue-imbued
With spectrum vivid, various.

From foam it rose before the ships;
Nine prows did plow the gleaming strand.
Torinaan stepped from foremost craft,
And claimed as Kinhold all the land
From silver beach to green-clad hills,
Begilded by the golden dawn.
Auridon thus was the name
Bestowed upon that realm anon.
Though wild it was, at once it gripped
Torinaan's once remorseful heart.
He drew his blade, he drew his blood,
And swore an oath to ne'er depart.
They disembarked upon the shore,
Built Kinhouse, gardens, forge, and hive.
They tamed the meadows, beaches, fields,
And made a home where Elves could thrive.

Then howling from the hills in hate
Came horrors horned, bedight with eyes.
Gheatus; Welwa; Ilyadi—
All sought the Aldmers' cruel demise.
Some said they should take ship anew
And seek a farther, safer shore.
But bold Torinaan valor steeled,
And drawing on ancestral lore,
Hierogram with Varla Stones
He wove upon Auridon's loom,
Drew power down from stars above,
And drove fell monsters to their doom.
He harried them 'cross hills and heights,
All smiting them with magics dire,
Till one by one they fell at last
To blast of lightning, ice, or fire.

So warded then by spells well-spun
Auridon bloomed beneath the touch
Of Altmer craft and husbandry,
Imagoform and sculpture. Much
Admired by other Altmer were
Torinaan's brave achievement there,
And other Kinholds followed fast
On Summerset, so blest, so fair.
But though those Kinholds prospered well
Throughout the archipelago,
Aldmeri Landfall all recall
Upon the Firsthold shore did show,
And bold Torinaan is revered
For courage, wisdom, foresight. He
Who harnessed heaven to defend
The Aldmer in extremity.

Auridon: excellent abode.
Maormer repel: expel all Sload.