Chapter 25, "Lord Gro and the Lady Mevrian"
“

And he said smiling, "Divine lady, all my days have I had danger for my bedfellow, and peril of death for my familiar friend; whilom leading a delicate life in princely court, where murther sitteth in the wine-cup and in the alcove; whilom journeying alone in more perilous lands than this, as witness the Moruna, where the country is full of venomous beasts and crawling poisoned serpents, and the divels be as abundant there as grasshoppers on a hot hillside in summer. He that feareth is a slave, were he never so rich, were he never so powerful. But he that is without fear is king of all the world. Thou hast my sword. Strike. Death shall be a sweet rest to me. Thraldom, not death, should terrify me."

— Eric Rücker Eddison

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "And he said smiling, "Divine lady, all my days have I had danger for my bedfellow, and peril of death for my familiar friend; whilom leading a delicate life in princely court, where murther sitteth in the wine-cup and in the alcove; whilom journeying alone in more perilous lands than this, as witness the Moruna, where the country is full of venomous beasts and crawling poisoned serpents, and the divels be as abundant there as grasshoppers on a hot hillside in summer. He that feareth is a slave, were he never so rich, were he never so powerful. But he that is without fear is king of all the world. Thou hast my sword. Strike. Death shall be a sweet rest to me. Thraldom, not death, should terrify me."" in the context of "Chapter 25, "Lord Gro and the Lady Mevrian"" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Eric Rücker Eddison" (Quotes, The Worm Ouroboros (1922)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Eric Rücker Eddison

About Eric Rücker Eddison

Eric Rücker Eddison (24 November 1882 – 18 August 1945), who wrote under the name E. R. Eddison, was an English fantasy writer most famous for his novels The Worm Ouroboros, Mistress of Mistresses and A Fish Dinner in Memison.