Here we finally meet our primary antagonist. a man of the lordship known only as The King who runs The Kingdom in The City. The King is quite an industrious man, we discover, as he enters a different role once the sun goes down as the proprietor of the brothel known as The Dime. The King finds vulnerable women to prey on from those who come to his Kingdom seeking guidance, and he manages to keep his pews stocked with the guilty sinners who frequent The Dime - whether they know it is the same man or not. I think that the reason the narrator decides to name him “The King And The Leech” is to emphasize the duality of the character and the contrast between the two roles. Also, we have “The Lake and The River”- a place of nativity, and pureness. By naming him “The King And The Leech,” he further emphasizes the contrast between good and evil.
The juxtaposition of spiritual and sexual release/satisfaction here becomes all the more twisted when you throw in the manipulation and guilt tactics needed to feed one directly into the other and back again. This probably represents a general suspicion and cynical attitude towards organized religion.”Take me to the river…” “sing softly, sing me to the lake. sing softly bring me to the lake”: once again water is used as a way to symbolize either some sort of escape or cleansing of sin: in “‘Báp,tizəm -o Zajôr” mentioning the lake as a place to wash oneself of sin and “Ìj Sol-ræ Gý’bhrïm," when the Sailor jumps into the lake and managing to escape The King and the Leech and start a new life, cleansed of sin. it’s possible that the use of the fiver here is meant to signify the false salvation that The Kingdom offers, since the use of “cleansing” in Torm's clerical work and the role that water and rivers play in that. While the lake is held in duality to it as the path of “true” salvation away from the Kingdom.
Í Týir–är Í Êrain’a
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(translated) The King and The Leech
(Take me to the River)
The king and the leech pounce on quickened cat’s feet
For the freshest young blood, innocence for the feast.
The book will then brew what the sinful commit;
While the king and the leech pray quietly where precious sinners sit.
(Confess! Confess!)
In the castle, the towers, where we suffocate stress.
We’ve got the time if you’ve got the life
(Conquer your sins while they scream on their backs).
(Faster, save me!)
While your sins remain hostage
(Harder, we can’t breathe!)
Now the king and the leech are already equipped
With an enigmatic frontage post we welcome walk-ins.
So we corner our pace and make quick for the door,
To be prodded and passed from the bed to the floor.
(Take me to the River)
(Sing softly, sing me to the Lake)
(Take me to the River)
(Sing softly, bring me to the Lake)
- The Icelost Years (translated by Rithör Læmbén)
Scene V: The King and the Leech
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