Word: kelderek
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Dates: during 1975-1975
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Enflamed by the presence of Shardik, the Ortelgans reconquer their old capital city. There they rule, under the guidance of Kelderek, who has become the bear's priest and interpreter (he is a simple, open-hearted man, who plays with children, shuns grown women -with an aversion that seems less priestly chastity than schoolboy prudery). To keep Bekla's economy prosperous, the Ortelgans revive a particularly obnoxious slave trade dealing in children. Kelderek, his mind on the possibilities of sainthood, thoughtlessly gives his approval of this abomination. Thus morally undermined, the bear cult deteriorates until enemies threaten Bekla...
...stops, rises awesomely on his hind legs, standing more than twice as tall as a man, and beats at the flames. Burned and half-conscious, he is driven into the river, across which he drifts to the Ortelgans' island. There the bear is discovered by a young hunter, Kelderek, and soon everyone in Ortelga believes he is Shardik come to life again...
There is no iron to this Iron Age fable. The grimness is fake, the fascination with virginity is a naughty bore, and the monstrous figure of Shardik is cheapened by watery supernaturalism. It is one thing for Kelderek and his primitive fellow tribesmen-a few skeptics to the contrary -to believe the bear is a god, quite another for author and reader to pretend to believe it. This pretense is what Adams insists on, and it smacks of Pan worship, that Victorian silliness in which refined city dwellers pretended that they glimpsed the wicked, goat-footed god as they strolled...
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