The Reflection of the Soul (El reflejo del alma) is a collection of short poems by the paladin Benetton of Antiterra. One poem and an aphorism survive, in the copy kept in Events of Antiterra (pp. 18–19).
| Type | Work (short poems) |
| Date | 1889 A.D.A. (compiler’s dating) |
| Spanish entry | El reflejo del alma |
Text
The poem is in free verse, five unequal lines, the last two a single word each. The copy keeps the error esta faltado. In English:
and I say and believe / that it is not looking into the dark well with clenched fists that makes us heroes, but the day to day, with clear conscience set on the doing of good, that will finally be our song / let us act! and act above all with an attentive, given and generous heart, for that is what is lacking! / companions. / regulators!
The aphorism: «el mayor problema de un guerrero de la fe es querer ser un héroe» (“the greatest problem of a warrior of the faith is wanting to be a hero”). It is the central thesis of the Poet Paladins.
The compiler dates it “twelve years before” 1901: 1889 A.D.A., the year of the Labrador and of the crossing. It is addressed to the Regulators.
Later echoes
- At the end of Antiterra, Benetton, sometimes as Mr. Norton, runs a boys’ school in the south, the Benetton School. Its young paladins do free repairs in town; he forbids discrimination and usury, and once paid many people’s debts as a lesson. His favorite pupil was Timmy.
- In Caldero, year 1825 of the new calendar, fighting the riflemen of Lord Valanthru, the armless paladin Teo says “The worst mistake of a warrior of the faith is wanting to be a hero… and I am going to make that mistake. Glory or death!” and charges on his black horse Caro Cuore against an eye tyrant. Teo’s name is an anagram of Benetton’s; the Caldero chronicle says he sprang from an arm Benetton had cut off.
Open questions
- How many pieces the collection had, and whether “short poems” is the author’s subtitle or the compiler’s label.
- Whether esta faltado is the author’s error or the copyist’s.
- Whether the line after the colophon, on “the Underworld of Hela”, closes these poems or opens the Chants for Desperate Sailors.