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By horse, by rail, by land, by sea, our journey starts |
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Two men incensed by one man's journey from the past |
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In Iceland, where the mountain stood with pride |
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They set off with their guide |
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To reach the mountain side |
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Roped as one for safety through the long descent |
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Into the crater of volcanic rock they went |
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Look up from our telescopic lair, |
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One star for us to share, |
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We continue on our prayer. |
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Crystals of opaque quartz, studded limpid tears, |
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Forming magic chandeliers, lighting blistered galleries. |
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NARRATION |
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Narration 1 |
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Admiring shades of lava which imperceptibly passed from reddish |
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brown to bright yellow, their way lit by crystals appearing as |
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lighted globes, they continued through the lava gallery, which |
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gently sloped until they reached the inter section of two roads. |
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Without hesitation Professor Lidenbrook chose the eastern tunnel. |
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And the journey continued through a succession of arches, appearing |
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before them as if they were the aisles of a gothic cathedral; the |
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walls were enhanced with impressions of Rock weeds and mosses from |
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the Silurian epoch. |
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Narration 2 |
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The Eastern route they had taken had come to a dead end. With three |
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days'walk back to the fork to find Arne Saknussemm's original |
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route, they found their water rations were limited to one day. |
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Knowing their only change of finding water was on that route, they |
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set off for the fork and there finally they fell almost lifeless on |
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the third day. After sleep, they continued down the other tunnel in |
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their quest for water, and whilst searching on his own, Hans, the |
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guide, heard the sound of water thundering behind a granite wall, |
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and, with a pick axe, attacked the wall so as to allow a stream of |
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boiling water to enter and cool in their tunnel. Not only had they |
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found life in the water but they had also found a flowing guide to |
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the Centre of the Earth. They called the stream the Hansbach. |
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Narration 3 |
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Replenished with the water the journey continued with haste, but |
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somehow they find themselves separated. Professor Lidenbrook's |
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nephew Axel found himself alone. His mind was seized with |
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unparalleled fear and he saw memories of home flashing before him. |
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His fiancee Grauben, his house and friends in Hamburg. He saw |
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hallucinations of all the incidents of the journey. And, unworthy |
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as he felt, he knelt in fervent prayer and then, in panic, he ran |
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blindly through a tunnel only to reach a dead end, where he fell |
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panting for breath. In the darkness he cried... voices... |
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voices... voices... He heard voices. He heard his uncle's voice. |
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Due to the shape of the gallery and the conducting power of the |
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rocks, his uncle's voice was uncannily travelling around the |
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walls. By means of their chronometers they discovered they were |
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four miles apart, so Axel set about the task of rejoining the |
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Professor and their guide. |
