Friday 7 September 2012

Brünnhilde’s rock


Auf hohem Felsen sie schläft,
Feuer umbrennt ihren Saal

‘On a high crag she sleeps/Fire burns round her home’: Wagner, who at one time came to roost below a different neck of the Alps, might have approved the illusion here as the setting sun cast flame on the Aiguille de Blatière in the Mont-Blanc range. There was no need to take any of the hiking trails I’ve written about further down for this view of the Aiguilles or needles of Chamonix; just as our salon in the town looked directly out on to Mont-Blanc and the Glacier de Bosson beneath it, so the kitchen window kept these spires in sight. There’s little more to add to this intermezzo-post before the next chronicle of a walk  – which will be on flatter territory - except to wonder at how quickly the light could change on the Aiguilles. Here they are on another, this time nearly cloudless, late evening


and exactly half an hour later.

6 comments:

Susan Scheid said...

You're right, there's little more to add. Your photographs tell the tale beautifully.

Laurent said...

What dramatic pictures, the mountains look like volcanos.

Gavin Plumley said...

Wowsers... that third picture is amazing.

wanderer said...

Brilliant. Some kitchen window that. The first evokes one of those mythical Hugo L Braune art nouveaux illustrations (google is refusing to find me any of his fantastic Ring drawings). Completely impossible to believe it is real, till one sees two and three. Brilliant.

Harpers Keeper said...

Just beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing them.

David said...

Thanks all, and wanderer especially for pointing me so carefully in the direction of the German Aubrey Beardsley.