The Chains of Heaven: An Ethiopian Romance

The Chains of Heaven: An Ethiopian Romance
Philip Marsden

Philip Marsden returns to the remote, fiercely beautiful landscape that has exercised a powerful mythic appeal over him since his first encounter with it over twenty years ago.‘Ethiopia bred in me the conviction that if there is a wider purpose to our life, it is to understand the world, to seek out its diversity, to celebrate its heroes and its wonders – in short, to witness it.’When Philip Marsden first went to Ethiopia in 1982, it changed the direction of his life. What he saw of its stunning antiquity, its raw Christianity, its extremes of brutality and grace prompted his curiosity, and made him a writer.But Ethiopia at that time was torn apart by civil war. The north, the ancient heartland of the country, was closed off. Twenty years later, Marsden returned. The result is this book – the account of a journey deferred.Walking hundreds of miles through a landscape of cavernous gorges, tabletop mountains and semi-desert, Marsden encounters monks and hermits, rebels and farmers. And he creates an unforgettable picture of one of the most remote regions left on earth. As in his award-winning book ‘The Spirit-Wrestlers’, Marsden reminds us of the brilliant heights that travel writing can attain, whilst celebrating the ageless rewards of the open road and the people for whom the mythic and the everyday are inextricably joined.

The Chains of Heaven

PHILIP MARSDEN

AN ETHIOPIAN ROMANCE

For my parents,with love and gratitude

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#uf5c6846b-3a01-5178-aa46-2d3056b5a1f1)

Title Page (#u01e322a5-0048-57dd-9698-445936ca0795)

Dedication (#u952dd8c1-8ad4-5ecd-83e8-e6acb08014a2)

A Short History of Ethiopia (#u8436faf9-6fb7-506b-a4c0-853c28902bf9)

1 (#u28e9c688-421b-55a0-953a-44dd228547aa)

2 (#uac84d025-1e01-554b-bbef-e2dc5f2cee19)

3 (#u393b1d99-4bfc-5f2b-be64-93d32474341a)

4 (#ub4e8ff10-055c-589d-838c-e747b445ebf8)

5 (#ucce0b80a-ed91-5c07-a126-454ae74f5acc)

The Glorious Victories of Amda Seyon (#litres_trial_promo)

6 (#litres_trial_promo)

7 (#litres_trial_promo)

8 (#litres_trial_promo)

The Story of Tekla Haymanot’s Leg (#litres_trial_promo)

9 (#litres_trial_promo)

10 (#litres_trial_promo)

11 (#litres_trial_promo)

The Lesson of the Ant-Lion (#litres_trial_promo)

12 (#litres_trial_promo)

13 (#litres_trial_promo)

14 (#litres_trial_promo)

15 (#litres_trial_promo)

The Ethiopian Book of the Dead (#litres_trial_promo)

16 (#litres_trial_promo)

17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Emperor Menelik Learns to Drive (#litres_trial_promo)

18 (#litres_trial_promo)

19 (#litres_trial_promo)

20 (#litres_trial_promo)

21 (#litres_trial_promo)

22 (#litres_trial_promo)

The Crown of King Kaleb (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

GLOSSARY (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Praise (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

A Short History of Ethiopia (#ulink_1d9690ed-4cde-53c6-93c2-4cd5007d6b68)

Aksumawi was the son of Ethiopis and the great-grandson of Noah. He established the kingdom of Aksum which is itself the ancestor of modern Ethiopia. Unfortunately a snake took power in Aksum and ruled for four hundred years. The snake was 170 cubits in length, had teeth a whole cubit long, and the people of Aksum had constantly to supply it with milk and virgins. One day a stranger came and slaughtered the snake. The stranger was called Angabo and he in turn became ruler of Aksum.

Angabo married the Queen of Sheba, and after he died she left the city of Aksum with 797 camels to visit Solomon in Jerusalem. There, with Solomonic guile, he seduced her. Back in Aksum she gave birth to a boy named Menelik, and when he came of age he journeyed to Jerusalem to see his father. When he left Jerusalem he had the Ark of the Covenant. With the Ark the blessing of the Lord was transferred from Jerusalem to Aksum, from the people of Israel to the people of Ethiopia. Menelik was the first of Ethiopia’s line of Solomonic rulers.

The land around Aksum was very fertile and it came to be known among the world’s peoples as a place of wondrous plenty. Every rock on its open plains was a loaf of bread. Once for eight days showers of gold and pearls and silver fell on its hills and filled the rivers with riches. Palaces and temples swelled the bounds of the city. The graves of its kings were marked by standing stones and with each passing king the stones grew higher until they scraped the underside of the sky.

In 1974, Ethiopia was still ruled by the 225th member of the Solomonic line. Emperor Haile Selassie was then an old man. On the morning of 12 September, Ethiopian New Year, some junior officers of the Derg came to his palace, read out a deposition order and took him away in the back of a Volkswagen.