King Ecbert:
Tell me honestly: What do you think of these works?
Athelstan:
I find them indescribably beautiful.
King Ecbert:
But they are clearly pagan! [laughs] You are only a monk, Athelstan, and yet, somehow, I begin to trust you. I feel you... You are a kindred spirit. Who? Who painted these images? What race of man was ever so glorious that they filled our world with such, as you say, indescribable beauty?
Athelstan:
I have been told, sire, that you served at the court of the emperor Charlemagne, which I have also visited. I cannot imagine, therefore, that you do not know what I know. That these images were painted by the Romans. They conquered these lands a long time ago. They conquered the whole world. But they were pagans. They worshiped false gods.
King Ecbert:
Never speak of our conversation to any other man here. Nobody else would understand it; they would fear it! They accept an interpretation that a race of giants once lived here... [chuckles] And that we have nothing to do with them.
[both chuckle]
King Ecbert:
The fact is, Athelstan, we have lost more knowledge than we ever had! These Romans knew things that we will never know. Their pagan gods allowed them to rule the world. And what is the lesson that we can learn from that?
