Aqui está o texto completo das narrações deste disco do Wakeman
https://www.discogs.com/Rick-Wakeman-Return-To-The-Centre-Of-The-Earth/master/58081
THE RETURN TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH - RICK WAKEMAN
NARRATION 1: A VISION
On the 24th of May 1863, Professor Lindenbrook and his nephew Axel discovered an old parchment within a 12st century volume entitled "Heims Kringla", itself a chronicle of the Norwegian Princes who had ruled over Iceland. Written in runic manuscript by Arne Saknussemm (an alchemist of the 16th century) it translated:- .... "Descend into the crater of Sneffels Yokul, over which the shadow of Scataris falls before the kalends of July, bold traveller, and you will reach the centre of the earth."
Two centuries forward from this discovery, three geologian explorers traversed land and sea before they reached the mass of volcanic tufa known as Iceland. Veiled in sacrecy, their purpose: - to emulate the journey that had been taken by their forefathers two hundred years previous.
For fear of being followed, their identities were known to no-one, and for this reason, as they began their ascent through vast fields of ice toward the magnificent snowy nightcap of the Sneffels volcano, their expectations bacame inexplicably interwined with those of unease, as they prepared to challenge timeless history. On reaching the tabletop summit, they slowly descended into the crater of Sneffels Yokul. And so began:- "The Return To The Centre Of The Earth".
NARRATION 2: MOTHER EARTH
a. THE SHADOW OF JUNE
The base of the crater comprised three separate shafts which yawned beneath their feet. According to the original parchment of Arne Saknussemm, in the last days of the month of June, the shadow of Scataris would fall upon the opening they were to enter. They knew, from the documentation of Professor Lidenbrook, that the central shaft was the one that he had taken, but to their astonishment, as the shadow fell, it cast itself over the westerly entrance. Nature had declared for them a different route. Following a gallery of lava which had created a natural descending staircase, their anticipation heightened at the realisation that they had now embarked upon an entirely new journey.
b. THE GALLERY
On reaching the end of the shaft, they entered a narrow tunnel, its calcareous rock walls dating back to the evolution of plant and animal life. Ever-descending, they continued through arch after arch, gallery after gallery, their lights constantly reflecting off variegated white and red veined marble indelibly stamped with impressions of primitive life. As their descent continued, they discovered threads of copper and manganese, whilst displayed within the rock walls, beautiful verdant tints coloured traces of platinum and gold. This, the buried treasure of Mother Earth.
c. THE AVENUE OF PRISMED LIGHT
For what seemed an eternity, the labyrinth wove a sinuous and winding path, its spiral descent finally reaching an end as the gallery opened up to become a vast mineral forest majestically illuminated by phosphorescent light. Stalagmites and stalactites served as prisms from which rainbow-coloured beams flew in every direction, simultaneously lighting a pathway through this newly-discovered, subterranean, mineralogical kingdom. It led to an almost perfectly formed, descending terrestrial staircase.
d. THE EARTHQUAKE
After successfully negotiating the avenue of prismed light, they reached the staircase. Carefully they began the slow descent into the ever-darkening chasm. As tiredness took hold, the weary travellers found shelter within a recess that nature had carved out of the rock wall as if awaiting their arrival. As they lay exhausted, the ground beneath them began to tremble. Slight at first, the tremors soon increased to terrifying proportions. Huge cracks appeared all around them, and fear replaced bewilderment. The earth cried out in pain as if its subterranean world was about to split into a thousand fragments. The earthquake had begun.
NARRATION 3: THE ENIGMA
Buried alive in their own private chamber beneath the fallen rocks, their source lights illuminated a fissure in the recessed wall which had opened just wide enough for them to pass through. Immediately they were faced with a network of caves, one of which appeared to exude minute traces of natural light. Selecting this route, they found themselves stepping, through a walled gallery of hieroglyphic art, a seemingly never-ending pastiche of ancient man and his constant struggle for survival. They knew, from Professor Lidenbrook's documentation, that on his journey two hundred years previously, he himself had encountered a giant herdsman in earth's inner sanctum. As they strove to decipher the enigma that surrounded them, they realised that having already survived many thousands of years of almost static evolution within this magical kingdom beneath the Earth's crust, it was not inconceivable that this species of man still existed, and it was to his world they had come, uninvited, and almost certainly unwelcome.
NARRATION 4: THE RAVINE
The dim traces of natural light grew stronger as they continued their journey through the galleried cave. Suddenly, the eastern wall came to an abrupt end, opening out to display a huge ravine that stretched as far as the eye could see. Waterfalls poured from fissures in the rockface whilst moss-covered walls danced with pin-points of golden light as thousands of tiny fireflies awoke to this unexpected intrusion. The impression was that of gazing down upon a city at night dancing beneath the stars. The Dance of A Thousand Lights
NARRATION 5: THE SHEPHERD
With great care they negotiated the pathway that circumvented the ravine. Finally they descended onto a plateau rich in vegetation where the earth had been constantly fed by abundant waterfalls. Huge palmacites, bound together by complicated masses of creeping vines, grew above carpets of graminivorous plant life. Deprived of the vivifying warmth of the sun, they were colourless and without perfume. Mesmerised by this wondrous sight, they somehow became oblivious to all sounds and movements emanating from within the forest. Suddenly they were awakened from their inner dreams as the dense foliage wall spread open before them and they found themselves confronted by a manifestation that surpassed all known human comprehension. In front of them stood prehistoric creatures of the Tertiary and Duaternary periods. A herd of gigantic mastodons. They in turn were marshalled by a human proteus who stood over twelve feet high. The giant shepherd turned and walked toward them in a slow and deliberate manner. Unarmed, and with no place to hide, they remained transfixed as he came within two metres of where they stood. Without acknowledgement he passed them by, his eyes motionless and staring directly ahead at all times. The shepherd had evolved in darkness, and without natural sunlight had no need of sight. His world was without vision.
NARRATION 6: BRIDGE OF TIME
Continuing their journey around the edges of the forest, they crossed a small, natural rock bridge that led them behind a waterfall to the entrance of a small tunnel. At first, able only to proceed on their hands and knees in a lizard-like fashion, progress was slow, but as the downward slope became increasingly pronounced, more and more water poured from the fractures in the tunnel walls making the cave floor damp and slippery. No longer able to affect their rate of descent, they found themselves rapidly gaining speed as they slid downwards at an alarming rate. Constant buffeting a waited their every twist and turn as they continually drifted in and out of consciousness. Hurtling out of control through a maze of underground water-chutes, only the inner earth could confess to knowing their destiny.
NARRATION 7: TALES FROM THE LIDENBROOK SEA
a. RIVER OF HOPE
Eventually they found themselves expelled with great force into a fast-flowing river. Exhausted, they clung to passing driftwood. As the waters slowly calmed, a stillness filled the air, and as they viewed all around them, they realised that they had been carried into a vast ocean stretching as far as the eye could see to an achromatic horizon. Behind them and on each side were enormous cliffs and huge capes, the landscape lit with clear dry whiteness in the nature of the aurora borealis, demonstrating the incredible phenomena of endless daylight. They had discovered The Lidenbrook Sea.
b. HUNTER AND HUNTED
A natural tide, governed by the unseen moon, carried them to shore within a small cove. Huge pieces of driftwood lay scattered all around, whilst beneath their feet the bones of antediluvian sea-reptiles formed a fossil beach. Gazing out to sea they witnessed translucent fish from a far-gone age leap high above the waves for but a brief second of time, before caressing the surface and disappearing beneath the gentle swell of the ocean. Above this playful exhibition, to their stunned amazement, a huge creature, a pterodactyl, flew in ever-decreasing circles preparing to home in on its prey. Behind them, from a crevice high in the cliff-face, the largest prehistoric winged lizard from the Jurassic period prepared for flight. The Quetzalcoatlus. With a huge wingspan measuring twice that of its enormous angular body, it took off towards its predetermined battle zone. Sensing danger, the pterodactyl turned in mid-air to flee, but the speed and ferocity of the attack had caught the creature completely unawares. Its role as the hunter had now become that of the hunted.
c. FIGHT FOR LIFE
As the queltzalcoatlus inflicted wound after wound upon its hapless victim, large droplets of blood rained into the sea below, forming dark crimson circular pools before being hastily dispersed by the waves, eager to destroy all evidence. As the pterodactyl lost its fight for life, it fell to the mercy of the ocean, where, just minutes earlier, the fish it had hunted for food now reserved the roles in nature's play. As the quetzalcoatlus returned to its refuge in the cliff-face, the Lidenbrook Sea gave no clue as to the drama they had just witnessed.
NARRATION 8: TIMELESS HISTORY
In order to connect with the original documented route, the three travellers were aware that they had to cross the Lidenbrook Sea. Having made raft, as their predecessors had done before them, they set sail in a Southerly direction. As the air grew heavy, the surface of the water became a window of evolution through which angular scaled fish covered with bright enamel could be seen dwelling amongst pterychtis and dipterides, the latter being a two-finned fish, until then presumed extinct. With the shore no longer in view, the lay motionless afloat the Lidenbrook Sea. With all around them seemingly locked in timeless history, they could only wonder as to what destiny would befall them. As one, they closed their eyes and prayed.
NARRATION 9: TIME WITHIN TIME
a. THE EBBING TIDE
The ebbing tide eventually carried them onto a small island strewn with giant turtle shells, on the far side of which a narrow strait of water flowed. This, the final gulf between them and the subterranean mainland. The island appeared alive, as geysers of hot steam forced their way through crevasses in the salacious sandstone, creating hot springs wherever the ground had sunk to form natural basins. They watched in fascination as plumes of vapour rose majestically into the air, creating heavily-laden clouds from which each returning droplet assumed the prismatic colours of the rainbow. As the warm humid air gently eased the pain of their aching limbs, the three weary travellers fell exhausted to the ground, where they slept. As they slept, they dreamed of the world they were now part of. A world within a world. Time within time. A dream within dreams.
b. THE ELECTRIC STORM
They were awakened by the noise of an electric storm. The waves had destroyed their raft and the sea was a raging torrent, racing at great speed along the strait, which now took on the appearance of rapids. Each taking refuge inside one of the giant turtle shells, their chances of survival lessened by each passing second as huge waves swept them along the narrow strait toward an enormous gaping black hole, into which the anguished water poured at an alarming rate. All around them forked streaks of lightning plunged and attacked in every direction, some of which metamorphosed into globes of fire, which, for inexplicable reasons beyond their understanding, began to chase the turtle shells as they plunged violently, one by one, into the black hole. After falling for what seemed and eternity, they were suddenly shot sideways at terrific velocity into a tunnel which had barely enough room to spare between the shell and the ceiling above their heads. Although they were many leagues beneath the earth's crust, the tunnel behind them was bathed in white blinding light, as, despite their being given both guidance and propulsion of great speed by the rapid flow of water, the globes of fire had chosen the same route. The chase was on as they prepared for the ride of their lives.
NARRATION 10: FLOATING
a. GLOBES OF FIRE
As the tunnel finally reached its end, they found themselves, safe in the giant turtle shells, floating at the bottom of an enormous shaft, but realisation told them that their frightening experience was not yet over. Probing the air from out of the aperture that had so unceremoniously expelled them at the end of their terrifying ride, a powerful beam of light searched the cavern around them. As the light intensified, they realised that their pursuers were also nearing the end of their journey. With trepidation, they awaited the arrival of the globes of fire.
b. CASCADES OF FEAR
With a series of thunderous reports, the globes of fire flew into the cavernous shaft as if fired from a giant cannon. Hovering above their intended victims, they executed rapid gyratory movements while shooting off narrow laser-like beams in ever-changing directions. Finally, as the light grew to unbelievable intensity, the globes of fire exploded, turning into cascades of living flame and flooding the shaft with thousands of minuscule luminous particles before leaving their terrified human prey in semi-darkness, lit only from a pinpoint of light which originated many leagues directly above them.
NARRATION 11: THE VOLCANO
a. TONGUES OF FIRE
They were rising. Not at a great speed, but their upward motion was irrefutable. The hot bubbling water that surrounded them gradually began to inspissate, ultimately becoming a thick, boiling lava paste. A heat haze, created from the hot vapours, hung menacingly above the angrym molten surface. Unlike the dormant crater of Sneffels, where they had begun their journey, the volcanic shaft they were now in was active. The intense heat, eased only by the now incredible rapidity of ascent, was almost unbearable. A sepulchral light penetrated the vertical gallery as tongues of fire danced all about them. The absence of burning lava confirmed that they were not in the main shaft of the volcano, but in a parallel, accessory conduit. Their continual rate of ascent grew at an alarming pace as they fought their way through burning clouds of volcanic cinders toward the opening of light above , itself racing downward, at equal velocity, to meet them.
b. THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
Upon reaching the yawning mouth of the auxiliary shaft, their speed decreased rapidly, and they found themselves gently floating away from one of the myriad of earth's pores that littered the mountainside. Numerous additional streams of lava ran all around them like fiery serpents seeking out their prey. In realative safety they watched the main eruption fire vast amounts of molten lava high into the air. Three thousand miles from their original starting point, amidst the eastern archipelago of mythological memory, the gazed in wonder, as had the journeyers of two hundred years before them, upon the Blue Mountains of Calabria and the mountain that had expelled them, Mount Etna. So ended "The Return To The Centre Of The Earth".
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Ref: Postagem no Facebook em December 6, 2013 · Niterói, RJ ·
https://www.facebook.com/carlosalbertoteixeira/posts/10200908858791485
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