---
title: Beneath it flowed the sluggish river, dark and dismal and deathlike;… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Beneath it flowed the sluggish river, dark and dismal and deathlike; beyond lay the shores of the silent land where Tuoni reigns; above it was the ashy-gray sky where no bird flies and no star has ever twinkled. Who acts: shore, Tuoni, bird. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/25/76/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old No…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/) / [The Great Pike](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/25/) / 76

# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Great Pike, sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Beneath it flowed the sluggish river, dark and dismal and deathlike; beyond lay the shores of the silent land where Tuoni reigns; above it was the ashy-gray sky where no bird flies and no star has ever twinkled.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** shore, Tuoni, bird · **What happens:** flow, lay, reign, be, fly, twinkle · **To what, where:** sluggish river, shores, gray sky, star

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Great Pike. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shore, Tuoni, bird), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:25:76
# text = Beneath it flowed the sluggish river, dark and dismal and deathlike; beyond lay the shores of the silent land where Tuoni reigns; above it was the ashy-gray sky where no bird flies and no star has ever twinkled.
1	Beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	flowed	flow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	sluggish	sluggish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	dismal	dismal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	deathlike	deathlike	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	beyond	beyond	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	shores	shore	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
22	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	24	advmod	_	_
23	Tuoni	Tuoni	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	reigns	reign	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
26	above	above	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
30	ashy	ashy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	gray	gray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
34	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	37	advmod	_	_
35	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	36	det	_	_
36	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
37	flies	fly	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	acl:relcl	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
39	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	40	det	_	_
40	star	star	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nsubj:pass	_	_
41	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
42	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	43	advmod	_	_
43	twinkled	twinkle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	37	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flow** | past | shore | the sluggish river |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location river=Theme |
| 2 | **lay** | infinitive | shore *not said here* | the shores of the silent land |  |  |  | beyond *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shore=Result |
| 3 | **reign** | present | Tuoni |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | shore |  |  | the gray sky |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **fly** | present | no bird |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **twinkle** | present · perfect · passive |  | no star |  |  | ever |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: subject=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 66819 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/25/75/)
- next →: [sentence 77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/25/77/)
- ↑ back to [The Great Pike](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/25/)