"My uncle, tell me a pretty story!"
Yes, my child. I will tell you two, and perhaps three, if you keep very
quiet. Listen to me. Once in Wales there was a great wizard named
Merlin. Many magic things he could do. He knew how to change one living
being into another, iron into silver, and silver into gold. A fine thing
that would be if it were mine. And afar from him lived a great witch.
Trinali was her name. A great witch was Trinali. Many men did she
enchant, many gentlemen did she change into asses and pigs, and never
cared a copper for all their sufferings.
One day Merlin took his magic rod, and went afar to find the witch, and
pay her severely for all her wickedness. And on that very [true] day the
lady Trinali heard how Merlin was [is] a great, powerful wizard, and
said, "What sort of a man is this? I will punish him or he shall kill
me, deuce help me! I will bewitch him. Let us see who has the most
cleverness and who is the most knowing." And then Merlin went on the
road all day alone, always in sunshine; and Trinali went in the forest,
always in the shade, the darkness, the gloom, for she was a black witch.
Soon they found one another, but Merlin did not know [that] she was
Trinali, and Trinal, did not know that man was [is to be] Merlin. And he
was very pleasant to her, and she to him again. Very soon the two began
to love one another very much. When one knows that and the other knows
it, both will soon know it. Merlin and Trinali said "I love thee" both
together, and kissed one another, and sat down wrapped in the same cloak,
and conversed happily.
Then Merlin told her he was going to punish a very wicked witch; and
Trinali told him the same thing, how she was bold [daring] to do the same
thing to a great wizard. And the two began to beg one another to let the
thing go, and she and he were afraid of losing lover and sweetheart. But
Merlin said, "I swore by the sun to change her for her whole life into
another form" [body]; and she wept and said, "I swore by the moon to
change that wizard into another [person] even as you did." Then Merlin
inquired, "What is his name?" She said, "Merlin." He replied, "I am he;
what is your name?" She cried aloud, "Trinali."
Now when witches swear anything on the sun or the moon, they must do it
or die. Then Merlin said, "Do you know how to make this business all
nice and right?" "Not at all, my dear love," said the poor witch, as she
wept. "Then I am cleverer than you," said Merlin. "An easy and nice
thing it is, my bride. For I will change you into me, and myself into
you. And when we are married we two will be one."
So one man says nowadays that she conquered him, and another that he
conquered her. I do not know [which it was], my dear. Did you ever see
a two-headed halfpenny? _Yes_? Throw it up, and when it falls down ask
me which side is under. A Welsher told me that story. Welshers always
tell the truth.