free."
"Is it Carr?"
"Carr is another of my names, but three of my names will not let you
go free."
"I know your other names too," said Bloom-of-Youth.
"Say them, say them," screamed the Witch of the Elders.
But when she tried to think of them Bloom-of-Youth found that the last
two names had gone out of her mind. Not for all the drops that were in
her heart could she remember them.
"No, no, you can't say them," said the Witch of the Elders. "And now
bend your breast over the hollow in the stone. I'll let out twelve
drops of your heart's blood with my pointed rod. Bend your breast over
the hollow."
[Illustration: But just as the Witch was dragging her to the stone a
robin began to sing.]
But just as the Witch was dragging her to the stone a robin began to
sing on a branch outside the Stones. It was the same tune as
Bloom-of-Youth had sung her song to as she went through the wood. Now
all the words in her song came back to her.--
Spin, wheel, spin; sing, wheel, sing;
Every branch on the tree, spin, spin, spin;
The wool is hers, the thread is mine;
For loss of my heart's blood I'll never dwine!
Her name is Bolg and Curr and Carr,
Her name is Lurr and Lappie.
She said the last two names and as she did the Witch of the Elders
screamed and ran behind the stones. Bloom-of-Youth saw no more of her.
That evening her husband brought home the web of cloth that her
step-mother had woven. The next day Bloom-of-Youth began to make
clothes for him out of it. Never again did she make delays at the well
but she came straight home with her pails of water. The fire was
always clear upon the hearth and she had never to light it the second
time and then sweep away the ashes that had gathered on the floor. She
made good clothes for her husband out of the web of cloth her
step-mother had woven. And every evening she spun on her wheel and
there was never a time afterwards when she had not a dozen balls of
thread in the house.
The wool is hers and the thread is mine;
For loss of my heart's blood I never will dwine,
And I throw my ball over to you.
It was the Woodpecker that told this story to the Boy Who Knew What
the Birds Said.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: The Hen-wife's Son and the Princess Bright Brow]
The Hen-wife's Son and the Princess Bright Brow
[Illustration]
Everyone in and around the King's Castle despised Mell, the Hen-wife's
Son, said the Stonechecker, the bird that built within the stones of
the Tower. And it was not because there was anything mean about the
lad himself: it was because his mother, the Hen-wife, had the lowest
office about the King's Castle.
This is what a Hen-wife did: She had to mind the fowl and keep count
of them, she had to gather the eggs and put them into a basket and
send them to the King's Steward every day. And for doing this she had
as wages the right to go to the back-door of the Steward's house and
get from the under-servants two meals a day for herself and Mell, her
son.
And everybody, as I said, despised this son of hers--horse-boys and
dog-boys and the grooms around the Castle. But of course no one
despised Mell more than did the King's daughter, Princess Bright Brow.
She used to go into a wood and whisper along the branch of a tree. And
one day the Hen-wife's son whom she despised so much made answer to
her. He was lying along the branch of the tree watching his mother's
goat that grazed on the grass below. Now this is what Princess Bright
Brow said to the tree and this is what she used to say to it every
day.--
Oak-tree, oak-tree, above the rest,
Which of the heroes loves me best?
Mell was lying along the Branch as I have said, and he made answer
back to her.--
Princess, Princess, he's at your call,
And the Hen-wife's son loves you best of all!
The King's daughter looked up and she saw the Hen-wife's son on the
branch, and she went into a great rage. She gave orders to the grooms
that the Hen-wife's son was to be whipped every time he looked at her.
Many's the time after that Mell got the lash. But he loved Bright Brow
so much that he could not forbear looking at her.
II
Now, one very early morning Mell took his mother's goat out to graze
on the green. And as he went along he saw on the grass a beautiful
mantle. He took it up and he thought to himself "How well it would
look upon Princess Bright Brow!" And he thought again "if she would
take this beautiful green mantle from me maybe she would let me look
upon her when she is wearing it."
He put the mantle across his shoulders and sat down and thought and
thought. And while he was thinking he felt the mantle being pulled
from behind. He turned round and he saw a woman standing there. She
had brighter colors in her dress and she wore more ornaments than any
one he had ever seen in the King's Castle. He knew by such signs that
she was a Fairy Woman out of the Green Rath.
[Illustration]
"Mell," said she, "Mell, the Hen-wife's son, give to me the mantle
that the King of the Fairy Riders let fall from his shoulders last
night."
"If it is his, and if you have come to bring it to him, why you must
have it," said Mell, and he took the mantle off his shoulders and
handed it to her.
"The King would wish that I should recompense you," said the Fairy
Woman. She took a jewel that was on the collar of the mantle and gave
it to Mell. "If you take this jewel in your hand," said she, "and wish
to be in this place or that place you will be there in an instant, and
anyone you take by the hand you can bring with you." And when Mell
took the jewel from her, the Fairy Woman, carrying the green mantle,
went into the green rath.
Then Mell took his goat by the horns and turned towards his hut. And
there, outside the gate of the Castle he saw the King's daughter,
Princess Bright Brow. She was watching the falconer training the young
hawks and the grooms and the riders of the Castle were behind her.
When she saw Mell with his hands on the goat's horns she grew high in
rage and she turned to the grooms to give an order that he be beaten
with the whips they held.
But Mell ran to her and he caught her hand and holding the jewel he
said "I wish that I was in the Island of the Shadow of the Stars and
that this young girl was with me." The hawk flew at him and the hound
sprang at him and the whips struck at him and while he was still
expecting the feel of teeth and claws and lash he was away and was in
another country altogether. There was neither hawk nor hound nor hut
nor castle nor groom nor falconer. Two beings only were there and they
were Mell the Hen-wife's son and the King's daughter, Princess Bright
Brow.
"In what country are we?" said Princess Bright Brow.
"Unless we are in the Island of the Shadow of the Stars I don't know
where we are," said Mell, the Hen-wife's Son.
"You are the Hen-wife's son and you have brought me here by
enchantment," said Bright Brow.
She wanted to go from him, but where was she to go to? All the country
was strange to her. And so, if she made two steps away from him she
soon made two steps back to him. And the end of this part of the story
is that Bright Brow became friendly to the Hen-wife's Son.
He gathered fruits off trees and he snared birds and he took the fish
out of rivers and he found sheltered places to sleep in. And often the
Princess Bright Brow was good and kind to him. And Mell the Hen-wife's
son was now as happy as anyone in the world. "Since we are so friendly
to each other now," said Bright Brow to him one day, "will you not
tell me how you were able to come here and bring me with you?"
"It was because of the jewel I wear at my breast," said Mell. And then
he told how he had found the green mantle on the ground and how the
Fairy Woman gave him the jewel and what power the jewel had.
If Mell was content to be on the Island, Bright Brow was not. And so
one evening when he was asleep she lifted up the mantle and took the
jewel that was on his breast. Then holding it in her hand she said "I
wish I was back in my father's Castle." In an instant she was back
there. Now all her maids were around her and all of them were crying
"Where have you been, King's daughter, where have you been?" And
Bright Brow told them that the King of the Fairy Riders had taken her
away to show her all the great heroes of the world so that when the
time came for her to choose a husband she could make her choice of the
best amongst them.
As for Mell, the Hen-wife's son: when he wakened up and found that
Bright Brow had gone and that the jewel was gone there was no one in
the world more sad and lonely than he was. He thought that she might
come back to him, but the moon came and the sun came and Bright Brow
came not. He longed to be a bird that he might fly after her to her
father's Castle.
He stayed on the Island of the Shadow of the Stars for a long time
for, now that the jewel was gone from him, there was no way of getting
from the Island. Then a King who had built a high tower went to the
top of it one day and saw the Island of the Shadow of the Stars. He
sent out his long ships and his leathern-jerkined men to it. They
found Mell and they brought him to the King. Then Mell became one of
the King's men and he went into battle and he learnt the use of all
arms.
III
The Hen-wife's son went through the Eastern and the Western Worlds and
he came back to where his mother's hut was. He rode round the walls of
the King's Castle. Everything that he thought was magnificent before
seemed small to him now. The trees that grew within the walls seemed
not much bigger than the bushes the old women put clothes to dry on.
Sitting on his black horse he looked across the wall that he once
thought was so high and he saw the Hen-wife's hut. His mother came out
to feed the hens and to count them and to gather up the eggs and put
them in a basket. "She's alive and I'll see her again," said Mell. He
rode round the wall to the King's Garden to try to get sight of the
Princess Bright Brow. He saw no sight of her. He rode on and he came
to the gate at the other side and he saw outside the Cook-house the
horse-boys and dog-boys and grooms that he used to know.
He saw them and he knew them, but they did not know him. He was
surprised to see that they had not learnt to straighten up their
shoulders nor to walk as if there was a fine thought in their heads.
They were all around the Cook-house, and a great noise of rattling was
coming from within it.
"What noise is that in the Cook-house?" Mell asked a groom.
"The Cook's son is going out to fight," said the groom, "and he is
striking the pot-lids with the ladles to let everyone in the
Cook-house know how fierce he is."
"And who is the Cook's son going to fight?" asked Mell the Hen-wife's
son.
"He is going to fight a great Champion that has come up from the sea
in a boat that moves itself. This Champion demands that the King pay
tribute to him. And the King has offered his daughter and half his
kingdom to the youth who will go down to the sea-shore and defeat this
Champion. And to-day the Cook's son is going out to make trial."
And while the groom was saying all this the Cook's son came out of the
Cook-house. His big face was all gray. His knees were knocking each
other. The breastplate of iron he had on was slipping to one side and
the big sword he had put in his belt was trailing on the ground.
"I would like to see what sort of a fight this Champion will make,"
said Mell, the Hen-wife's son. He followed the Cook's son to the
sea-shore. But the Cook's son, when he had come to the shore, looked
round and found a little cave in the face of the rock and climbed into
it.
Then a boat that moved of itself came in from the sea, and a Champion
all in red sprang out of it. And when he had touched the shingles he
struck his sword on his shield and he shouted "If the King of this
Land has a Champion equal to the fray let him forth against me. And
if the King of the Land has no such Champion, let him pay me tribute
from his Kingdom."
Mell looked to the cave where the Cook's son had hidden himself and
all he saw there was a bush being pulled towards the opening to hide
it.
Then Mell the Hen-wife's son drew his sword and went down the beach
towards the Red Champion. They fought for half the day. At the end of
that time the Red Champion said "Good is the champion that the King of
this Land has sent against me. I did not know he had such a good
champion."
They fought all over the strand making the places that were stony,
wet, and the places that were wet, stony, and then, when the sun was
going down, the Red Champion was not able to do anything more than
guard himself from the strokes of Mell's sword while he drew towards
his boat.
"You will have the honors of the fight to-day," said he to Mell.
[Illustration: The Red Champion said, "Good is the Champion that the
King of this Land has sent against me."]
"I shall have the honors and something else beside," said Mell. Then
he struck at the red plume that was on his enemy's cap. He cut it
off as the Red Champion sprang into the boat that moved of itself. As
the sun was sinking the Champion in the boat went over the sea.
Now the Cook's son had been watching the whole fight from the cave.
When he saw the Red Champion going off in his boat he came running
down to the shore. The Hen wife's son was lying with his hands and his
face in the water trying to cool himself after the combat and the red
plume that he had struck off the Champion's cap was lying near him.
The Cook's son took up the plume.
"Let me keep this as a remembrance of your fight, brave warrior," said
he to the Hen-wife's son.
"You may keep it," said Mell. Then with the red plume in his hands the
Cook's son ran back towards the Castle.
IV
Mell the Hen-wife's son put on his best garments and he went to the
Castle that evening and he was received by the King as a champion
from foreign parts. And the King invited him to supper for three
nights.
Princess Bright Brow was at the supper and Mell watched and watched
her. He saw that she was pale and that she kept sighing. And of the
damsel who came to sit beside him at the table Mell asked "Why is the
King's daughter so sad and troubled-looking?"
"She has reason for being sad and troubled," said the damsel who was
called Sea Swan, "for she thinks she may have to marry one whom she
thinks little of."
"Why should that be?" said Mell.
"Because her father has promised to give her and half his Kingdom to
the one who will defeat the Red Champion who has come from across the
sea and who demands that the King give him tribute from the land. And
the only one who has gone forth against the Champion is the Cook's
son--a gray-faced fellow that only a kitchen-maid would marry. And if
it happens that the Cook's son overcomes the Red Champion, well then
Princess Bright Brow will have to marry him."
And later on Sea Swan said to Mell "The King's daughter is so troubled
that she would go away to the Island of the Shadow of the Stars if she
had the jewel that would bring her there. She had it once, but a Fairy
Woman came out of the green rath and made Bright Brow give it to her."
When the feast was at its height the King stood up and bade the Cook's
son come near the High Chair and tell how he had fought with the Red
Champion that day. And the Cook's son came up holding the red plume in
his hand. He told a story of how he had fought with the Red Champion
all the day and how he had beaten him to his boat and how he had made
him take his boat out to sea, and how, as the Champion had sprung into
the boat, he had struck at him and had cut the red plume from his cap.
"And I shall go down the sea-shore to-morrow," said the Cook's son
very bravely, "and if the Red Champion dares come back I shall take
off his head instead of his plume." Then he left the red plume beside
the King's daughter and her father made Bright Brow hold up her
forehead for the Cook's son to kiss. And all in the supper-room
clapped their hands for the Cook's son.
The next day Mell the Hen-wife's son stood outside the Cook-house and
he heard a tremendous rattling within. "That is the Cook's son
preparing to go out to battle," said one of the grooms. "He is
striking the ladles upon the pot-lids to show how fierce he is." Just
as that was being said the Cook's son walked out of the Cook-house. He
looked around him very haughtily. Then he walked away with his big
sword trailing behind him and his breast-plate all to one side. Mell
the Hen-wife's son followed him.
When he came to the sea-shore he stood for a while looking out to sea
with his knees knocking together. Then he went where he had gone the
day before. He climbed into a cave in the face of the cliff and he
drew the bush to the entrance of it so that it was quite hidden.
Mell the Hen-wife's son looked out to sea and he saw the boat that
moved of itself come towards the shore. The Red Champion was in it. He
sprang out on the strand, struck his sword on his shield and made
proclamation: Unless the King of the Land sent a champion who could
overthrow him he would make him pay tribute for his Kingdom.
Then down to meet him came Mell the Hen-wife's son, his sword in his
hand. He and the Red Champion saluted each other and then they fought
together trampling over the beach, making the soft places hard and the
hard places soft with the dint of their trampling. "A good champion,
by my faith you are," said the Red Champion to Mell, when
three-quarters of the day had been spent in fighting. And after that
the Red Champion tried only to guard himself from the thrusts and the
strokes of Mell's sword. He drew away from Mell and towards his boat.
He put his two feet in it and pushed away. "You have the honors of the
day's fight, champion," said he. "I shall have something beside the
honors," said Mell and he struck at the Red Champion's belt. Down on
the shingles fell the silver-studded belt and the Red Champion pushed
off in his boat.
When the Cook's son saw from his cave that the Red Champion had gone
he came down to the water's edge where Mell was lying with his face
and hands in the water to cool himself after the combat. The
silver-studded belt was lying beside Mell. The Cook's son took it up
without saying a word and he went off towards the Castle.
That night Mell the Hen-wife's son sat by himself in the supper room
of the King's Castle. He watched and watched the face of the Princess
Bright Brow. She looked more pale and troubled than on the night
before. And after the harpers had played the King called upon the
Cook's son to come up to the High Chair and tell how he had battled
with the Red Champion. He came up with the silver-studded belt in his
hand and he told a story of how he had beaten the Red Champion back
into the sea. And when the story was told the King bade Bright Brow go
over to him and kiss the Cook's son on his heavy gray cheek.
V
The next day when he stood before the Cook-house, Mell the Hen-wife's
son heard a greater rattling than before. The Cook's son struck the
pot-lids with the ladles more fiercely than before and he cried out in
a high voice "This is the last time that I shall ever stand amongst
the pots and the pans, the lids and the ladles, for I go to fight the
Red Champion for the last time, and after this I will sit beside the
King's Chair and the King's daughter, Princess Bright Brow, will sit
upon my knee."
He marched down to the sea-shore, his long sword trailing behind him.
He walked through the street with his head high, but when he drew near
the sea-shore his gait became less grand. His knees began to knock
together. He looked out to the sea and when he saw the boat that moved
of itself coming towards the shore he clambered into the cave and he
drew the bushes round to cover up the entrance.
The boat that moved of itself came to the strand. The Red Champion
sprang out on the shingles. He made his proclamation. Then up to him
came Mell the Hen-wife's son. "I will strive with you," said he, "as I
strove with you yesterday and the day before. And how shall we fight?
Shall it be with swords or by wrestling?" "By wrestling let it be
to-day," said the Red Champion.
They laid hands on each other and began to wrestle. And in their bout
of wrestling they made holes in the ground and they made hillocks on
the ground, and when the day was about to close Mell overthrew the Red
Champion. He left him stark on the ground. Then he took the cord he
had round his waist and he bound the Red Champion--hands and feet,
waist and chest he bound him.
The Cook's son came up to them then. "As you took the red plume and as
you took the silver-studded belt, take the Champion too," said Mell.
Then the Cook's son took the Red Champion, all bound as he was, and
putting him across his shoulders went staggering up the beach and
towards the King's Castle.
VI
Mell the Hen-wife's son sat in the supper-room of the Castle again
that night. The King's daughter, Princess Bright Brow, was there and
she was as white as white rose-leaves and tears were falling down her
cheeks. And when the wine had been drunk out of the cups the King
stood up and called upon the Cook's son to come up to the High Chair
and tell all how he had overthrown and had bound the Red Champion who
would have put a tribute upon the Kingdom. The Cook's son came up to
the High Chair and he told them a story that was wonderful indeed. And
when the story was told the King said "Loose the Red Champion whom you
bound, and when he has knelt here and prayed to us for forgiveness the
King's daughter will take your hands and will marry you." "Look," said
the damsel Sea Swan to Mell the Hen Wife's son, "how the Princess
Bright Brow is pulling the hairs from her head in her grief."
The Red Champion was brought in bound and the Cook's son began to try
to unbind him. But not one knot could he loosen. He tried and he tried
and he broke his nails trying. "This is strange indeed," said the
King, "for it used to be said that whoever bound one could loosen
one."
He tried again and he tried again and not one cord could he loosen
from another. Then the King's daughter Princess Bright Brow looked up.
"How strange it would be," said she, "if it was not the Cook's son who
bound the Red Champion."
Then up the Hall came Mell the Hen-wife's son. He stood over the Red
Champion and he pulled a cord here and he pulled a cord there and in a
minute he was unbound. All in the hall began to murmur "Surely the one
who unloosed him bound him," said many people.
"He is the one who bound me," said the Red Champion, pointing out Mell
the Hen-wife's son, "and besides it was he who cut the red plume off
my cap and who took the silver-studded belt from me."
"Speak up and deny what he says," said the King to the Cook's son.
But when the Cook's son tried to speak he stuttered and stammered and
his knees began to knock together and his hands went shaking. And when
the company looked at him there was not one there who believed he had
fought the Red Champion. And when the Cook's son looked round and saw
there was not one there who believed in him he gathered the
supper-things of the table like an attendant and went out of the room.
"And now," said the King to Mell, the Hen-wife's son, "since there is
no doubt but it was you who conquered the champion to you I give my
daughter's hand. Take her now for your wife and take half of my
kingdom with her."
Then Bright Brow lifted her face to him and she put her hands in his
hands.
"Mell," said she, "Mell the Hen-wife's son, I knew for long that you
would come to me like this. Forgive me and love me," said she, "and I
will love you from this night."
And so Mell the Hen-wife's son and the King's daughter, Princess
Bright Brow, came together again. He married her and came to rule
over half her father's kingdom. They lived happy ever afterwards, of
course. And Mell brought his mother out of the hut beside the
poultry-coop and he took her to live in the Castle. And in the end his
mother married the Steward who had become a widower and she became the
most respected dame in and about the King's Castle. And as for the
Cook's son he is still in the Cook-house amongst the pots and the
pans, the lids and the ladles.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: The Giant and the Birds]
The Giant and the Birds
[Illustration]
The Cock scraped and the Hens scraped and when the Hens went away the
Cock scraped by himself. He called the Hens back, and they all scraped
deeper and deeper. Then something was shown; it was bright and round,
and the Cock and the three Hens scraped until the whole of it was to
be seen. It was a great ring of brass.
"Tell us how you knew the bright thing was there, Hero-son of my
heart?" said the Little Slate-colored Hen that was the Cock's mother.
"Do, do," said the Feather-legged Hen.
"Tell us, Top of Wisdom," said the Blue Hen.