So, the old henwife went away ben her little place behind her bedroom. She was gone for about fifteen minutes. She came back and the queen was still sitting there.
“Now,” she said to the queen, “look, ye see that little stone flagon: you’ll take this. You’ll bake a special cake yourself in the castle kitchen and you’ll empty the contents in the cake. You’ll take yir twelve boys down to the little pond in the castle gardens and ye’ll tell them tae taste this; give them a piece o’ the cake each and tell them they must eat it all at wonst and enjoy it because their mother made it special for them. And keep this between yourself and your sons.”
“Fair enough!” says the queen.
Now the boys were all away hunting, shooting, fishing, doing everything. They came home. And they loved their mother very well. They were young: one nineteen, one twenty, one fifteen, one seventeen, thirteen, twelve… you know, all these young men! So, these boys were always fed by themselves, and the queen gave orders to the cook and the maids that she was going to serve them herself that night in the kitchen. The king went into his chambers and he had his little daughter on his knee. Ye know, he was crooning tae her, telling her stories and singing songs tae her. The queen walked in and all the boys were gathered round this great big long wooden table. They’re all talking about what they’d been doing and hunting and fishing and other things.
She says, “You know, my sons, Mummy has got a special treat fir you tomorrow!”
And the boys all said, “Yes, Mother?”
She said, “I have baked a special cake to celebrate something that you don’t know about – it’s my birthday and I am a certain age tomorrow, and I want you to come with me. Because I had my first birthday by the pond, I want you to celebrate my birthday once more by the pond.”
“Oh, Mother, yes certainly!”
“Now,” she says, “don’t tell yir father, or don’t tell anybody!” They swore to secrecy they wouldn’t tell their father the king, although they never spoke to him very much anyway.
So, the next morning was a beautiful May morning. All the boys gathered at the pond in the castle garden. They waited round the pond and sure enough down comes their mother, carrying a small cake.
“Now,” she says, “boys, I want you to all have a piece o’ this to celebrate my birthday! She gave them each a piece in turn. Now,” she says, “I want you all tae eat it together.” And lo and behold when she divided it, there was only enough for the twelve o’ them and they all ate it together.
And they said, “Mother, that was lovely! Did ye bake it yourself?” Then a wonderful thing happened: they all fell to the ground… lo and behold… one after the other became swans, and they popped into the pond, one after the other, and they swam round and round.
And the queen sat down. She felt happy. There they swam round this lovely pond inside the garden. She went back home to the king for her evening meal. She sat at the table.
And he said, “Ye seem very quiet tonight, my dear. Where are the boys? Where are the young men, these sons of yours? Are they not going to have any meal tonight?”
She said, “Your Majesty, King, you gave orders... your sons have gone.”
“Oh well,” he said, “good riddance, good riddance! And where have they gone?”
“They took off in all directions,” she said. “They’re off tae seek their fortune in the world.”
“Good – good, good riddance,” he said. “Probably they’ll return wiser when my little girl has grown up.” And he took his little girl on his knee. He’s picking all the best bits for her and he’s feeding her with it in his lap.
But to make a long story short, years passed by and the swans were still in the pond. And the queen fed them every day.
The king got kind o’ worried and he said, “How in the world – where did the beautiful swans come from?”
She says, “Well, they were a gift from a great friend of mine.”
“Oh, they’re quite tame,” he said to the queen.
“Oh, yes, they’re quite tame. And I love to feed them.”
The king paid no attention to swans. But his daughter had grown up till she was about sixteen years old, and she used to go with her mother every day to feed the swans.
“Mummy,” she says, “they are lovely.”
“Yes, daughter, they are lovely swans; they’re the most beautiful birds I’ve ever seen.”
Then one particular evening, when the daughter was about seventeen years old, and the king, who was much older than the queen, had retired and gone to sleep; the queen was sitting combing her hair, beautiful hair right down her back. The princess turned round and said, “Mummy, it’s a funny thing…”
“What’s so funny, dear?”
“That I didn’t have any brothers or any sisters.”
Then the queen said, “You know, it’s not very funny, but I’m going to let you into a secret – you must never tell a soul, not even your father. You’re old enough now to understand.” So, she told her the story I’m telling you: she said, “Your brothers... you have twelve brothers.”
“Twelve brothers, Mother,” she said, “would I love my twelve brothers! And where have they been all these years? Why haven’t I been told this before?”
“Your daddy the king ordered them off the land.”
“If I knew my daddy had ordered my brothers away off the land into another world… When are they coming home, Mother?”
“Well,” she says, “they’re not coming home.”
“You mean to tell me, my brothers are not coming home – I’ll never see my brothers?”
“I’m going to let you into a big secret, not to even tell your father: your brothers are the twelve white swans in the garden pond!”
The princess was flabbergasted. “Mother,” she said, “how could I have twelve white swans for brothers?”
“Well,” she said, “your father wanted to send them into the world to disappear and get killed in battle, and wander into other countries. We’d never see them again! So, I got a magic spell from an old friend of mine and had them made into swans, so’s they would always be there for you to see and me to enjoy.”
“Mother,” she says, “I want my brothers – I must have my brothers back!”
She says, “Your father will be outrag—”
“I don’t care!” she said. “I’ll never talk to my father again unless I get to see my brothers.”
The very next morning, true to her word, the princess goes to her father, says, “Father, Mummy told me I have brothers!”
“Ho-ha-ha, my dear,” said the king, “yes, ye have brothers.”
“Well, Father, why aren’t they here with me?”
“Dearie,” he said, “you don’t need brothers. You’ve got me!”
She says, “Father, I know I have you – you’re my father. But I need my brothers. I want to grow up… I want to see my brothers!”
So the king felt very sad about this, because there was nothing in the world he wouldn’t do for the princess.
And she says, “I’m very sad.”
“Well, you can’t be sad!” he said. “Look, I’ll tell ye what I’ll do: tomorrow I’ll send couriers all over the world and bring every brother you’ve got back to you, if that’s what you want.”
So, next morning, true to his word, the king goes down to the courtroom. He calls the queen and all the couriers to him, tells them, “Look, I want you to travel far and wide and bring back the princess’s brothers wherever they be. You shall search for ever till you find them, because if she is unhappy then I am unhappy!”
The couriers said they didn’t know where to start. But the queen never said a word; she kept it quiet. She knew they were never going to find them. But the princess was happy; she knew now something was being done about her brothers.
So, he sent couriers on horseback to go off in all directions. They were gone for days, but they straggly returned one after the other – no news of the young men, no news of the prince
s of any kind. The princess got sadder and sadder every time a courier returned with no news of her brothers, till the king was so upset he just couldn’t stand it any more.
He went to the queen, said, “There must be something ye can do; there must be something ye can do to find these lost brothers of hers! Because she’s fading away; I can see her fading away – she can’t go on like this!”
So the queen said, “Husband, Your Majesty, I’ve got a guilty secret I’ve kept from you for many years.”
“Tell me, woman,” he said, “tell me!”
She says, “Your sons the princes have never left the palace.”
“Well, woman, go find them! Why do ye keep me in such suspense? Go find them, bring them back – so that my little girl can see them!”
She says, “Husband, it’s not within my power tae bring them back.”
“Well, where are they, where are they? If you know so much – tell me!”
She says, “They’re in the pond in the palace garden – twelve white swans.”
The king said, “Twelve white swans in the garden are my sons – that my little girl wants?”
“Yes, that’s where they are,” she said. I went to my old friend the henwife, who works in her magical powers, and I got a potion to turn them into swans because I didn’t want to… all these years I’ve enjoyed their company… they are swans but they’re still my sons!”
He says, “Woman, you have deceived me!”
She says, “I haven’t deceived ye; wouldn’t it be worse if you’d sent them all into the world to be killed, off into battle, fighting somewhere? I knew where they were all the time.”
“Well,” he said, “tomorrow you must bring them back!”
Oh, the queen and the princess the next morning, true to their word, they made their way to the old henwife once more. The old henwife by this time was getting very old and frail because many years had passed, and when the queen came in she barely recognised the old woman. But they came in and they sat down.
The old henwife says, “What brings you now, my queen? What is it you really need this time?”
She says, “I want my sons back.”
And the old henwife said, “It’s a hard task ye’re giving me... there’s nothing I can do.”
“There must be something,” she said, “ye can do. There must be something you can do!”
“There’s nothing I can do,” the old woman said; there’s nothing you can do, but there’s something that the princess can do if she wants tae do it.”
“And what would that be?” says the queen.
“Well,” says the old woman, there’s only one thing she can do, but it’s a hard task she’s got to perform: she must go into the churchyard at the hour of ten o’clock, and within two hours she must make twelve shirts from the stingy nettles that grow in the churchyard; and she’s only got two hours to do it. She’s tae use the stingy nettles, spin them with a spinning wheel and make them into twelve shirts before the clock strikes twelve, and throw them over the twelve white swans.”
“I’ll do it, Mummy,” says the princess. “I’ll do anything in the world!”
So the queen said, “To help you out, I’ll get some o’ the men to gather the nettles for ye.”
“Now,” says the old henwife before they leave, “she’ll be disturbed during her work making these shirts, because this particular night that I give her the power to bring her brothers back… is also the night of the Harpies!”
And the queen says,
“What are Harpies?”
“Well, Harpies,” says the old henwife, “are birds with human faces. And they’ll come, they’ll start digging in the graveyard for bodies. They won’t come near the princess because she’s alive. They only go after the dead... but if the princess gets one fright, the spell’ll be broken for ever and she’ll never see her brothers again!”
Fair enough. So, back they went to the palace. The queen sent some workers to gather all the nettles. It had to be the churchyard nettles, no other would do; the nettles that grew in the old churchyard where they buried everybody.
All the nettles are gathered and heaped in the corner of the yard. Ten o’clock the princess walks down with a spinning wheel and she starts. She spins the nettles and starts making shirts. She works hard, she never stops. But all of a sudden she hears a flap o’ wings coming, women’s faces, long hair – they’re scratching the earth with their nails for people that are new-buried. And they’re throwing bags o’ earth, they’re hunting for bodies and they’re digging and they’re digging and digging. They’re squawking and they’re screeching, they’re skreeking at her, looking at her, and she’s carrying on, spinning away. She never pays any attention to them for nearly one hour and a half. And she’s working hard, working hard, and they’re hopping around with their evil faces, their evil grins; they’re tearing up the bodies from the graves. They’re eating them, they’re squawking and fighting like a lot o’ vultures over the bodies, and they’re sharing bones and tearing hair and everything.
And the princess just stood there and spun away, paid no attention. And she worked hard and worked hard! Then all in a moment – twelve o’clock – she had twelve shirts, but one sleeve wasn’t finished when the clock struck twelve. The Harpies disappeared as fast as they came.
She gathered up the shirts, she ran down to the palace into the garden round to the little lake, she waded into the pond to her waist. And one by one she put a shirt over every swan’s head till she came to the last one. And as she put a shirt over each head, a young man walked out, a tall, handsome young man walked out of the water and stood in the bankway: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven – till she came to the last one. But the last shirt had only one sleeve. When she placed it over, he walked out of the pond, off the little lake into the garden. Lo and behold, there stood the twelve young princes and one of them had a wing. One had a swan’s wing, a white wing.
The princess was delighted. She cuddled them, kissed them, took them all up to the palace. And the king who had forgiven the queen now saw that his daughter was happy, was overjoyed. He turned to the queen, said, “Woman, it’s a wonderful thing you’ve done.” The boys were no older; they never got old, the swans. They were just young – the way they were from the minute they were put in there. “It’s a wonderful thing you’ve done,” he said to the queen, “but what’s gaunna happen to him?” The youngest was left with a wing instead of an arm.
The princess loved him more than the rest; she loved him best because he was next to her, he was the youngest. They sat down and she told the story. And the boys felt very bad about their father, but they loved their mother. They all came and kissed their mother, they forgave her for what she did. But they never forgave their father.
And the princess said, “We shall have tae find a way to get my brother’s wing away and bring back his arm.”
After many days of feasting and rejoicing at the palace the princess began to enjoy the company of her brothers. They hunted and shot and fished and did everything together, and she really loved to be with them. The king, who saw that the princess was happy, was overjoyed. Now he had his sons back and he had his daughter, who was happy for ever and just the radiant beautiful little girl she ever was.
But the queen felt sad and the king felt kind of guilty when he saw the youngest brother, who very rarely spoke and never did much because he had a wing, and he always kept it hidden under a cloak. And if the princess ever had any time to spare she spent it with him.
But one day she said to her mother, “Mother, this just can’t go on. We’ll have to find a way tae get my brother’s arm back.”
“Well, says the queen, we’ve asked so many favours off the old henwife, and she’s getting an auld woman now; I just hate going back tae her so many times.”
“Well, Mother,” she says, “there’s only one thing we can do – we must, for wir brother’s sake!”
So the princess and the queen visited t
he old henwife once more. They landed back, and lo and behold, the old henwife was happy to see them. They sat down and talked for a wee while and she said, “What’s yir trouble this time? I hear you’ve got yir sons back once more.”
“Yes,” she said, “I have my sons back and nobody’s happier than me, tae have my sons around me once more – but there’s one thing missing.”
“I know,” says the henwife, “it’s a sad ending. But there’s very little we can do about it.”
“There must be something we can do!”
She says, “I know one o’ yir sons has got a wing, a swan’s wing.”
And the princess says, “That’s what we came to see you about. I’ll give ye everything you need in this world…”
And the old henwife says, “Look, I don’t need nothing, my dearie.”
The princess says, “I want you to help me, I want you to help me get rid of my brother’s wing!”
“Well,” she says, “it’s a terrible thing that he has, but it’s not within my power tae help him in any way; you are the only one that can help him.”
“Me?” says the princess. “I’ll do anything, I’ll go anywhere, I’ll do anything under the sun tae help my brother get rid of this wing and have his arm wonst more. Because he feels so sad tae see the rest o’ his brothers – he canna ride, he cannae fire a bow, he canna do nothing because he has to keep it under a cloak.”
The old henwife says, “Look, you don’t know, but many, many, many leagues from here there is another land, another country. And in that country lives a queen who doesn’t have a king, has only had one son. This queen is the Queen of Knowledge, that knows everything. And I know where the queen is; I know that she has the knowledge to cure yir brother, but that’s all I can tell ye – the rest is left tae yirself.”
“But how,” said the princess, “how am I gaunna go there and—”
“If you go there,” she said, “ye’ll never even get near her – not as a princess.”
“What must I do?” said the princess.
“Ye’ll have tae go as a beggar girl, find employment in the palace an’ seek the knowledge from the queen herself. But I have a better idea: why don’t you be a goose girl?” (In these bygone days, girls did walk with geese. They swapped them and traded them around.) “And,” the old woman said, “for yir safety’s sake, get yir father tae send some huntsmen along with ye fir half o’ the journey. Then go the other half by yirself. Take some geese and a ragged dress, dress yirsel as a goose girl and make yir way to the palace. Then it’s up to yirself what you do from there, because that’s all the help I can tell ye; that’s the only way you’re gaunna cure the problem of your brother’s wing.”
The Flight of the Golden Bird Page 6
