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Once upon
a time...
There were once a Scotsman and an Englishman and an Irishman
serving in the army together, who took it into their heads to run
away on the first opportunity they could get. The chance came and
they took it. They went on travelling for two days through a great
forest, without food or drink, and without coming across a single
house, and every night they had to climb up into the trees through
fear of the wild beasts that were in the wood. On the second morning
the Scotsman saw from the top of his tree a great castle far away.
He said to himself that he would certainly die if he stayed in the
forest without anything to eat but the roots of grass, which would
not keep him alive very long. As soon, then, as he got down out of
the tree he set off towards the castle, without so much as telling
his companions that he had seen it at all; perhaps the hunger and
want they had suffered had changed their nature so much that the one
did not care what became of the other if he could save himself. He
travelled on most of the day, so that it was quite late when he
reached the castle, and to his great disappointment found nothing
but closed doors and no smoke rising from the chimneys. He thought
there was nothing for it but to die after all, and had lain down
beside the wall, when he heard a window being opened high above him.
At this he looked up, and saw the most beautiful woman he had ever
set eyes on.
'Oh, it is Fortune that has sent you to me,' he said.
'It is indeed,' said she. 'What are you in need of, or what has sent
you here?'
'Necessity,' said he. 'I am dying for want of food and drink.'
'Come inside, then,' she said; 'there is plenty of both here.'
Accordingly he went in to where she was, and she opened a large room
for him, where he saw a number of men lying asleep. She then set
food before him, and after that showed him to the room where the
others were. He lay down on one of the beds and fell sound asleep.
And now we must go back to the two that he left behind him in the
wood.
When nightfall and the time of the wild beasts came upon these, the
Englishman happened to climb up into the very same tree on which the
Scotsman was when he got a sight of the castle; and as soon as the
day began to dawn and the Englishman looked to the four quarters of
heaven, what did he see but the castle too! Off he went without
saying a word to the Irishman, and everything happened to him just
as it had done to the Scotsman.
The poor Irishman was now left all alone, and did not know where the
others had gone to, so he just stayed where he was, very sad and
miserable. When night came he climbed up into the same tree as the
Englishman had been on the night before. As soon as day came he also
saw the castle, and set out towards it; but when he reached it he
could see no signs of fire or living being about it. Before long,
however, he heard the window opened above his head, looked up, and
beheld the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He asked if she
would give him food and drink, and she answered kindly and heartily
that she would, if he would only come inside. This he did very
willingly, and she set before him food and drink that he had never
seen the like of before. In the room there was a bed, with diamond
rings hanging at every loop of the curtains, and everything that was
in the room besides astonished him so much that he actually forgot
that he was hungry. When she saw that he was not eating at all, she
asked him what he wanted yet, to which he replied that he would
neither eat nor drink until he knew who she was, or where she came
from, or who had put her there.
'I shall tell you that,' said she. 'I am an enchanted Princess, and
my father has promised that the man who releases me from the spell
shall have the third of his kingdom while he is alive, and the whole
of it after he is dead, and marry me as well. If ever I saw a man
who looked likely to do this, you are the one. I have been here for
sixteen years now, and no one who ever came to the castle has asked
me who I was, except yourself. Every other man that has come, so
long as I have been here, lies asleep in the big room down there.'
'Tell me, then,' said the Irishman, 'what is the spell that has been
laid on you, and how you can be freed from it.'
'There is a little room there,' said the Princess, 'and if I could
get a man to stay in it from ten o'clock till midnight for three
nights on end I should be freed from the spell.'
'I am the man for you, then,' said he; 'I will take on hand to do
it.'
Thereupon she brought him a pipe and tobacco, and he went into the
room; but before long he heard a hammering and knocking on the
outside of the door, and was told to open it
'I won't,' he said.
The next moment the door came flying in, and those outside along
with it. They knocked him down, and kicked him, and knelt on his
body till it came to midnight; but as soon as the cock crew they all
disappeared. The Irishman was little more than alive by this time.
As soon as daylight appeared the Princess came, and found him lying
full length on the floor, unable to speak a word. She took a bottle,
rubbed him from head to foot with something from it, and thereupon
he was as sound as ever; but after what he had got that night he was
very unwilling to try it a second time. The Princess, however,
entreated him to stay, saying that the next night would not be so
bad, and in the end he gave in and stayed.
When it was getting near midnight he heard them ordering him to open
the door, and there were three of them for every one that there had
been the previous evening. He did not make the slightest movement to
go out to them or to open the door, but before long they broke it
up, and were in on top of him. They laid hold of him, and kept
throwing him between them up to the ceiling, or jumping above him,
until the cock crew, when they all disappeared. When day came the
Princess went to the room to see if he was still alive, and taking
the bottle put it to his nostrils, which soon brought him to
himself. The first thing he said then was that he was a fool to go
on getting himself killed for anyone he ever saw, and was determined
to be off and stay there no longer, When the Princess learned his
intention she entreated him to stay, reminding him that another
night would free her from the spell. 'Besides,' she said, 'if there
is a single spark of life in you when the day comes, the stuff that
is in this bottle will make you as sound as ever you were.'
With all this the Irishman decided to stay; but that night there
were three at him for every one that was there the two nights
before, and it looked very unlikely that he would be alive in the
morning after all that he got. When morning dawned, and the Princess
came to see if he was still alive, she found him lying on the floor
as if dead. She tried to see if there was breath in him, but could
not quite make it out. Then she put her hand on his pulse, and found
a faint movement in it. Accordingly she poured what was in the
bottle on him, and before long he rose up on his feet, and was as
well as ever he was. So that business was finished, and the Princess
was freed from the spell.
The Princess then told the Irishman that she must go away for the
present, but would return for him in a few days in a carriage drawn
by four grey horses. He told her to 'be aisy,' and not speak like
that to him. 'I have paid dear for you for the last three nights,'
he said, 'if I have to part with you now;' but in the twinkling of
an eye she had disappeared. He did not know what to do with himself
when he saw that she was gone, but before she went she had given him
a little rod, with which he could, when he pleased, waken the men
who had been sleeping there, some of them for sixteen years.
After being thus left alone, he went in and stretched himself on
three chairs that were in the room, when what does he see coming in
at the door but a little fair-haired lad.
'Where did you come from, my lad?' said the Irishman.
'I came to make ready your food for you,' said he.
'Who told you to do that?' said the Irishman.
'My mistress,' answered the lad--'the Princess that was under the
spell and is now free.'
By this the Irishman knew that she had sent the lad to wait on him.
The lad also told him that his mistress wished him to be ready next
morning at nine o'clock, when she would come for him with the
carriage, as she had promised. He was greatly pleased at this, and
next morning, when the time was drawing near, went out into the
garden; but the little fair-haired lad took a big pin out of his
pocket, and stuck it into the back of the Irishman's coat without
his noticing it, whereupon he fell sound asleep.
Before long the Princess came with the carriage and four horses, and
asked the lad whether his master was awake. He said that he wasn't.
'It is bad for him,' said she, 'when the night is not long enough
for him to sleep. Tell him that if he doesn't meet me at this time
to-morrow it is not likely that he will ever see me again all his
life.'
As soon as she was gone the lad took the pin out of his master's
coat, who instantly awoke. The first word he said to the lad was,
'Have you seen her?'
'Yes,' said he, 'and she bade me tell you that if you don't meet her
at nine o'clock to-morrow you will never see her again.'
He was very sorry when he heard this, and could not understand why
the sleep should have fallen upon him just when she was coming. He
decided, however, to go early to bed that night, in order to rise in
time nest morning, and so he did. When it was getting near nine
o'clock he went out to the garden to wait till she came, and the
fair-haired lad along with him; but as soon as the lad got the
chance he stuck the pin into his master's coat again and he fell
asleep as before. Precisely at nine o'clock came the Princess in the
carriage with four horses, and asked the lad if his master had got
up yet; but he said 'No, he was asleep, just as he was the day
before.' 'Dear! dear!' said the Princess, 'I am sorry for him. Was
the sleep he had last night not enough for him? Tell him that he
will never see me here again; and here is a sword that you will give
him in my name, and my blessing along with it.'
With this she went off, and as soon as she had gone the lad took the
pin out of his master's coat. He awoke instantly, and the first word
he said was, 'Have you seen her?' The lad said that he had, and
there was the sword she had left for him. The Irishman was ready to
kill the lad out of sheer vexation, but when he gave a glance over
his shoulder not a trace of the fair-haired lad was left.
Being thus left all alone, he thought of going into the room where
all the men were lying asleep, and there among the rest he found his
two comrades who had deserted along with him. Then he remembered
what the Princess had told him--that he had only to touch them with
the rod she had given him and they would all awake; and the first he
touched were his own comrades. They started to their feet at once,
and he gave them as much silver and gold as they could carry when
they went away. There was plenty to do before he got all the others
wakened, for the two doors of the castle were crowded with them all
the day long.
The loss of the Princess, however, kept rankling in his mind day and
night, till finally he thought he would go about the world to see if
he could find anyone to give him news of her. So he took the best
horse in the stable and set out. Three years he spent travelling
through forests and wildernesses, but could find no one able to tell
him anything of the Princess. At last he fell into so great despair
that he thought he would put an end to his own life, and for this
purpose laid hold of the sword that she had given him by the hands
of the fair-haired lad; but on drawing it from its sheath he noticed
that there was some writing on one side of the blade. He looked at
this, and read there, 'You will find me in the Blue Mountains.' This
made him take heart again, and he gave up the idea of killing
himself, thinking that he would go on in hope of meeting some one
who could tell him where the Blue Mountains were. After he had gone
a long way without thinking where he was going, he saw at last a
light far away, and made straight for it. On reaching it he found it
came from a little house, and as soon as the man inside heard the
noise of the horse's feet he came out to see who was there. Seeing a
stranger on horseback, he asked what brought him there and where he
was going.
'I have lived here,' said he, 'for three hundred years, and all that
time I have not seen a single human being but yourself.'
'I have been going about for the last three years,' said the
Irishman, 'to see if I could find anyone who can tell me where the
Blue Mountains are.'
'Come in,' said the old man, 'and stay with me all night. I have a
book which contains the history of the world, which I shall go
through to-night, and if there is such a place as the Blue Mountains
in it we shall find it out.'
The Irishman stayed there all night, and as soon as morning came
rose to go. The old man said he had not gone to sleep all night for
going through the book, but there was not a word about the Blue
Mountains in it. 'But I'll tell you what,' he said, 'if there is
such a place on earth at all, I have a brother who lives nine
hundred miles from here, and he is sure to know where they are, if
anyone in this world does.' The Irishman answered that he could
never go these nine hundred miles, for his horse was giving in
already. 'That doesn't matter,' said the old man; 'I can do better
than that. I have only to blow my whistle and you will be at my
brother's house before nightfall.'
So he blew the whistle, and the Irishman did not know where on earth
he was until he found himself at the other old man's door, who also
told him that it was three hundred years since he had seen anyone,
and asked him where he was going.
'I am going to see if I can find anyone that can tell me where the
Blue Mountains are,' he said.
'If you will stay with me to-night,' said the old man, 'I have a
book of the history of the world, and I shall know where they are
before daylight, if there is such a place in it at all.'
He stayed there all night, but there was not a word in the book
about the Blue Mountains. Seeing that he was rather cast down, the
old man told him that he had a brother nine hundred miles away, and
that if information could be got about them from anyone it would be
from him; 'and I will enable you,' he said, 'to reach the place
where he lives before night.' So he blew his whistle, and the
Irishman landed at the brother's house before nightfall. When the
old man saw him he said he had not seen a single man for three
hundred years, and was very much surprised to see anyone come to him
now.
'Where are you going to?' he said.
'I am going about asking for the Blue Mountains,' said the Irishman.
'The Blue Mountains?' said the old man.
'Yes,' said the Irishman.
'I never heard the name before; but if they do exist I shall find
them out. I am master of all the birds in the world, and have only
to blow my whistle and every one will come to me. I shall then ask
each of them to tell where it came from, and if there is any way of
finding out the Blue Mountains that is it.'
So he blew his whistle, and when he blew it then all the birds of
the world began to gather. The old man questioned each of them as to
where they had come from, but there was not one of them that had
come from the Blue Mountains. After he had run over them all,
however, he missed a big Eagle that was wanting, and wondered that
it had not come. Soon afterwards he saw something big coming towards
him, darkening the sky. It kept coming nearer and growing bigger,
and what was this after all but the Eagle? When she arrived the old
man scolded her, and asked what had kept her so long behind.
'I couldn't help it,' she said; 'I had more than twenty times
further to come than any bird that has come here to-day.'
'Where have you come from, then?' said the old man.
'From the Blue Mountains,' said she.
'Indeed!' said the old man; and what are they doing there?'
'They are making ready this very day,' said the Eagle, 'for the
marriage of the daughter of the King of the Blue Mountains. For
three years now she has refused to marry anyone whatsoever, until
she should give up all hope of the coming of the man who released
her from the spell. Now she can wait no longer, for three years is
the time that she agreed with her father to remain without
marrying.'
The Irishman knew that it was for himself she had been waiting so
long, but he was unable to make any better of it, for he had no hope
of reaching the Blue Mountains all his life. The old man noticed how
sad he grew, and asked the Eagle what she would take for carrying
this man on her back to the Blue Mountains.
'I must have threescore cattle killed,' said she, 'and cut up into
quarters, and every time I look over my shoulder he must throw one
of them into my mouth.'
As soon as the Irishman and the old man heard her demand they went
out hunting, and before evening they had killed three-score cattle.
They made quarters of them, as the Eagle told them, and then the old
man asked her to lie down, till they would get it all heaped up on
her back. First of all, though, they had to get a ladder of fourteen
steps, to enable them to get on to the Eagle's back, and there they
piled up the meat as well as they could. Then the old man told the
Irishman to mount, and to remember to throw a quarter of beef to her
every time she looked round. He went up, and the old man gave the
Eagle the word to be off, which she instantly obeyed; and every time
she turned her head the Irishman threw a quarter of beef into her
mouth.
As they came near the borders of the kingdom of the Blue Mountains,
however, the beef was done, and, when the Eagle looked over her
shoulder, what was the Irishman at but throwing the stone between
her tail and her neck! At this she turned a complete somersault, and
threw the Irishman off into the sea, where he fell into the bay that
was right in front of the King's Palace. Fortunately the points of
his toes just touched the bottom, and he managed to get ashore.
When he went up into the town all the streets were gleaming with
light, and the wedding of the Princess was just about to begin. He
went into the first house he came to, and this happened to be the
house of the King's hen-wife. He asked the old woman what was
causing all the noise and light in the town.
'The Princess,' said she, 'is going to be married to-night against
her will, for she has been expecting every day that the man who
freed her from the spell would come.'
'There is a guinea for you,' said he; 'go and bring her here.'
The old woman went, and soon returned along with the Princess. She
and the Irishman recognised each other, and were married, and had a
great wedding that lasted for a year and a day.
The Blue Mountains
from the Yellow Fairy Book
Story Edited
by Andrew Lang |
