Windsor
Tales
from the British Isles
Windsor
An English Tale
DAME GOODY was a nurse that looked after sick people, and minded babies. One night she was woke up at midnight, and when she went downstairs, she saw a strange squinny-eyed, little ugly old fellow, who asked her to come to his wife who was too ill to mind her baby. Dame Goody didn't like the look of the old fellow, but business is business; so she popped on her things, and went down to him. And when she got down to him, he whisked her up on to a large coal-black horse with fiery eyes, that stood at the door; and soon they were going at a rare pace, Dame Goody holding on to the old fellow like grim death.
They rode, and they rode, till at last they stopped before a cottage door. So they got down and went in and found the good woman abed with the children playing about; and the babe, a fine bouncing boy, beside her.
Dame
Goody took the babe, which was as fine a baby boy as you'd wish to see.
The mother, when she handed the baby to Dame Goody to mind, gave her a
box of ointment, and told her to stroke the baby's eyes with it as soon
as it opened them. After a while it began to open its eyes. Dame Goody
saw that it had squinny eyes just like its father. So she took the box
of ointment and stroked its two eyelids with it. But she couldn't help
wondering what it was for, as she had never seen such a thing done before.
So she looked to see if the others were looking, and, when they were not
noticing, she stroked her own right eyelid with the ointment.
No sooner had she done so, than everything seemed changed about her. The cottage became elegantly furnished. The mother in the bed was a beautiful lady, dressed up in white silk. The little baby was still more beautiful than before, and its clothes were made of a sort of silvery gauze. Its little brothers and sisters around the bed were flat-nosed imps with pointed ears, who made faces at one another, and scratched their polls. Sometimes they would pull the sick lady's ears with their long and hairy paws. In fact they were up to all kinds of mischief; and Dame Goody knew that she had got into a house of pixies. But she said nothing to nobody, and as soon as the lady was well enough to mind the baby, she asked the old fellow to take her back home. So he came round to the door with the coal-black horse with eyes of fire, and off they went as fast as before, or perhaps a little faster, till they came to Dame Goody's cottage, where the squinny-eyed old fellow lifted her down and left her, thanking her civilly enough, and paying her more than she had ever been paid before for such service.
Now next day happened to be market-day, and as Dame Goody had been away from home, she wanted many things in the house, and trudged off to get them at the market. As she was buying the things she wanted, who should she see but the squinny-eyed old fellow who had taken her on the coal-black horse. And what do you think he was doing? Why he went about from stall to stall taking up things from each, here some fruit, and there some eggs, and so on; and no one seemed to take any notice.
Now Dame Goody did not think it her business to interfere, but she thought she ought not to let so good a customer pass without speaking. So she ups to him and bobs a curtsey and said: " Gooden, sir, I hopes as how your good lady and the little one are as well as--"
But she couldn't finish what she was a-saying, for the funny old fellow started back in surprise, and he says to her, says he: " What! do you see me to-day ? "
" See you," says she, " why, of course I do, as plain as the sun in the skies, and what's more," says she, " I see you are busy too, into the bargain."
" Ah, you see too much," said he; "now, pray, with which eye do you see all this?"
" With the right eye to be sure," said she, as proud as can be to find him out.
"The ointment! The ointment!" cried the old pixy thief. "Take that for meddling with what don't concern you: you shall see me no more." And with that he struck her on her right eye, and she couldn't see him anymore; and, what was worse, she was blind on the right side from that hour till the day of her death.
From English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs illustrated by John D. Batten
An English Tale
Once upon a time there was a king and a queen, as in many lands have been. The king had a daughter, Anne, and the queen had one, named Kate, but Anne was far bonnier than the queen's daughter though they loved one another like real sisters. The queen was, jealous of the king's daughter being bonnier than her own, and cast about to spoil her beauty. So she took counsel of the henwife who told her to send the lassie to her next morning fasting.
So next morning , the queen said to Anne, " Go, my dear, to the henwife in the glen, and ask her for some eggs." So Anne set out but as she passed through the kitchen she saw a crust, and she took and munched it a, she went along
When she came to the henwife's she asked for eggs, as she had been told to do; the henwife said to her, " Lift the lid off that pot there and see." The lassie did so, but nothing happened. "Go home to your minnie and tell her to keep her larder door better locked," said the henwife. So she went home to the queen and told her what the henwife had said. The queen knew from this that the lassie had had something to eat, so watched the next morning and sent her away fasting; but the princess saw some country-folk picking peas by the roadside, and being kind she spoke to them and took a handful of the peas which she eat by the way.
When she came to the henwife's, she said, "Lift the lid off the pot and you'll see." So Anne lifted the lid but nothing happened. Then the henwife was rare angry and said to Anne, "Tell your minnie the pot won't boil if the fire's away." So Anne went home and told the queen.
The third day the queen goes along with the girl herself to the henwife. Now, this time, when Anne lifted the lid off the pot, off falls her own pretty head, and on jumps a sheep's head.
So the queen was now quite satisfied, and went back home.
Her own daughter, Kate, however, took a fine linen cloth and wrapped it round her sister's head and took her by the hand and they both went out to seek their fortune. They went on, and they went on, and they went on, till they came to a castle. Kate knocked at the door and asked for a night's lodging for herself and a sick sister. They went in and found it was a king's castle, who had two sons, and one of them was sickening away to death and no one could find out what ailed him. And the curious thing was that whoever watched him at night was never seen any more. So the king had offered a peck of silver to any one who would stop up with him. Now Katie was a very brave brave girl, so she offered to sit up with him.
Till midnight all went well. As twelve o'clock rang, however, the sick prince rose, dressed himself, and slipped downstairs. Kate followed, but he didn't seem to notice her. The prince went to the stable, saddled his horse, called his hound, jumped into the saddle, and Kate leapt lightly up behind him. Away rode the prince and Kate through the greenwood, Kate, as they pass, plucking nuts from the trees and filling her apron with them. They rode on and on till they came to a green hill. The prince here drew bridle and spoke, " Open, open, green hill, and let the young prince in with his horse and his hound," and Kate added, " and his lady him behind."
Immediately the green hill opened and they passed in. The prince entered a magnificent hall, brightly lighted up, and many beautiful fairies surrounded the prince and led him off to the dance. Meanwhile, Kate, without being noticed, hid herself behind the door. There she saw the prince dancing, and dancing, and dancing, till he could dance no longer and fell upon a couch. Then the fairies would fan him till he could rise again and go on dancing.
At last the cock crew, and the prince made all haste to get on horseback;
Kate jumped up behind, and home they rode. When the morning sun rose they
came in and found Kate sitting down by the fire and cracking her nuts.
Kate said the prince had a good night; but she would not sit up another
night unless she was to get a peck of gold. The second night passed as
the first had done. The prince got up at midnight and rode away to the
green hill and the fairy ball, and Kate went with him, gathering nuts as
they rode through the forest. This time she did not watch the prince, for
she knew he would dance, and dance, and dance. But she saw a fairy baby
playing with a wand, and overheard one of the fairies say: " Three strokes
of that wand would make Kate's sick sister as bonnie as ever she was."
So Kate rolled nuts to the fairy baby, and rolled nuts till the baby toddled
after the nuts and let fall the wand, and Kate took it up and put it in
her apron. And at cock crow they rode home as before, and the moment Kate
got home to her room she rushed and touched Anne three times with the wand,
and the nasty sheep's head fell off and she was her own pretty self again.
The third night Kate consented to watch, only if she should marry the sick
prince. All went on as on the first two nights. This time the fairy baby
was playing with a birdie; Kate heard one of the fairies say: " Three bites
of that birdie would make the sick prince as well as ever he was." Kate
rolled all the nuts she had to the fairy baby till the birdie was dropped,
and Kate put it in her apron.
At cockcrow they set off again, but instead of cracking her nuts as she used to do, this time Kate plucked the feathers off and cooked the birdie. Soon there arose a very savoury smell. "Oh!" said the sick prince, " I wish I had a bite of that birdie," so Kate gave him a bite of the birdie, and he rose up on his elbow. By-and-by he cried out again: " Oh, if I had another bite of that birdie!" so Kate gave him another bite, and he sat up on his bed. Then he said again: "Oh! if I but had a third bite of that birdie!" So Kate gave him a third bite, and he rose hale and strong, dressed himself, and sat down by the fire, and when the folk came in next morning they found Kate and the young prince cracking nuts together. Meanwhile his brother had seen Annie and had fallen in love with her, as everybody did who saw her sweet pretty face. So the sick son married the well sister, and the well son married the sick sister, and they all lived happy and died happy, and never drank out of a dry cappy.
From English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs illustrated by John D. Batten
A Welsh Tale
UP in the Black Mountains in Caermarthenshire
lies the lake known as Lyn y Van Vach. To the margin of this lake the shepherd
of Myddvai once led his lambs, and lay there whilst they sought pasture.
Suddenly, from the dark waters of the lake, he saw three maidens rise.
Shaking the bright drops from their hair and gliding to the shore, they
wandered about amongst his flock. They had more than mortal beauty, and
he was filled with love for her that came nearest to him. He offered her
the
bread he had with him, and she
took it and tried it, but then sang to him:
Hard-baked is thy bread,
'Tis not easy to catch me,
and then ran off laughing to the lake.
Next day he took with him bread not so well done, and watched for the maidens. When they came ashore he offered his bread as before, and the maiden tasted it and sang :
Unbaked is thy bread,
I will not have thee,
and again disappeared in the waves.
A third time did the shepherd of Myddvai try to attract the maiden, and this time he offered her bread that he had found floating about near the shore. This pleased her, and she promised to become his wife if he were able to pick her out from among her sisters on the following day. When the time came the shepherd knew his love by the strap of her sandal. Then she told him she would be as good a wife to him as any earthly maiden could be unless he should strike her three times without cause. Of course he deemed that this could never be; and she, summoning from the lake three cows, two oxen, and a bull, as her marriage portion, was led homeward by him as his bride.
The years passed
happily, and three children were born to the shepherd and the lake-maiden.
But one day here were going to a christening, and she said to her husband
it was far to walk, so he told her to go for the horses.
"I will, said she, if you bring
me my gloves which I've left in the house."
But when he came back with the gloves, he found she had not gone for the horses; so he tapped her lightly on the shoulder with the gloves, and said, "Go, go."
" That's one," said she.
Another time they were at a wedding, when suddenly the lake-maiden fell a-sobbing and a-weeping, amid the joy and mirth of all around her.
Her husband tapped her on the shoulder, and asked her, "Why do you weep?"
" Because they are entering into trouble; and trouble is upon you; for that is the second causeless blow you have given me. Be careful ; the third is the last."
The husband was careful never to strike her again. But one day at a funeral she suddenly burst out into fits of laughter. Her husband forgot, and touched her rather roughly on the shoulder, saying, "Is this a time for laughter? "
" I laugh," she said, "because those that die go out of trouble, but your trouble has come. The last blow has been struck; our marriage is at an end, and so farewell." And with that she rose up and left the house and went to their home.
Then she, looking round upon her home, called to the cattle she had brought with her:
Brindle cow, white speckled,
Spotted cow, bold freckled,
Old white face, and gray Geringer,
And the white bull from the king's
coast,
Grey ox, and black calf,
All, all, follow me home,
Now the black calf had just been slaughtered, and was hanging on the hook; but it got off the hook alive and well and followed her; and the oxen, though they were ploughing, trailed the plough with them and did her bidding. So she fled to the lake again, they following her, and with them plunged into the dark waters. And to this day is the furrow seen which the plough left as it was dragged across the mountains to the tarn.
Only once did she come again, when her sons were grown to manhood, and then she gave them gifts of healing by which they won the name of Meddygon Myddvai, the physicians of Myddvai.
Excerpt from:
Celtic Fairy Tales collected
by Joseph Jacobs
Illustrated by John D. Batten