As we drove to walk the dog yesterday, my Mexican wife told me a story she had heard from an Argentinian podcaster who makes up stories. Though this one, interestingly, despite being told in Spanish, is about King Arthur. 1 Stories, of course, are the world’s oldest ways of communicating the various layers and levels of experience, so they fit right into to whatever it is this Series is cooking up! She told it from memory, altering it a little, and I have done the same as apparently did the podcaster Jorge Bucay (linked below). And so it goes with stories….
One day long ago, King Arthur was in his castle in Camelot languishing from an illness which had kept him bedridden for months. The Royal Physicians said that he did not have long to live. Sir Galahad, his most trusted Knight, was beside himself with worry. Then one of the serving girls, who lived in a village near the Dark Forest, whispered in his ear: ‘the King has been bewitched. My mother says that there are only two sorcerers who can cure him; the first is Merlin but it will take more than two weeks for him to arrive and that will be too late; the second is Brunhilde, whom the King banished years ago, but who lives only two days ride away past the Dark Forest in a high mountain cave just outside borders of our Kingdom. You should go ask Brunhilde if she will help.’
So Sir Galahad passed through the dangers, which this tale does not tell, of the Dark Forest, and found Brunhilde in her high mountain cave just outside the borders of the Kingdom. She was a fearsome old hag, incredibly ugly to gaze upon – indeed on those few occasions when she went out and about she was often cursed and spat upon. Despite this unappealing appearance, Sir Galahad approached and told her of King Arthur’s dire predicament.
Said the Witch: “I am aware that he has been put under a deadly spell that only I or Merlin can lift; but he banished me years ago, so even were I inclined to heal him, which I am not, what’s in it for me?’
‘I am sure we can arrange fair payment in gold and treasure’ replied the Knight.
‘But gold and this old lady do not agree’, said the Witch.
‘Or the King could lift your banishment,’ suggested the Knight.
‘But I am quite happy where I am, thank you very much; and in any case you are in no position to guarantee that the King, once awakened from the spell, will wish to end my exile. He is, after all, a King, and you know how they can be. You must offer me something you can honor yourself!”
Neither spoke, considering. And then she suggested: ‘if you agree to marry me once I have cured the King, then I will go with you back to the Kingdom, lift the spell and save his life.’
The Knight, reluctant as he was to spend even another minute in the company of this evil-smelling, unsightly hag, nevertheless agreed, and off they went together back to Camelot where the Witch proceeded to boil up an evil-smelling magic potion in the King’s large bedroom fireplace, chanting strange spells and performing strange dances. Finally, exhausted, she told Sir Galahad that she must now sleep on the floor alongside the King’s bed, but that when next he awoke, the King would be fully cured.
Sure enough, when next morning the King awoke, he sat up fully alert and immediately commanded Sir Galahad, who had kept watch in a chair by the foot of the King’s bed all night long, to bring him a breakfast. ‘I feel like I haven’t eaten in a month!’ exclaimed the King, lustily.
‘You haven’t taken solid food in almost two months, Sire’, said the good Knight, ‘and indeed we thought we were about to lose you, so deep had you sunk under a wicked spell.’
At that last word, the King suddenly espied the horrible hag lying on the floor on one side of his bed, an unkempt bundle of stinking rags, and demanded to know ‘who or what is this ghastly evil-smelling mess lying alongside me in the Royal Bedchamber?’
The Witch, as if summoned, awoke and sat up exclaiming: ‘Well, Sire, you know very well who I am; I am Brunhilde the Witch whom you banished years ago into lifetime exile.’
‘I do recall, very well, and the reasons I banished you; but I ask again: what are you doing in my bedchamber. Answer quick or I shall have your head, witch or no witch!’
‘Sire,’ said Sir Galahad, ‘she is here on my invitation and guarantee of safe passage. Once we realized that you were under a spell and not suffering from a common illness, we determined that by the time Merlin would have arrived, it would be too late; so I journeyed past the Dark Forest and its many monsters to reach Brunhilde’s cave where I beseached her to intervene on your behalf to lift the deadly spell threatening your life and the life of our Realm, which she now has done. In return I gave her my word as a Knight of the Round Table that I would take her as my wife until death do us part.’
The King, though taken aback, perceived that Sir Galahad, as well as behaving honorably, had put in motion events that had saved his life; so rather than punish him for violating the Witch’s exile, he generously rewarded him with many lands including the area of the Dark Forest at the border of his Kingdom immediately adjacent to Brunhilde’s cave, though he could not refrain from expressing grave reservations about the choice of bride, given that Sir Galahad was such a handsome, well-regarded Knight of the Round Table who so many of the fairest and noblest ladies of the land desired to claim as their own.
The next day they held a private wedding ceremony witnessed only by His Majesty, after which Sir Galahad and his hideous, stinking bride left for her home. On the first evening back at her cave, Brunhilde made to enter and prepare the it for their first conjugal night but Sir Galahad, still struck by her intense ugliness, demurred, preferring to make camp outside. However, whilst mulling things over alone at his camp fire, he reflected that he wasn’t living up to his end of the sacred bargain and so begged permission of Brunhilde to enter her cave, to which request she, in a surprisingly sweet voice, assented.
On turning the corner after entering the mouth of the cave, Sir Galahad breathlessly beheld the most beautiful maid he had e’er set his gaze upon, rendering him speechless in wonder. Gently she approached him and, softly placing her hand on his forearm, made the following offer:
‘You have treated me kindly, Good and Gentle Knight, and kept your word though I know it must have been hard; in return I appear this way for you as reward for your kindness and honour. Though now you must decide: do you wish me to appear this way during the nights, or during the days.’
Sir Galahad hesitated, considering. If she appeared like this during the night, he knew he would be the happiest man in the kingdom for the rest of his days, albeit with none to witness; but if she appeared like this during the day, then the King and all the Realm would know how fortunate he was, how wise his choice had been and his power and influence would surely grow.
‘Choose now, Sir!’ insisted the Witch.
Spontaneously he replied: ‘Lady, you can appear as you wish whenever you wish as it pleases you.’ At which point the lovely Lady laughed, her voice like fresh spring waters bubbling gently in a highland stream, saying ‘Verily, dear Knight, you have chosen well; for you have treated me with a kindness and generosity I ne’er yet encountered from any other person, man or woman, in return for which I can now manifest, for your pleasure, in a way that is pleasing and resplendent, and thus shall I choose.’
And thus she did.
And so for the rest of their days she was the most beautiful Lady in all the Realm, and Sir Galahad the most contented, prosperous and honorable, of Knights much beloved by his King and all other subjects of the Realm.
MORAL:
No matter how we strive to banish the Dark and Ugly sides of our Nature, we must value them for all have a place under Heaven in this our Sacred Realm; moreover, once we have made a vow we should keep it no matter the consequences trusting that a just reward will be ours in this life or the next.
Enjoyed the story. Jung would have heartily approved..