The Terrible Head

THE TERRIBLE HEAD

Once upon a time there was a king whose only child was a girl. Now the

King had been very anxious to have a son, or at least a grandson, to

come after him, but he was told by a prophet whom he consulted that his

own daughter’s son should kill him. This news terrified him so much that

he determined never to let his daughter be married, for he thought it

was better to have no grandson at all than to be killed by his grandson.

He therefore called his workmen together, and bade them dig a deep round

hole in the earth, and then he had a prison of brass built in the hole,

and then, when it was finished, he locked up his daughter. No man ever

saw her, and she never saw even the fields and the sea, but only the sky

and the sun, for there was a wide open window in the roof of the house

of brass. So the Princess would sit looking up at the sky, and watching

the clouds float across, and wondering whether she should ever get out

of her prison. Now one day it seemed to her that the sky opened above

her, and a great shower of shining gold fell through the window in the

roof, and lay glittering in her room. Not very long after, the Princess

had a baby, a little boy, but when the King her father heard of it he

was very angry and afraid, for now the child was born that should be his

death. Yet, cowardly as he was, he had not quite the heart to kill

the Princess and her baby outright, but he had them put in a huge

brass-bound chest and thrust out to sea, that they might either be

drowned or starved, or perhaps come to a country where they would be out

of his way.

So the Princess and the baby floated and drifted in the chest on the sea

all day and night, but the baby was not afraid of the waves nor of the

wind, for he did not know that they could hurt him, and he slept quite

soundly. And the Princess sang a song over him, and this was her song:

“Child, my child, how sound you sleep!

Though your mother’s care is deep,

You can lie with heart at rest

In the narrow brass-bound chest;

In the starless night and drear

You can sleep, and never hear

Billows breaking, and the cry

Of the night-wind wandering by;

In soft purple mantle sleeping

With your little face on mine,

Hearing not your mother weeping

And the breaking of the brine.”

Well, the daylight came at last, and the great chest was driven by the

waves against the shore of an island. There the brass-bound chest lay,

with the Princess and her baby in it, till a man of that country came

past, and saw it, and dragged it on to the beach, and when he had broken

it open, behold! there was a beautiful lady and a little boy. So he took

them home, and was very kind to them, and brought up the boy till he was

a young man. Now when the boy had come to his full strength the King of

that country fell in love with his mother, and wanted to marry her, but

he knew that she would never part from her boy. So he thought of a plan

to get rid of the boy, and this was his plan: A great Queen of a country

not far off was going to be married, and this king said that all his

subjects must bring him wedding presents to give her. And he made a

feast to which he invited them all, and they all brought their presents;

some brought gold cups, and some brought necklaces of gold and amber,

and some brought beautiful horses; but the boy had nothing, though he

was the son of a princess, for his mother had nothing to give him. Then

the rest of the company began to laugh at him, and the King said: “If

you have nothing else to give, at least you might go and fetch the

Terrible Head.”

The boy was proud, and spoke without thinking:

“Then I swear that I will bring the Terrible Head, if it may be

brought by a living man. But of what head you speak I know not.”

Then they told him that somewhere, a long way off, there dwelt three

dreadful sisters, monstrous ogrish women, with golden wings and claws

of brass, and with serpents growing on their heads instead of hair. Now

these women were so awful to look on that whoever saw them was turned

at once into stone. And two of them could not be put to death, but the

youngest, whose face was very beautiful, could be killed, and it was

her head that the boy had promised to bring. You may imagine it was no

easy adventure.

When he heard all this he was perhaps sorry that he had sworn to bring

the Terrible Head, but he was determined to keep his oath. So he went

out from the feast, where they all sat drinking and making merry, and

he walked alone beside the sea in the dusk of the evening, at the place

where the great chest, with himself and his mother in it, had been cast

ashore.

There he went and sat down on a rock, looking toward the sea, and

wondering how he should begin to fulfill his vow. Then he felt some one

touch him on the shoulder; and he turned, and saw a young man like a

king’s son, having with him a tall and beautiful lady, whose blue eyes

shone like stars. They were taller than mortal men, and the young man

had a staff in his hand with golden wings on it, and two golden serpents

twisted round it, and he had wings on his cap and on his shoes. He spoke

to the boy, and asked him why he was so unhappy; and the boy told him

how he had sworn to bring the Terrible Head, and knew not how to begin

to set about the adventure.

Then the beautiful lady also spoke, and said that “it was a foolish oath

and a hasty, but it might be kept if a brave man had sworn it.” Then the

boy answered that he was not afraid, if only he knew the way.

Then the lady said that to kill the dreadful woman with the golden wings

and the brass claws, and to cut off her head, he needed three things:

first, a Cap of Darkness, which would make him invisible when he wore

it; next, a Sword of Sharpness, which would cleave iron at one blow; and

last, the Shoes of Swiftness, with which he might fly in the air.

The boy answered that he knew not where such things were to be procured,

and that, wanting them, he could only try and fail. Then the young man,

taking off his own shoes, said: “First, you shall use these shoes till

you have taken the Terrible Head, and then you must give them back to

me. And with these shoes you will fly as fleet as a bird, or a thought,

over the land or over the waves of the sea, wherever the shoes know the

way. But there are ways which they do not know, roads beyond the borders

of the world. And these roads have you to travel. Now first you must

go to the Three Gray Sisters, who live far off in the north, and are so

very cold that they have only one eye and one tooth among the three. You

must creep up close to them, and as one of them passes the eye to the

other you must seize it, and refuse to give it up till they have told

you the way to the Three Fairies of the Garden, and they will give you

the Cap of Darkness and the Sword of Sharpness, and show you how to wing

beyond this world to the land of the Terrible Head.”

Then the beautiful lady said: “Go forth at once, and do not return to

say good-by to your mother, for these things must be done quickly, and

the Shoes of Swiftness themselves will carry you to the land of the

Three Gray Sisters--for they know the measure of that way.”

So the boy thanked her, and he fastened on the Shoes of Swiftness, and

turned to say good-by to the young man and the lady. But, behold! they

had vanished, he knew not how or where! Then he leaped in the air to try

the Shoes of Swiftness, and they carried him more swiftly than the wind,

over the warm blue sea, over the happy lands of the south, over the

northern peoples who drank mare’s milk and lived in great wagons,

wandering after their flocks. Across the wide rivers, where the wild

fowl rose and fled before him, and over the plains and the cold North

Sea he went, over the fields of snow and the hills of ice, to a place

where the world ends, and all water is frozen, and there are no men, nor

beasts, nor any green grass. There in a blue cave of the ice he found

the Three Gray Sisters, the oldest of living things. Their hair was as

white as the snow, and their flesh of an icy blue, and they mumbled and

nodded in a kind of dream, and their frozen breath hung round them like

a cloud. Now the opening of the cave in the ice was narrow, and it

was not easy to pass in without touching one of the Gray Sisters. But,

floating on the Shoes of Swiftness, the boy just managed to steal in,

and waited till one of the sisters said to another, who had their one

eye:

“Sister, what do you see? do you see old times coming back?”

“No, sister.”

“Then give me the eye, for perhaps I can see farther than you.”

Then the first sister passed the eye to the second, but as the second

groped for it the boy caught it cleverly out of her hand.

“Where is the eye, sister?” said the second gray woman.

“You have taken it yourself, sister,” said the first gray woman.

“Have you lost the eye, sister? have you lost the eye?” said the third

gray woman; “shall we never find it again, and see old times coming

back?”

Then the boy slipped from behind them out of the cold cave into the air,

and he laughed aloud.

When the gray women heard that laugh they began to weep, for now they

knew that a stranger had robbed them, and that they could not help

themselves, and their tears froze as they fell from the hollows where no

eyes were, and rattled on the icy ground of the cave. Then they began to

implore the boy to give them their eye back again, and he could not help

being sorry for them, they were so pitiful. But he said he would never

give them the eye till they told him the way to the Fairies of the

Garden.

Then they wrung their hands miserably, for they guessed why he had come,

and how he was going to try to win the Terrible Head. Now the Dreadful

Women were akin to the Three Gray Sisters, and it was hard for them to

tell the boy the way. But at last they told him to keep always south,

and with the land on his left and the sea on his right, till he reached

the Island of the Fairies of the Garden. Then he gave them back the

eye, and they began to look out once more for the old times coming back

again. But the boy flew south between sea and land, keeping the land

always on his left hand, till he saw a beautiful island crowned with

flowering trees. There he alighted, and there he found the Three Fairies

of the Garden. They were like three very beautiful young women, dressed

one in green, one in white, and one in red, and they were dancing and

singing round an apple tree with apples of gold, and this was their

song:

   THE SONG OF THE WESTERN FAIRIES



 Round and round the apples of gold,

   Round and round dance we;

 Thus do we dance from the days of old

   About the enchanted tree;

 Round, and round, and round we go,

 While the spring is green, or the stream shall flow,

   Or the wind shall stir the sea!



 There is none may taste of the golden fruit

   Till the golden new time come

 Many a tree shall spring from shoot,

 Many a blossom be withered at root,

   Many a song be dumb;

 Broken and still shall be many a lute

   Or ever the new times come!



 Round and round the tree of gold,

   Round and round dance we,

 So doth the great world spin from of old,

 Summer and winter, and fire and cold,

 Song that is sung, and tale that is told,

 Even as we dance, that fold and unfold

   Round the stem of the fairy tree!

These grave dancing fairies were very unlike the Grey Women, and they

were glad to see the boy, and treated him kindly. Then they asked him

why he had come; and he told them how he was sent to find the Sword of

Sharpness and the Cap of Darkness. And the fairies gave him these, and

a wallet, and a shield, and belted the sword, which had a diamond blade,

round his waist, and the cap they set on his head, and told him that now

even they could not see him though they were fairies. Then he took it

off, and they each kissed him and wished him good fortune, and then they

began again their eternal dance round the golden tree, for it is their

business to guard it till the new times come, or till the world’s

ending. So the boy put the cap on his head, and hung the wallet round

his waist, and the shining shield on his shoulders, and flew beyond the

great river that lies coiled like a serpent round the whole world. And

by the banks of that river, there he found the three Terrible Women all

asleep beneath a poplar tree, and the dead poplar leaves lay all about

them. Their golden wings were folded and their brass claws were crossed,

and two of them slept with their hideous heads beneath their wings

like birds, and the serpents in their hair writhed out from under the

feathers of gold. But the youngest slept between her two sisters, and

she lay on her back, with her beautiful sad face turned to the sky; and

though she slept her eyes were wide open. If the boy had seen her he

would have been changed into stone by the terror and the pity of it,

she was so awful; but he had thought of a plan for killing her without

looking on her face. As soon as he caught sight of the three from far

off he took his shining shield from his shoulders, and held it up like

a mirror, so that he saw the Dreadful Women reflected in it, and did not

see the Terrible Head itself. Then he came nearer and nearer, till he

reckoned that he was within a sword’s stroke of the youngest, and he

guessed where he should strike a back blow behind him. Then he drew the

Sword of Sharpness and struck once, and the Terrible Head was cut from

the shoulders of the creature, and the blood leaped out and struck him

like a blow. But he thrust the Terrible Head into his wallet, and flew

away without looking behind. Then the two Dreadful Sisters who were left

wakened, and rose in the air like great birds; and though they could not

see him because of his Cap of Darkness, they flew after him up the wind,

following by the scent through the clouds, like hounds hunting in a

wood. They came so close that he could hear the clatter of their golden

wings, and their shrieks to each other: “here, here,” “_no, there;

this way he went,_” as they chased him. But the Shoes of Swiftness flew

too fast for them, and at last their cries and the rattle of their wings

died away as he crossed the great river that runs round the world.

Now when the horrible creatures were far in the distance, and the boy

found himself on the right side of the river, he flew straight eastward,

trying to seek his own country. But as he looked down from the air he

saw a very strange sight--a beautiful girl chained to a stake at the

high-water mark of the sea. The girl was so frightened or so tired that

she was only prevented from falling by the iron chain about her waist,

and there she hung, as if she were dead. The boy was very sorry for her

and flew down and stood beside her. When he spoke she raised her head

and looked round, but his voice only seemed to frighten her. Then he

remembered that he was wearing the Cap of Darkness, and that she could

only hear him, not see him. So he took it off, and there he stood before

her, the handsomest young man she had ever seen in all her life, with

short curly yellow hair, and blue eyes, and a laughing face. And he

thought her the most beautiful girl in the world. So first with one blow

of the Sword of Sharpness he cut the iron chain that bound her, and then

he asked her what she did there, and why men treated her so cruelly. And

she told him that she was the daughter of the King of that country, and

that she was tied there to be eaten by a monstrous beast out of the sea;

for the beast came and devoured a girl every day. Now the lot had fallen

on her; and as she was just saying this a long fierce head of a cruel

sea creature rose out of the waves and snapped at the girl. But the

beast had been too greedy and too hurried, so he missed his aim the

first time. Before he could rise and bite again the boy had whipped the

Terrible Head out of his wallet and held it up. And when the sea beast

leaped out once more its eyes fell on the head, and instantly it was

turned into a stone. And the stone beast is there on the sea-coast to

this day.

Then the boy and the girl went to the palace of the King, her father,

where everyone was weeping for her death, and they could hardly believe

their eyes when they saw her come back well. And the King and Queen made

much of the boy, and could not contain themselves for delight when they

found he wanted to marry their daughter. So the two were married with

the most splendid rejoicings, and when they had passed some time at

court they went home in a ship to the boy’s own country. For he could

not carry his bride through the air, so he took the Shoes of Swiftness,

and the Cap of Darkness, and the Sword of Sharpness up to a lonely place

in the hills. There he left them, and there they were found by the man

and woman who had met him at home beside the sea, and had helped him to

start on his journey.

When this had been done the boy and his bride set forth for home, and

landed at the harbor of his native land. But whom should he meet in the

very street of the town but his own mother, flying for her life from the

wicked King, who now wished to kill her because he found that she would

never marry him! For if she had liked the King ill before, she liked him

far worse now that he had caused her son to disappear so suddenly. She

did not know, of course, where the boy had gone, but thought the King

had slain him secretly. So now she was running for her very life,

and the wicked King was following her with a sword in his hand. Then,

behold! she ran into her son’s very arms, but he had only time to kiss

her and step in front of her, when the King struck at him with his

sword. The boy caught the blow on his shield, and cried to the King:

“I swore to bring you the Terrible Head, and see how I keep my oath!”

Then he drew forth the head from his wallet, and when the King’s eyes

fell on it, instantly he was turned into stone, just as he stood there

with his sword lifted!

Now all the people rejoiced, because the wicked King should rule them no

longer. And they asked the boy to be their king, but he said no, he must

take his mother home to her father’s house. So the people chose for king

the man who had been kind to his mother when first she was cast on the

island in the great chest.

Presently the boy and his mother and his wife set sail for his mother’s

own country, from which she had been driven so unkindly. But on the way

they stayed at the court of a king, and it happened that he was

holding games, and giving prizes to the best runners, boxers, and

quoit-throwers. Then the boy would try his strength with the rest, but

he threw the quoit so far that it went beyond what had ever been thrown

before, and fell in the crowd, striking a man so that he died. Now this

man was no other than the father of the boy’s mother, who had fled away

from his own kingdom for fear his grandson should find him and kill him

after all. Thus he was destroyed by his own cowardice and by chance, and

thus the prophecy was fulfilled. But the boy and his wife and his mother

went back to the kingdom that was theirs, and lived long and happily

after all their troubles.