The King and the Lamp

by Duncan Williamson

  ‘Why,’ she said, ‘what happened to Ir Majesty the King, what’s the trouble?’

  The huntsmen told her, ‘He has the bearskin.’

  She says, ‘Prob’ly if we take the bearskin away – it’s prob’ly that that’s upsettin him.’ She removed the bearskin from the floor of the palace but it made no difference.

  The king had his meals, he had his lunch but he had seemingly lost all interest in life in any way. He talked to the queen, he talked to everybody, but he just felt so upset that there’s nothing in the world seemed to excite him. After him being a great hunter and a great huntsman nobody could excite him anymore.

  Now the queen stood it for a few months but she couldn’t stand it any longer. She could see her king was just fading away, he just wanted to sit in his parlour and be by himself. He was a great sportsman and a great swordsman, and he just seemed to have lost all interest in life for evermore! He didn’t want to do anything, nothing in the world. The queen was very upset by this.

  So one day she could stand it no more, she called the three palace magicians together, told them the story I’m telling you. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘you must do something for the king. He doesna cuddle me, he doesn’t make love tae me, he just sits there, he has his meals, he is completely lost! He’s only a livin dead person. You must do something to excite him to bring him back to his own way – an make him a king once more! An his people are worried, he has never put in an appearance before his people. He disna join the huntsmen, he disna do nothing, he just sits there like a statue. He takes his meals … He disna even speak to me! He is lost, he’s in another world! What has happened to our king?’

  So the three wise men, the magicians of the palace, got their heads together and said, ‘We know his trouble – it was the bear – the sadness of seein the blood fae the bear that made him so sad, he disna want to hunt anymore. But if we could between us construct something that would excite him an make him be a king again, then everything’d be all right.’ So the three court magicians put their heads together. ‘Well,’ they said, ‘what cuid we do to excite him?’

  One said, ‘We need tae construct something to raise Our Majesty’s attention. What cuid we do?’ They were very wise these men, very clever and they worked in magic in the king’s court.

  One said, ‘If we could construct an animal, a special animal that … who would be swifter than the wind, fiercer than the lion an fiercer than a boar, that everyone was afraid of, an we’d beg the king to help us; then mebbe we cuid bring im back from his doldrums an make him a king once more.’

  So the three magicians put their heads together and one said, ‘Well, I could use ma power tae give it the body of a pony who will ride an fly swifter an the wind.’

  And the second one said, ‘I could give it the fierceness an the tusk of a boar.’

  And the third one said, ‘I could give it the power and the tail of a lion.’

  So they put their heads together once more and said, ‘What hev we constructed between us? We hev a horse that flies swifter than the wind, we have the tusk of a boar and the tail of a lion. Well, there’s no problem: we’ll give it the tail of a lion, we’ll give it the tusk of a boar and we’ll give it the body of a pony and we’ll set it free! And we’ll tell the king that there’s a magic animal in his kingdom that no huntsman cuid ever catch – but we’ll send it before the huntsmen.’

  So lo and behold the three magicians constructed an animal between them: they gave it the beautiful slender body of the swiftest pony that ever rode on the earth, they gave it the tusk of a boar – but instead of putting it on its mouth – they put it on his forehead. They gave it the determination of a lion and the power of the lion – but instead of giving it the lion’s body – they put the lion’s tail on it. ‘And what,’ did they say, ‘we’re gaunnae call it?’

  ‘Well,’ one said, ‘we universt between us1 to construct it … we’ll call it a “unicorn”.’ And there lo and behold became the birth of the unicorn, the most beautiful, the most wonderful, the most swift and the most fierce animal of all. These three wise men set it free to roam the kingdom – to interrupt every huntsman that ever went on their way.

  So naturally, these huntsmen who had got tired of waiting for the king and tired waiting for food, knew that there’s no way they could coax the king to go with them anymore, went on the hunt without the king! And they hunted. But whenever they went to hunt, up jumped before them this beautiful animal – white as white could be – a beautiful pony, the tail of a lion and the tusk of a boar straight from its forehead. And it ran before them and they hunted it and they searched for it. But it was fiercest and it attacked them, it threw them off their horses, but no way in the world could they hurt it, no way in the world could they catch it. So after many days hunting it, for weeks and months they finally rode back to the palace bedraggled and tired, with not one single thing because of the interest to catch this animal.

  When one of the old court magicians walked out and he said to them, ‘What is yir problem, men? Why hev you come home from the hunt so empty-handit?’

  And they said, ‘We have come home empty-handed because we cuid not catch nothin, because a animal that we hev never saw in wir life – with a horn in its forehead, with the swiftness of a pony, with the fierceness of a lion an the tail of lion – has come before us at every turn, an we tried tae fight it but it was impossible.’

  ‘We must tell the king,’ said the court magician, ‘we must tell the king about this animal! Mebbe it will get him out of his doldrums.’

  So they walked up, they told the king and they begged, ‘Master, Master, Master, deares Huntsman, dearest King, Our Majesty, we hev failed in wir hunt an the people in the village are dyin with hunger because we’ve no food fir them.’

  ‘Why,’ said the king, ‘yese are huntmen aren’t ye? Hevna I taught yese tae hunt?’

  ‘But, Majesty,’ they said, ‘it’s a animal … this bein, this thing that we’ve never saw in wir lives – the swiftness of a pony an the horn on its head of a boar an the tail of a lion – who’s as swift an so completely swift that drives before us, that we jist can’t catch it.’

  ‘There never was such a thing,’ said the king, ‘not in my kingdom!’

  ‘Yes, Our Majesty,’ they said, ‘there is such a thing. He interrupts us an he interferes with our hunt, an every minute he disappears an then he’s gone, we jist can’t go on with the hunt an wir people are dyin with hunger. You mus help us!’

  But then said the king, ‘Is it true? Tell me, please, is there something that I’ve never seen in my kingdom?’

  ‘Yes, Our Majesty,’ they said, ‘there’s something you’ve never seen. This animal is bewitched!’

  And at that the king woke up, he rubbed his eyes and the thought of the bear was gone from him for everymore. He said, ‘If there’s something that interrupts my people and interrupts my huntsmen, then I mus find the truth!’ So the king calls for his horse, for his steed, he calls for his bows and he calls for his arrows, he blows the bugle and he calls for his huntsmen, ‘Ride with me,’ he says, ‘tae the forest an showme this wonderful animal that upsets yese all! It won’t upset me,’ and the king was back again once more! And the people are happy, and they blow their bugles, everyone gathered in the court to see the king off once more after a year. And they rode out on the great hunt, ‘Lead me,’ says the king, ‘tae where you saw this animal last!’

  So they led him to the forest and the old wise men were sure that it was there. And there before him stood this magnificent animal – taller than any horse the king had ever rode, with a horn on its forehead and the tail of a lion, and the swiftness of the wind – and the king said, ‘Leave it to me!’ It stood there and looked at them, the king said, ‘Leave it tae me!’

  And the king had a great charger, he rode after it, and he rode for many many miles and he rode for many many miles, and the farther the king rode the farther it went. And the faster the king rode the faster it went – till i
t disappeared in the distance and then the king was lost. It was gone. Sadly and tiredly he returned to the sound of his trumpets of his huntsmen. But the king had never ever got close enough to fire an arrow at it! For days and weeks and months to pass by the king hunted and the king searched, the king searched for this beautiful animal, but it always disappeared in the distance; it always rose before him but he could never catch it. The king searched and the king became so obsessed with this animal – he became his ownself again. Gone was the thought of everything, he only had one thing in his mind, that he must catch this animal.

  He called his great wise men together, he called his court together, he called everybody, his huntsmen together tried to explain what kind of animal was roaming his kingdom. ‘Master,’ said one of the great court magicians, ‘it is a unicorn!’

  ‘A unicorn?’ said the king, ‘how many unicorns are there on my land?’

  And they said, ‘Only one, Our Master, an it’s up to you tae catch it.’ But the king wasted his time, he searched for weeks and he searched for months, and he took his huntsmen and the people were dying for food. But the king could never ever catch the unicorn.

  And then when the king became so sad and broken-hearted, he called his great men together, says, ‘Luik, this is a magic animal – I’ll never catch it in a million years!’ He called his masons before him and he called the court sculptors before him, he said, ‘Look, I know in my heart that I am a great huntsman. And I have searcht fir many months an I’ve done something that I should never hev done, I deprived all my people of food because we depend on the hunt. I have not killed a deer or killed a wolf or killed anything for months. But, ‘he says, ‘youse huntsmen, go out and hunt fir food fir the villagers and spread it among the people while I talk to my sculptors and my masons.’ He said to these people, ‘I know that I can never catch the animal they call a “unicorn”. But there’s nothing in the world I cuid love more than jist to hev a statue of him at my door where I cuid walk an see him.’

  And they asked him, ‘Master, we don’t know what you want.’

  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I’ll tell you what it’s like and I want you tae make it for me.’ So he explained to the sculptors and the masons, ‘it was like a pony with a tail of a lion and a horn on his forehead and the swiftness o’ the wind.’

  So they carved him out of some stone, they carved from stone two things like the king had told them to be, and they put them straight in front of the king’s castle. So that every morning when the king walked down, there stood before him the thing that he hunted for many many months which he had never captured – the unicorn. And the king loved to walk down, put his hand on his statues, two of them, one on each side of the door of his palace, put his hand on his statues that stood there before him – like a beautiful pony with a horn on his forehead and the tail of a lion – and he walked around them. And when all these people went on a hunt, he went with them. But he had his unicorn. From that day on he hunted with his friends and distributed all the food that he ever found – deer, bear, fox, wolf – he hunted the lot. But from that day, the day the sculptors built the unicorns in front of his door, he never saw his unicorn again.

  But when the king passed on, for many many years still remained what the sculptors had made in front of his palace – and that’s where your unicorn came from today. That is a true story and that is also the end of my tale!

  1 universt between us – united our efforts

  The Giant with the Golden Hair of Knowledge

  This is a well-known popular story in my time among the travelling folk. Some had different versions from others. This version is rather long, but it’s one I liked most. Old Johnnie MacDonald told me … he says, ‘You go fir tobacco tae me, I’ll tell ye a story.’ So I walked two miles into Coupar Angus for an ounce of tobacco, walked two miles back, and that’s the story he told me … thirty years ago, easy. It took him two nights. Johnnie MacDonald was a cripple who looked after other travellers’ children (and horses) while the parents were out working or hawking, in return for his keep.

  MANY years ago in a faraway country there once lived a king. The king had married late in life, he had married a young princess from another country and they had a great wedding, it went on for many days and everyone was very happy for the king. But time passed by, and the king be getting up in years when he thought and wondered and worried why he wasn’t going to have any children. He talked it over with his queen.

  ‘Well,’ she said, ‘Ir Lordship, it would be lovely if we cuid hev a child,’ So she prayed and she asked and she went to all the wise women round the country for advice, how to have a child. But a year passed by and sure enough she had a child, a little baby girl – and the king was highly delighted when he found out – he preferred to have a son but he was quite pleased to have a little girl.

  He called all the wise women that the queen had visited round his kingdom to come to the christening of his baby daughter, and they all came, twelve o’ them on the christening day. They had a great banquet and a great feast. Then lo and behold what the king had failed to remember – he had left one old woman whom the queen had visited out, completely forgot about her – she had never got an invitation to the christening of the king’s baby daughter.

  And she was very angry. The king had sent a coach to pick up the old women to bring them to the palace, but she had to walk. And the farther she walked the angrier she got, by the time she reached the palace … she walked in, everybody was busy feasting and dining. And lo and behold the king and queen remembered they had forgotten about her. But maids and footmen brought her forward, brought her in, sat her down at the table and they brought a plate before her full of lovely things to eat. The old woman looked, and all the other old women that the queen had visited, the wise women of the country, all were sitting with their food on golden plates, and she had only a common plate.

  She stood up and she says, ‘This is disgrace, Ir Majesty – why these auld friends of mine have golden plates and I jist have a common plate like a puir peasant – when you know that I am the most powerful woman among them all!’ The king said nothing. He knew he had made a mistake.

  He said, ‘You were all called here today tae give my baby daughter yir blessings, youse bein the wise women of wir country.’

  And everyone stood up and they gave blessing in turn, till they came to her, her turn. When she says, ‘No, I won’t give her no blessin, but will tell the truth: when your daughter comes eighteen years of age, she will marry the son of a poor fisherman! She will marry the son of a common fisherman who wis born the very same evening, the same evening an the same night under the same star as yir daughter!’ And like that she was gone – she disappeared as quick as she came. Everybody was upset. The king was worried, so was the queen.

  So after the banquet was finished and all the old women went on their way, the king drew his queen beside him and he said, ‘That auld woman is very powerful, she’s the most powerful wisest woman in the whole kingdom an I wouldna like tae go against her in ony way. Prob’ly she’s jist angry because we left her out of the invitation. But,’ the king said to his queen, ‘just tae be on the safe side, we mus find this son of this fisherman an we must take im, destroy him so that he’ll never mairry wir daughter – because I’m not havin my baby daughter marry the son of a poor fisherman!’

  So he sent couriers all over the country searching and seeking there and searching here and seeking there, wherever they went asking about the new baby boy that was born the same time as the princess, on the same night under the same star. But they were gone for months and days and they returned haggard and hungry, but they never found the baby that was born on the same day as the princess.

  The king said, ‘It must be … the auld woman is too powerful tae tell any lies – we must find this boy! So, if youse can’t do it, I’ll jist hev to do it myself!’ So the next day the king went on his way on horseback, dressed in common clothes. And he rode for days and he rode for weeks his o
wnself till he came hungry and tired one day to the seaside.

  Beside the sea was a little cottage, a few hens scratching about, but there wasn’t a soul about. And he looked down the shoreside, there was a fisherman casting his net in the water and the king could see that he was having very little success. Every time he threw his net in, he pulled it in, it was empty. (In these bygone days they just cast their net off the shoreside to see if they could bring in any fish.) So the king was kind of curious when he saw that the fisherman was casting the net so many times and getting nothing. He tied his horse to a tree, he walked down.

  He said to the fisherman, ‘You’re not havin much luck!’

  ‘No,’ the fisherman said, ‘I’ve had no luck for months. I’ve had no luck … five months ago was the last luck I had.’

  King said, ‘Five month ago? That seems a long time.’

  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘the last luck I had was five month ago, an at this same spot: I cast ma net, it was full o’ beautiful fish. An you believe me,’ he says to the king, not knowing it was the king, ‘it was a lucky night fir me in more ways an one – because whan I landed home wi as much fish as I cuid carry – sure enough, my wife had given birth tae a baby son!’

  And then the king knew, this must be … the king calculated in his own head – he knew that his own little daughter was only five months old by this time. He says to the fisherman, ‘I’m a traiveller on my way an I’m very hungry; if you could spare a drink or somethin tae eat I would pay you well for it.’