Stories from the Faerie Queen, Told to the Children

by Edmund Spenser

  VII

  MARINELL, THE SEA-NYMPH'S SON

  Sometimes when the sun is rising on the sea and making the waves all pinkand gold, the sailors whose boats are sailing out of the grey night fancythat they see fair ladies floating on the white crests of the waves, ordrying their long yellow hair in the warm sunshine.

  Sometimes poets who wander on the beach at night, or sit on the highcliffs where the sea-pinks grow, see those beautiful ladies playing in thesilver moonlight.

  And musicians hear them singing, singing, singing, till their songssilence the sea-birds harsh cry, and their voices blend with the swish andthe rush of the sea and the moan of the waves on the shore.

  The sailors tell stories of them, and the musicians put their songs intotheir hearts. But the poets write poems about them, and say:--

  'There are no ladies so fair to see as the nymphs whose father is a king. Nereus is their father, and they are the Nereids. Their home is under the sea; as blue as the sea are their eyes. Their long, long hair is yellow like sand. Their silver voices are like lutes, and they steal men's hearts away.'

  Long, long ago, one of these nymphs became the wife of a brave knight, whofound her sleeping amongst the rocks and loved her for her beauty. Cymoentwas her name, and the other nymphs called her Cymoent the Black Browed,because dark lashes and eyebrows shaded her sea-blue eyes.

  The knight and the nymph had a son as strong and as brave as his father,and as beautiful as his mother, and Cymoent called him Marinell.

  'My son must be richer than any of the knights who live on the land,' saidCymoent to the king her father. 'Give him riches.'

  So the sea-king told the waves to cast on the shore riches that they hadstolen from all the ships that had ever been wrecked. And the wavesstrewed the strand with gold and amber and ivory and pearls, and everysort of jewel and precious stone.

  The shore sparkled and shone with Marinell's riches, and no one daredtouch them, for Marinell had beaten a hundred knights in battle, andfought every man who dared venture to ride along these sands.

  Cymoent feared that as Marinell had won so many fights, he might growreckless and get killed. Now Neptune, who was king of all the seas, had ashepherd who could tell what was going to happen in the future.

  'Tell me,' Cymoent said to him, 'how long my Marinell will live, and fromwhat dangers he must take most care to keep away.'

  'Do not let him go near any women,' said the Shepherd of the Seas. 'I cansee that a woman will either hurt him very much, or kill him altogether.'

  So Cymoent warned her son never to go near any woman. And many ladies weresad because handsome Marinell would not speak to them, and the lovely ladyFlorimell was the saddest of all.

  One day as Marinell proudly rode along the glittering sand, he saw aknight in armour that shone as brightly as the gold that the little waveshad kissed.

  'I am Lord of the Golden Strand!' said Marinell angrily, 'how dare theknight ride on the shore that is all my own!'

  He rode furiously up, and told the knight to fly.

  But the knight was Britomart, the fair lady with a man's armour and aman's heart. She scorned his proud words, and smote him with her magicspear.

  And Britomart rode away, leaving Marinell lying as if he were dead.

  His red blood stained his armour, and reddened the little waves that creptup to see what was wrong. The water washed over his feet.

  'He is asleep,' said the little waves. 'We will wake him.'

  But Marinell lay cold and still, and the blood dripped and dripped on tothe golden sand.

  Then the waves grew frightened, and the sea-birds screamed, '_Marinell isdead, is dead_ ... _dead_ ... _dead_....'

  So the news came to his mother Cymoent. Cymoent and her sisters wereplaying by a pond near the sea, round which grew nodding yellow daffodils.They were picking the daffodils and making them into garlands for theirfair heads, when they heard the message of the birds, '_Marinell is dead,dead, dead_.'

  Cymoent tore the daffodils from her hair, and fell on the ground in afaint. All her sister nymphs wailed and wept and threw their gay flowersaway, and Cymoent lay with white face, and her head on the poor, torndaffodils.

  But the knight was Britomart, the fair lady with a man'sarmour and a man's heart (page 92)]

  At last she came out of her faint, and asked for her chariot, and all hersisters sent for their chariots too.

  A team of dolphins drew the chariot of Cymoent, and they were trained sowell that they cut through the water as swiftly as swallows, and did noteven leave a track of white foam behind. Other fishes drew the chariots ofthe other nymphs, and Neptune, King of all the Seas, was so sorry for thesorrow of Cymoent and the other Nereids, that he told his waves to begentle, and let them pass peacefully to where Marinell lay on the goldenstrand.

  When they got near where he lay, they got out of their chariots, for theyfeared that the dolphins and other fishes might get bruised and hurt bythe rocks and pebbles on the shore. And with their strong white arms theyswiftly swam to where Marinell lay, still and silent in his blood.

  When Cymoent saw her son's white face, she fainted again, and when she hadrecovered from her faint, she cried and moaned so bitterly, that even thehard rocks nearly wept for sorrow.

  She and her sisters carefully looked at Marinell's wound, and one of them,who knew much about healing, felt his pulse, and found that a little lifewas still left in him. With their soft, silver-fringed mantles they wipedthe blood from the wound, and poured in soothing balm and nectar, andbound it up. Then they strewed Cymoent's chariot with flowers, and liftedMarinell gently up, and laid him in it. And the dolphins, knowing to goquietly and swiftly, swam off with Cymoent and Marinell to Cymoent's bowerunder the sea.

  Deep in the bottom of the sea was the bower. It was built of hollow waves,heaped high, like stormy clouds. In it they laid Marinell, and hastilysent for the doctor of all the folk under the sea, to come and try to curethe dreadful wound. So clever and so wise was this doctor, that soon thenymphs could laugh and sport again because Marinell was well.

  But Cymoent was afraid that some other harm might come to him if he wenton to the land. So she made him stay beside her, under the sea, untilMarinell grew tired of doing nothing. He longed to gallop away on hishorse, his sword clanking by his side, and see the green woods and greytowers of the land, instead of idling away the hours in a bower under thesea, where there was nothing for him to do, but to watch the fishes ofsilver and blue and red, as they chased each other through the forests ofseaweed.

  One day two great rivers were married, and all the sea-folk went to thewedding. A feast was given in the house of the Shepherd of the Seas, andwhile Cymoent and the other nymphs were there, Marinell wandered aboutoutside. For because Marinell's father had been a knight and not one ofthe sea-folk, Marinell might not eat the food they ate.

  While the feast went gaily on, Marinell heard piteous cries coming fromunder a black cliff. And when he listened, he knew that the voice was thevoice of Florimell.

  The wicked old Shepherd of the Seas had found her tossing on the waves ina little boat, and had taken her home to his deep-down caves to make herhis wife. But Florimell did not love the old man. She loved onlyMarinell. So nothing that the shepherd could do would make Florimell saythat she would marry him. At last, in a rage, he shut her up in a gloomyplace under a dark rock, where no sunshine ever came.

  'She will soon grow tired of the dark and the loneliness,' he thought,'and then she will give in, and become my wife.'

  But Florimell would not give in. She was crying and sobbing when Marinellcame to the rock, and he heard her say, 'Marinell, Marinell, all this Isuffer for love of thee.'

  Marinell stood still and listened. Then he heard her say:--

  'In spite of all this sorrow, yet will I never of my love repent, But joy that for his sake I suffered prisonment.'

  Then she gave yet more pitiful sobs, for she was very sad and cold andhungry. Yet always she would say again, between
her sobs, 'I will neverlove any man but Marinell.'

  Now Marinell had never in all his life truly loved any one. But when heheard Florimell's piteous voice, and knew how she loved him, and how muchshe had suffered for his sake, his heart, that had been so hard, grewsoft.

  'Poor little maid,' he said to himself, 'poor, beautiful littleFlorimell.'

  No sooner had he begun to love Florimell, than he began to think of a planby which to save her from the bad old shepherd.

  At first, he thought he would ask the shepherd to let her go. But he knewthat that would be no good. Then he thought that he would fight with theshepherd, and win her in that way. But that plan he also gave up. 'I willbreak into her prison, and steal her away,' he thought next. But he had noboat, and the sea flowed all round the rock, so that it was not possible.

  While he still thought and planned, the marriage-feast came to an end, andMarinell had to go home with his mother. He looked so miserable that noone would have taken him for a wedding-guest.

  Each day that passed after the wedding found him looking more and moresad. He could not eat nor sleep for thinking of Florimell, shut up in adreary dungeon from which he could not free her. For want of sleep andfood, and because he was so unhappy, Marinell grew ill. He was so weakthat he could not rise, and his mother, Cymoent, was greatly distressed.

  'The wound he got from Britomart cannot be rightly healed,' she said. Soshe sent for the wise doctor of the seas.

  'The old wound is quite whole,' said the doctor. 'This is a new pain whichI cannot understand.'

  Then Cymoent sent for a doctor who was so wise and so great that he waschief of all the doctors on the land. When he had examined Marinell hesaid, 'The name of this illness is Love.'

  Then Cymoent begged Marinell to tell her which of the sea-nymphs it wasthat he loved.

  'Whoever she is that you love,' she said, 'I shall help you to gain herfor your wife.'

  So Marinell told his mother that it was no nymph of the sea that had givenhis heart a deeper wound than ever Britomart's spear had dealt.

  'I love Florimell,' he said, 'and she lies, a dreary prisoner, in thedarkest cave of the Herd of the Seas.'

  At first Cymoent was sorry, for she did not wish her son to wed a maidenfrom the land. But when she knew how much Marinell loved Florimell, shewent to Neptune, the King of all the Seas, as he sat on his throne, histhree-pronged mace in his hand, and his long hair dripping with brine.

  To him she told all the tale of Marinell and Florimell and the wicked oldshepherd.

  And Neptune wrote a royal warrant, and sealed it with the seal of the SeaGods, commanding his shepherd to give up Florimell at once to Cymoent thesea-nymph.

  Thankfully Cymoent took the warrant, and swiftly swam to the shepherd'ssea-caves.

  The shepherd was very angry, but all the sea-folk had to obey Neptune, sohe sulkily opened the prison door and let Florimell go free.

  When the black-browed Cymoent took hold of the little white hand of themaiden her son loved, and looked on her lovely face, she was no longersorry that Marinell did not wish to marry a sea-nymph. For no maiden inthe sea was as beautiful or as sweet as Florimell.

  She led Florimell to her bower, where Marinell lay so pale and weak andsad. And when Marinell saw Florimell standing blushing beside him, herhand in his mother's, all his sadness went away and his strength cameback, and the pain in his heart was cured.

  And if you listen some night when the stars are out, and the moon has madea silver path on the sea, you will hear the little waves that swish on theshore softly murmuring a little song. And perhaps, if your ears are veryquick, and the big waves' thunder does not drown the sound of theirmelody, you may hear them whispering the names of two happy lovers,Florimell and Marinell.

  VIII

  FLORIMELL AND THE WITCH

  In Fairyland, where all the knights are brave, and all the ladiesbeautiful, the lady who was once the most beautiful of all was calledFlorimell.

  Many knights loved Florimell and wished to marry her. But Florimell lovedonly one, and he was Marinell, the son of a sea-nymph and a fairy knightAnd Marinell loved no one, not even Florimell.

  Marinell was a bold knight, who had no sooner fought one fight than he wasready for another.

  One day there was brought to the court news of his latest fight.Britomart, the maiden who feared no one, and who wore man's armour andcarried a magic spear, had fought with Marinell, and Marinell was dead. Sosaid they who brought the news.

  'What will Florimell do?' whispered the court ladies, one to the other.

  And all the knights were sad at heart for beautiful Florimell.

  When Florimell was told what had befallen Marinell, she rose up from whereshe sat.

  'I go to find him,' she said. 'Living or dead, I will find Marinell.'

  Florimell had long, long golden hair. Florimell's eyes were blue as thesky, and her cheeks were pink, like the sweetest rose in the garden. Acirclet of gold and jewels crowned her head. She mounted her snow-whitepalfrey with its trappings of gold, and rode away through the green woodsto look for Marinell.

  Four days she rode, but she did not find him. On the fourth day, as shepassed through a lonely forest, a wicked robber saw her. He rode after herwith his heavy boar-spear, and drove his spurs into the sides of his tiredhorse till the blood ran down.

  When Florimell saw him, she made her palfrey gallop. Off it flew, like thewind, with the thud of the other horse's hoofs and the crash of branchesto urge it on.

  Florimell's golden hair flew behind her, till it looked like the shiningtrack of a shooting star. Her face was white, and her frightened eyesshone like crystal.

  Some knights who saw her flash through the trees on her white palfrey,like a streak of light, thought that she must be a spirit.

  Florimell's golden hair flew behind her (page 102)]

  But when they saw the ugly robber on his panting horse, they knew that hewas real enough. They rode hard after him, and frightened him so much thathe hid himself in the thickest part of the forest.

  Florimell passed the knights without seeing them. And even after therobber had ceased to follow her, she fancied that she heard his roughvoice and the thud of his horse's hoofs, and made her white palfrey gofaster and yet more fast.

  At last, as the palfrey tossed its head in its stride, it jerked the reinsfrom out her tired little hands, and went on where it pleased.

  All through the night they fled. The wild deer ran, startled, before them,and all the other beasts of the woods wondered at the sight of a whitepalfrey that galloped where it would under the grey boughs of the forest,carrying a lady whose hair gleamed like gold in the light of the stars.When rosy dawn had come, the horse stopped at last, too tired to doanything but stand and pant with foam-flecked mouth and heaving sides.

  Then Florimell got off his back and coaxed him slowly on.

  When they had wandered thus for hours, they came to a hill that shaded athickly wooded valley. Over the tops of the tall trees in the valleyFlorimell saw a little blue curl of smoke. Glad at heart to think offinding a shelter and resting-place for her horse and herself, she led herpalfrey towards it.

  In a gloomy glen she found a little cottage built of sticks and reeds andturf. A wicked, ugly old witch and her wicked, ugly son lived in this hut.When Florimell came to the door, the old woman was sitting on the dustyfloor, busy with some of her evil magic. When she looked up and sawbeautiful Florimell, with her golden hair, and her face like a droopingwhite lily, she got a great fright. For she thought that Florimell was agood spirit come to punish her for all the bad things she had done.

  But Florimell, with tears trickling down and making her face look like alily in the dew, begged her, in gentle, pleading words, to give hershelter.

  And so gentle and beautiful and sorrowful was Florimell, that, for thefirst time in the whole of her wicked life, the old witch felt some pityin her cruel heart. She told Florimell not to cry, and bade her sit downand rest. So Florimell sat down on the d
usty floor and rested, as a littlebird rests after a storm. She tried to tidy her robes that were rent bythe branches and briars through which she had passed, and she smoothed herhair, and arranged her sparkling jewels.

  The old hag sat and stared at her, and could not say a word, so much didshe marvel at Florimell's wondrous beauty.

  When it was midday, the witch's son came in. At the sight of Florimell hewas as frightened as his mother had been, and stared in wonder and infear. But Florimell spoke to them both so gently and so kindly that soonthey no longer feared her.

  She stayed with them in the wretched little hut for some time. And in thattime the witch's son came to love her, and to long to have her for hiswife. He tried to do everything that he thought would please her. He wouldbring her from the woods the rosiest of the wild apples, and the prettiestof the wildflowers he made into garlands for her hair. He caught youngbirds and taught them to whistle the tunes she liked, and young squirrelshe caught and tamed and gave to her.

  But Florimell feared both him and his wicked old mother. When her palfreyhad rested, and grazed on the grass in the glen until it was quite strongonce more, at daybreak one morning she put its golden trappings on againand rode away. She shivered at each shadow, and trembled at each sound,because she was so afraid that the witch or her son would follow her.

  But these two wicked people slept until it was broad daylight andFlorimell was far away. When they awoke and found her gone, they werefuriously angry, and the witch's son was so frantic that he scratched hisown face and bit himself, and tore at his rough long hair.

  'I shall bring her back, or else kill her!' said the witch.

  Then she went to a dark cave, and called out of it a horrible beast like ahyena. Its back was speckled with a thousand colours, and it could runfaster than any other beast.

  'Fetch Florimell back to me!' said the witch, 'or else tear her inpieces!'

  Off the beast rushed, and before long it saw Florimell on her white horseriding through the trees.

  There was no need to make the palfrey gallop when it saw the hideous beastwith long, soft strides coming swiftly after it. The white palfrey went asfast as a race-horse, but the beast went as fast as the wind. As they cameout of the forest, the beast's hot breath was close behind Florimell. Andby that time her horse was so tired that its pace slackened. They had cometo where there were no more trees, and in front of them lay yellow sand,and a long, long stretch of blue-green sea. When Florimell saw the sea,she leaped from her tired horse and ran and ran.

  'I had rather be drowned,' she thought, 'than be killed by that loathsomemonster.'

  Now, an old fisherman had been drying his nets on the sand, and while theydried he slept in the bottom of his little boat, that lay heaving gentlyup and down in the shallows.

  When Florimell saw this boat, she ran towards it and jumped in, and, withan oar, pushed it off into deeper water. The beast got to the water's edgejust too late, for it was afraid of the sea and dared not follow her. In arage it fell upon the white palfrey and tore it in pieces, and was eatingit when a good knight who knew Florimell passed that way. He knew that thewhite horse was Florimell's, so he attacked the beast, and cut it andstruck it so furiously with his sword that all its strength was beaten outof it and he could easily have killed it. But the knight thought that hewould rather catch the strange beast and lead it home with him.

  Lying on the sand near the dead white palfrey, he saw a golden girdle thatsparkled with jewels, and that he had seen worn by Florimell. With thisgirdle he bound the beast, and led it after him like a dog. As he led it,he met a wicked giantess, and while he fought with her the beast escapedand ran away back to the witch's hut.

  When the witch saw Florimell's jewelled girdle she was glad, for shethought that the beast must have killed Florimell. She ran with it to herson, but the sight of it, without Florimell, made him so angry that hetried to kill both the beast and his mother. The witch was so frightenedthat she set all her magic to work, to try to comfort her son. With snowand mercury and wax she made an image as like Florimell as she could. Itscheeks were rosy, like Florimell's, and she took two little burning lampsand put them in silver sockets, so that they looked just like Florimell'sbright eyes. Her hair she made of the very finest golden wire. She dressedthe image in some clothes that Florimell, in her flight, had left behindher, and round its waist she fastened Florimell's jewelled girdle. Thenshe put a wicked fairy inside the image, and told him to do his very bestto act and to talk and to walk like Florimell. This image she then led toher son, and he thought it was the real Florimell come back, and wasdelighted. The false Florimell was not afraid of him as the real Florimellhad been, and would walk in the woods with him, and listen, quite pleased,to all that he had to say.

  But as they were in the forest one day, a bad knight saw them, and thoughtthe false Florimell so beautiful that he seized her and rode away withher, and left the witch's son more sad and angry than ever.

  When the real Florimell had escaped from the beast, the little boat thatshe pushed off from the shore went gaily sailing onward and onward withthe tide. They were far out at sea when the old fisherman awoke. He got agreat fright when he found himself far from the shore, and with a lovelylady beside him. But he was a very bad old man, and when he sawFlorimell's fine jewels and beautiful clothes he thought he would rob her.He knocked her down into the bottom of his boat amongst the fishes'scales, and might have killed her, had not Florimell screamed and screamedfor help. There was no ship near, and the waves and the sea-birds couldnot help her.

  But it chanced that the shepherd of all the flocks in the sea was drivinghis chariot that way. He was an old man with long white hair and beard.Sometimes on a stormy day one may see him far out at sea, as he drives hisflocks that look from far away like snowy froth and foam.

  When the shepherd saw the wicked fisherman struggling with Florimell, hebeat the old robber so hard with his staff that there soon was very littlelife left in him. Then he lifted Florimell, all tearful and trembling,into his chariot. When she could only cry, he gently kissed her. But hislips were frosty cold, and icicles from his long white beard dropped on toher breast and made her shiver.

  He took her to his home in a hollow rock at the bottom of the sea, and heasked her to be his wife.

  'I cannot marry you,' said Florimell. 'I do not love you. My only love isMarinell.'

  Then the cunning old shepherd by magic made himself look like a fairyknight, and thought that Florimell would love him.

  'I do not love you. I love Marinell,' still was Florimell's answer.

  He then tried to frighten Florimell and make her marry him, whether shewould or not. He turned himself into dreadful shapes--giants, and allsorts of animals and monsters. He went inside the waves, and madeterrifying storms rage. But nothing that he might do would make Florimellconsent to marry him.

  At last he imprisoned her in a dark cavern.

  'She will soon tire of that, and then she will marry me,' said he tohimself.

  But Florimell said the more, 'I love only Marinell. I am glad to suffer,because I suffer for Marinell's dear sake.'

  She might have died there, and been buried under the sea-flowers ofscarlet and green, and had the gay little fishes dart over her grave, andnone might ever have known.

  But, by happy chance, Marinell came that way. He heard her voice comingout of her prison far beneath the sea, like the echo of a sad song, andsuddenly he knew that he loved her.

  The sea-nymph, his mother, told Neptune, King of the Seas, that hisshepherd had imprisoned a beautiful maiden in his darkest cave, and beggedhim to set Florimell free, that she might become Marinell's wife.

  So Florimell was set free at last, and all her troubles were ended.

  Marinell took her away from the kingdom under the sea back to Fairyland,and they were married in a castle by the golden strand. Every beautifullady and every brave knight in Fairyland was there. They had tournamentsevery day, and each knight fought for the lady he thought the mostbea
utiful and loved the best.

  Marinell was victor in every fight but one, and in this he was beaten byanother brave knight. This knight had on his shield a device of a blazingsun on a golden field.

  When he had fought and won the prize, this shield was stolen from him bythe wicked knight who had run away with the false Florimell. No one couldsee the faces of the knights, for their helmets covered them. So when thewicked knight came forward, carrying the blazing shield, and pretendedthat he had won the prize, Florimell, who was queen of the revels, handedhim the victor's garland, and praised him for having fought so well.

  'I did not fight for you!' roughly answered the knight. 'I would not fightfor you! I fight for one more beautiful.'

  Florimell blushed for shame, but before any one could answer him, theknight drew forward the false Florimell and threw back her veil.

  And even Marinell could not tell that she was not his own beautiful bridethat he loved so dearly, so exactly like the real Florimell had the witchmade the image.

  Just then the knight whose shield had been stolen pushed through thecrowd.

  'You false coward with your borrowed plumes!' he cried. 'Where is thesword you pretend that you fought with? Where are your wounds?'

  With that he showed his own bloody sword, and his own bleeding wounds, andevery one knew that the wicked knight had lied when he said that it was hewho had won the fight.

  'This is not the real Florimell!' said the brave knight of the blazingshield, pointing at the image. 'It is a wicked fairy, who is a fit matefor this base coward. Bring forward Florimell the bride, and let us seethem side by side!'

  So Florimell, blushing till her face looked like a nosegay of roses andlilies, was led forward, and stood beside the image of herself. But nosooner did she come near the image, than the image melted away, andvanished altogether. Nothing of it was left but the girdle of gold andjewels that Florimell had lost on the day she escaped from the witch'shut. And this the brave knight picked up, and clasped round Florimell'swaist. The wicked knight had his armour taken from him, and was beatenuntil he ran howling away.

  And Florimell, the fairest lady in all Fairyland, lived happily ever afterwith her gallant husband, Marinell, the Lord of the Golden Strand.

  PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, LTD.