The Kingdom That Outlawed Fairies
Once upon a time and far away, in the land of Albedor, magical creatures roamed about openly much to the delight of the kingdom’s citizenry. However, along with the good there existed the bad. Goblins, trolls, sorcerers, and sorceresses mixed in with the others. Mostly they were few and seldom noticed until the day it was reported that goblins had carried away the high duke’s daughter. Such she claimed to be the case upon her return, and even though the king’s chief investigator found no evidence of the truth of these claims, the story continued.
Meanwhile the duke’s daughter received the positive attention she craved leading some to wonder if she had run away, thought up the story, and returned to use the ruse to her advantage. No matter what the case really was, the goblin story gained traction and those thinking otherwise found their voices drowned out.
Sentiment continued to rise against goblins and the like as well as against all so-called fairylike creatures in general. The king’s High Council met to consider what steps to take to overcome the crisis even though no crisis was clearly defined.
The Chief Counsel, the leader of the Council stood in all his finery before the king. Rising to his full height and turning about so all in the room could see him in his finest moment, he spoke. “O king and all the esteemed gentlemen in this court, we must take action to overcome the crisis that now besets us. Mystical creatures threaten our very existence as a kingdom. Our citizens fear for their safety. Goblins, trolls, and who knows what else roam our highways and byways. We must put an end to this.”
The king stared from his throne. “And how do you propose to do this?”
The Chief Counsel faced him and raised his chin. “By expelling all such creatures from our land.”
A buzz travelled through the members of the court until one of the youngest of the court stood in the back row of the assembly. “Why should all mystical creatures be expelled? There are fairies and nymphs that do us good.”
The chief counsel glared at the younger man. “Who’s to say which is good and which is bad? Even fairies have been known to become like goblins and goblins to act like fairies. And nymphs? They are only concerned about the trees and other foliage they oversee and care nothing about the affairs of men. I say expel them all. There is nothing they do that we cannot accomplish by our own cleverness.” He spoke with such authority that the young counselor sat down.
No one else dared to take up the challenge to the Chief’s proposal.
The council looked to the king for they could only propose an action, but it did not become official unless his Majesty declared it to be law. He sat back against his throne rubbing his chin, weighing what to do. He suspected the validity of the story that had led to the current hoopla. He also had much interaction with fairies that dwelt in his land and held them in high respect. In addition, he enjoyed walking through forests that were guarded by nymphs, enjoying their beauty. Nevertheless, he had a keen sense of the sentiment of the citizens in his kingdom, and knew that kings could be overthrown if their subjects no longer wished to be ruled by them.
When the Chief counsel pressed for a ruling on his proposal, his Majesty agreed and immediately orders proceeded from the High Council to the king’s guard. All mystical creatures as well as those sorcerers and sorceresses were to be rounded up and shown to the borders of the kingdom.
Written notices were posted wherever they could be nailed up. Signposts, and the walls of barns, houses, and shops all bore the decree. There were so many notices that no one could miss the order. The king’s guard searched every nook and cranny so effectively that nary a mystical creature remained in Albedor. The people cheered. They no longer had cause to fear trolls, dragons, or goblins.
However, as days went by, Albedor changed. No longer was it the pleasant country it had been. Without nymphs to shepherd trees its forests became dark and overgrown. Citizens declined to enter except when given no other choice. Once pleasant meadows became overrun with thorns and briars with no fairies to care for wildflowers. Farmers toiled in their fields twice as hard as before and received one half the result. The kingdom became a cold, heartless, joyless place without the magic of hope.
The misery and despair that overcame the kingdom hovered over it like a cloud on an otherwise pleasant summer day. However, strange to say, no one connected the ouster of magical creatures with the current situation.
Quite naturally the High Council met to debate how to fix things. Once again, the Chief Counsel addressed the king and the court. “Honored sirs,” he began while holding onto the frilled lapel of his waistcoat, “There has been much concern about the condition of our kingdom, but I must say it has been overexaggerated. We’ve overcome worse. Remember the plague of wolves in ‘86? And then locusts in ‘92? We even drove away all the mystical creatures from our land. If we overcame these problems we can overcome the present distress if we put our minds to it.”
The members of the council nodded their agreement, until the least senior among them rose to his full height. Lowering his head and shuffling his feet he spoke. “Aren’t we forgetting that fairies drove the wolves away and nymphs stomped out the locusts?”
The Chief Counsel pointed a boney finger at the young man. “Who are you to challenge what I said? The involvement of fairies and nymphs on those earlier occasions is only hearsay. I tell you it was we humans that did the real work.”
The young man stammered, “B-b-but should we not at least consider…?” His voice became drowned out as the court at a sign of the Chief rose to its feet. Several of its members took hold of the youthful counselor and escorted him not too gently out to the street.
The Chief Counsel smoothed his extravagant attire and continued his speech. “As I was saying before being interrupted, we have the ability to fix what has gone wrong. We must send woodsmen to tame the forests, workers to pluck out the brambles in the meadows, and laborers to aid the farmers to expand their fields. We do not need nymphs and fairies to do what we can do ourselves. All we need is workers. We just have to put to work those out of work due to the present slowdown of our economy. We may have to raise taxes to pay these laborers, but it will be worth it.
Now the king had just sat back on his throne and listened without interest until the part about raising taxes. At that point he joined in. “I think the Chief Counsel has a good point. We’ll raise taxes and hire workers to fix our ills. I so decree this to be so.”
However, raising taxes on citizens who were already having a hard time making a go of things only worsened the crisis. The mood that had settled over the people grew darker. Besides the efforts to tame the forest proved fruitless. The workers could not keep up with the overgrowth. Nor could the laborers sent to the meadows make any headway against the brambles and briars. As for the farms, expanding fields did little to increase production. The towns and villages suffered as well, because it was from them that the workers for these projects came, leaving shops and smithies unattended.
But, the Chief Counsel boasted success at every chance he had, despite the fact the misery of the kingdom only worsened. Surely these things just took a matter of time he told the people. Matters often get worse before the new takes effect.
Meanwhile Prince Arnotte, the heir to the throne of Albador felt the misery of his people. He traveled the land in peasant dress so as to pass by unnoticed. He worked in farmers’ fields and toiled in the workshops and smithies in the villages. No one recognized him as he labored among the most downtrodden citizens.
One hot sunny day Arnotte left the royal city, as was his normal routine, to visit the town of Nuttin on the eastern border of the kingdom. He entered Yorkwood Forest which lay between his destination and his starting point to avoid the unbearable heat of the sun. Besides, he thought, this will save me several miles without going around these trees.
He set out on the Old Road that traversed the heart of the woods. However, as he pressed on in the sweltering shade of the trees he found they provided little relief from the relentless sun. Furthermore, he discovered the old thoroughfare so overgrown as to be impassable. He continued on with youthful determination hacking at dense undergrowth with his long knife. His green and brown travel clothes became torn and stained with sweat. His long golden hair became matted against his face and forehead. But, he pressed on until in the densest part of the woods, he no longer could make out any trace of the former thoroughfare.
Exhausted, he leaned against a tall sapling. His mind raced. This is not what I expected at all. If it were not as hard going back as going forward I would do so. Nothing I can do but press on.
He stood to resume his quest when in the corner of his left eye he noticed sunlight streaming through a break in the trees. He thought, Maybe there’s hope after all and I’ve come to the end of the forest. He hacked his way toward the bright sunlight, but soon found himself looking over a small meadow surrounded by the woods. A meadow, deep inside the forest? How can this be? And look it is full of wildflowers as beautiful as those in the places where fairies used to dwell.
Prince Arnotte entered the meadow, awestruck by the contrast of its beauty and the ugliness of the overgrown forest. In the center of the field, he spied a trim cottage and headed there. He wondered who lived in such a pleasant place as this when all the rest of the kingdom suffered. He knocked on the entrance of the structure with bated breath. A diminutive grey haired man with long white beard opened the door. He beckoned the weary traveler inside. “Come in, come in. You are welcome here.”
The prince took a step backward. “But you know nothing about me. I may wish to do you harm.”
The old man smiled. “I am Gratus and all children of the One Who made us are welcome here. He drew you to me or you would not have come.”
Arnotte shook his head but accepted the stranger’s hospitality. Once inside the cottage, he looked around. It was as pleasant as the meadow outside. Finely crafted furniture adorned its orderly interior. Cut wild flowers arranged throughout the single chamber added their unique beauty to the abode. The old man bade his guest to sit in a wooden chair with intricate carvings of trees and flowers. The prince sat and found this seat to be as comfortable as any of the chairs in his father’s palace.
The old man pulled up a chair opposite his guest. “I can see in your eyes, you have a lot of questions about me and my home,” he said. “Don’t be afraid to ask.”
The prince glanced around the room. He said, “I would not suspect all this in these woods.”
“You mean my oasis in a sea of gloom?” The old man smiled.
“Yes. Everywhere I’ve traveled there is despair and misery,” the young man replied. “But here, no one could be downcast. How do you do it?”
“By what you would call magic, my boy.” The old man stared into the prince’s eyes.
Arnotte sucked in his breath. “But that is illegal. My father has forbidden it.”
Gratus nodded. “Ah, your father. I knew you to be the prince when you knocked at my door.”Arnotte raised his brows and began to speak, but the old man waved him off. “Don’t be concerned with how I knew, just accept that I did. But as for your father. Yes, he’s outlawed magic but how has that worked out? You yourself marvel at the beauty of my home. Would you that I turn you back to the dismal forest that you traversed in order to get here?”
The prince frowned. “I have no argument with you there, but the wise men of our kingdom determined that magic no matter how good it appears at first always ends up in evil. Fairies become goblins and nymphs become trolls and so on.”
Gratus grinned from ear to ear. “Your wise men have it only partially right. There is magic that is evil if it is the kind that tries to bend forces beyond oneself to change things supernaturally to one’s own purposes. This is the magic that goblins and sorcerers practice. This always leads to ill. But as for nymphs becoming trolls, I know of none.”
The young man shook his head. “But if you made your home through magic are you not a sorcerer?”
The old man answered. “Not at all. I expect you might call me a wizard for lack of a better word.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“No. A sorcerer practices magic attempting to bend nature to his own purpose. A person such as I am seeks to know the One Who made us all and by His power accomplish His will. It really isn’t magic at all when fairies bring beauty to a meadow such as mine. They merely are seeing the One who made them use them to make the beauty He intended. It is not magic when our Maker does good no matter how miraculous it seems. But when your father forbade all magical creatures from his kingdom he forbade the right along with the wrong.”
Arnotte drew back in his chair. “Then you are not a sorcerer?”
“No, Gratus replied. “Only one who seeks to do the Maker’s will.”
“But here you are in a field of beauty hidden in a dismal forest.”
“Not hidden so much as you did not find me.”
“Ah, but I am just one, what good is that?”
The old man leaned back. “Change begins with just one who sees the need. Don’t think that your coming here was by chance. You are the king’s heir and through you there can be change.”
“How?”
The old man walked over to a shelf at the far end of the room. When he returned he held out a globe that radiated light from within itself. “Take this globe,” he said. “Wherever you hold it high, things that are wrong will be righted.”
The prince wrinkled his eyebrows. “But isn’t this globe magic?”
“No,” the old man replied. “Of itself, the globe does nothing. It’s your faith and obedience to the Maker’s promises that make the difference. But be careful how you do this for those who call this magic will try to hinder you.”
And so, Prince Arnotte soon found himself back in the forest heading toward his original destination. He struggled along the overgrown road until he remembered the globe. He sighed. Okay, old man, now we’ll see if what you said is true. Let’s restore this path.
He held up the glass sphere in his outstretched hands. Light streamed from it on the road ahead and it opened up becoming as it had been before the days when magic had been outlawed.
Arnotte passed through the remaining forest with ease. He soon drew close to the town of Nuttin. On its outskirts he passed a farmer toiling in his fields. His heart ached for the poor man’s plight. He withdrew the globe and shined its light on the field. Withered corn became healthy reaching to the sky. The farmer stared in wonder.
Arnotte told him, “Tell no one. Let this be our secret.”
Once in the town, the prince agonized over the needs of its people, but kept the globe hidden until dark when he went around the hamlet shining the globe’s light on every rundown house and shop he found. In the morning the citizens of Nuttin awoke to a whole new village. They marveled at what they saw, but rejoiced, nonetheless. The questioned their good fortune until the farmer came to sell his bountiful crop of corn. He could not resist telling the people how it all came about.
Soon the whole kingdom spoke about this mysterious stranger that had a magic globe that drove away the rot and decay that had settled over the land. Filled with new hope, men searched high and low for the one responsible, but he could not be found.
Albedor soon filled with optimism. The gloom that had settled over the kingdom was lifting which delighted everyone except the king’s Chief Counsel. He scowled before his Majesty. “This is magic of the worst kind. People are lured into its pleasantry and then they will be dashed into despondency when their good fortune turns against them.” With the king’s permission, he set the royal guard to find the perpetrator of this blatant defiance of the king’s decree. Surely this lawbreaker had to be stopped.
In the meantime, the prince shined the light of the globe all over the palace. Withered gardens came to life to bloom with intensity. All over the kingdom rain came in the right places. The weather changed. There were sightings of nymphs in the royal woods which became restored to its former estate.
Late in the summer when the prince had returned from one of his many journeys he dressed himself in his chamber. As he did so, the globe slipped out of his satchel and rolled into the hallway where the king’s Chief Counsel passed by just at that moment. The member of the king’s court scooped up the glass ball and rushed into Arnotte’s room pointing an accusing finger. “It’s you who has brought magic back to doom our land. Prince or no, you have defied the king’s law and must pay the price.”
The Chief Counsel called two of the king’s guard and ordered them to bind the prince’s hands, which they reluctantly did and so led him to stand before the King.
Now his Majesty faced a dilemma. He had declared that whoever had this magical globe was to be banished from Albedor forever. As long as he reigned as king his edict stood and had to be enforced. He glared at his Chief Counsel. “Look at the good the lad has done. Why should we send him away? After all he is my son.”
The Chief Counsel stood his ground. “The law is the law and must be carried out.”
The king hung his head and rued the day he had ever listened to his chief advisor.
But from out of nowhere Gratus appeared in the room. He raised his hand and everyone including the king and his Chief Counsel became silent. The old man spoke “Oh, king do not compound your mistakes by banishing your son. There is a way out of your dilemma. Your law states that it cannot be changed as long as you are king. What if you are no longer king? Then your son ascends to your throne and can change the law as he pleases and bring good back to your land.”
The king’s Chief Counsel protested. “O king why should we listen to this old man. No doubt he is a sorcerer who has appeared to us by magic and up to no good.”
His Majesty glared at his advisor. “No. It is you who has done no good. It is time to restore things to what they once were.” He stood up from his throne. “I King Albedon, of Albedor, abdicate my throne and declare my son Prince Arnotte to reign in my place.”
The news of the king’s stepping down and the rising of Prince Arnotte reverberated throughout the kingdom. In the days that followed his proper installation King Arnotte fired his father’s Chief Counsel, and repealed the law that drove fairies and nymphs from Albedor. The ban against goblins, sorcerers and the like remained of course. The land regained its previous glory. Its forests became pleasant places. Meadows bloomed. Albedor’s citizens prospered. And so, that country continues to this very day if you know where to look for it.