The Queen's Child

On the edge of the Dark Forest, there once lived a woodcutter there with his wife and a newborn child.  They had little to eat and were very poor, so that one day, when the woodcutter went into the forest to sorrowfully do his work, there stood before him a beautiful elven woman with hair the color of midnight and around her head was a crown of shimmering stars which seemed to fall into her garments which were spun from the night sky.  "I am the Queen of Night and Magic" she said to him.  "You are poor and needy; bring your child to me and I will be her mother and care for her".  The woodcutter obeyed  and brought his child and gave her up to the Queen, who took her into the Feywild with her.

There the child fared well and grew.  She ate sugar-cakes and drank sweetwater; she wore clothes of the finest elven gold-weave and knew not the fear of the dark while the elves played with her and wove flowers into her golden hair.  When she was in her late stages of childhood, the Queen of Night and Magic called to her and said, "Dear child, I am about to go away for a season while my husband rules these lands.  Take into thy keeping the keys to the realms of the Fey Court.  Five of these keys, thou mayest use and open the doorways into the realms of the Feywild, but the sixth, to which this little key belongs, is forbidden thee.  Beware of opening it, lest thou bring misery upon thyself."  The girl promised to be obedient, and when the Queen was gone, she began to examine the dwellings of the Lords and Ladies of the Feywild.

<briefly outline each realm of the Bear King, Moonlit King, the Queen of Witches, the River Queen and the Snow Queen>

Then the forbidden door alone remained, and she felt a great desire to know what could be hidden behind it and she said to the elves, "I will not quite open it, and I will not go inside it, but I will unlock it so that we can just see a little through the opening."  "Oh no," said the elves, "that would be a sin; the Queen of Night and Magic has forbidden it and it might easily cause thee unhappiness."  Then she was silent, but the desire in her heart was not stilled, but gnawed there and tormented her, and let her have no rest.  And once, when the elves had all gone out, she thought, "Now I am quite alone, and I could peep in.  If I do it, no one will ever know."  She sought out the key, and when she had got it in her hand, she put it in the lock, and when she had put it in, she turned it round as well.  Then the door sprang up and and she saw there, the Lord of the Hunt sitting on his throne of gnarled branches, his great stag antlers reaching into the boughs behind him.  She paused there for a moment and looked at everything in amazement; then she heard the baying of His hounds and she was quite afraid.  She shut the door violently and ran away.  Her terror too would not quit her, let her do what she might, and her heart beat continually and would not be still; and the baying of the hounds... no matter how much she covered her ears, she would hear them in the stillness of the night.  Always following her; never approaching.

It was not long before the Queen came back and again exiled the Moonlit King to the Tower of the Moon, there to await his next season.  She called the girl to her and asked to have the keys of the Feywild back.  When the maiden gave her the bunch, the Queen looked into her eyes and said, "Hast thou not opened the Sixth gate, also?"  "No," she replied.  Then Sarastra Aestruum, the Queen of Night and Magic, Duchess of the Heavens laid her hand on the girl's heart and saw right well that she had disobeyed her order and had opened the door.  Then she said once again, "Art thou certain that thou hast not done it?"  "Yes," said the girl, for the second time.  Then she heard the baying of hounds and knew that the child had sinned, and said for the second time, "Hast thou not done it?"  "No," said the girl for the third time.  Then said the Queen, "Thou hast not obeyed me, and besides that thou hast lied.  Thou art no longer worthy to be in the Feywild."

Then the girl fell into a deep sleep, and when she awoke she lay on the earth again, and in the midst of a great wilderness.  She wanted to cry out, but she could bring forth no sound.  She sprang up and wanted to run away, but whithersoever she turned herself, she was continually held back by thick hedges of thorns through which she could not break.  In the desert, in which she was imprisoned, there stood an old hollow tree, and this had to be her dwelling-place.  Into this she crept when night came and here she slept.  Here, too, she found a shelter from storm and rain, but it was a miserable life, and bitterly did she weep when she remembered how happy she had been in the Feywild, and how the elves had played with her.  Roots and berries were her only food, and for these she sought as far as she could go.  In the autumn she picked up the fallen nuts and leaves, and carried them into the hole.  The nuts were her food in winter, and when snow and ice came, she crept amongst the leaves like a poor little animal that she might not freeze.  Before long her clothes were all torn, and one bit of them after another fell off her.  As soon, however, as the sun shone warm again, she went out and sat in front of the tree, and her long hair covered her on all sides like a mantle.  Thus she sat year after year, and felt the pain and misery of the world.

One day, when the trees were once more clothed in fresh green, the Kinf othe country was hunting in the forest and followed a roe, and as it had fled into the thicket which shut in this part of the forest, he got off his horse, tore the bushes asunder, and cut himself a path with his sword.  When he had at last forced his way through, he saw a wonderfully beautiful maiden sitting under the tree; and she sat there and was entirely covered with her golden hair down to her very feet.  He stood still an dlooked at her full of surprise, then he spoke to her and said, "Who art thou?  Why art thou sitting here in the wilderness?"  But she gave no answer, for she could not open her mouth.  The King continued, "Wilt thou go with me to my castle?"  Then she just nodded her head a little.  The King took her in his arms, carried her to his horse, and rode home with her, and when he reached the royal castle he caused her to be dressed in beautiful garments, and gave her all things in abundance.  Although she could not speak, she was still so beautiful and charming that he began to love her and it was not long before he married her.

After a year or so had passed, the Queen brought a son into the world.  Thereupon the Queen of Night and Magic appeared to her in the night when she lay in her bed alone, and as the sound of baying hounds was heard across the land said, "If thou wilt tell the truth and confess that thou didst unlock the forbidden door, I will open thy mouth and give thee back thy speech, but if thou perseverest in thy sin, and deniest obstinately, I will take thy newborn child away with me."  Then the queen was permitted to answer, but she remained hard and said, "No, I did not open the forbidden door."  And the Mistress of Air and Darkness took the newborn child from her arms and vanished with it.  Next morning when the child was not to be found, it was whispered among the people that the Queen was a man-eating wolf-beast, and had killed her own child.  She heard all this and could say nothing to the contrary, but the King would not believe it, for he loved her so much.

When a year had gone by the Queen again bore a son, and in the night, the Lady of the Summer Palace again came to her with the sound of the Wild Hunt and said, "If thou wilt confess that thou openedst the forbidden door, I will give thee thy child back and untie thy tongue; but if you continuest in sin and deniest it, I will take away with me this new child also."  Then the queen again said, "No, I did not open the forbidden door;" and the Queen of Night and Magic took the child out of her arms and away with her to the Feywild.  Next morning, when this child also had disappeared, the people declared quite loudly that the Queen had devoured it, and the King's councilors demanded that she should be brought to justice.  The King, however, loved her so dearly that he would not believe it, ad commanded the councilors under pain of death not to say any more about it.

The following year, the Queen gave birth to a beautiful little daughter, and for the third time the Bride of Shadows appeared to her, the sound of hounds baying in the distance and said, "Follow me."  She took the queen by the hand and led her to the Feywild and showed her there her two eldest children, who smiled at her, and were playing with the ball of the world.  When the Queen rejoiced thereat, the Countess of Thorn said, "Is thy heart not yet softened?  If thou wilt own that thou openedst the forbidden door, I will give thee back that two little sons."  But for the third time, the queen answered, "No, I did not open the forbidden door."  Then Her Celestial and Royal Majesty let her fall back to earth once more, and took from her likewise her third child.

Next morning, when the loss was reported abroad, all the people cried loudly, "The Queen is a man-eater.  She must be judged," and the King was no longer able to restrain his councilors.  Thereupon a trial was held, and as she could not answer, and defend herself, she was condemned to be burnt alive.  The wood was got together, and when she was fast bound to the stake, and the fire began to burn round about her, the hard ice of pride melted, her heart was moved by repentance, and she thought, "If I could but confess before my death that I opened the door."  But she could not.  The last sound she heard before her death, was the baying of hounds and call of a hunting horn.