So the King’s son and Beswarragal went away back to the garden; but it
wasn’t long till a man came that had wings and could fly, and he stooped
down and took up Beswarragal, as if she was a child, and brought her
away. The King’s son went following her then, and he went on till he
came to the man that had wings, and he asked her of him. ‘There was a
man came that could not fly, but that was a better man than myself,’
says he, ‘and he took her from me.’ So the King’s son went on till he
found that man, and he asked her of him. ‘There was a man came,’ he
said, ‘that had seven colours in his eyes, and that took her from me,’
he said.
So he went on till he came to the man that had seven colours in his eyes
and asked her of him. ‘She was brought away from me,’ says he, ‘by the
Queen of the Black Wood. And there is no one will be able to take her
out of her hands,’ he said.
So the King’s son went on, and he had no knowledge what way to get to
the Black Wood. And he was passing through a field, and a white _garran_
that was in the field spoke to him and said: ‘Get up now on my back, and
I will bring you as far as the stile that leads into the Black Wood. But
there is no one can go into it,’ he said, ‘because it is as dark as
night; and there is no one can face the strength of the Queen that is in
that wood.’
So the King’s son got up on the _garran_, and they went on till they
came to the road that was outside the Black Wood, and there was an old
man there was building a castle on a very large flagstone, and he asked
the King’s son where was he going, and he said he was going to bring
away his wife from the Queen of the Black Wood. ‘There is no one can do
that,’ says the old man, ‘unless it is the man that will put this castle
five yards off the flagstone, with one shove he will give it.’ So the
King’s son went at it, and he gave it one shove, and if he did he put
the castle eight yards from the flagstone. ‘Oh,’ says the old man when
he saw that, ‘I know you must be my sister’s son, for there is no one in
the whole world could do that unless my sister’s son.’ And he put his
arms about him and kissed him. And then he bade him to move the
flagstone and he did that, and there was a sword under it. ‘Take up that
sword,’ says the old man, ‘and be shaking it this way and that way. And
according as you will be shaking it, the strength will be going out of
the Queen of the Black Wood, and you can go to her when she is left
weak,’ he said.
So the King’s son did as he bade him, and by the time he came to the
Queen, all he had to do was to whip the head off her.
So he brought Beswarragal out of the wood, and they went back safe and
well again to the garden.
‘Is there any meaning in the name Beswarragal?’
‘Not a meaning; it was all the name ever she had, and it will be her
name ever and always.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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