Fairy Gold: A Book of Old English Fairy Tales

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2008, is a republication of Part I of the work originally published by J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London, and E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, in 1906. Seven color plates scattered throughout Part I of the original edition appear after page 122.

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International Standard Book Number

9780486174303

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y 11501

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

THE IMP TREE

THE PIXY FLOWER

THE BLACK BULL OF NORROWAY

THE LAMBTON WORM

The Laidley Worm of Spindleston

THE GREEN KNIGHT

THE GREEN CHILDREN

The Story of the Fairy Horn

THE LADY MOLE

CATSKIN

TOM TIT TOT

THE FAIRY BEGGAR

THE CAULD LAD OF HILTON

AINSEL

THE FAIRY’S DINNER

THE GIANT THAT WAS A MILLER

THE PRINCESS OF COLCHESTER

LAZY JACK - A STORY WITHOUT A MORAL

ROBIN GOODFELLOW

TOM HICKATHRIFT

THE THREE BEARS

THE HISTORY OF TOM THUMB.

THE GIANT OF SAINT MICHAEL’S

THE FAIRIES’ FROLIC - SCENE FROM A FAIRY PLAY

JACK AND THE BEAN-STALK

QUEEN MAB’S GOOD GRACE

OLD FORTUNATUS

DICK WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT

The King of the Vipers

THE KING OF THE CATS

CHICKEN LICKEN

QUEEN MAB’S BED

THE IMP TREE

ONCE there was a King of Winchester called Orfeo, and dearly he loved his queen, Heurodis. She happened one hot afternoon in summertime to be walking in the orchard, when she became very drowsy; and she lay down under an imp tree,¹ and there she fell fast asleep. While she slept, she had a strange dream. She dreamt that two fair knights came to her side, and bade her come quickly with them to speak to their lord and king. But she answered them right boldly, that she neither dared nor cared to go with them. So the two knights went away; but very quickly they returned, bringing their king with them, and a thousand knights in his train, and many beauteous ladies drest in pure white, riding on snow-white steeds. The king had a crown on his head, not of silver or red-gold, but all of precious stones that shone like the sun. By his side was led a lady’s white palfrey that seemed to be prepared for some rider, for its saddle was empty. He commanded that Heurodis should be placed upon this white steed, and thereupon the King of Faerie and his train of knights and white dames, and Heurodis beside him, rode off through a fair country with many flowery meads, fields, forests and pleasant waters, where stood castles and towers amid the green trees. Fairest of all, on a green terrace overlooking many orchards and rose-gardens, stood the Faerie King’s palace. When he had shown these things to Heurodis, he brought her back safe to the Imp Tree; but he bade her, on pain of death, meet him under the same tree on the morrow.

When Heurodis awoke from this dream, it was to find Orfeo standing at her side. She told him of all that had happened; of the Faerie King and of the green faerie country she had visited. He resolved that on the morrow he and a thousand knights should stand armed round the Imp Tree to protect her from the Faerie King. And when the time came, there they stood like a ring of living steel or a hedge of spears, to guard Heurodis. But in spite of all, she was snatched away under their very eyes; and in vain were all their efforts to see which way she and her faërie captors were gone.

When Heurodis awoke from this dream, it was to find Orfeo standing at her side.

Orfeo made search for his lost queen everywhere during many days, but no footstep of her was to be found in upper earth. And then in sorrow for her, and in utter despair, he left his palace at Winchester, gave up his throne and went into the wilderness, carrying only a harp for companion. With its tunes, as he sang to it, sorrowing for Heurodis, the wild beasts were enchanted and often came round about him—yea, wolf and fox, bear and little squirrel—to hear him play. And there in the forest, Orfeo (as the old story-book says):

"Often in hot undertides²

Would see the Faerie King besides,

The King of Faerie with his rout

Hunt and ride all roundabout,

With calls and elfin-horns that blew,

And hounds that did reply thereto,

But never pulled down hart or doe,

And never arrow left the bow."

And sometimes he saw the Faerie Host pass, as if to war, the knights with their swords drawn, stout and fierce of face, and their banners flying. Other times he saw these faerie knights and ladies dance, dressed like guisers, with tabors beating and joyous trumpets blowing. And one day Orfeo saw sixty lovely ladies ride out to the riverside for falconry, each with her falcon on her bare hand, and in the very midst of them (oh wonder !) rode his lost queen, Heurodis. He determined at once to follow them; and after flying their falcons they return through the forest at evening to a wild rocky place, where they ride into the rock through a rude cleft, overhung with brambles. They ride in, a league and more, till they come to the fairest country ever seen, where it is high midsummer and broad sunlight. In its midst stands a palace of an hundred towers, with walls of crystal, and windows coped and arched with gold. All that land was light, because when the night should come, the precious stones in the palace walls gave out a light as bright as noonday. Into this palace hall Orfeo entered, in the train of the ladies, and saw there the King of Faerie on his throne. The king was enraged at first when he saw the strange man enter with his harp. But Orfeo offers to play upon it, and Heurodis, when she hears, is filled with longing, while the Faerie King is so enchanted that he promises to Orfeo any gift he likes to ask out of all the riches of the faerie regions. But Orfeo, to this, has only one word to reply :—

HEURODIS!

And the King of Faerie thereupon gives her back to Orfeo, and they return in great joy, hand in hand together, through the wilderness to Winchester, where they live and reign together for ever afterwards in peace and happiness. But let none who would not be carried away like Heurodis to the Faerie King’s country dare to sleep in the undertide beneath the Imp Tree.

THE PIXY FLOWER

ONCE upon a time there lived in Devonshire two serving damsels, called Molly and Sabina, who were very fond of ribands and finery. When their mistress scolded them for spending more money than they ought upon such things, they said the pixies were very kind to them, and would often drop silver for their pleasure into a bucket of fair water which they placed for the accommodation of those little beings in the chimney corner every night before they went to bed. Once, however, it was forgotten, and the pixies, finding themselves disappointed by an empty bucket, whisked upstairs to the maids’ bedroom, popped through the keyhole, and began to exclaim aloud against the laziness and neglect of the damsels. Now Sabina, who lay awake and heard all this, jogged her fellow-servant, and proposed getting up immediately to put things straight. But Molly, lazy girl, who liked not being disturbed out of a comfortable nap, pettishly declared that, for her part, she would not stir out of bed to please all the pixies in Devonshire. The good-humoured Sabina, however, got up, filled the bucket, and was rewarded by a handful of silver pennies found in it the next morning. But long ere that time had arrived, what was her alarm, as she crept towards the bed, to hear all the elves buzzing like so many angry bees, and consulting as to what should be done to the lazy, lazy lass who would not stir out of bed for their pleasure.

Some proposed pinches, nips, and bobs, others wanted to spoil her new cherry-coloured bonnet and ribands. One talked of sending her the toothache, another of giving her a red nose; but this last was voted much too bad a punishment for a pretty young lass. So, tempering mercy with justice, the pixies were kind enough to let her off with a lame leg, which was to plague her for seven years, and was only to be cured by a certain herb, growing on Dartmoor. Its long, and learned, and very queer and difficult name the elfin judge pronounced in a high and shrill voice. It was a name of seven syllables, seven being also the number of years decreed for Molly’s lameness.

Sabina, good-natured maid, wishing to save her fellow-damsel so long a suffering, tried with might and main to bear in mind the name of this strange herb. She said it over and over again, tied a knot in her garter at every syllable as a help to memory, and thought she had the word just as safe and sure as her own name, and very possibly felt much more anxious about retaining the one than the other.

At length she dropped asleep, and did not wake till the morning. Now whether Sabina’s head was like a sieve, that lets out as fast as it takes in, or if the over-exertion to remember only caused her to forget, cannot be determined; but certain it is that when she opened her eyes she knew nothing at all about the matter, excepting that Molly was to go lame on her right leg for seven long years, unless a herb with a strange name could be got to cure her. And lame Molly went for nearly the whole of those seven years.

At length, about the end of that time, Sabina and Molly went out into the fields early one morning to pick mushrooms, when a merry, squint-eyed, queer-looking boy started up all of a sudden just as Molly went to pluck a fine big one and came tumbling, head over heels, towards her. He held in his hand a green herb with a tiny yellow flower, which some say was called Inula-Helenium ³ and he insisted upon striking Molly with it on the lame leg. From that very moment she got well, and lame Molly became the best dancer in the whole town when she and Sabina danced at the feast of Mayday on the green.

THE BLACK BULL OF NORROWAY

To wilder measures next they turn :

The black, black bull of Norroway!

Sudden the tapers cease to burn,

The minstrels cease to play!

ONCE upon a time there lived a king who had three daughters; the two eldest were proud and ugly, but the youngest was the gentlest and most beautiful creature ever seen, and the pride not only of her father and mother, but of all in the land. As it fell out, the three princesses were talking one night of whom they would marry. I will have no one lower than a king, said the eldest princess. The second would take a prince or a great duke even. Pho, pho, said the youngest, laughing, you are both so proud; now, I would be content with the Black Bull o’ Norroway. Well, they thought no more of the matter till the next morning, when, as they sat at breakfast, they heard the most dreadful bellowing at the door, and what should it be but the Black Bull come for his bride. You may be sure they were all terribly frightened at this, for the Black Bull was one of the most horrible creatures ever seen in the world. And the king and queen did not know how to save their daughter. At last they determined to send him off with the old henwife. So they put her on his back, and away he went with her till he came to a great black forest, when, throwing her down, he returned, roaring louder and more frightfully than ever. They then sent, one by one, all the servants, then the two eldest princesses; but not one of them met with any better treatment than the old