A fairy tale by Harold Ostenson
ONE LATE
AFTERNOON young lad Cedric, dozing after a hard's day work in the fields, dreamt a dream that stayed as real to him when he awoke as it did while he was dreaming it.
In his dream, a maiden stepped out of a rosy haze of clouds in front of a castle, and instantly he recognized the maiden as the right
woman for him. There was something about her manner and style that felt natural and perfect.
"Do you know what I know?" the maiden said with a welcoming smile.
"I know I'd be happy with you all my life," said Cedric.
"And I with you," she said. "I am the Maiden of the Castle of Rosy Clouds. You must seek and find me, and then we can be together." She
vanished and Cedric woke up.
Cedric asked everyone he knew - the hired hands at the farm, the shopkeepers, and anyone else he met - if they knew anything about the Maiden of the Castle of Rosy Clouds. Many laughed and assumed he was joking, others figured he must be crazy, while a few seemed to hint
they knew something because they would slap him on the back and say, "Well you cut yourself a tall order, didn't you?" without explaining what they meant.
"I have no choice but to travel till I find someone who knows," Cedric thought. He gathered his belongings and started on a path through the woods.
After many days, he came to a hut so overgrown with weeds he almost didn't notice a very old woman tending her garden beside it. Even after the old woman stood up, she was not much taller. Cedric thought he had never met anyone that old and wrinkled and hunched over - surely the woman must be over a hundred years old! He said, "Old woman, do allow me to help with your garden." He pulled all the weeds and set layers of thick grasses between the rows so the weeds wouldn't come up again for awhile.
He filled one of her baskets with green beans, brussel sprouts, potatoes, beets and peas from the garden, and brought them inside to make her soup. The old woman asked the visitor why he was traveling so deep in the woods.
"Ah!" she said after he had told her about the Maiden of the Castle of
Rosy Clouds, and sunk down in a chair. "I can't tell you how to find her, but I think I remember a nursery rhyme about her from when I was a child. Now...what was it?..." After concentrating a minute and humming to herself she exclaimed "Ah, yes!" and sung this:
"How to find the maiden in the castle of the
rosy clouds?
How
to win the maiden in the castle of the rosy clouds?
First you need a stallion gray
Who midst the clouds can find his way.
You need
a red mantle, that of a squire
To keep you safe from embers and fire.
And you need the sword that is known as Gull
To
split the iron serpent's skull."
"Not bad remembering for an old woman, yes?" she smiled a toothless smile. But after a minute she shook her head and said, "Young man, I must tell you this. In all my years - and I have lived a long time! - I have
never seen a stallion that can ride clouds, nor a mantle that does not burn, nor any sword known as Gull. So if you ask," and now she leaned forward, "what is my advice? I'll tell you. Forget it. Forget about finding the maiden in the rosy clouds." And the old woman settled back in her chair, nodding to herself.
Cedric stayed with the old woman a couple of days and repaired her cottage and drew plenty of fresh water for her, and then he went on his way. For many nights he dreamt about the gray stallion, the red mantle and the sword known as Gull, but each time when he woke, he did not have any better idea how to find them than he had had before. And with barely a coin in his pocket, even if he were
lucky enough to find one of the magical items, he could hardly buy it anyway.
Around five years later, Cedric was traveling through a wild and desolate mountain region where dangerous gorges and dark ravines opened on every side. Suddenly he heard a desperate cry. An older woman burst past him followed
by an enormous slithering snake, 200 feet long and 20 feet wide, with black hair shaking from its neck, shining thick horny scales from neck to tail, and flaming red eyes.
"Ah, I wish my knife were bigger!" Cedric pulled his small pocket knife from its sheath and ran toward the snake. Instantly
the creature turned its attention away from the old woman, who escaped behind some boulders, to the young man brandishing the pocket knife. The snake seemed ready to devour both boy and knife. As Cedric charged the snake, his knife suddenly transformed into a long, gleaming sword, and with one mighty blow to the snake's neck the young man chopped off its head.
"Why, that must have been the iron snake," mulled Cedric, "and this must be the sword of Gull. Since it's in my hand now I suppose it must be mine." Cedric went on his way, with hope fired in his heart that he was on the right track to finding the Maiden in the Castle of the Rosy Clouds.
To be
continued
