The Lad Of The Gad. Alan Garner
John went with her. And when they were in one part, the music was in another, and when they were in that other, it would be elsewhere, and when they were there, they heard it on the deck, and when they were on the deck, the ship was out on the ocean and making sea-hiding with the land.
The king’s daughter said, “Bad is the trick you have done me and bad the night on which you have come. Where will you take me now?”
“We are going,” said Upright John, “to give you as a wife to the King of Irrua; to get from him his Yellow Horse; to give that to the Seven Big Women of Jura; to get from them their White Sword of Light; to give that to the Giant of the Five Heads, the Five Humps and the Five Throttles; to get from him his Blue Falcon; to take her home to my stepmother, the Bad Straddling Queen, that I may be free from my crosses and my spells and the sick diseases of the year.”
“I had rather be as a wife to you,” said the Daughter of the King of the Frang.
When they came to shore in Irrua, the Foxy Lad put himself in the shape of the Daughter of the Sun, and he said to Upright John, “Leave the woman here till we come back, and I shall go with you to the King of Irrua; and I shall give him enough of a wifing.”
Upright John went with the Foxy Lad in the shape of the Daughter of the Sun, and when the king saw them he took out the Yellow Horse, put a golden saddle on her back, a silver bridle in her head, and gave her to John.
John rode the horse back to the Daughter of the King of the Frang, and they waited.
The King of Irrua and the Foxy Lad were married that same day, and when they went to their rest, the Foxy Lad gave a dark spring, and he did not leave a toothful of flesh between the back of the neck and the haunch of the King of Irrua that was not worried and wounded: and he ran to where Upright John and the Daughter of the King of the Frang were waiting.
“How did you get free?” said John.
“A man is kind to his life,” said the Foxy Lad.
The Foxy Lad grew into a ship, and he took them all to Jura.
They landed at the Rock of the Flea on the north side of Jura, and the Foxy Lad said to Upright John, “Leave the king’s daughter and the Yellow Horse here till we come back, and I shall go with you to the Big Women, and I shall give them enough of a horsing.”
The Foxy Lad went into the shape of a yellow horse, Upright John put the golden saddle on his back, and the silver bridle in his head, and they went to the house of the Seven Big Women of Jura.
When they saw John, the Big Women came to meet him, and they gave him the White Sword of Light.
John took the saddle off the back of the Foxy Lad and the bridle out of his head, and he left him with the Big Women and went away. The Big Women put a saddle on the Foxy Lad, and bridled his head, and one of them went up on his back to ride him. Another went on the back of that one, and another on the back of that one, and there was always room for another one there, till one after one the Seven Big Women of Jura went up on the back of the Foxy Lad, thinking that they had got the Yellow Horse of Irrua.
One of them gave a blow of a rod to the Foxy Lad: and if she gave, he ran.
He charged with them through the mountain moors, singing iolla, bounding high to the tops, moving his front to the crag, and he put his two forefeet to the crag, and he threw his rump end on high, and the Seven Big Women went into the air and over the Paps of Jura.
The Foxy Lad ran away laughing to where Upright John and the king’s daughter were waiting with the Yellow Horse and the White Sword of Light.
“How did you get free?” said John.
“A man is kind to his life,” said the Foxy Lad.
The Foxy Lad grew into a ship, and he took them all to the mainland.
When they had landed, the Foxy Lad said, “Leave the king’s daughter here with the Yellow Horse and the White Sword of Light, and take me to the giant, and I shall give him enough of a blading.”
The Foxy Lad put himself into the shape of a sword, and Upright John took him to the giant. And when the Giant of the Five Heads, the Five Humps and the Five Throttles saw them coming, he put the Blue Falcon in a basket and gave it to John.
John went back to the king’s daughter, and the Foxy Lad came running.
“How did you get free?” said John.
“Ho! Huth!” said the Foxy Lad. “A man is kind to his life, but I was in the giant’s hand when he began at fencing and slashing, and, ‘I shall cut this oak tree,’ said he, ‘at one blow, which my father cut two hundred years before now with the same sword.’ And he gripped me and swung me, and with the first blow he cut the tree all but a small bit of bark; and the second blow I bent on myself and swept the five heads the five humps and the five throttles off him. And there is not a tooth in the door of my mouth left unbroken for sake of that filth of a blue marvellous bird!”
“What shall be done to your teeth?” said John.
“There is no help for it,” said the Foxy Lad. “So put the saddle of gold on the Yellow Horse, and the silver bridle in her head, and go you yourself riding there, and take the Daughter of the King of the Frang behind you, and the White Sword of Light with its back against your nose. And if you do not go in that way, when your stepmother sees you, she has an eye so evil that you will fall a faggot of firewood. But if the back of the sword is against your nose, and its edge to the Bad Straddling Queen, she will split her glance and fall herself as sticks.”
Upright John did as the Foxy Lad told him. And when he came in sight of the castle, his stepmother, with one foot on the castle and the other on the hall, her front to the face of the tempest, looked at him with an evil eye. But she split her glance on the edge of the White Sword of Light, and she fell as sticks.
Upright John set fire to the sticks, burnt the Bad Straddling Queen, and was free of fear.
He said to the Foxy Lad, “I have got the best wife of the world; the horse that will leave the one wind and catch the other; the falcon that will fetch me game; the sword that will keep off each foe; and I am free of fear.
“And you, you Lad of March, have been my dearest friend since we were on the time of one trotter and a sheep’s cheek. Go now for ever through my ground. No arrow will be let at you. No trap will be set for you. Take any beast to take with you. Go now through my ground for ever.”
“Keep your herds and your flocks to yourself,” said the Foxy Lad. “There is many a one who has trotters and sheep as well as you. I shall get flesh without coming to put trouble here. Peace on you, and my blessing, blessing, blessing, Upright John.”
He went away. The tale was spent.
There was a king, and his name was Donald. And in the kingdom there was a poor fisherman, who had a son, and the son took school and learning.
The boy said to his father, “Father, it is time for me to be doing for myself to be a Champion.” So he picked sixteen apples from the garden and threw an apple out into the sea, and he gave a step on it. He threw the next one, and he gave a step on it. He threw one after one, until he came to the last, and the last apple brought him on land again.
When he was on land again he shook his ears, and he thought that it was in no sorry place he would stay.
So he moved as a wave from a wave
And marbles from marbles,
As a wild winter wind,
Sightly and swiftly singing
Right proudly,
Through glens and high tops
And made no stops
Till he came to the city
And court