Friday, September 21, 2018

The Werewolf Lullaby

Fairy Tale of Prince and Horse
Chapter 11, Part 3
If I were, were, were a werewolf.


Were they sleeping? Were they dreaming? Whose voices whispered “hwisprian — hwisprian”. The howling raged on and the onslaught continued for hours it seemed, deep, deep into the night. The prince could not move his limbs they were so heavy. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the horse lying close by, its snorting breath chopped and rasped. Then all went dark. It was cold; doleful yowling continued on into the night and enveloped the two like a heavy wet blanket. They lay there for hours until finally the first light could be seen on the horizon.  Then warmth slowly returned, and the sun rose high in the sky. The prince heard a soothing lullaby now, at first it murmured faintly:

If I were, were, were, were a werewolf,
Not werebear or were-mouse,
Not were-pig or were-louse,
Free of wem, stainless,
Free of scar, blameless,
I would walk with the wedders and their sheep wives,
Always even-tempered past the bee hives.
I would do no harm, ther'd be no alarm.
Sweet dreams, sleep deep little were-pup. 



The prince awoke and two bright sets of eyes returned his gaze. It was the two Balds: Willibald and Winibald. 


Thursday, September 20, 2018

The Werwatz Werewolves: Dark night of the soul!

The Werwatz Werewolves
Chapter 11, Part 2
Fairy Tale of Prince and Horse



Prince and horse scuttered to the protective walls of Heidenheim while howling and hissing could be heard in fast pursuit. The werewolves were approaching fast on their heels; there was no time to delay. They must seek shelter within the walls of the monastery and request the protection of Winibald and Willibald.

Now the silhouette of the monastery could be seen through the woods. A light burned within and they hastened to reach the sanctuary. The howling grew louder, the snapping of jaws more distinct and a cacophony of barking soon enveloped them. “Faster!” the horse encouraged the faltering prince. “Quick, alight on my back and I will carry you more swiftly!” And so it happened: they breached the walls of Heidenheim and horse and man collapsed within.

Exhaustion overwhelmed and a deep sleep fell upon them while a raging storm of meerwolves and beerwolves encircled them. It was the clan of Werwatz that now girdled the castle as they lay listlessly under the fetid stench and baleful bark of the Werwatz Werewolves.

Dark night of the soul! 


Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Fairy Tale of Prince and Horse, Chapter 11: The Werewolf's Frenzied Distemper

Chapter 11
The Werewolf’s Frenzied Distemper


Prince and steed lost no more time; what else could they do but flee? The werewolves were encroaching on the monastery of Heidenheim; the sanctuary of Winibald and Willibald beckoned. Speed was of the essence. And so the prince and horse scurried toward its protective walls.


Thursday, September 13, 2018

Fairy Tale of Prince and Horse, Chapter 10

Part 1, Crystalball Gazing

“But back to practical matters,” Walpurga said kindly. “I have grace to see future things before they happen. The future cannot remain hidden from me! And doubt? I shall take it from you when we gaze into the crystal and clearly see your future, your destiny.”

She retreated to her cabinet and removed a basket containing her utensils: a silk-blue cloth impressed with wonderful images of dragons, snakes and other animals, a green-translucent bowl shimmering, and a crystal ball. Placing the crystal in the bowl, she then draped the silk over it before beginning.  

Walpurga fell silent for several minutes. The prince leaned forward as she began to murmur, eyes closed. Then she removed the silk and asked the prince to gaze inside the crystal ball. 


First he saw nothing. Then his bride appeared in beautiful costume, adorned for her wedding day. As lovely as she seemed there was also a trace of sadness in her countenance and while he gazed more intently he noticed her pallor and how she trembled.  Her face was such a deathly white that you could not see her without feeling pity. Then her features convulsed into something horrible and cruel as a gallant approached. As if coming from a long trip he still wore boot and spur, but his gray mantle with golden buttons was covered in dust still plentiful.  As he approached her he removed two shiny flashing pistols one in each hand from under his coat and then he pointed at her heart. The prince looked on in horror as the gunman placed the pistol on his bride’s breast, released the clasp and squeezed the trigger. Then he heard a dull far-off sound and shuddered. Who was this gallant brandishing a weapon? He peered more intently into the crystal ball and saw his own face. 



Part 2, 
The sheltering sump.

Walpurga placed the silk on the glass and trembled. “The future is harsh and we scarcely desire to know it.!”

“That isn’t so!” the prince gasped. Clutching her arm tightly he implored “You must show me more. My heart shall otherwise break in two.”

“As you wish,” the abbess closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Soon it seemed  as if she panted, then croaked, then rasped and finally made no sound at all. Even though her eyes were closed, the lids trembled in their sockets and her lips tightened. All color had faded from her cheeks when the silk fell from the crystal ball once more.


Inside the glass tiny figures could be seen running through a forest. They ran and ran past mighty oaks. Down, down they ran into a swamp, through  marsh and muck until finally, pushing forward they reached a mound on which more fat oaks stood. Now they pushed upward, up up through tall thick grasses following a well-trodden damp and dewy way. The prince gazed intently at the tiny figures fleeing and then noticed one, a maid.  His maid! His intended one! Running through the mud and leading her trusted steed through the sheltering sump. 

Part 3

The maid spoke:

My home is the impenetrable elfmound where sump meets hillock.  Once I pledged my heart to a prince but I was kidnapped by a king; my swain freed me from the king’s cruel advances only to abandon me soon after. Were it not for my horse or help from the fairy folk I would have been lost. But by and by I came to this place of moss and mold. I have put on the wings of the fairies as armor and here I shall live for all time forth. For in the muck every army sinks, every villain is swallowed, and love is unknown. 



Part 4

Walpurga explains the nature of fairy folk.


The elfmound faded from view within the crystal ball and Walpurga covered the glass once more with silk cloth. “Your intended one has gone to the fairies or the Night Folk as some call them. The Elf Queen lives in the bush and night is the fairies’ time of joy. That is when elf-throngs join in dance and sing boisterously. Only fairy rings in the dewy grass tell of their dancing. But woe to him who by chance happens upon them. He that speaks to them shall die! You must find your maid and remove her from the elfmound. Then she will lose her wings and return to you. But once you step inside the elfmound, you are under their spell and have no power to resist. You must then take on their winged armor and join the ethereal horde.”


Part 5

The crystal ball will not be silenced.


The prince sat dejectedly at the table contemplating what to do. Walpurga, ball and silk in hand, shuffled toward the cabinet to return the crystal. Her hands gripped the slippery surface and moved in zig-zag fashion as she struggled to contain the sphere. The cloth slipped from its surface and new images could now be seen within.  The prince rushed toward her and held up the crystal to the light. Within the glass sphere he could see a mobilized army of witches, werewolves and giants, dust hurling up, the ground shaking.  “They are coming for you!” Walpurga rasped.  You must quickly retreat to Heidenheim, where such evil is kept at bay. It is the only refuge secure against such treachery. A holy sanctuary. Flee! Flee!”  The prince rushed to the door and looked for his trusted steed. He turned once more to Walpurga before rushing out. “Are all these things foretold true and inevitable? Can nothing be altered? Is there no balm for remorse?” But Walpurga only urged him forth. “Flee! Flee!” she repeated.



Fairy Tale of Prince and Horse, Chapter 10, Part 5

Chapter 10, Part 5
The crystal ball will not be silenced.


The prince sat dejectedly at the table contemplating what to do. Walpurga, ball and silk in hand, shuffled toward the cabinet to return the crystal. Her hands gripped the slippery surface and moved in zig-zag fashion as she struggled to contain the sphere. The cloth slipped from its surface and new images could now be seen within.  The prince rushed toward her and held up the crystal to the light. Within the glass sphere he could see a mobilized army of witches, werewolves and giants, dust hurling up, the ground shaking.  “They are coming for you!” Walpurga rasped.  You must quickly retreat to Heidenheim, where such evil is kept at bay. It is the only refuge secure against such treachery. A holy sanctuary. Flee! Flee!”  The prince rushed to the door and looked for his trusted steed. He turned once more to Walpurga before rushing out. “Are all these things foretold true and inevitable? Can nothing be altered? Is there no balm for remorse?” But Walpurga only urged him forth. “Flee! Flee!” she repeated.


Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Fairy Tale of Prince and Horse, Chapter 10, Part 4

Part 4
Walpurga explains the nature of fairy folk.


The elfmound faded from view within the crystal ball and Walpurga covered the glass once more with silk cloth. “Your intended one has gone to the fairies or the Night Folk as some call them. The Elf Queen lives in the bush and night is the fairies’ time of joy. That is when elf-throngs join in dance and sing boisterously. Only fairy rings in the dewy grass tell of their dancing. But woe to him who by chance happens upon them. He that speaks to them shall die! You must find your maid and remove her from the elfmound. Then she will lose her wings and return to you. But once you step inside the elfmound, you are under their spell and have no power to resist. You must then take on their winged armor and join the ethereal horde.”


Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Fairy Tale of Prince and Horse, Chapter 10, Part 3: A Place of Moss and Mold

Part 3
The maid spoke:


My home is the impenetrable elfmound where sump meets hillock.  Once I pledged my heart to a prince but I was kidnapped by a king; my swain freed me from the king’s cruel advances only to abandon me soon after. Were it not for my horse or help from the fairy folk I would have been lost. But by and by I came to this place of moss and mold. I have put on the wings of the fairies as armor and here I shall live for all time forth. For in the muck every army sinks, every villain is swallowed, and love is unknown. 

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Chapter 10, Part 2: Crystal Ball Gazing

Chapter 10, Part 2:
Crystal Ball Gazing
The Shielding Marsh




Walpurga placed the silk on the glass and trembled. “The future is harsh and we scarcely desire to know it.!”

“That isn’t so!” the prince gasped. Clutching her arm tightly he implored “You must show me more. My heart shall otherwise break in two.”

“As you wish,” the abbess closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Soon it seemed as if she panted, then croaked, then rasped and finally made no sound at all. Even though her eyes were closed, the lids trembled in their sockets and her lips tightened. All color had fadedl from her cheeks when the silk fell from the crystal ball once more.

Inside the glass tiny figures could be seen running through a forest. They ran and ran past mighty oaks. Down, down they ran into a swamp, through  marsh and muck until finally, pushing forward they reached a mound on which more fat oaks stood. Now they pushed upward, up up through tall thick grasses following a well-trodden damp and dewy way. The prince gazed intently at the tiny figures fleeing and then noticed one, a maid.  His maid! His intended one! Running through the mud and leading her trusted steed through the sheltering sump. 



Thursday, September 6, 2018

Fairy Tale of Prince and Horse, Chapter 10: Crystal Ball Gazing

Chapter 10
Crystal Ball Gazing

“But back to practical matters,” Walpurga said kindly. “I have grace to see future things before they happen. The future cannot remain hidden from me! And doubt? I shall take it from you when we gaze into the crystal and clearly see your future, your destiny.”


She retreated to her cabinet and removed a basket containing her utensils: a silk-blue cloth impressed with wonderful images of dragons, snakes and other animals, a green-translucent bowl shimmering, and a crystal ball. Placing the crystal in the bowl, she then draped the silk over it before beginning.  

Walpurga fell silent for several minutes. The prince leaned forward as she began to murmur, eyes closed. Then she removed the silk and asked the prince to gaze inside the crystal ball. 

First he saw nothing. Then his bride appeared in beautiful costume, adorned for her wedding day. As lovely as she seemed there was also a trace of sadness in her countenance and while he gazed more intently he noticed her pallor and how she trembled.  Her face was such a deathly white that you could not see her without feeling pity. Then her features convulsed into something horrible and cruel as a gallant approached. As if coming from a long trip he still wore boot and spur, but his gray mantle with golden buttons was covered in dust still plentiful.  As he approached her he removed two shiny flashing pistols one in each hand from under his coat and then he pointed at her heart. The prince looked on in horror as the gunman placed the pistol on his bride’s breast, released the clasp and squeezed the trigger. Then he heard a dull far-off sound and shuddered. Who was this gallant brandishing a weapon? He peered more intently into the crystal ball and saw his own face. 


Sunday, August 26, 2018

Chapter 9: I am Walpurga, Fairy Tale of Prince and Horse

Chapter 9
I am Walpurga



I was born in England, in Devonshire and my father was Richard, the Pilgrim, the Walker. When he left for Jerusalem I was but a virguncula*and so he entrusted me to the abbey of Wimbourne. But for my brothers, the Two Balds, the white spotted and the blazed one, known as Willibald and Winibald, I would have stayed in Wimbourne til my dying days, but my two brothers up and left for Germania,  beckoned by Onkel Winfrid the holy one. My dear Onkle soon became known as “Saint”, his name “Winfrid"  became Boniface, and I soon became known as the Abbess of Heidenheim. 

(young girl)




One day Onkle Winfrid was out in a sacred grove of oaks in a place called Gaesmere where he spied the largest oak, called the Oak of Jupiter, the mighty one, tree of all trees, which he felled with a single mighty chop! 



What to do with such wood? Workers started immediately on the monastery of Heidenheim, where I subsequently became abbess-in-chief. But soon after my Lieber Onkle chopped down the tree, the angry locals forthwith chopped down Onkle.  And that was that! (He now lies in the crypt in Fulda.) 



But back to my days in Heidenheim. One day I was strolling in said sacred grove, when I stumbled upon a Wolfbelt, or some would say, Wolfpelz,  lying on the ground where the Oak of Jupiter had once stood. I secured it round my waist and I transformed into a wolf! What appetite! What gnashing of teeth! What wild chases through the woods! If only I could get that darn thing off, quite difficult to un-notch with wolf paws!






Thursday, August 23, 2018

Walpurga and the Werewolf; Fairy Tale of Prince and Horse, Chapter 8

As the brightness of day faded, the horse carried the prince further and further into the woods. The sun was hanging low in the sky, when the prince awoke as from a dream. Horse and rider continued on a crooked path twisting deeper and deeper into the woods. At last they left the cold and dewy forest and emerged on a steep road, which became stonier with each step. As a full moon rose in the sky, a small hut could be seen and through its window glimmered candlelight.



The prince dismounted from his exhausted horse, its body damp from exertion. Looking through the window, he spied an old woman setting the table with what looked like a banquet feast. He heard a raspy voice command from within “Enter! The food is ready and you shall be fed the very best!”



She was a hunched woman with a mane of silvery-brown hair. Shuffling back and forth through the room, she never looked into the prince’s face as she carried heaped platters of food and pitchers full to the brim. A broad leather belt girdled her dark and dank dress. Her hair was matted, her skin wrinkled and moist. The prince returned to the horse, who whispered in his ear: “I would advise using a silver spoon when you eat her fare!” The prince removed from the horse’s saddlebag a shiny silver spoon and entered the clammy and dark hut. A chill ran down his spine as he sat at the table. Although a fire burned in the fireplace, the room was cold and the prince could not shake the chill that seized him.



















“You were hungered!” the woman said approvingly. Her chest heaved with each word and her breathing was loud and uneven. “It is good to understand true hunger, food tastes better,” she muttered. The old woman then began a raspy monologue while she cleared the table. She said her name was Walpurga. She was the last surviving member of a noble family. The prince dozed off as she prattled on about her extensive land holdings, the servants who tended the fine herd of sheep, the succulent little lambs, the sinewy cattle. Soon the prince was snoring. The old woman cautiously rose from her chair and unbuckled her leather belt. It slipped from her waist and she was a wolf.






With lightening speed the wolf lunged across the table toward the sleeper. In the nick of time the prince, now roused and still gripping the silver spoon, held it up to ward off the blow of the wolf’s powerful body. The dreaded snout hissed, the stench and foulness of its breath could be felt against the prince’s cheek. In the last second, the animal veered off to the side howling pitifully. “Quick!” the horse cried out, “You are no match for a werewolf! We must invoke the mistletoe.



“Mistletoe, Mistletoe, Where do you grow?” the steed cried out.

With the prince still holding the silver spoon to keep the wolf at bay, the horse chanted this magic charm:

“Mistletoe, mistletoe, where do you grow?
Neath the full moon glittering?
Neath the owl twittering?
Climb up and around,
Without a sound.

Mistletoe, mistletoe, where do you grow?
Neath the full moon glittering?
Neath the owl twittering?
Form strong bands,
Round werewolf hands.”

Grow fast,
Grow round,
Grow up,
Grow down.
Mistletoe, Mistletoe grow!”

Small voices could be heard from the floor of the cabin as buds sprouted swiftly around the werewolf, who stood subdued by the shining silver spoon:

“Here we grow, here we grow.
All fat-stemmed blossoms.
Your cry was heard,
Like cuckoo bird.
We grow fast,
We grow round,
We grow up,
We grow down. “

The mistletoe grew up on all sides of the werewolf, encircling the beast in a ring of green leaves. The wolf could not step beyond the ring of vegetation and the silver spoon sparkling in the candlelight seemed to terrify the creature even more.

“You must shout out her Christian name three times to break the werewolf spell. Then, she shall serve you and you both will be allied!”

“Walpurga, Walpurga, Walpurga!” the prince screamed out as loudly and forcefully as his lungs permitted.


Where the wolf had stood, a young woman in an abbess’s frock now appeared. At that moment a warmth spread through the room and the prince could feel it in his bones.
“I am Walpurga, the Abbess of Heidenheim. Welcome!” she said. 






Monday, August 13, 2018

From wolf to Walpurga, the strange journey of the abbess of Heidenheim.

Fairy Tale of Prince and Horse, Chapter 8 Part 7

With lightening speed the wolf lunged across the table toward the sleeper. In the nick of time the prince, now roused and still gripping the silver spoon, held it up to ward off the blow of the wolf’s powerful body. The dreaded snout hissed, the stench and foulness of its breath could be felt against the prince’s cheek. In the last second, the animal veered off to the side howling pitifully. “Quick!” the horse cried out, “You are no match for a werewolf! We must invoke the mistletoe.

“Mistletoe, Mistletoe, Where do you grow?” the steed cried out.

With the prince still holding the silver spoon to keep the wolf at bay, the horse chanted this magic charm:

“Mistletoe, mistletoe, where do you grow?
Neath the full moon glittering?
Neath the owl twittering?
Climb up and around,
Without a sound.

Mistletoe, mistletoe, where do you grow?
Neath the full moon glittering?
Neath the owl twittering?
Form strong bands,
Round werewolf hands.”

Grow fast,
Grow round,
Grow up,
Grow down.
Mistletoe, Mistletoe grow!”

Small voices could be heard from the floor of the cabin as buds sprouted swiftly around the werewolf, who stood subdued by the shining silver spoon:

“Here we grow, here we grow.
All fat-stemmed blossoms.
Your cry was heard,
Like cuckoo bird.
We grow fast,
We grow round,
We grow up,
We grow down. “

The mistletoe grew up on all sides of the werewolf, encircling the beast in a ring of green leaves. The wolf could not step beyond the ring of vegetation and the silver spoon sparkling in the candlelight seemed to terrify the creature even more.

“You must shout out her Christian name three times to break the werewolf spell. Then, she shall serve you and you both will be allied!”

“Walpurga, Walpurga, Walpurga!” the prince screamed out as loudly and forcefully as his lungs permitted.


Where the wolf had stood, a young woman in an abbess’s frock now appeared. At that moment a warmth spread through the room and the prince could feel it in his bones.
“I am Walpurga, the Abbess of Heidenheim. Welcome!” she said.