| A little while later, the fairies were all rejoicing on the hill and celebrating their victory in the hurly match when one of theme lost his head and dropped a berry. The queen of the fairies had sent some of her little ones to fetch supplies for a dress for a wedding and while in the forest they spotted a swarm of bees circling around a fairy berry tree. When the king and queen learned of it, they were furious, summoning all the fairies to the court to find the culprit. When everyone except one fairy showed up, the king and queen knew who the guilty party was. After a scolding they banished him to the edge of the forest, and he was told he could not return unless he found a giant to guard the fairy berry tree. “When he awoke the ground was trembling, and a noise that sounded like thunder fell on his ears. He looked up and saw coming towards him a terrible giant, with one eye that burned like a live coal in the middle of his forehead, his mouth stretched from ear to ear, his teeth were long and crooked, the skin of his face was as black as night, and his arms and chest were all covered with black, shaggy hair; round his body was an iron band, and hanging from this by a chain was a great club with iron spikes. With one blow of this club he could break a rock into splinters, and fire could not burn him, and water could not drown him, and weapons could not wound him, and there was no way to kill him but by giving him three blows of his own club. And he was so bad-tempered that the other giants called him Sharvan the Surly. When the giant spied the red cap of the little fairy, he gave the shout that sounded like thunder. The poor fairy was shaking from head to foot.” The little fellow proceeded to explain the situation to the giant and Sharvan then asked to see the berries. The little fellow’s name was Pinkeen and he shared three of them with the giant who “then swallowed the three together, and when he had done so, he felt so happy that he began to shout and dance for joy.” The giant then agreed to guard the tree, in fact every fairy tree in the forest, but Pinkeet told him, it’s only one special one he must watch, so he agreed, and they went to the tree at once. When they returned with Sharvan the king and queen were thrilled and Pinkeen was pardoned, then, “when the fairies heard this, they tossed their little red caps in the air, and shouted for joy.” Sharvan was warned he must fight off everyone who tries to take berries from the tree and to this he agreed, but could hardly speak, with his mouth full of fairy berries. In the meantime, a usurper had killed a local king who had two children who the new king was afraid to kill for backlash from the people. “A boy, whose name was Niall, and a girl, who was called Rosaleen––that is, little Rose; but no rose that ever bloomed was half as sweet or fresh or fair as she.” The king decided to have an old witch cast a spell over Rose and make her grow old and ugly. This happened and she was suicidally depressed and a robin came to her and befriended her. She told the robin her troubles and the robin flew to the “robin of the forest” who shared the secret of the fairy berry tree. The robin was desperate and was willing to fly and snatch a berry the only way possible, but it meant potential death. He had to swipe one from Surly the Giant’s belt where he kept them for safekeeping while Surly was engaged in his daily fighting, since the tree’s reputation had grown throughout the land and everyone wanted some of it. |
While Surly was fighting, “the little robin darted towards him like a flash and picked off one of the berries, and then, as fast as wings could carry him, he flew towards home, and on his way, he passed over a troop of warriors on snow-white steeds.” Ultimately, she partook of the berries, youth had become her and one of the knights married her. The moral of the story here is folks, eat the red berries, especially when you read about “snow-white steeds” mixed into the story in the same sentences. But seriously, there are many instances where we can easily see the red berries, red caps, white steeds, all having A. muscaria parallels. The number of three berries being given to the giant is also proper. Wasson cites in Soma, how, three amanita caps are the prescribed dosage in Siberia among the Ostyak and Vogul shamans in that area. Robins have a distinctive “red” signature to them, and the “rose” is another symbol for the mushroom as we learn in later fairy tales. Hazelnuts are another symbol, from their origin in Irish myth. Fishing for Knowledge in The Well of Segais Wells of Knowledge were a standard part of the fairy tales from Old Ireland, and the fish they contain, held magic secrets of knowledge. This next fairy tale is titled the Well of Segais: “A long, long time ago in Ireland, when the Gods walked among the people, there was a marvelous magical well named Segais. The well was shaded by nine magical hazel-trees. The trees bore crimson nuts and when they ripened, they fell into the well. The property of the nuts was such that whoever ate any of them was immediately gifted with the knowledge of everything that was in the world. Brilliantly colored divine salmon swam in the well and ate the crimson nuts so that they too, had wisdom of everything that was. For that reason, they were known as the salmon of knowledge. “It came to pass one day that the wife of Nechtan, the soft-ripening Boand decided to visit the well and see its wonders. Without the knowledge of Nechtain, Boand approached the well. Some say She walked around the well three times in the tuathal direction. Other say she merely peered into its' magical depths. Whatever the case, the well split asunder and the waters gushed forth. Some have said that Boand ran away to hide her shame of having broken geis, never to be seen again. Others still say that three waves crashed over Boand. The first wave tore off a limb. The second wave destroyed a leg. The third, blinded one eye and she ran away to hide her disfigurements. |