The Queen of the Elves (2 page)

“Lady, see the future or earn my wrath,” William said though I felt hesitation in his voice.

“I say again, Lord, the time not yet come is not given me to see.”

“I ask one last time.”

“My Lord, allow me to dream for you. Only my dreams have weight in future times. Even then, things are not always clear but muddled,” she said and awaited his pleasure.

The King nodded his head and the Lady gestured to Edric. The thegn rose from his bench and approached his wife. Lady Godda pulled from her shining robe a strangely wrought spear point.

“Sire, the Spear of Saint Brigit, matron of poets and healing and the metal forge,” Godda bent a knee and sat the spear on its point. A flick of the wrist started the copper colored thing spinning slowly. By itself, the spear point stayed upright as it turned round and round.

Lady Godda, her husband beside her, sang a haunting song in her silvery Elfish language. She swayed slowly back and forth with eyes closed as her dwarves played on lyre and pipe. After a time, her singing ceased, though not the music. She stiffened as if asleep.

Wild Edric touched her forehead. Lady Godda fell backwards caught by her husband. He placed an arm under her and lifted her above the revolving spear point. Edric stepped back and the Lady floated in midair!

Before the alarm of the host could sound, Edric turned to hush us with a gesture. “Allow the Queen of the Elves her sleep and her dreams,” he said.

We watched the floating apparition as a wind of unknown origin stirred the draping robes as if pushed by the dwarves’ music. Lady Godda spread forth her arms, twirled upright in the air, and flew to hover above your startled father. A voice came from the air, deep and throaty, that might have been Lady Godda’s though I did not see her lips move.

“Ave, William, conqueror of the English. Hear the dream of the Queen of the Elves. Born from the breast of a Griffin with a holy scepter are three birds. The first, a noble hawk, wars against the Griffin and lives by rapine and unfulfilled avarice. He will die chained in a cage. The second, a cruel and fearful eagle, rules the Griffin’s prize by unholy violence dying apostate. The third, a cough, the thief of birds, steals his legacy but holds it forever sitting on a hoard of gold…”

My lord William jumped from the table throwing his ale horn to table with a great crash.

“Cease these lies, Hell thrall!” he cried. Torn from her dreaming, Lady Godda fell to the floor and the spear point ceased its spinning. “How dare you slander your king?”

Helped upright by her husband, Godda slurred. “Lord, I dream only of birds.”

“Silence!” The King strode forth to stand over the couple. He considered them with a fierce scowl while the host trembled and waited.

I waited for the order to kill the Lady and her husband. We all knew she spoke evil lies.

My Lord Henry, forgive me for writing to you of what follows. I fear your wrath but I write at your command a true witness of this unholy night.

Your father turned from Lady Godda to look upon his children at their benches. One at a time, he looked first upon you at suckle on the paps of your wet nurse, then at your brother Rufus, called so even then for his devilish red hair, as he sat grinning at the deeds of this woman, and finally at the darting dark eyes of cursed Robert, the first born. Your father turned back to the wife of Wild Edric.

“I see those birds, Lady. It does no good to a king to renounce what is there to see in his eyes and in his heart.” King William softened his glare. He turned to his butler, known as Hugh of Ivry. “Bring forth gifts for the Queen of the Elves. Make music. There is time enough to worry over my little birds. My doom is not yet come.”

The next morning, Wild Edric and Lady Godda dispatched to Shropeshire gift laden. William returned to London happy in the knowledge that he entertained the Queen of the Elves. That said, I never knew your father to look upon his sons the same way again.

This is my witness truly told of the night Wild Edric and Lady Godda came to the court of your father. This is the birth of the legend of the Children of the Conquering Griffin. I know not of the truth of any queen of Elves, though I believed it that night. To this day, it is said that William Rex thought of Lady Godda when he divided his domain between you and your brothers, giving Normandy to Robert where he might live by his sword, and England to William Rufus so that he might be saved from apostasy, and giving you only money so that there would be no stealing. In all my time of service to your father, I heard no such consideration. I did not fight your father’s wars with Robert. I did not attend your brother Rufus when he fell to the ash wood arrow in the new forest. I saw no theft when you entered the treasure room to become the last heir of conquering William.

The Lord almighty bless you and direct your whole life.

oOo

Editor’s Note:

Eadric
Silvaticus
(the Wild), a Saxon nobleman in the West Midlands, resisted Norman rule after 1066. Mention of him is made in the
Anglo/Saxon Chronicle
in 1067 and possibly again in 1075. His marriage to an elf comes from Walter Map in his
De Nugis Curialium.

William bequeathed Normandy to his eldest son Robert despite their bitter differences (Robert had sided with his father's enemies in Normandy, and even wounded and defeated his father in a battle there in 1079). His son, William Rufus succeeded William as King of England, and the third remaining son, Henry, was left 5,000 pounds in silver.

 Robert Curt Hose, inherited Normandy but was not allowed any revenue with which to pay his followers and was expected to be content with an empty title and bide his time until William Rufus died.  Often helped by the King of France, he continued to wreak havoc against William and later against younger brother Henry. Henry captured Robert in 1106 and imprisoned him. Robert lived in captivity another 28 years and died in his early 80s.

William Rufus (the Red), is described as a devil-may-care soldier, without social graces, with little show of conventional religious piety or morality and, according to his critics, addicted to every vice. It is also said he was a wise ruler and victorious general. He taxed the nobility and looted the Church to pay for his wars. Rufus finally died while hunting. Speculation has it that his death could have been an accident, an assassination, and even that Rufus may have been the last Western king to be sacrificed in a pagan ritual.

Henry was present when Rufus died and hurried to secure (steal) the royal treasury. His succession was quickly confirmed while his brother Robert was away on the First Crusade. Henry's 28 year long reign, a period of peace and prosperity in England and Normandy, was filled with judicial and financial reforms.