Alone Again

Loneliness is a sorry thing. One does not realize how comforting ambient noise can be until it is absent. No bustling about of another person. No distant voice talking on their cell.  No clattering coming from the kitchen. No Thalia.

It’s February, the month that Thalia traditionally goes with her mother to visit her ex-husband’s relatives. I cannot explain that, but it is of some comfort to me that Thalia has taken Jini along with her for company.

That does leave me alone in the middle of winter for a week. However, I discover that I am not the only lonely one.

“Read me a story.” Johannes, who I thought was asleep on the window seat, is now erect, his tail twitching in agitation.

“A story,” I say thoughtfully as it occurs to me that Thalia and Jini always lavished attention on Johannes, and he misses them as much as I do.

I reach for my copy of The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm translated and edited by Jack Zipes, turn to the table of contents, spiral my finger in the air, and let it come down on the page, the method by which I select the tale to be told (a
Thalia tradition).

My finger lands on The Three Little Birds. The story starts with the phrase, “More than a thousand years ago . . .”

A king, out hunting with two of his ministers, hears three maiden sisters calling to each other as they tend to their cows. Each declares they would like to marry one of the three men, the eldest sister choosing the king. Soon, it is arranged.

When the king has to take a trip, he asks the other two sisters to stay with his wife as she is about to have a child, a boy as it turns out, who is born with a bright red star as a birthmark. The two sisters, not having children, are jealous and throw the child into the river.

Up flies a little bird singing,

“Get ready for your death.

I’ll see what I can do.

Get ready for the wreath.

Brave boy, can that be you?”

When the king returns, the sisters tell him his wife gave birth to a dog.

 The exact same thing happens a second time, and on the third, the only difference is that the child is a girl, and the sisters claim the queen gave birth to a cat. The king then imprisons his wife.

However, each time the sisters cast the babies into the river to drown, they are rescued by a fisherman. He and his wife raise them as if they were their own.

Eventually, the eldest discovers they are all foundlings and sets off to find their father. A year later, the second brother sets off to find the first brother and, finally, the sister goes off to find them both.

She comes to a river where there is an old woman—as had her brothers. The woman carries her across the river—as she did the brothers—but because the sister is kind to her—although the brothers were not rude—she gives the sister more instruction.

The old woman gives the girl a stick and tells her to travel on and ignore the black dog along the way. At a castle, she must drop the stick on the threshold. On the other side of the castle, there will be a well and a tree. In the tree, there will be a bird in a cage. She must return with the caged bird, a glass of water from the well, and retrieve the stick on her way out. Meeting the black dog again, she shall strike it in the face with the stick and then return to the old woman.

This she does, meeting with her brothers along the way, and when she strikes the black dog in the face, he turns into a handsome prince. The old woman carries all of them back across the river and, therefore, is freed from a spell and disappears. The foursome returns to the fisherman’s hut, and there is much in the way of glad greetings.

The second brother, a bit restless, goes out hunting and then settles down to play his flute. The music attracts the king, also out hunting, and all end up in the fisherman’s hut, where the bird in the cage sings a song, which is the whole story about what has happened.

The truth now known, all return to the king’s castle, the queen is freed from prison and given the water from the well to restore her health, the two sisters are burnt, and the daughter marries the prince.

“Nice. Nice,” muses Johannes.

Fairy Tale of the Month: February 2025 The Three Little Birds – Part Two

Much Alike

“You know,” I say, “I’ve not read this story before, but I am sure I’ve read a variant.”

“You have read it a thousand times!” Johannes’s ears flatten a little. “It must be in the top ten most popular fairy-tale motifs.”

“Let me think on that a second,” I say.

Johannes does my thinking for me. “Straparola’s Ancilotto, King of Provino; One Thousand and One Nights’ The Sisters Envious of Their Cadette; Schönwerth’s The Talking Bird, the Singing Tree, and the Sparkling Stream; Wolf’s The Three Royal Children. Even stories like the Six Swans have that motif.”

“Wait,” I defend. “Six Swans? The heroine is not accused of birthing puppies and cats. She is accused of eating her children. And the culprit is her mother-in-law, not her sisters.”

“I speak of ‘The Calumniated Wife,’ or, in simpler terms, ‘The Slandered Wife.’ It comes in many forms.”

He’s got a point.

“And,” Johannes goes on, “I couldn’t help noticing Wilhelm started The Three Little Birds with the phrase, ‘More than a thousand years ago. . .’ He apparently felt this story to be very old.”

“A thousand years might be going back a little too far,” I consider. “You mentioned Straparola and, indirectly, Galland. Straparola is fifteenth century, and Galland’s translation of One Thousand and One Nights is seventeenth century. Although those stories were not Galland’s inventions and they go back far into time, I will guess they fall short of a thousand years.

“Johannes, refresh my memory. How similar are Straparola’s and Galland’s versions?”

“In both versions, the king hears or is informed of three maidens expressing their marriage wishes. The king grants their wishes, even though the girls are of no particular status, and he marries the youngest.

“In Galland’s version, the cruel sisters substitute puppies for the three children as they are born and cast them into the river in a cradle or basket where they are saved by the superintendent of the gardens, a high official.”

“A basket in the river?” I interrupt. “That sounds biblical. I may have to reconsider the ‘more-than-a-thousand years thing.’”

Johannes pushes on. “In Straparola the three children are born all at once, with golden chains on their necks and golden stars on their foreheads. The conspiracy against the queen is conducted by the mother-in-law, the two sisters, and a midwife. All three children are sealed in a box, cast into the river, and replaced by three whelps. Their rescuer is a common miller.

“In both cases, the queen suffers some sort of imprisonment, yet the three siblings end up living in a castle not far from the king, who is unknown to them as their father. Because of their special natures, the king takes notice of them, and the conspirators are alarmed.

“An old woman appears to the heroine; in Straparola’s case it is the midwife, who talks her into sending out her two brothers on the dangerous mission of finding three magical items. In Straparola it is the Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Beautiful Green Bird. In Galland’s version, the tasks are to obtain the Golden Water, the Singing Tree, and the Talking Bird.

“In both cases the brothers fail, and the sister rescues them. When they show these prizes to the king, the bird reveals the whole story. The king and his children are reunited, the mother released from prison, and the evil women punished.”

Johannes must be feeling really lonely. He is talking my head off, and I don’t think he is done.

Fairy Tale of the Month: February 2025 The Three Little Birds – Part Three

My Thinking

“My thinking,” I say, “is that the Arabic version is the original even though Straparola’s version was published before Galland’s.

“Stories travel, you know, and this story traveled to Straparola’s ear, then he might have changed it to his liking for a literary audience, accounting for the changes between the two versions.

“I don’t think The Three Little Birds was drawn from Straparola. The three children being born at once is missing. The plot between the mother-in-law, the sisters, and the midwife is gone. The Three Little Birds is closer in detail to Galland’s translation.”

“Ah,” Johannes raises a paw. “But the three little spirit birds are missing from these other two versions, as well as the black dog. What have you to say about that?”

Johannes is trying to trap me.

“Indigenous additions from the local German culture,” I state.

“I believe,” Johannes asserts, “it is more complicated than that.”

“Go on,” I encourage. We have all the time in the world to argue.

“What this Grimm story has in common with the other versions is: One, there are three sisters. Two, one of the three marries the king while the other two marry men of lesser status. Three, the two sisters connive against their sibling. Four, there are two sons and a daughter born and abandoned. Five, the three children are rescued. Six, there are magical devices involved, which vary a little except for the talking bird. Seven, it is the talking bird that reveals all. Eight, the king is reunited with his children, and the culprits are put to death.”

“That is a lot in common,” I suggest, “indicating a common origin.”

“It is, but, as I have said, The Three Little Birds has its unique points. There are the spirit birds, after which the Grimms named the story. The stick and the black dog, not to mention the old woman who carries them over the river, appear nowhere else. These are all particular to the Grimms’ German version.”

“You are about to make a point, I am sure,” I say.

“Quite. Here is my suspicion. This tale traveled—as you suggest tales do—to Germany as it traveled to Italy and into Straparola’s awareness. Then, some storyteller heard it, perhaps as a youth, forgot about it, then ‘revisited’ it in a dream. The illiterate storytellers’ structure for their stories was dream construction. The spirit birds flying up as the children drown, the old woman carrying the cast of characters across the river, the stick lying across the threshold, and the black dog transforming when struck by the stick, are all dream-like forms.

“You humans are hardwired for story. It takes little for tellers separated by great distances to come up with the same story.”

“Hardwired for story,” I repeat. “I think you refer to the collective unconscious, but wait, how do you know about such things?”

“I have been around a long while. I considered Dortchen Wild my mistress when she married Wilhelm Grimm. I kept my ears open when the brothers talked. Later, I let Marie-Louise von Franz take care of me and made a few suggestions to her.”

“Really,’ I say. “Then I am flattered that you are a part of my household.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I am here to watch over Thalia.”

Well, I should have known, but I am uncomfortable being put in my place by a cat.

Your thoughts?

(This is a longer-than-usual post for me, but you will soon see why.)

I am sticking my toes into the choppy waters of AI. I know there is a riptide out there, but I promise not to wade out too far.

I, along with many others, feel it is irresponsible to have AI write a story for you and immoral if you claim it is your own creative work. But what about using AI as a writing assistant?

After listening to a podcast by John Tighe called Create Your AI Writing Bot! I created a style sheet for the book I am working on and brought up CHATGPT for a conversation that went exactly like this:

Me: I would like your critique of sections of a story by using the style sheet that I will provide.

Chat: That sounds great! Send over your style sheet, and I’ll use it to critique your story sections based on your specific guidelines. I’ll focus on areas like tone, characterization, pacing, language, and thematic consistency.

Me: Style Guide for Fantasy Novel

**1. Narrative Tone and Voice

Tone: The tone should be reflective and introspective, with a touch of grandeur appropriate for a fantasy setting. Use a formal and slightly archaic language style to evoke the sense of a grand, historical world.

Voice: The narrative voice should convey a deep connection with the characters’ internal struggles and the epic nature of their world. Maintain a balance between the characters’ personal dilemmas and the overarching plot.

**2. Characterization

Complexity: Characters should have multi-layered personalities, with inner conflicts and detailed backstories. Emphasize their internal thoughts and emotional states, especially in moments of introspection.

Dialogue: Use dialogue to reveal character traits and advance the plot. Characters should have distinct voices reflecting their backgrounds and personalities. Formal speech may be used for characters of higher status or ancient beings, while more casual or poetic language may suit other characters.

Internal Monologue: Characters’ thoughts should be woven into the narrative to provide insight into their motivations and conflicts. These should be reflective and may include philosophical musings or personal revelations.

**3. Setting and World-Building

Descriptive Language: Use rich, descriptive language to create vivid images of the setting. Include details that evoke the fantasy genre, such as magical elements, historical artifacts, and grandiose architecture.

Atmosphere: Convey the atmosphere through sensory details—how the setting feels, smells, and sounds. Use these to enhance the mood and immerse the reader in the world.

History and Lore: Incorporate elements of history and lore into the narrative. References to ancient events, magical artifacts, and historical figures should be integrated seamlessly into the plot.

**4. Plot Structure

Pacing: Balance action with moments of reflection and character development. Allow for slow, introspective scenes interspersed with more dynamic plot developments.

Foreshadowing: Use subtle hints and foreshadowing to build suspense and anticipation. Reveal key plot points gradually, allowing the reader to piece together the story.

Themes: Explore themes of destiny, power, and identity. Characters should grapple with their roles in the grand scheme of things and their personal quests.

**5. Magical Elements

Magic System: Define a clear and consistent magic system. Explain its rules and limitations subtly through the narrative and character interactions.

Magical Artifacts: Introduce magical artifacts with specific properties and significance. Ensure that their role in the plot is clear and impactful.

Magical Effects: Describe magical effects with precision, focusing on their impact on the world and characters. Use evocative language to capture the wonder and danger of magic.

**6. Language and Style

Formal and Poetic: Employ a formal and sometimes poetic language style, particularly in dialogue and narrative exposition. This should enhance the fantastical and epic quality of the story.

Imagery and Symbolism: Use vivid imagery and symbolism to deepen the narrative. Symbols should be consistent with the themes and add layers of meaning.

Dialogue Tags: Use minimal dialogue tags and let the dialogue itself convey the tone and emotion. Tags, when used, should be varied and fitting for the character’s voice.

**7. Additional Instructions

Do not change Flora’s dialog.

Avoid the “to be” verb, such as the word “was.”

In general, up the tension, particularly with Jonathan’s emotional state.

Increase Jonathan’s reactions.

Chat: Got it! Your style guide provides a clear and detailed framework. Send over a section of your story, and I’ll critique it based on these guidelines, offering suggestions for tone, characterization, pacing, language, and tension.

Me: Jonathan churned away on his hurdy-gurdy. The ungainly instrument lay sloping on his lap as these instruments do. The trompette and other drone strings buzzed as he keyed the melody with one hand and rotated the wheel with alternating rhythm with the other. Sounding as if it were a stringed bagpipe, magical notes poured forth.

Flora stood beside him, today smelling like roses, making up lyrics to the music he played as they went along. Jonathan knew they made a visually striking pair; he robed, hooded, seated, hunched over his hurdy-gurdy, while she stood straight and stately. Nonetheless, everyone in the market could see by her red hair, dark skin, and colorful dress that she had all the markings of a Traveller.

The audience came and went, of course, stopping to listen to a tune or two, throwing a coin into the cup tied to a stake in the ground, before going about their business of the day.

Playing music and listening to Flora sing were Jonathan’s delight, not to mention collecting a few coins to keep them alive. But he knew he could not settle down into the reverie of this simple life.

As evening drew near, he packed away his instrument, and he and Flora wandered back to their inn with the smells of the fishmonger, butcher, and spice dealer still hanging in the air as these merchants too packed up their wares.

“I trust you’re aware,” Jonathan spoke as he stopped to inspect some apples still being offered for purchase, “that I need to go about bringing Matilda and Geshmell back into the present.”

“Of course I do

And outside of you,

Who could begin

To do such a thing.”

Jonathan dug into his coin bag for a newly acquired silver to purchase two apples from the vendor lady, who eyed them suspiciously. He handed one of the apples to Flora. “You have more confidence in me than I do,” Jonathan smiled. “Might you, by chance, know any tricks to handle my problem?”

“Oh, I know tricks,

As plentiful as sticks,

But none that will solve

Your present resolve.”

“I thought not.” Jonathan fell silent, except for the crunching of his apple.

Chat: Here’s my critique based on your style guide:

Strengths:

Tone & Voice: The slightly archaic and formal tone fits well. The introspective nature of Jonathan’s thoughts aligns with the reflective style you’re aiming for.

Characterization: Jonathan’s contrast with Flora is strong, both visually and in demeanor. His underlying tension about Matilda and Geshmell adds depth. Flora’s rhyming speech remains distinct, as per your guidelines.

Setting & Atmosphere: The marketplace feels immersive with the descriptions of sights and smells, especially at the end when the lingering scents transition into the evening.

Foreshadowing & Themes: The mention of Matilda and Geshmell hints at the greater quest without being too direct, which keeps the tension simmering.

Areas for Improvement:

Jonathan’s Emotional State:

He acknowledges his greater mission, but his internal struggle could be more visceral. Rather than simply stating, “But he knew he could not settle down into the reverie of this simple life,” consider showing a more immediate emotional reaction—perhaps a fleeting moment of longing before he steels himself.

His hesitation about his abilities (“You have more confidence in me than I do”) could be expanded with physical cues—does he tighten his grip on the apple? Does his stomach twist at the thought?

Pacing & Tension:

The transition from playing music to discussing Matilda and Geshmell feels abrupt. Consider adding a beat where Jonathan watches the crowd disperse or catches an expression on Flora’s face that prompts his shift in thought.

The last exchange with Flora is light but could carry more weight. If Jonathan truly doubts himself, perhaps he lingers on her answer or tries to push for more help, betraying his unease.

Use of Stronger Verbs:

You’ve done well avoiding “to be” verbs, but a few places could still be more dynamic:

“The ungainly instrument lay sloping on his lap” → “The ungainly instrument slumped across his lap.”

“Flora stood beside him, today smelling like roses” → “Flora stood beside him, the scent of roses clinging to her today.”

Would you like a rewritten passage that integrates these suggestions?

That last question is, of course, the one you want to ignore. Frankly, Chat is a pretty lousy writer.

Note: in my first exchange with Chat, I used the word “critique.” If I used the word “analysis’’ instead, Chat might come up with something a bit different. With AI, it is all about how you ask the question. Also, AI will never get bored with you. Ask away.

I am taking a short respite from working on my next novel—a sequel to another novel I have not talked about in this blog—to pursue yet another project. (I think I write to entertain myself.)

This endeavor is to “translate” some of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, by Francis James Child, commonly known as the Child Ballads. The problem with this contraction is that it is misleading. Do not expose young children to these ballads! They are comparable to Game of Thrones. Every murder ballad you have ever heard shares common ground with this collection. Well, at least from the first two volumes of this five-volume work. I am only near the end of the second volume, but I feel the tone of the ballads is getting lighter.

Incidentally, this ballad collection is poetic, not musical. Many of the ballads have been set to music, but Child did not concern himself with melodies.

Next, you might ask, why would I translate something written in English into English? It is the Scottish side of the equation that is the problem. The ballads are in 17^th/18^th century Scottish dialect, which is a barrier to understanding and appreciating them by modern audiences. Words like “mickle,” “aboon,” and “bree” abound.

The practice I follow is what I think of as a creative puzzle. The challenge is to take verses written in dialect, make them understandable, and yet retain the feel and rhyme of the ballads.

So far, I have exercised my method on two of them, two in which—surprise, surprise—no one dies. One is Tam Lin, which I did specifically for Halloween, and the other is King John and the Bishop. 

Tam Lin is probably the best known of the Child Ballads, and I will use some of its verses to explain what it is that I am doing.

Janet has kilted her green kirtle

A little aboon her knee,

And she has broded her yellow hair

A little aboon her bree,

And she’s awa to Carterhaugh,

As fast as she can hie.

Every phrase introduces a little challenge.

           Fortunately, I stumbled across a dictionary for Scottish dialect, which helped me in half the cases, not all.

“Kilted” is to tuck up one’s skirt.

“Kirtle” is a dress.

“Aboon” is above.

“broded” I did not find in the dictionary, but will assume from the context it means “braided.” “Braid” in Scottish dialect means “broad.”

“Bree” is eyebrow.

“Awa” is away.

“Hie” is hasten.

Originally, I jumped to the conclusion that “Carterhaugh” would be Carter Hall. It is not. It is Carter Wood. The word “haugh” can also imply a stream with low banks.

In the rhyming scheme, it is the second, fourth, and sixth lines that are paired. However, “bree” and “hie” are words we no longer recognize.

My solutions to these problems are below.

Janet has tucked her forest green skirt

A little above her knee,

And has braided her bright yellow hair,

In hope of Tam Lin to see.

And she’s away to Carterhaugh

As fast as she can flee.

Obviously, I have taken some liberties, but I think I have not modernized it, and it retains the sense of the original.

My book promotion for Sword of Trueterra has come and gone. Here are my results.

On the whole, pretty lackluster. I sold a hundred and five books in all of November. I had been averaging about ten books a month. With the promotional costs, I still lost money, but making money was not my goal.

Ninety of the sales were ebooks and fifteen were paperback. To break it down further, Sixty eight were Sword of Trueterra ebooks and six were paperbacks. Twenty-two sales were A Vacant Throne ebooks and nine were paperbacks.

I started out by running two BookBub campaigns, one for the week of the 10^th through the 16^th, and then the 17^th through the 22^nd . The idea was to keep an undercurrent of sales with stacked promotions on the weekends. Each had a budget of $60 with an 80₵ bid. The first campaign spent the budget and bumped along selling about four books a day. The second campaign spent only half the budget. The first campaign had clicks in the teens. The second campaign started out strong and then faded. I don’t know why. It left me with one day of no sales in the middle of my promotion.

My first promotion was Best Book Monkey on the 9^th at the cost of $11.50 (a special half price deal). Actually, it was the kickoff, and not truly stacked like the others. I sold three books that day.

My second promotion was Bargain Booksy on the 17^th ($45). On that day I sold twenty-one books and twelve more on the next day. Some of those sales could have been from BookBub which was still clicking along at that point.

On the 23^rd, was Fussy Librarian ($25.80). I sold three books, which were probably from that promotion, because by then the Bookbub had ended.

I goofed up a little on the 24^th when I scheduled both ENT ($45) and Reader IQ ($30) on the same day. That made it impossible to see which one was working the best. I should have put them two days apart. That day I sold twenty-six books and six more in the following two days.

The day after that? Crickets. The goal had been for Amazon to notice the uptick in sales and start promoting the book themselves without advertising costs to me. Didn’t happen.

Time to put the promotion price of .99₵ back to $2.99.

Before running off for another month, here is an item I have been toying with, which has to do with keywords. When you publish a book in Amazon, during the setup, you can enter seven keyword phrases. These are the words that you suspect that readers will enter when searching for the next book to read. It is also a way that Amazon will categorize your book, even though they don’t call it that.

I tested out my keywords to see that if I were the customer and used those words, would books like mine come up.

Step one in this process is to go into Incognito. This is an option that will appear when you click on the three vertical dots in the upper right-hand corner of the screen when you are in Chrome. (I am not sure about other browsers.)  You don’t want Amazon to be considering your preferences. Then go to Amazon books and enter your keyword phrase and see what comes up.

For example, I used “coming of age” as one of my keyword phrases; a minor theme in my books. That brought up largely non-fiction works on the subject. “Coming of age for children” did give me mostly books for children, but with the work “Coming” in the title. “Coming of age fantasy” was not any closer. There were a lot of steamy-looking covers in that lot. I gave up on the phrase and tried “Fantasy books for girls” with far more success.

You can spend a lot of time doing this to come up with seven keyword phrases, but it should be worth the effort.

Here is my update on the promotional effort so far for Sword of Trueterra. To date, I have no reviews from my ARC readers, maybe. There was a glitch.

It took me a while to realize that on my Amazon book detail page—the one customer most often sees—my ebook and paperback each had their own page. The customer could not toggle between the two formats. On one detail page, it looked like I only had a kindle format for the book, and on the other I only had a paperback. The two were not linked.

I “chatted” with KDP Support, and it turned out I had published one book under the author name of Charles B. Kiernan and the other as Charles Kiernan. Amazon treated them as two entirely different books! I was assured that when I made the correction, the two would automatically link.

I corrected the error, and they did not automatically link.

I chatted again with Support, and they manually linked them for me.

However—isn’t there always a “however”—an acquaintance of mine, who reviewed my first book, also reviewed my second, but that review has not appeared. This led to a third chat, with me asking if the reviews had to also be linked. I was advised to contact Community Support.  That was done via email. I wait for a reply.

Therefore, I will ask, if you have written a review, please give me a heads up at cjkiernan01@gmail.com, so that I will know how many reviews to expect. Thanks.

I mentioned Reedsy last month. I applied for and got a review by Shubaboti Bose; pretty stellar. She reviewed my first book with the same quality and thoughtfulness. I have added it to my detail page as an editorial review, which is different from a customer review.

Editorial reviews are entered in the Author Central. You will need to google “How do you enter an editorial review in KDP?” The page is buried, and there are a number of steps to get to it. Once there, the page is pretty much self-explanatory. The editorial review will show up near the top of the detail page, labeled as such.

By the way, please go HERE and upvote my book on Reedsy. If I get enough votes, I could be featured in their newsletter.

As of this writing, I am only part way through my promotion. I have decided, rather than “stack” my promotions, I will spread them out. With the stacking approach, the idea is that Amazon will see a spike in sales and take notice. The other strategy is that Amazon will see a consistent rise in sales and take notice. Getting noticed means Amazon will start promoting your book themselves. They do want to sell books and will back a good prospect.

My first promotion was with Best Book Monkey on November 9^th. I took advantage of a 50% discount, so it was cheap. From it, it appears I got three or four sales. On the Amazon side, I have to guess where sales came from, since, to my knowledge, Amazon does not share that information.

My second promotion is with BookBub and is ongoing. BookBub ads are set up similar to Amazon ads. You decide on a budget, bid, and duration. You upload a predesigned ad or use their ad generator—not bad, I used it—and answer a few other parameters. I set mine up for a week that started on November 10^th. So far, it has sold around ten books.

However—there is that “however” again—the sales were not all the $.99 promotion.  Only half were. The other sales were A Vacant Throne, divided between paperbacks and ebooks. On the whole, I have been selling more paperbacks than ebooks. I think I am also seeing readers wanting to start at the beginning of a series. My numbers are small and could be anomalous, but those are my observations.

Coming up, I have settled on using ENT, BarginBooksy, Fussy Librarian, and EReaderIQ, scattered through the rest of the month. More updates in December.

The Devil

I am torn. Do I want the beef Wellington with truffled mushrooms, confit potatoes, caramelized shallot with beetroot purée, and thyme jus on the side, or the Grenadier beefburger with fig relish, brie, streaky bacon on top, and paprika fries?

“Don’t forget the starters,” Melissa says, staring at her menu.

“That’s easy, the grilled king scallops. Nothing like scallops with garlic and parsley butter. The samphire adds some green.”

We are sitting in The Grenadier Pub off of Belgrave Square, almost in sight of Buckingham Palace. Melissa tells me this is the most haunted pub in London, which is why she chose it for my Halloween treat.

“For a starter,” she says, “I am thinking of the burrata, and for the main course, the wild mushroom tagliatelle. I’ve not had chestnut gremolata before.”

“To go with our meal,” I say, “may we get a bottle of Croft ten-year-old tawny port?”

“Of course we can.”

After we place our orders, I ask, “And how have you been busying yourself lately?”

“Well, I have been trying to find an agent for my book.”

“Finding the Sacred Wells of England, I assume.” I know she has been writing it for years.

“Yes, without success. I have decided I need to get some articles published to give me a track record.”

“Articles such as . . . ?”

“Well, I have started one on the Devil in fairy tales.”

“The Devil you say!” I quip.

Melissa rolls her eyes and goes on. “There really are many of them. At present, my favorite is Stephen Badman’s translation of The Boy and the Devil.”

There was a lad who decided it had come time for him to make his way in the world. Although resourceful, he had a fault, one which he recognized. He was lazy.

The lad decided, rather than getting work, he would beg for his living. He quickly concluded begging could be as hard as working and would never do.

As he wandered down the road, he pondered upon selling his soul to the Devil and how he might trick the Devil afterwards. Obligingly, the Devil appeared, and a bargain resulted.

The Devil told the lad to continue down the road. He would meet with three old women in turn, and each would grant him a wish. Then the lad would have a few years to enjoy himself until the Devil came to collect him.

From the first old woman, he wished for bags of gold. These he found too heavy to lug around and simply threw it all away for others to find.

From the second old woman, he wished for a sack into which he could wish anything he wanted, and it would not come out until he wished it to.

From the third, he wished for a violin that would force the listeners to dance. Armed with these magical devices, he traveled to a kingdom whose king, too, had made a bargain with the Devil. In exchange for wealth, the king promised the Devil the thing that would first greet him on his return to the castle. The king assumed it would be his dog but turned out to be his only daughter. Rewards and marriage were offered to anyone who could save the princess.

The lad presented himself and had the throne-room floor covered with spiky flax combs. When the Devil appeared to collect the princess, the lad played his violin, forcing the Devil to dance on the flax combs. Then the lad wished the Devil into his sack. Soldiers beat the bag with iron rods. When the lad released the Devil, he slinked off with his tail between his legs.

Years later, the lad, now the prince, was away from the castle and saw the Devil coming down the road to collect him. His magical devices were back at the castle. Instead, he quickly took off his coat, buttoned the buttons, and held it out in front of himself as if it were a sack, calling out, “Come on then. Time for you to get back in the sack.”

The prince never saw the Devil again.

I applaud the story as the server brings our starters.

Fairy Tale of the Month: October 2024 The Devil – Part Two

To Task

We fall silent for a while as we enjoy our delectables.

“It seems to me,” I contemplate as I sample the samphire, “the fairy tales enjoy taking the Devil to task.”

 Melissa thinks about that a second. “Not uniformly. There are four stories in Badman’s collection of Jens Kamp’s tales that have the word ‘Devil’ in the title.  These really span the gamut. For example, the tale What Will the Devil Think of Next.”

The Devil had a split hoof and went to a smithy to get himself shod. While waiting for the smith to make his shoe, the Devil noticed the smith was incredibly neat and clean, despite his occupation. The Devil challenged the smith to not wash, shave, or change clothing for ten years, during which time—and after—the smith would have as much gold as he wanted unless he tried to clean himself up; then his soul would belong to the Devil.

After some hesitation, the smith agreed. It was not long before he found himself shunned by most human company. Eight years passed when, one day, an innkeeper allowed the smith—by now a filthy creature—to sleep in an outbuilding and sit in the stove corner of the inn.

That evening, a small group of businessmen were drinking and playing at cards. The more they drank, the higher the stakes rose. One of them was on a lucky streak and cleaned out his fellows.

As the winner bragged about his ability at cards, the creature by the stove spoke up and offered to play a hand or two. The winner declared he would play with the Devil himself if he had money.  By morning, the businessman was saying he had lost everything he had except his name and his three daughters. The creature suggested he would return all the businessman’s possessions if he could marry one of the daughters.

The two eldest daughters refused to marry the creature, but the youngest—also a stepdaughter—agreed. It was arranged that the creature would return in two years to claim the daughter.

Two years later, a handsome, rich young man appeared in town, throwing grand parties. At one of these gatherings, the young man proposed to the youngest daughter, who turned him down, explaining she was already betrothed. The smith revealed his identity, and they were married.

The next day, as they traveled to the castle he had purchased to be their home, they met the Devil on the road. The Devil was not displeased, explaining that while he had lost the smith’s soul, he had gained two others. It came out that the two vexed older sisters, out of jealousy, had hung themselves.

Melissa’s wild mushroom tagliatelle and my beef Wellington arrive along with the tawny port. After I pour our glasses, silence reigns again until I ask after the third of the four stories.

A wealthy lawyer was on his way to collect or foreclose on a farmer’s debt to him. He fell in with a walking companion, who he soon realized was the Devil. They passed a man trying to drive a reluctant pig before him. He swore that the Devil should come and take the pig.

The lawyer asked the Devil why he did not take up the invitation. The Devil told him that “the old man upstairs” had instructed him to take up only the third invitation that day. A second invitation was passed by when they heard a mother scolding her child.

They got to the farmer, whose land the lawyer had come to foreclose on. The lawyer insisted he would wait no longer, and in anger the farmer shouted, “May the Devil take you.”

That was the third invitation that the Devil had been waiting for.

Fairy Tale of the Month: October 2024 The Devil – Part Three

The Banknotes

Something has been bothering me all evening, but nothing that has anything to do with Melissa’s Devil stories. Yet I must ask her.

“Melissa, what are those banknotes glued to the ceiling all about?”

She chuckles. “That brings us to the haunting here at The Grenadier. Their ghost they have named ‘Cedric.’ The story goes that back in the early eighteen hundreds, the second floor of this pub was a mess hall for the local garrison, and the soldiers used the basement for drinking and gambling.

“One of the grenadiers was caught cheating at cards. As he was unable to pay off his gambling debt, his companions beat him up, and he soon died from the injuries.

“His ghost now haunts the pub. Visitors feel rapid temperature drops, chairs and dishes rattle unaccountably, and there are even reflections in glass of a grenadier’s face.”

“Remarkable,” I say. “But what does that have to do with banknotes glued to the ceiling? I don’t think there’s a spot in any of the rooms that isn’t double layered in them.”

“Well, the notion is that the patrons are leaving money to help pay off Cedric’s gambling debt. Apparently, that has not worked. Cedric still haunts.”

I dig back into my beef Wellington for a bit before asking, “And the fourth tale?”

“Yes, this one is a little more of what I expect to see in a tale that involves the Devil. This one is titled, How the Devil Almost Lost His Pelt.”

There were two brothers, one rich and one poor. The rich brother lived for pleasure, never went to church, and never gave a thought to his poor brother.

The poor brother was of the opposite nature. He lived wisely, always went to church, and would not hear an ill word about his brother.

At last, the rich brother’s high living led to an early death. The poor brother was on the path to his rich brother’s house to be by his side when he passed, when he met the Devil coming to take the rich man’s soul.

The poor man argued with the Devil for his brother’s soul. The Devil did not agree, but as they talked, the poor man scratched a circle of crosses in the dirt around the Devil with his crook.

Although trapped, the Devil would not give up the rich man’s soul, but finally agreed not to take his soul until the night after he died, and if not then, he would give up his claim.

After the rich brother died, the remaining brother sat on his grave after the parson drew a circle around the site, telling the brother not to step outside the circle until the parson returns in the morning and says he can leave the circle “in the name of God.”

At midnight, the Devil appeared and saw how he had been tricked. Try as he did, he could not get into the circle and left in disgust.

Later, the poor brother saw the ghost of the rich brother come to him, saying all was well and he could leave the circle. The poor man made the sign of the cross with his crook, and the Devil fled, dropping a bundle he was carrying that held his pelt, which he’d had to remove in order to take on the guise of the brother.

The Devil bargained with a bag of gold to get his pelt back and apparently surrendered.

Just before dawn, the parson arrived, telling the brother it was now safe to step out of the circle. The brother nearly did but then realized the parson did not say “in the name God,” and he sat back down.

After sunrise, the real parson appeared, and in this way the poor brother saved the rich brother’s soul.

“Excellent,” I say to both the story and the arrival of our dessert; chocolate mousse for me and apple with mixed berries crumble for Melissa. A pleasant way to end our conversation.

Your thoughts?