Free The Flight of the Golden Bird by Duncan Williamson Page B

more.”
    “Yes,” she said, “I have my sons back and nobody’s happier than me, tae have my sons around me once more – but there’s one thing missing.”
    “I know,” says the henwife, “it’s a sad ending. But there’s very little we can do about it.”
    “There must be something we can do!”
    She says, “I know one o’ yir sons has got a wing, a swan’s wing.”
    And the princess says, “That’s what we came to see you about. I’ll give ye everything you need in this world…”
    And the old henwife says, “Look, I don’t need nothing, my dearie.”
    The princess says, “I want you to help me, I want you to help me get rid of my brother’s wing!”
    “Well,” she says, “it’s a terrible thing that he has, but it’s not within my power tae help him in any way; you are the only one that can help him.”
    “Me?” says the princess. “I’ll do anything, I’ll go
anywhere
, I’ll do anything under the sun tae help my brother get rid of this wing and have his arm wonst more. Because he feels so sad tae see the rest o’ his brothers – he canna ride, he cannae fire a bow, he canna do nothing because he has to keep it under a cloak.”
    The old henwife says, “Look, you don’t know, but many, many, many leagues from here there is another land, another country. And in that country lives a queen who doesn’t have a king, has only had one son. This queen is the Queen of Knowledge, that
knows
everything. And I know where the queen is; I know thatshe has the knowledge to cure yir brother, but that’s all I can tell ye – the rest is left tae yirself.”
    “But how,” said the princess, “how am I gaunna go there and—”
    “If you go there,” she said, “ye’ll never even get near her – not as a princess.”
    “What must I do?” said the princess.
    “Ye’ll have tae go as a beggar girl, find employment in the palace an’ seek the knowledge from the queen herself. But I have a better idea: why don’t you be a goose girl?” (In these bygone days, girls did walk with geese. They swapped them and traded them around.) “And,” the old woman said, “for yir safety’s sake, get yir father tae send some huntsmen along with ye fir half o’ the journey. Then go the other half by yirself. Take some geese and a ragged dress, dress yirsel as a goose girl and make yir way to the palace. Then it’s up to yirself what you do from there, because that’s all the help I can tell ye; that’s the only way you’re gaunna cure the problem of your brother’s wing.”
    The princess was overjoyed. She said, “Yes, I’ll do it, I’ll go!”
    The queen was very upset about this; she didn’t want to lose her wee daughter. When she told the king, he went out of his mind – “No way!” – he wouldn’t have it. No way. But the queen got him finally talked around to it.
    So the next day the king said, “Well, if that’s to be, what’s to be shall be. But she’s gaunna be well protected if I can help it.” So he ordered for ten soldiers, his best soldiers, and ten horses. He even got panniers on the horses’ backs to carry the geese, so’s their feet wouldn’t be sore travelling too far. He ordered that the geese should be in baskets, and travel for many leagues till they came to the Land of the Queen of Knowledge, and suppose they had to wait for a lifetime, not to return without her! So everything was planned and arranged for the next day; ten soldiers were to look after the princess, guide her on her way till they came to the Land of the Queen of Knowledge, and then they were to lether out and stay in one particular place till she came back. If she didn’t come back, they were never to return, said the king, fir the peril o’ their life: “Return without my daughter and yese’ll be dead when youse come back!”
    So the next day, true to their word, the king and queen bade the princess goodbye; a ragged dress, bare feet and ten soldiers, the horses and five geese, they set on