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THE
BLACKSMITH AND HIS WIFE (1980)
Near
the village of Balar Beimann, in a small cottage, lived a skilled
blacksmith and his wife. On the first day of autumn the smith returned
home from his forge to find his wife sitting at her loom with tears
running like a stream down her face.
"What
is wrong, my love?" he asked.
"We
have waited for seven years to have a child and no fruit have I born. I
have much around me to make me happy but I am barren and the love for own
child burns within and will soon be extinguished."
Hearing
this made the smith downcast for, like his wife, he dearly longed for a
son, or a daughter. He went to the village and sought council of the wise
old man of Balar Beimann who, in turn, advised him to travel to Gascony to
find the revered magician of the mountains.
The
blacksmith travelled for seven days and seven nights. At last,
on the eighth morning he emerged from a thick forest of dark oak to
find the magician’s castle before him. He sought out the magician and
spoke to him of his desire. The magician at last spoke: "It is not
wise for you to have a child, some fields need to be barren to enrich the
earth. Be proud of your fruitfulness in all else. Tell this to your wife:
love other’s children. You need no child. You have everything you want.
Heed this well."
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The
blacksmith was vexed and upset by this advice and ranted and pleaded for
his need to be fulfilled, but the magician would only repeat the same
words.
When
the blacksmith arrived back at his cottage footsore and weary, he found
his wife sitting at her loom with tears like a river running down her
cheeks.
"What
is wrong my love?"
"We
have waited for seven years and seven months to have a child and no fruit
have I born. I have much around me to make me happy, but I am barren and
the love for my own child burns within and will soon be extinguished."
He
told her the purpose of his travels and of his meeting with the magician.
He spoke the magician’s words. "Some fields need to be barren to
enrich the earth. Be proud of your fruitfulness in all else. Love
other’s children. You need no child. You have everything you want. Heed
this well." At these utterances the blacksmith’s wife fell to
weeping on the kitchen tiles and her river of tears became an ocean.
Now
the blacksmith dearly loved his wife more than he loved himself and was
much grieved to see her in such melancholy. After the magician’s words
he resolved to live without a child, but he knew his wife would die or
wane with the moon unless she conceived, and used her burning love. |