The Luck of Eden Hall - Page 2
© Virginia Marin
Exactly when and under what circumstances the fairies obtained the drinking-glass is anyone's tale but one legend explains it thus:
One fair moonlit night, a tatterdemalion was seeking suitable garments to replace his torn and ragged clothes. Now he had heard thereabout in the marketplace that the fairies of St. Cuthbert's Well spun the finest flax in the River Eden Forest and would happily make him a new garment--for a price.
The ragamuffin was so poor that he had nothing with which to pay the fairies except for his pilfered drinking-glass from which he drank his stolen mead. He was so cold and threadbare that he had no other choice than to part with it. Not aware of the glass' value, he washed it to a sparkling shine when he reached the well. Then he hid among the bushes to await the fairies.
When the moon reached its zenith, he suddenly became aware of hundreds of fireflies dancing about the bank. He crept out of the bushes. Closer. Still closer, until he realized what he was seeing were not fireflies but the fairies busy at work.
Work, work, sisters for a boon.
Soon our flax will spin, spin, spin
By the light of the silver moon.
The knight of the road cautiously approached, for one must never startle fairies. After gaining the attention of their fairie queen, he sat on the river bank and waited. Queen Hestia alighted on his shoulder and inquired as to his presence. He told her of his need and begged their hand for a worthwhile garment to cover his near-nakedness.
"What have thee in return, kind sir?" Queen Hestia waited for an offer.
The ragamuffin removed the glass from his torn and hanging garment. "This is the sum of my worldly goods," he replied, extending the chalice to Hestia.
The fairie queen accepted the glass recognizing its worth. She waved her wand and the tatterdemalion was cast into a deep sleep.
He awoke toward dawn and saw that even though he was lying on dew covered grass, he was neither cold nor damp. It was then that he noticed his new garment. He stood upright and stumbled toward a gigantic oak, where he promptly sat down and fell into a deep sleep. Unfortunately, he had unwittengly stepped into a fairy ring and was never heard from again.
And that is how the fairies came into possession of the glass known as The Luck Of Eden Hall.
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