Once There was an Enchanted Castle…

castle-in-the-fog

The Enchanted Castle

Daily Photo

With flags flying and trumpets blowing, the Castle  greeted the arrival of the new heir.  Hungry, squalid crowds of people gathered at the gates hoping to catch a glimpse of the tiny baby.  The haughty warrior king strode to the ramparts.  Glaring down at the wretched squirming mass of humanity below, he stood on the walls holding a  squalling infant bound tightly in cloth.  The people roared.  To celebrate the event and also to lodge the day deeply in the community’s memory,  the king’s own soldiers cast gold  to the frenzied crowd. The hard coins battered the people’s faces and stung their bare arms and shoulders but, in spite of this, they fought each other with fist and foot to grasp even the smallest piece.

After the strongest had seized the coin from the swift and the crowd calmed, the king called down, “I shall name my daughter, Liona, for she shall be as fierce as a  lion guarding her prey.”  He turned to leave.

“Nay,”  cried a strong young farmerwoman,  “No more shall you oppress us with your cruel laws.”  She threw off her straw hat, revealing the long green hair of a witch, and pointed her staff at him.  A whirl of green light and smoke shot from the end and enveloped the king and the castle.  With a dazed cry, he stumbled back from the edge dropping his heir.  The crowd surged forward and the infant tumbled slowly into their arms on a waft of smoke.  The cloth that bound her unwound and drifted away like a scarlet bird.

The soldiers fled the castle as its walls turned to dirt and its ramparts to redwoods.  For months after, people came to stare at the island in the valley. But the castle stayed enchanted.  Because the hard king and his hard laws were bound within the earth, the people shrugged off the old warlike ways and wove together the fabric of their world. Then over time, the women of the hills married the warriors of the castle.  The swords were beaten into shovels and the armor into cookware.

The infant grew strong and free, roaming through the mist by the enchanted castle and high onto the sunlit hills. The people called her and the land Humboltia, for the witch declared that the land and the maiden were bound together by magic. As long as the maiden remained humble, taking only what was needful and learning the ways of her home, then  the maiden, the land, and the people who lived there would be happy.

Don’t ask me where that came from or what it means.

But Humbodt Turtle gave me Humboldtia from his/her new blog.  Check it out and see the home of the elusive Turtle.

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21 Comments
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oldmanriver
Guest
oldmanriver
15 years ago

again, your pictures soothe with beauty and magic. there was a term in portrait of an artist by james joyce that applies…moments of aesthetic arrest.
i really really want your calender, or picture book.
magic indeed.

Heraldo
Guest
15 years ago

What an amazing picture. Enchanted lands, indeed.

Heraldo
Guest
15 years ago

Jinx! Indeed.

Sandi
Guest
15 years ago

Love the picture but I really enjoyed the story. They are the perfect couple.

Toni
Guest
15 years ago

Gorgeous photo. It does look like a land of enchantment. Well done, both story and image.

humboldturtle
Guest
humboldturtle
15 years ago

Images of Humboldtia. Sublime!

Auntie Mayme
Guest
15 years ago

Breathtaking photo!

tj and mark
Guest
15 years ago

Love your view of the castle. We’ve spied it a time or two ourselves, but it appears to move. Which direction were you when you took the photo?

Sophie Lagacé
Guest
15 years ago

Oh, this is such a beautiful image. Thank you for sharing it!

eric
Guest
15 years ago

Exceptionally beautiful photo, and a wonderful story.

sohumborn
Guest
sohumborn
15 years ago

This photo is what I envisioned when I told of the view from the hippie house in Bear Harbor! You are so good at taking these sublime moments and capturing them for the rest of us. Thanks Kym!

Ernie's Place
Guest
15 years ago

Ohhh… Myyyyy… Godddddd…. How absoulutley sapppppy.

Please, please keep it up! I love stories like that. It’s obvious that some of your heritage comes from the British Iles. Also Great picture!

silverstar98121
Guest
15 years ago

The picture screams Avalon to me. And the story screams Camelot, but with a female hero. I love it. And the witch is a good witch who freed her people. Even better.

bluelaker4
Guest
bluelaker4
15 years ago

Oh my word, this photo almost makes me want to get up VERY early and drive to your house to see this exact view in person. Fabulous!

Enjoyed your fairy tale, but I admit I laughed outloud when the armor was beaten into cookware! Presto? Humboldtian Beach? LOL

Heather
Guest
15 years ago

Mom, you’re a riot! Must admit, though, that I chuckled at cookware too. I just wasn’t as creative as you – Humboldtian Beach. Yes, LOL too.

I, as many others here, LOVE this duo. The story is great, and the photo is magical. It’s one of those things where, when I first saw it, before I processed it, the island was a castle. And it keeps happening, every time I come back to look.

thegnukid
Guest
15 years ago

wow…. left speechless… just. wow.

Kim
Guest
Kim
15 years ago

Very, very nicely made photograph, Kym. This is a good emotional image which suggests the possibility of magic. Simply… wonderful!

Richard Marks
Guest
Richard Marks
15 years ago

“Where is the ring my precious?” Tolkien type picture.

archiearchive FCD
Guest
15 years ago

A beautiful, magical photo with a wonderful tale. My day is complete.

Kato
Guest
Kato
15 years ago

Not only do you weave a fine tale, but in perfect synchronisity with what I was just saying to Karol: we need to write NEW fairy tales, especially ones in which the heroines don’t wait for Prince Charming before living happily (and I love the conversion of armory into kitchen wares…)! More, please.

That photo, these days, the ever-morphing weather; you’ve caught a glimpse of the witch’s very cauldron steaming… anything can happen here.

Auntie Mayme
Guest
15 years ago

I love the magical beauty of Humboldt County!