Latest / Manx Fairy Tales / 027 - The Wizard's Palace

Transcript

027 - The Wizard's Palace · Manx Fairy Tales

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty six of MAT's Fairy Tales. This is a
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty six of Man's Fairy Tales. The Wizard's Palace.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Long hundreds of years ago, there was a fine palace
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: on a mountain sloping up from the sea. It was
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: like a palace in a dream, built of shining marble
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: of all colors, and having great doors covered with gold.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: In it there lived the mighty Wizard, who had made
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: it for himself by his spells. But his hatred of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: other people was as great as his power, and he
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: would not allow any person to come near him except
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: his own servants, and they were evil spirits. If any
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: man dared to go see the palace to ask for
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: work or to beg for charity, he would never be
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: heard of again. His friends might search for him, but
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: they would never find him. Soon people began to whisper
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: that some of the blocks of granite near the palace
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: were like the men who had gone up the mountain
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and never came back. They began to believe that the
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: wizard had caught them and frozen them into gray stone.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: At length, the wizard became the terror of the whole island,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: so that no person would pass within several miles of
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: his palace. The people of that side of the island
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: fled from their homes, and the place was lonely and desolate.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: So things went on for three years until one day
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: a poor man going on the houses happened to travel
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: on that side of the island, not knowing anything of
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: this wizard. His road took him over the mountain where
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: the wizard lived, and as he came near it, he
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: was astonished to see the place so silent and desolate.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: He had been looking forward to the usual food and
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: shelter with the friend welcome, But he found the house's
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: empty ruins, and the kindly country people gone. And where
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: was the straw and hay which made such a snug
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: bed in the barn? Weeds and stones were lying thick
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: in the fields. Night came on him, and he walked
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and walked, but never a bit of shelter could he find,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and he did not know where to go to get
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: a bed. It's a midle and dark night, he thought,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: But it's better to go on than back. A road
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: a body is used on is no throuble to them,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: and it might be night or not. He was traveling
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: on the old road over the mountain, going ahead, singing
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: kalcarag Rabbi for company to himself, And after a long
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: while he saw a light in the distance. The light
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: got brighter and brighter, until he came to a grand
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: palace with every window lit up. The singing was all
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: knocked out of him. And the name of fortune, where
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: am I at all? This is a dreadful big house,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: he said to him. Where did it come from? For
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: all nobody never seemed to like of it on this
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: bare breast before elsewhere am I at all at all?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: He was hard set to get to the door, with
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the blocks of stone lying about like frozen men, I'd swear,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: he said to himself, as he stumbled over one, that
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: this was litl Nettie home the dwarf man. That's missin'
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: only a stone. When he came to the big door,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: it was locked through one of the windows. He saw
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: a table and supper ready on it, but he saw
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: no person. He was very tired and hungry, but he
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: was afraid to knock at the door. Of such a
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: fine place. Ah, that place is too grand for the
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: likes of me, said he. He sat down on one
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: of the marble seats outside, saying, I'll stretch meself here
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: till mornin'. It's a middlin sort of night. That day,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: meat and bread had been given to him at the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: last town he had passed through. He was hungry, and
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: he thought that he would eat, so he opened his
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: wallet and took out a piece of bread and meat.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Then he put his hand into his pocket and drew
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: out a pinch of salt in a screw of paper.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: As he opened the paper, some grains of salt fell
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: out onto the ground. No sooner had this happened than
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: up from the ground beneath came the sound of most
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: terrible groans. High winds blew from every airt out of
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the heavens. Lightnings flashed in the air, dreadful thunder crashed overhead,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: and the ground heavied beneath his feet, and he knew
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: that there was plenty of company round him, though no
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: man was to be seen. In less than a moment,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the grand palace burst into a thousand pieces and vanished
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: into the air. He found himself on a wide, lonely mountain,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: and in the gray light of dawn, no trace of
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the palace was to be seen. He went down on
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: his knees and put up a prayer of thanksgiving for
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: his escape, and then ran on to the next village,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: where he told the people all that he had seen,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: and glad they were to hear of the disap appearance
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: of the wizard. End of chapter twenty six. Recording by
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Ncho Calvillo,