Edward Hoch - Isaac Asimov's Worlds of Fantasy. Book 6 - Mythical Beasties

There they were in a moment, among the old knights whom, if you remember, the Remora had frozen into stone.

There were quite a troop of them, in all sorts of armour- Greek and Roman, and Knights Templar like Front de Boeuf and Brian du Bois Gilbert-all the brave warriors that had tried to fight the Remora since the world began.

Then Prigio gave each of his brothers some of the water in their caps, and told them to go round pouring a drop or two on each frozen knight. And as they did it. lo and behold! each knight came alive, with his horse, and lifted his sword and shouted:

in Greek, Latin, Egyptian, German, and Spanish-all of which the Prince perfectly understood, and spoke like a native.

So he marshalled them in order, and sent them off to nde to Falkenstein and cry: "Prince Prigio is coming!"

Off they went, the horses' hooves clattering, banners flying, sunshine glittering on the spear points. Off they rode to Falkenstein; and when the King saw them come galloping in, I can tell you he had no more notion of hanging Prigio.

The Very Last The Princes returned to Gluckstein on the carpet, and went to the best inn, where thei' dined together and slept. Next morning they, and the ambassador, who had been told all the story, and Lady Rosalind, floated comfortably on the carpet, back to Falkenstein, where the King wept like anything on the shoulders of Alphonso and Enrico. They could not make out why he cried so, nor why Lady Molinda and Lady Kathleena cried; but soon they were all laughing and happy again. But then-would you believe he could be so mean?-he refused to keep his royal promise, and restore Prigio to his crown princeship! Kings are like that.

But Prigio, very quietly asking for the head of the Firedrake, said he'd pour the magic water on that, and bring the Firedrake back to life again, unless His Majesty behaved rightly. This threat properly frightened King Grognio, and he apologized. Then me King shook hands with Prigio in public, and thanked him, and said he was proud of him. As to Lady Rosalind, the old gentleman quite fell in love with her, and he sent at once to the Chaplain Royal to get into his surplice, and marry all the young people off at once, without waiting for wedding cakes and milliners and all the rest of it.

Now, just as they were forming a procession to march into church, who should appear but the Queen* Her Majesty had been travelling by post all the time, and, luckily, had heard of none of the doings since Prigio, Benson, and the King left Gluckstein. I say luckily because if she had heard of them, she would not have believed a word of them. But when she saw Alphonso and Enrico, she was much pleased, and said:

"Naughty boys! Where have you been hiding? The King had some absurd story about your having been killed by a fabulous monster. Bah! don't tell me. I always said you would come back after a little trip-didn't I, Prigio?"

"Certainly, madam," said Prigio, "and I said so too.

Didn't I say so?" And all the courtiers cried: "Yes, you did"; but some added, to themselves, "He always says, 'Didn't 1 say so?' "

Then the Queen was introduced to Lady Rosalind, and she said it was "rather a short engagement, but she supposed young people understood their own affairs best." And they do! So the three pairs were married, with the utmost rejoicings; and Her Majesty never, her whole life long, could be got to believe that anything unusual had occurred.

The honeymoon of Prince Prigio and the Crown Princess Rosalind was passed at me castle, where the Prince had been deserted by the Court. But now it was delightfully fitted up; and Master Frank marched about the house with his tail in the air, as if the place belonged to him.

Now, on the second day of their honeymoon, the Prince and Princess were sitting in the garden together, and the Prince said: "Are you quite happy, my dear?" and Rosalind said: "Yes; quite."

But the Prince did not tike the tone of her voice, and he said: "No, there's something; do tell me what it is."

"Well," said Rosalind, putting her head on his shoulder, and speaking very low, "1 want everybody to love you as much as I do. No, not quite so very much-but I want them to like you. Now they can't, because they are afraid of you; for you are so awfully clever. Now, couldn't you take the wishing cap, and wish to be no cleverer than other people? Then everybody would like you!"

The Prince thought a minute, then he said: "Your will is law, my dear; anything to please you. Just wait a minute!"

Then he ran upstairs, for the last time, to the fairy garret, and he put on the wishing cap.

"No," thought he to himself, "I won't wish that. Every man has one secret from his wife, and this shall be mine."

Then he said aloud: "I WISH TO SEEM NO CLEVERER THAN OTHER PEOPLE."

Then he ran downstairs again, and the Princess noticed a great difference in him (though of course there was really none at alt), and so did everyone. For the Prince remained as clever as ever he had been; but, as nobody observed it, he became the most popular prince, and finally the best beloved king who had ever sat on the throne of Pantouflia.

But occasionally Rosalind would say: "I do believe, my dear, that you are really as clever as^-ever!"

And he was!

The gorgons appear m the Greek myths as terrifying monsters. The very word is from the Greek gorgos, meaning "terrifying." In some of the myths there are three gorgons, but the one that is usually the only one dealt with is the one named Medusa.

The most frightening aspect of the gorgon is Us hair. which is pictured as consisting of living snakes. The notion of snakes coiling and uncoiling on the head of a •woman, usually pictured as beautiful in a ghastly way, is indeed unnerving, but it is an easy thing to imagine. You have only to see a sea anemone or an octopus and you will find a creature that seems to have living snakes as part of itself. In fact, I have always thought the gorgons and other snake-haired monsters to be inspired by the octopus.

The gorgon is pictured as so terrifying thai people who unwittingly glance at the gorgon face turn into stone.

But, then, it is an instinct in some young animals to freeze when danger looms, for many predators will not see their prey if it does not move. Some animals will even feign death, if frightened, since some predators will not touch dead bodies. And we freeze, too, temporarily, when frightened, and if is an easy leap from that to suppose that if the fright were great and intense enough, we would freeze permanently.

The gorgon may also symbolize the nightmare. A very common nightmare is to have to catch someone or something, or to be pursued, and despite all possible efforts to be unable to move. I have always thought this to be a natural reaction to entanglement in the bedclothes. The inability to move, in reality, is shifted to the dream, which becomes a nightmare. So the nightmare-freezing becomes the Gorgon-freezing. -But see what the author in the following story does with the legend.

The small island, which lay off the larger island of Daphaeu, obviously contained a secret of some son, and day by day, and particularly night by night, began to exert an influence on me, so that I must find it out.

Daphaeu itself (or more correctly herself, for she was a female country, voluptuous and cruel by turns in the true antique fashion of the Goddess) was hardly enormous. A couple of roads, a tangle of sheep tracks, a precarious, escalating village, rocks and hillsides thatched by blistered grass.

All of which overhung an extraordinary sea, unlike any sea which I have encountered elsewhere in Greece. Water which might be mistaken for blueness from a distance, but which, from the harbour, or the multitude of caves and coves that undermined the island, revealed itself a clear and succulent green, like milky limes, or the bottle glass of certain spirits.