The Raven King

The tale of the Raven King is an ancient Falian fairytale dating back to before the Greatwoods were smothered. It is one of the few pieces of Falian culture that survived the eruption of Mount Iuz.

Summary

Back when the Greatwoods were thriving, a small kingdom sat at the very heart of the valley. This kingdom experienced great peace and prosperity, ruled as it was by a kind, wise king. However, this king was unmarried, and the folk of the kingdom began to worry for its future. They asked the king to look for a suitable bride, and though he scoured his whole kingdom, he could not find a woman who was fit to take up the crown. With each potential bride, he found flaws that would make her unfit for the throne, no matter how each begged and pleaded to be chosen. Finally, the king decided to search outside the kingdom. His trusted advisor, an oracle of some power, advised him not to, only saying that he would meet an unpleasant fate in the Greatwoods.

Ignoring her, the king set out with a great entourage, searching the nearby settlements for a bride worthy of a seat beside him. Finally, in a poor hovel next to a pond, he found her. A beautiful woman with long red hair, she sat by herself in the hut, weaving and singing to the flock of birds that hovered around her. The king fell in love with her at once, and offered her his hand in marriage. She accepted, and they made a triumphant procession back to his castle, where preparations began at once for the wedding. The oracle was beside herself with worry, taking to her bedchamber and refusing food and drink. She knew that her prediction would come to pass on the night of the wedding.

The wedding was a beautiful and lavish affair, and all who attended remarked on how smitten the king seemed, but that the bride seemed distant and hardly looked at her new husband. They held a grand feast far into the night, eating and drinking until the attendants all fell asleep where they were sitting. Alone, the king and his new bride went to the royal bedchambers.

In the morning, the castle was awoken by a loud cawing. The bride sat alone in the royal apartment, and a great raven flew out of the window and away into the dawn. The king was nowhere to be found, though guards searched and searched the kingdom. Eventually they concluded that the king must be dead somewhere, for he would never abandon his kingdom which he loved. His bride was crowned queen of the kingdom, and soon after began to make changes, ones that caused great suffering among the people. But they did not complain, for their king had chosen this queen and they believed it would all be better in the end.

The oracle, knowing what had happened, left the kingdom in search for the raven, for indeed the king had been transformed into a raven, as had the other birds in the woman's hut. She searched for two years through the Greatwoods, until one day she came upon the hovel beside the pond. Inside, a small cot had been made up, and laying upon the floor was a long, glossy feather, black as jet. From outside, a great flapping arose, and the frightened oracle hid beside the doorway. She watched as two clawed feet landed on the floor, and as the light outside dimmed, they transformed into the feet of a human. As the person stepped forward, she saw that it was the king himself. With great relief, she revealed herself to him, and he told her the tale of how his new bride, on the morning after their wedding, had cast a spell upon him, transforming him into a raven and banishing him from the kingdom. The oracle wept then, for her king could not return home.

As she wept, the flash of a vision came upon her, and she knew that there was a way to break the curse upon him. She explained to the king that she must fashion him a cloak of brambles and could not speak while weaving it or she too would become a bird. She begged his leave to stay in the hut with him, and began to collect the brambles and weave them together. It was a slow process, and though the thorns pricked and tore at her fingers until she bled, she spent two years collecting and weaving brambles from sun-up to sundown until she had fashioned the cloak. In those two years, she spoke not a single word, nor made any noise at all. The raven-king kept her company in silence, watching her progress and her sacrifice as she worked to break his curse.

When the two years were up, she and the king proceeded with great haste back to their kingdom, so that she could show the folk that their king was not dead. When they arrived, however, the guards had been warned by the witch-queen and captured the oracle and the raven-king as soon as they entered the city. They were brought before the witch-queen, who proclaimed that the oracle was a witch and must be burnt at the stake. The oracle, still unable to utter a word for fear that the curse would never be broken, threw the cloak desperately at the raven-king. The cloak landed squared across the raven's body, save for one foot where a guard held the bird. Before their eyes, the raven's feathers fell off, revealing the countenance of their long-lost king. Immediately, the king ordered the guards capture the witch-queen, for she had ruled in falsehood for four years. She was sentenced to beheading for her treason to the kingdom, and hauled away to be imprisoned.

Though the raven-king's return was joyous, the people of the kingdom were worried, for their king may never again choose a bride to bear an heir. However, he surprised them all when he offered marriage to the oracle, for he had fallen in love with her in the years she had stayed with him, weaving the cloak though it made her own fingers bleed. She happily accepted, and the two were married a month later. The oracle, now the queen, bore two healthy sons who would bless the kingdom for another generation. And though they lived happily ever after, the Raven King forever bore the mark of his exile in one clawed raven's foot.

Historical Basis

As with many myths and fairy-tales, there is likely some truth to the story of the Raven King. It is probable that a kingdom did exist in the Greatwoods at some point during its existence, and that some great strife involving witchcraft did occur. However, given the lack of exploration in the Underwood, no one has verified the existence of this kingdom.