Once upon a time there was a lonely man who lived on the outskirts of the town by the stream bank. Though farms used to keep cattle and crops producing a large number of vegetables, his were not productive in either of them, since he did not feel himself able to take care of both animals and plants. So this man, absorved in his despair, knew that the only way to survive was to steal from his two neighbours living next to him. He usually stole as much crop as she could to get highly satisfied and make believe beasts or the weather were the actual doers by flooding the orchards with water taken out of the brook. When he grew accostumed to live by his wits, this man, just talking to his neighbours, became aware that they were leaving away because they could not get enough to make a living. The man got worried and headed for the store to check if he had a good stock of food and found he had nothing. He knew that the only way to feed himself was to grow up his own products. So he went to a barn to get a plough, manure and seeds, but when he was about to sow , it started to rain and thunder roughly.
So the farmer was afraid that everything would be flooded and ran home waiting for the next day to come. At dawn he could see the summer, radiant sun rise over the mountains, unusual for this time of the year. He got back to his work and once again he got ready for sowing. That morning he could sow all the orchard. He went home and opened a wardrobe to try and find something to eat when suddenly he found a wallet with a little money but enough for the farmer to ride his bicycle in search of a shop. He got to a nearly abandoned petrol station and went in ready to buy anything that would feed up his hunger. He made up his mind to buy asa cheaply as possible to keep a larger stock of food. But he did not. So he loaded his bike with a keg of beer and a little can of cockpeas. On coming back he had a look at his crop and could see that a pack of moles had destroyed it. The man got quickly angry but he did not despaired since he thought his stock would eternally last. Some days later, the farmer ran out of food and seeds, he just kept a barrel of beer and a candle. Out of the mist came an wretched old man looking like a beggard. It was almost impossible not to notice the huge amulet hanging from his delicate neck.
- ‘Sir, please, let me lend you my jacket, you are shivering’, the farmer said.
- ‘I thank your mercy, lad. But tell me what you are doing in such a cold night and sitting in the dark’.
- ‘I just think I am sunk in despair. My harvest is unproductive and I have no cattle to raise. I spent the llittle money I had in this barrel which is of no use any more. Some time ago I just stole my neighbours, but now they have left and I can but sit here and wait’.
- ‘I understand, boy. I wander from town to town living on other people good will and I would not like, not in the least, that a lad like you would go my ways. Perhaps I could help you if you gave this old drunkard that keg of beer. There is no remedy for me now and it could come handy to refresh me through the hot days’.
- ‘Here you are! I have realized it is of no use for me’.
- ‘All right, lad, we will wait till dawn to work, by now you should go and get some sleep. Is there room for this old man in your home?’
The farmer and the old man went home for a rest. He gave his bed away to the old man and decided to sleep in the couch. The next morningthey went for the country when he asked the old man: “Where are we going?”
- ‘My friend, form all your life you have been living from something that harmed everyone else, so must pay6 back to be able to live in peace’.
The old man took him to his old neighbour’s, and he was hugely upset for not knowing how it was that the old man knew his neighbours address.
- ‘Well, your old nieghbour has now a problem with the moles. I want you to get in to that boat upstream and get to a hut hidden in the Bathory wood just across the path of Gorgoroth. The dwarf Buezum lives in that hut. When you find him tell him you come in my name. He will give you what you are looking for’.
- ‘For your journey, I want you to wear this pendant. It protected this old drunkard from every disturbance for all his long life, and now I want you to wear it’.
The man just nodded his head letting silence
be the answer. Then he went deep into the water in the stream which was becoming thicker and thicker. The man stared upset and sort of surprised every kind of creatures all along the river. Suddenly the river came to an end opposite a huge heap of fallen trees ; ‘A beavers’ nest’, he thought. The man got hold of the trunks and got off the boat. He walked along an old path obeying his instincts, since he did not know the precise way to the hut. As he was walking he noticed the presence of somebody else following close behind him. He could not work him out when all of a sudden small preposterous elf no taller than his calf came up onto him. The little creature was unable to take his eyes off of the amulet the man was wearing. Gently, the man took this little creature in one of his hands and into his shirt pocket.
After some hours, the man came tu Burzum’s hut. He impatiently knocked on the wooden door with his knuckles and he could see a couple of eyes through a slot.
- ‘Who is it? What do you want?”, someone said from behind the door’.
- ‘Hello!, I am looking for Mr Burzum. Is it his hut?’
- ‘Burzum? What makes you think you can break in a hut in the middle of nowhere like that?’
- ‘A friend of mine sent me, he told me Mr Burzun could help me’.
- ‘Help you? Burzum is very busy on a project. He cannot meet you right now’.
- ‘But I need to talk to him urgently, do you mind telling him that I need to talk to him?’
- ‘I am sorry. Disturbing him in the middle of his work is not advisable’.
- ‘And if I could be of some help to him? Could I do something for him so that I was allowed to talk to him for several minutes?’
Desparate, the man tried to convince him in every possible way but the man behind the door suddenly closed the slot. The man sat distressed on a stump thinking a thousand ways to get what
he needed.
Then the little creature in his pocket jumped out of his little cage, broke off a little piece of the amulet and threw it through a little open window in Buzrum’s house. The man full with wrath and fear because of the old man’s behaviour once he got to know this finally laid on the ground. Suddenly, the same voice of the person behind the door was heard again.
- ‘Are you still there? You may be of some help, boy. Mr Burzum urgently needs purple mushrooms from the forest. They usually come into sight near rabbits’ dens. Could you be so kind as do us this favour, we would thank you’.
- ‘And if I get what you need, shall I be able to talk to Mr Burzum?’
- ‘Certainly, lad. May you be lucky in your quest’.
The man went in search of the mushrooms not knowing very well where they were. Despite what the small elf had done, the man no longer bore him any malice, he thought the old man would understand. After a many minutes walk, the man saw a bright shine glittering from among the bushes kind of purple dawn.
The man went closer and when he could clearly see the mushrooms and was about to pick them up. But when he strectched his arm, a hare fast as a flash beat him to it and took the mushroom with its fangs and took it to its den. The man shrank and a strechted his arm to its whole length to try to get to the hare that had stolen the mushroom, but he reallized the den was too small for him to get it back. Suddenly the elf broke the remaining piece of pendant and went into the den. After a while, the amn saw the little elf going out with the mushroom in his hand. At that very moment they lived completely happy. They both ran to the hut again and knocked on the door.
- ‘Have you got what we are after?’
- ‘Here it is! The mushroom you asked for. Can I now talk to Burzum?’
- ‘Do not be so impatient. What we were after is actually for you. You must pick that bottle up from the ground. When you are back to the boat in which you came from, you will have to fill the bottle up with water from the river band. Any other is no use. Only that is thick enough to disolve the mushroom’.
- ‘But, what is the use of that? I must talk to Burzum, please, I have alreday got his mushroom’.
- ‘To Burzum? You should know by now you need not, since unaware, you got what you wanted. Go back to the village and I wish you luck’.
The man, a bit surprised, went back to the boat, but he had to say goodbye to his little journey mate. On coming to the boat, he filled the bottle and put the mushrooms in it, which pretty soon got disolved. When he eventually was in the village, the old man said nothing about the broken amulet because that was the intended use of it.
- ‘Well, there is just but one thing to do, you must confess your neighbours waht you did in the past. But before, you must invite them to drink beer from this keg to which I have added the water with the mushrooms. Remember, you must also drink so that the liquor has its effect’.
The man trusted him and went to his old neighbour’s to confess, but he did not feel himself capable. When he drank a sip of the treated beer he felt he had to relieve his feelings and told him everything.
He was still unconfident because of his neighbour’s likely anger, but then he saw the moles disappear and, with the help of the beverage, he was pardoned and given manure and aubergine seeds for three whole months. The man came happily to the old one.
- You did the right thing, boy. But I guess you will know that though this may be enough for you, I will not let you use it yet. You must still get even with your other neighbour.
They again went along a high number of ways and paths up to his neighbour’s. The man, astonished again, asked what he had to do in order to get back home and live in peace.
- ‘Now I wil not help you. Your neighbour is in trouble to sow because it rains excessively in this part of the forest. You should make a cloth for the orchard out of some material which lets sun light go through and improves the raising of plants. You must climb up that magical sequoia and take its strange fruit. Once you catch the fruit you can make appaear anything you need and not waaht you wish. Afterwards you must give him the drink again and confess. But this time, you will not drink. Lad, be careful with your greediness’.
The man climbed up the sequoia and found the fruit. At the moment of crashing the fruit against the branch and opening it thousands of things came to his mind worth asking for them. So he thought of asking for a large crop for all his life, the best cattle in the continent and a good house to live in. He opened up the fruit and, on talking, just this came out of his mouth:’ Please, sequoia, I need the power of your fruit to get the perfect material for the harvest cloth and so live in peace’. So said he and surprisingly though it may seem so was it. The man made the harvest cloth with the material and went to his neighbour’s. He confessed but his neighbour saw the cloth he had made and, with the help of the drink, he forgave him. Besides, his neighbour gave him ploughs and half his cattle, that is two sheep, a goat and three cows. The man, very grateful, ran to the old one.
Boy, you can now live peacefully. That drink took the best out of everyone and I knew that your greed would possess you at the moment of opening the fruit. I hope you have learnt this lesson. Now I will go my way. I wish you luck with your cattle and for your hospitality I give you thanks.
The old man made his way through the country and disappeared, and the man, still, enjoyed a good life and a productive orchard
