The Elf's Tale

So this elf was telling me this story, see...

Well actually, it wasn't the elf who was telling the story - she asked me if I would care to join in this story circle one time, at which a real story-teller was going to tell a humorous story.

So I said, yeah sure.

We get to this place, it's out in the open, and they had some expert builder of outdoor fires to build this log fire and then they instruct him to go away, and he does.

Anyway in a while this middle-aged guy shows up and everyone sits down and he opens his mouth and says 'have you heard about Kringle Brodr?'

And they all actually laugh out loud just at the sound of that name alone.

Before though, before all of this, the elf says to me, 'do you believe that the ancient Norse people called the Northern Lights - the Northern Lights: Nororljos?'

I say - 'I don't know.'

And she says: 'Well why would they call them the Northern lights...? They're already in the North. Why wouldn't they just call them the lights up above?'

(By the way you're never going to read about 'Kringle Brodr' anywhere on the internet so stop looking; it isn't there).

The story-teller guy is telling his story now though, right...

'Once upon a time there was this young man, who walked up the side of a mountain in Norway, and stopped beneath a very tall spruce tree. And a goddess came down to him and she stood there nearby to him and called to him - Kristoffer! What are you looking up at and what are you proposing to do?'

And the young man looks at her and notices her rare looks, and decides to tell her the truth. And he says: 'I am going to climb this tree and reach out with my covered cup, and scoop some of the shimmering sky water and catch it. Then, I plan to go and see the king and give it to him. Perhaps he will reward me well, because no one has ever given him such a thing before.'

Actual Norway Spruce trees!

'Oh, okay.' Says his interlocutor. 'But perhaps you should climb up onto me and I will lift you up there because you'll not be able to reach by yourself even from the top of the tree.'

So that happens and he gets a cup of the thing he was after, and he thanks his helper and he goes down now to see the king, being careful to keep the lid closed on his cup but checking every now and then to see that the shivering quivering glittery liquid is still in there. Which it is.

Along the way the goddess whispers to him 'you know what must happen now...' And he nods, because he does know since the moment he touched the night rainbow. But he tells her 'Yet I must still deliver what I secretly promised to deliver to the king.' And she says 'Yes, deliver it by all means.'

The king decides to see him because he is told the lad has a drink for him taken literally from the night regnbue.

And the king peers inside the cup cautiously, and he sees the glowing pink and purple and blue quivering liquid and he decides to taste it with a finger and he is astonished!

And he drinks all of it and tells the young man - 'Go; you must go at once and get me a never-ending supply of this! I will go with you and help you. All my people must have this drink.'

And the young man says to the king, 'Nay king. You are the king and you must remain here and fulfill your good role for the benefit of all the people, and after a while, the maidens shall come and take you with them to the Halls of the Heroes where there is no end to the supply of it. But for here and for now, the only supply of it is what is in you now, oh good king.'

And the king was sad, but he was happy too at the same time.

Very nice Hindu orange color!

As for the young man, he received the nickname of the 'brother of the circle,' which is really a pun because in some languages up there a similar sounding word is the word for bread. And the 'circle' is a twisted knot that you cannot understand or undo... 'Easily...'

And every now and then, the brother of the circle returns to Earth to give out cups of the same quivering liquid drink to good children everywhere, from the drinking the which though, even if but one tiny sip -, there is no returning from its mysterious effects.

...Because the colorful liquid is not really a liquid at all, but something crafted with extreme skill and cunning.

And I tell you this story for no reason at all except to tell it.