Once upon a time in the Springdom of Water, there lived an old couple that loved their son Bennie dearly. The little cottage in which they lived was built in the shadow of mighty Ben Bulben, in the village of Drumcliffe. They had few neighbors, and the couple was very attached to Bennie because their older son Robert had long ago left for America to seek his fortune. So they kept young Bennie home for company.
They were sitting together on a winter’s evening, when a fierce storm blew in from the Sea to the North, and the wind blew the door open. Bennie’s mother shook and shivered, glancing over her shoulder as if she expected to see some horrible thing behind her. ‘Go and shut that door Bennie!’ she growled. “I am frightened.”
‘Frightened?’ repeated Bennie. ‘What does it feel like to be frightened?’
‘Well, just frightened,’ answered his mother. ‘ A fear of something, you hardly know what, hits your heart and mind like a thunderbolt.’
‘It must be very strange to feel like that,’ replied Bennie. ‘I know what I have to do. I will go throughout the land and seek fear until I find it.’ And so late that evening, after his parents were asleep, Bennie slipped out the door and set off to find fear.
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| Mighty Ben Bulben |
After walking then
climbing awhile he reached the top of Ben Bulben, which
seemed like as good a place as any to begin his adventure. At the top of the
tabletop mountain, he came upon a band of fierce robbers, sitting round a fire
and planning their next attack.
Bennie was cold, so he was delighted to see the bright flames. He went up to the robbers and said, ‘Hi
guys!,’ and wriggled himself in between the men until his feet almost dangled
into the burning logs. All at once, the robbers stopped drinking, and looked at
him with amazement and disbelief, until finally the captain spoke. ‘The hardest men in all of Ireland
would never dare to come here, even the very birds stay away from our camp, so
who are you to waltz in so boldly?”
‘Oh, right,’ said the
boy casually. ‘I’m
Bennie. I have left my parents’
house in search of fear. Maybe you
can show it to me?’
‘Well for a start,
fear is wherever WE are,’ answered the captain.
‘Really? Where?’ asked Bennie. ‘I see nothing.’
‘Tell you what,
boy. Take this pot and some beef
and potatoes and whatever you like over to that old churchyard across the lake,
and cook us something for supper tonight,” replied the robber. So Bennie jumped up and cheerfully
chose some choice ingredients, and slinging the pot over his arm, ran down the mountain and up the other side of Glencar Lough.
When he reached the
churchyard he collected some sticks and made a fire; then he filled the pot with water
from the lake, and chopped up and mixed together the ingredients for a lovely
Irish stew. When his stew was
ready and perfect, he lifted the pot by the handle and placed it on a stone so
he could put out the fire. Just
then a hand stretched out from the grave, and a loud voice boomed: “IS THAT SUPPER FOR ME?”
‘Horse
Feathers! ‘Do you think I would
waste food for the living on the dead?” replied Bennie with a laugh. And giving the hand a pop with his
ladle, and picking up the pot of stew, he started back around the lake, past Glencar waterfall, and
back up Ben Bulben, whistling all the way.
‘Well, have you
found fear?’ asked the robbers upon Bennie’s return.
‘No, not really’
replied Bennie flatly. ‘All I saw
was a hand that stretched out from the grave, belonging to some dead woman who
wanted a free supper. So I just rapped
her fingers with my ladle and said it wasn’t for her, and then the hand
disappeared. Wow, what a nice
fire!’ And with that he flopped
down onto his knees before it, and so didn’t even notice the befuddled looks on
the muggers’ mugs.
‘There is another
chance for you,’ said one of the poxey pickpockets. ‘On the other side of Ben Bulben lay a very deep
pool. Go there and maybe if you’re
lucky you’ll meet fear on the path.’
‘I sure hope so,’
answered Bennie. And he hopped up
and set off straight away for the deep pool the other side of the mountain.
Bennie soon came
to the deep pool, gleaming in the moonlight, and as he got closer he saw a tall swing
standing just over it, and in the swing a little boy was seated, crying his
eyes out.
‘That’s a funny
place for a swing’, thought Bennie; ‘but I wonder what he is crying about.’ And as he hurried over to the the boy a beautiful girl ran up to speak to him.
‘I want to lift my
baby brother Terry from that swing,’ she cried, ‘but it’s so high above me I
can’t reach. If you would get
closer to the edge of the pool, and let me climb onto your shoulders, I think I
could reach him.’
‘No worries’ said
Bennie, and with that the girl climbed onto his shoulders. But instead of lifting poor blubbering
Terry from the swing, as she could easily have done, she pressed her feet so
firmly onto either side of Bennie’s neck that he felt in one more minute he
would be choked, or else fall into the deep pool beneath them. So gathering all his strength, he gave
a mighty heave and threw the girl backwards. As she touched the ground a bracelet fell from her arm, and
so Bennie picked it up.
And so turning back to look for wee Terry, he saw that both he and the
swing had disappeared, and that the first streaks of dawn were breaking through
the clouds and rising over the mountain.
‘I’m having this
for all my troubles and to remind me of all the adventures I’ve had since I
left home,’ he said to himself.
With the bracelet on
his arm, Bold Bennie Blackcurrant began towards the village of Grange, which
was on the same side of the mountain, to find something to eat. As he came to the town centre, an old
jeweler stopped him. ‘Where did
you get that bracelet?’ asked the jeweler. ‘It’s mine!’
‘Hogwash! It’s mine.’ answered Bennie.
‘It is not. Give it to me now or I’ll make you
suffer for it!’ cried the crusty old crust.
‘OK then mister
greedy pants, let’s go before the Judge Gerald in Sligo and tell
him our stories. If he decides in
your favour, then fair enough you can have it. But if he says it’s mine, then I’ll
keep it and you can go suck a duck egg.’
To this the greedy
jeweler agreed, and the two went together to the court in Sligo, where
the judge was measuring out justice.
He listened carefully to both sides, and then pronounced his
verdict. Neither of them had
proved their right to the bracelet, therefore it must remain in the possession
of the judge until its rightful owner steps forward to claim it.
When they heard this,
both the jeweler and Bennie looked at each other with the same question on
their minds. ‘Where are we going
to find the match to this bracelet?’
But since they knew there was no use disputing the decision, they bowed
to Judge Gerald and went their separate ways.
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| Rosses Point |
Bennie wandered
around until he came to Sligo Bay on the northern edge of the Springdom of Water, and then
out to Rosses Point. Way
off in the distance was a ship which had hit some rocks and appeared to be
sinking while the crew stood on deck with faces as white as death, screaming
and waving their arms in panic.
‘Have you met with fear?’ shouted Bennie across
the waters. And they answered all
at once, saying “We hit a rock!
Help us we’re drowning!
Help! Help!” And so Bennie flung off his clothes and
swam way out to the ship where the crewmen lifted him on deck.
“This ship is rocking
so hard we’ll soon be sucked down!
We’ll all die for sure, and we’re terrified!”
‘Hand us that rope
then.’ said Bennie calmly, and he took it and tied it around his waist at one
end and to the mast at the other, then he sprang into the Sea. Down he went, down, down, down, till at
last his feet touched bottom, then he stood up and looked around. Standing there was Crabby Gabby the Glencar Witch
with a face like a frog swamp down in the ditch, and her flabby body all
crawling with white crabs. She was
yanking hard on a chain, which she had fastened to the ship with a grappling
hook, and was dragging it bit by bit under the water.
Grabbing her arms
with both hands, he forced her to drop the chain, and the ship above went
steady, allowing the sailors to gently float her off the rocks. Then taking a rusty knife from a heap
of seaweed at his feet, he cut the rope from his waist and fastened Crabby
Gabby to a stone, so that she could do no more mischief, and bidding her
goodbye he swam back to the beach where his clothes were still waiting.
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| Glencar Waterfall |
Bennie quickly got
dressed and walked back toward Glencar Lough until he came to the most beautiful waterfall in
Ireland. The day was hot and he
was tired so he walked up the path toward the waterfall and sat down beneath a
tree and fell asleep.
As the sun started
down, Bennie heard a rush of wings and a cold breeze woke him up, and raising
his head cautiously he saw three black crows dive into the stream in front of
him. They splashed around, shook themselves,
and dove to the bottom of a deep pool in the stream.
When they came up they were not crows at all, but rather
three ugly sisters. They drifted
and swam down the stream and out into Glencar Lough, where
they seemed to float on invisible chairs with a table between them made of
stone from Ben Bulben. On the
table they put drinking cups made from shells they found on the beaches of Strandhill.
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| Glencar Lough |
One of the three
sisters filled the cups from a crystal goblet, and was raising it
to her wrinkly mouth when her sister stopped her. ‘To whose health do you
drink?’ squawked the eldest sister.
“To the boy who made
the stew and rapped my hand with the ladle when I stretched it from the grave,”
answered the sister, “and was never afraid as other men were! But to whose health do you drink?’
“To the boy on whose
shoulders I climbed at the edge of the pool to rescue Baby Terry, who threw me
off with such a jerk that I lay unconscious on the ground for hours,’ replied
the middle sister. ‘But you, my
dear sister Gabby, to whom do you drink?’
‘Well first of all I just love to
drink. But down in the sea I took
hold of a ship and shook it and pulled it until it would have soon sunk,’ said
the sister. And as she spoke she
looked quite different to what she did with the chain in her hands and with
crabs crawling all over her. ‘But
a boy came along and tied me to a rock.
To his health!’ and they all three lifted their cups and drunk silently
in amazement. As they lowered
their cups, Bennie appeared in front of them.
‘Here I am you brazen b’witches, the boy to whose health
you have drunk; and now give me the bracelet that matches a jeweled band which
fell from the arm of one of you. A
jeweler tried to taking it from me but I would not let him, so he dragged me
before the judge, who kept my bracelet until I could show him its matching
twin.’
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| Manorhamilton |
‘You three are
unforgettable,’ said Bennie, ‘but I’m off like a dirty shirt. I’m going to fly, sail, run, climb and
do whatever it takes until I have found fear on my adventures.’ Then he went on his way, recovered the
bracelet from the judge, and resumed his quest for fear.
On and on he walked,
through woods and over streams, all the way to Manorhamilton, then on
to Enniskillen where all the
streets were so full of people he could hardly pass between them.
‘What’s happening?’
he asked
a man in the town square.
‘The ruler of this
Springdom, King Seamus, has died.
And since he had no children, it is important to choose his
successor. So each morning one of
the sacred doves is let loose from the tower over there, and on whomever he
lands, that man is our new king.
In just a minute the dove will fly, so watch and see for yourself.”
“Oh give me a break!”
replied Bennie. “Do people
actually believe this stuff?”
Every eye in Enniskillen was
fixed on the tower in the town centre, and the moment that the sun was seen
straight over it, a door was opened and a beautiful gleaming white dove came
rushing out into the air. On and
on it flew, round and round, until at last it rested on the head of Bold Bennie
Blackcurrant.
Then everyone in the
village cheered, “The King! The
King!” but as Bennie listened to their cheering, a vision, like a thunderbolt,
struck his heart and brain. He saw
himself seated on a throne, spending the rest of his life trying but never
succeeding to make poor people rich; miserable people happy; bad people good;
never doing anything that he wanted to do, not even marrying the strawberry
blonde-headed girl that he loved back home.
“NO! NO!” he shrieked, hiding his face in
his hands. But the crowds thought
he was overcome by the grandeur of the moment and by the throne that awaited
him.
“Well, to make double
sure, let fly more doves,” said the villagers, but each and every dove followed
the first, and the cheering became louder than ever:
“THE KING! THE KING!” And as Bold Bennie Blackcurrant bent under the weight of
their cheers, a cold shiver like he had never felt before ran down his spine.
“This is the fear you
have searched for so long to find,” whispered a voice, which seemed to find his
ears only. Bennie bowed his head
low as the terrible vision once again flashed before his eyes. And with that he accepted his dismal
doom so soon in his young life, and got ready to live the rest of his days with
fear right beside him.
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