Penguin Island — 22 Bk3 Ch1 - Brian the Good and Queen Glamorgan

I. BRIAN THE GOOD AND QUEEN GLAMORGAN

The kings of Alca were descended from Draco, the son of Kraken, and they wore on their heads a terrible dragon’s crest, as a sacred badge whose appearance alone inspired the people with veneration, terror, and love.

They were perpetually in conflict either with their own vassals and subjects or with the princes of the adjoining islands and continents.

The most ancient of these kings has left but a name.

We do not even know how to pronounce or write it.

The first of the Draconides whose history is known was Brian the Good, renowned for his skill and courage in war and in the chase.

He was a Christian and loved learning.

He also favoured men who had vowed themselves to the monastic life.

In the hall of his palace where, under the sooty rafters, there hung the heads, pelts, and horns of wild beasts, he held feasts to which all the harpers of Alca and of the neighbouring islands were invited, and he himself used to join in singing the praises of the heroes.

He was just and magnanimous, but inflamed by so ardent a love of glory that he could not restrain himself from putting to death those who had sung better than himself.

The monks of Yvern having been driven out by the pagans who ravaged Brittany, King Brian summoned them into his kingdom and built a wooden monastery for them near his palace.

Every day he went with Queen Glamorgan, his wife, into the monastery chapel and was present at the religious ceremonies and joined in the hymns.

Now among these monks there was a brother called Oddoul, who, while still in the flower of his youth, had adorned himself with knowledge and virtue.

The devil entertained a great grudge against him, and attempted several times to lead him into temptation.

He took several shapes and appeared to him in turn as a war-horse, a young maiden, and a cup of mead.

Then he rattled two dice in a dicebox and said to him: “Will you play with me for the kingdoms of, the world against one of the hairs of your head?”

But the man of the Lord, armed with the sign of the Cross, repulsed the enemy.

Perceiving that he could not seduce him, the devil thought of an artful plan to ruin him.

One summer night he approached the queen, who slept upon her couch, showed her an image of the young monk whom she saw every day in the wooden monastery, and upon this image he placed a spell.

Forthwith, like a subtle poison, love flowed into Glamorgan’s veins, and she burned with an ardent desire to do as she listed with Oddoul.

She found unceasing pretexts to have him near her.

Several times she asked him to teach reading and singing to her children.

“I entrust them to you,” said she to him.

“And will follow the lessons you will give them so that I myself may learn also.

You will teach both mother and sons at the same time.”

But the young monk kept making excuses.

At times he would say that he was not a learned enough teacher, and on other occasions that his state forbade him all intercourse with women.

This refusal inflamed Glamorgan’s passion.

One day as she lay pining upon her couch, her malady having become intolerable, she summoned Oddoul to her chamber.

He came in obedience to her orders, but remained with his eyes cast down towards the threshold of the door.

With impatience and grief she resented his not looking at her.

“See,” said she to him, “I have no more strength, a shadow is on my eyes.

My body is both burning and freezing.”

And as he kept silence and made no movement, she called him in a voice of entreaty: “Come to me, come!”

With outstretched arms to which passion gave more length, she endeavoured to seize him and draw him towards her.

But he fled away, reproaching her for her wantonness.

Then, incensed with rage and fearing that Oddoul might divulge the shame into which she had fallen, she determined to ruin him so that he might not ruin her.

In a voice of lamentation that resounded throughout all the palace she called for help, as if, in truth, she were in some great danger.

Her servants rushed up and saw the young monk fleeing and the queen pulling back the sheets upon her couch.

They all cried out together.

And when King Brian, attracted by the noise, entered the chamber, Glamorgan, showing him her dishevelled hair, her eyes flooded with tears, and her bosom that in the fury of her love she had torn with her nails, said: “My lord and husband, behold the traces of the insults I have undergone.

Driven by an infamous desire Oddoul has approached me and attempted to do me violence.”

When he heard these complaints and saw the blood, the king, transported with fury, ordered his guards to seize the young monk and burn him alive before the palace under the queen’s eyes.

Being told of the affair, the Abbot of Yvern went to the king and said to him: “King Brian, know by this example the difference between a Christian woman and a pagan.

Roman Lucretia was the most virtuous of idolatrous princesses, yet she had not the strength to defend herself against the attacks of an effeminate youth, and, ashamed of her weakness, she gave way to despair, whilst Glamorgan has successfully withstood the assaults of a criminal filled with rage, and possessed by the most terrible of demons.” Meanwhile Oddoul, in the prison of the palace, was waiting for the moment when he should be burned alive.

But God did not suffer an innocent to perish.

He sent to him an angel, who, taking the form of one of the queen’s servants called Gudrune, took him out of his prison and led him into the very room where the woman whose appearance he had taken dwelt.

And the angel said to young Oddoul: “I love thee because thou art daring.”

And young Oddoul, believing that it was Gudrune herself, answered with downcast looks: “It is by the grace of the Lord that I have resisted the violence of the queen and braved the anger of that powerful woman.”

And the angel asked: “What?

Hast thou not done what the queen accuses thee of?”

“In truth no, I have not done it,” answered Oddoul, his hand on his heart.

“Thou hast not done it?”

“No, I have not done it.

The very thought of such an action fills me with horror.”

“Then,” cried the angel, “what art thou doing here, thou impotent creature?”[3] [3] The Penguin chronicler who relates the fact employs the expression, _Species inductilis_.

I have endeavoured to translate it literally.