THE TALE OF INTRACTABLE GUNDELIND

[juliaINC 237]

 

THE TALE OF

INTRACTABLE GUNDELIND

 

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DIE GESCHICHTE DER WIDERSPENSTIGEN GUNDELIND | THE TALE OF THE INTRACTABLE GUNDELIND

Issued by the Seneschal of the Heather Court

In the year of our Lord 2002

 

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A coal rendering of Gundelind’s runestone.

ÖHNE UND TÖCHTER VON REINMAR,

 

HARK THESE WORDS THAT FLOW FORTH FROM THE LAND, for there I had uncovered this tale, etched upon ancient stone in the Reinmaren runes of old.

 

 

ᛁᚾᛏᚱᚪᛣᛏᚪᛒᛚᛖ ᚷᚢᚾᛞᛖᛚᛁᚾᛞ

Intractable Gundelind

Gundelind being cast from her father’s tribe.

 

‘Tis what the heading reads, revealing the contents of this tale. The author’s name had been lost, but the mention of the sacrifice of Oswald points to a time shortly after the tribe’s turn to Canonism.

 

Let it be cautionary to those of you, o lads and maidens of the tribe, who might allow external temptations to lead you astray from your virtue and your kin.

 

IN THE DAYS OF YORE, after the tribes proclaimed God as their one and only Lord, there lived a Chieftain by the name of Waldemar. His tribe was strong, his warband numerous, his cattle and horse healthy, and his daughter the fairest and most merry in all the Land. She bore the name Gundelind, and many men of the tribe came forth to seek her hand.

First came Aldemar, the wisest scholar of them all—but Gundelind deemed him too old.
Second came Edelrad, her father’s closest hirdman and most trusted advisor—Gundelind found him too pious and proper.
Third came Hildebrand, the fiercest warrior in Waldemar’s warband—but Gundelind turned from him, for he had sacrificed his beauty in battle for the tribe.
Last came a man from lands far and strange, whom Gundelind had not heard of. His name was Drazhan. He was young, of free and frivolous spirit, and he was the most handsome of all she knew. Gundelind’s heart was swayed by this foreigner.

“Wed that man, intractable daughter, and you shall wither,” bade Waldemar. But Gundelind was heedless, and so she wed Drazhan, who took her from her father’s tribe.

In time, Drazhan said unto Gundelind, “My heart is yours, wife, yet you would make me happiest if you painted your eye to appear younger, as the women of my land do.” And Gundelind painted her eyelids, which grew red and swollen, yet Drazhan was content.

Again, Drazhan spoke to her: “My heart is yours, wife, yet you would make me happiest if you wore the light, revealing garments the women of my land wear and dance around as they do.” So Gundelind adorned her neck with gold and her figure with the lightest silks she could find, and danced, and her body twisted and shivered from the cold, yet Drazhan was pleased.

Once more, Drazhan sought to ask something of Gundelind, but three men stood in his way and struck him down, for he cherished too much the beauty of his face and the smoothness of his hands, and had never wielded a sword.

Bereft, Gundelind fled back to the land of Chieftain Waldemar and cried unto him, “Father, it is I, Gundelind, and my husband is no more. Take me back into the hearth of your home.”

Yet she had been made into a foreign woman, with her body and eyes swollen, and her father did not know her. He bade his men to cast her from the tribe, for what has once ripped itself from its roots, no force will sew back together.

 

 

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WER RASTET, DER ROSTET

HER LADYSHIP, WILHELMINA VON BRANDTHOF, Seneschal of the Heather Court

 

 

REFERENCES

 

1. Aelfwin von Kretzen, HRH Frederica Barclay and HE Nikolaus von Kanunsberg, The Tale of Osmund, Principality of Reinmar (1973)

 

[Timer 1615]

Erwin Barclay reads the tale with great interest; he tucks away his copy for safekeeping before pondering its meaning. "Lady von Brandthof is very wise; this precautionary tale will do wonders for the tribe."

[Toffee 1884]

After reading this tale, Adalfriede was eternally grateful none of her children had married outside the tribe.