King Arthur was
encouraged and elated to have taken the walking stick out of the concrete slab,
because it confirmed that he would be a good King of Camelot and rule it
wisely.
He pressed on into the
forest in search for the unicorn with the golden tail with the ability to heal
people through magic. His intention was to allow the unicorn to roam free
throughout Camelot and to use his magic for the good of one and all.
And the unicorn would
say “Neigh neigh …” but that would be an opportunity for me to sneak in a cheap
horse joke into what is a serious subject.
“What is good magic
and bad magic?” asked the King of his Knights.
“Is this another
riddle?” asked Sir Stupid, “I like riddles …”
“No it is not a
riddle,” said Arthur growing wise by the day, “I have a dilemma. Who is to
decide what is good and what is bad magic? Let us suppose for instance, my
servant Merlin here is a wizard, or warlock or some sort or sorcerer …”
The Knights laughed.
Merlin frowned and forced a smile fearing he had been found out.
“No … seriously …”
laughed Arthur, “suppose Merlin was a magical wizard of some sort. And the
farmers in the valley of Camelot are starving because there has been no rain,
and the crops are dying and there will be a famine. Suppose Merlin makes it
rain; and the farmers are happy, but the people in the villages down by the
coast are flooded and many perish and drown and die. Has Merlin performed good
or bad magic?”
“Is the answer
umbrella?” asked Sir Stupid.
“May Heavens help me,”
said Arthur, “one of these days I will hit you so hard with my shield I’ll
knock that stupidity out of you!”
“Let Merlin make him
wise!” laughed Sir Laugh-a-lot.
Merlin winced again.
This was getting too close for comfort. Had someone discovered that he’d been
pouring wisdom potion in King Arthur’s drink?
“You can see why my
father, King Uther, banned all magic from Camelot,” continued Arthur, “perhaps
he went too far by banning it all altogether. And also, in his days there were
a lot of evil sorcerers and witches using magic to spread evil and suffering
throughout the land. As a result, all these people, whether good or bad
magicians, have gone into hiding or been banished from Camelot. They did not
cease to exist. Banning them did not make them cease to exist!”
Merlin smiled at the
King’s wisdom.
“All that’s happened
is that they are around us, and we don’t know them,” continued Arthur, “if I
were now to declare that they, and the unicorn, and that chameleon I had stuck
to my groin, and the flying dragon in the dungeons of Camelot … if I were to
declare that they are all legal by royal decree and they can perform their
magic at will. I am being kind to Camelot and its people, or am I condemning
them to a worse fate than what they have now?”
For once, all the
Knights remained silent. Even Sir Stupid.
“You’ve said nothing,
Merlin,” remarked the King, “what is your point of view on this?”
Merlin approached the
group sitting on the ground in a circle meekly and said, “I think, Sire, you
are being too hard on yourself. You are taking on too much personal
responsibility on what people might do and how they are to behave.
“As a good and wise
King, which you are, your role is first to protect your people from enemies of
the Kingdom, and from starvation and illnesses. You do this by having your
noble Knights and armies to defend the city, and by allowing your people to
flourish, to learn and to have the freedom, within the law, to develop and to
grow and to help one another.
“You cannot dictate
how each individual will think or will behave. That is their personal freedom
of choice. Most in society will work for the good of themselves, their families
and their fellow man. It’s what natural for people to do.
“Some others, perhaps
a minority, will be greedy and will resort to evil practices to succeed through
cheating and evil doing.
“Your role, Sire,”
continued Merlin hesitantly, “your role is to maintain a balance between good
and evil in your Kingdom. If you were to allow magic again in Camelot, no doubt
some bad sorcerers will use evil to flourish. But let good flourish too, and in
the end, be confident and assured that good will conquer evil. It always does …
in the end!”
There was total
silence throughout the group. The King was amazed at the wisdom of his servant.
Merlin withdrew quietly at a distance and sat under a tree as he always did.
And the moral of this
story, (so far), is: Well, I’ll leave you to work it out.
The next morning was
like a new dawn had dawned on the now wise King Arthur who was growing wiser by
the day.
He reflected on what
Merlin, his loyal friend and faithful servant had said the previous day.
His role as King was
to protect the people of Camelot from enemies of the Kingdom; and to allow the
citizens to flourish in freedom and without fear of persecution for their
beliefs. As long as they lived peacefully and did good to each other, and did
not do wrong or evil to each other, they would be safe from his authority and
power.
He called his Knights
of the Round Table and asked them to sit on the ground because there was no
table in the forest to sit around. He also invited Merlin to sit with them as
an equal.
“I want you all to go
out to the villages in Camelot and throughout my Kingdom,” he said, “I want you
to go dressed like ordinary people. Don’t let them know you are Knights. Speak
to them. Ask them what, do they think of me as King? What is right and what is
wrong about the Kingdom? What could be done better to improve their lives and
their lot? What do they fear? What stories, tales and legends have they heard
or been passed on to them from their parents and grand-parents?
“This will help me to
prioritise what I, and you, need to do to help our people and to get them to
flourish and better their lives.
“You have a week to do
all this. Then let us meet in Camelot.
“Merlin and I are
going there right now. Let us forget about the unicorn with the golden tail. If
he exists, and he does good for sick people, then why am I wasting time in
search for him? Let him be the first to flourish under my new rules!
“Any questions?”
Sir Stupid raised his
hand.
“Can we get up now,”
he said, “my bottom is getting wet in this damp grass!”
A week later, the King
and all his Knights, met in the great hall in Camelot Castle. There were so
many of them, including the ones who had remained in the Castle whilst the King
was roaming the forest, that the Round Table was not big enough for all of them
to sit round it.
The King sat on his
throne with Merlin beside him to take notes. Botox the old warlock was there
too.
“Now tell me,” said
King Arthur, “what stories, tales and legends have you heard from my people?”
Sir Tainty, who was
always accurate in his research, was first to speak, “Sire,” he said, “there
are indeed many legends regarding the performance of magic and sorcery in the
land. Both good and evil. And the populous agree with you, that magic should be
allowed throughout the Kingdom as long as it is for the good of the people;
like healing diseases and illnesses with potions and poultices. However, any
evil intent should be prohibited and stopped. We need to test each case on its
merit and judge it likewise!”
“Anything else?” asked
the King.
“Sire,” said Sir Vox
Populi, “I heard that people believe that deep in the North, in the land of the
lakes called Scotland, there is a monster that lives in a lake. Some say they
have seen it. It has a long neck and long tail.”
“I also heard that
there is a baker who uses sand instead of flour to make his bread!” reported
Sir Cookbook, Camelot’s culinary expert and feeder of the dogs.
“Sand instead of
flour?” asked Sir Lancelot, “what does the bread taste like?”
“We don’t know,” said
Cookbook, “no one has ever eaten the bread. Not even the baker who bakes it …
or his dogs!”
“Indeed Sire,”
confirmed Sir Tefied, “I heard the same thing. I was also told that there is in
the forest a female monster with wings and her hair is made or many serpents
moving to and fro ready to bite people!”
“Sounds like my wife!”
said Sir Fearful.
“Does your wife have
wings?” asked Sir Galahad.
“She wishes she had,”
replied Fearful, “ever since she was stopped by the guards for flying under the
influence of drink, they’ve taken her broomstick and she’s grounded!”
The Knights laughed.
“I also heard other similar
tales,” added Sir Vetude meekly, “I was told there is a sea monster with many
heads. If you cut one head, the monster still lives and grows another one. You
need to cut all of them with one stroke of your sword. Which is difficult
because it keeps moving its heads.”
“I was told there are
creatures which are half human and half something else,” reported another
Knight, “like the top half is a man able to fight with swords and bows and
arrows, yet the lower half is like an elephant, or a hippopotamus. Also in the
sea there are women with the top half human and naked and you can see there
womanly bits, yet the lower half is a fish. There are similar smaller ones with
the lower half a sardine.”
“I heard a worse
story,” hesitated another Knight, “there is a big wolf in the forest with at
least three heads. Some say it has as many as seven heads. And a big bottom.
His bottom is bigger than the whole of Camelot. In fact, it is bigger than the
whole wide world. The Universe even. So you don’t know which to attack first
because you can be defeated by either end … especially if he has had beans,
Sire!”
“I heard there is a
box deep in the caves,” another Knight claimed, “I don’t know its size. Some
say it is small, others say it is bigger, others say it is humongous so big it
is. Bigger than all the mountains in the world. And if you open it all sorts of
bad things come out. Like broccoli, and flat tires, and split ends in your hair,
and piano lessons and … I don’t know … all sorts of bad things people don’t
like.”
“Enough …” said the
King calmly raising his hands, “you have done well. You have brought me news of
all the things people believe and fear. Some may be real whilst others may be
just stories, figments of peoples’ imaginations. You have also brought me news
of what is good and right in the Kingdom of Camelot. And this gladdens my heart
for it encourages me for the future.
“By the power vested
in me I declare Merlin Knight Emeritus. He will be in charge of the King’s
Depository of Knowledge. I said Depository … not suppository. You will all
report to him your findings and he will decide which are to be investigated
further.
“Meanwhile, all magic
will be allowed in Camelot as long as it can be proven to be for the good of
the people. All magicians, sorcerers, warlocks, wizards and witches will be
allowed to go freely as long as they do no harm.”
“Including dragons?”
asked Fly-by-Night, the dragon who had been imprisoned in the dungeons by King
Uther, Arthur’s father.
“Yes, including
dragons,” declared Arthur.
“How about
chameleons?” asked a chameleon’s voice from somewhere unseen.
“Including
chameleons,” said the King, “as long as you keep off my leg!”
And they lived happily
ever after.
