THE KING OF ELFLAND’S DAUGHTER
“Who knows,” said Alveric, “what brings fortune, since we cannot see the end?”
And he spoke wearily, for he was weary with age, and never knew how many years had gone over him on the day he travelled to Elfland; far more it seemed than had passed on that same day over Erl.
“Aye,” said the witch. “Who knows the end but we?”
“Mother witch,” said Alveric, “I wedded the King of Elfland’s daughter.”
“That was a great advancement,” said the old witch.
“Mother witch,” said Alveric, “we have a child. And who shall care for him?”
“No human task,” said the witch.
“Mother witch,” said Alveric, “will you come to the Vale of Erl and care for him and be the nurse at the castle? For none but you in all these fields knows ought of the things of Elfland, except the princess, and she knows nothing of Earth.”
And the old witch answered: “For the sake of the King I will come.”
So the witch came down from the hill with a bundle of queer belongings. And thus the child was nursed in the fields we know by one who knew songs and tales of his mother’s country.
And often, as they bent together over the baby, that aged witch and the Princess Lirazel would talk together, and afterwards through long evenings, of
