The Shortest Day
Date: Autumn/Winter 1200
Dramatis Personae
Once Upon a Time
Against the darkness winter brings, we bring our light,
and in darken places guard, against the longest night.
-- Adapted by William Robert from the bard Ernest of Sommerfeld
I had been visiting the Duke of Marlborough’s court where I had been regaling his court on his Lordship’s most successful hunt when I heard a tune both sad and hopeful coming from an adjoining room. There a minstrel of mediocre quality was playing for the noble ladies as they applied their needles. I asked the harper if the song had words and with that prompting he proudly put verse to his plucking. The song which I will sing shortly, better I must add, wrung true in a way which says that this was no concoction but must have happened. For whomever canted these works had truly loved and lost, and what more this passionate tale was sweet nectar to the Fay for they - I will shortly tell - are part and parcel to this story, so with mounting curiosity I took this song to the ear of Hywel who as I rightly suspected hungered for more and with that fire set, our party set forth one cold morning to find the knight and restore his lost love.