Wit & Wisdom
Roger Jenkins
storyteller
storyteller
© Roger Jenkins 2011 Made With Serif WebPlus.
© Roger Jenkins 2011 Made With Serif WebPlus.
Long, long ago, so long ago that only storytellers remember, there was a boy in Wales, called Elidor. He didn’t like school and he didn’t work very hard. When he learnt one thing, he forgot another. The teacher was angry and beat him with a stick, but he learnt nothing.
One day Elidor was so unhappy that he ran away! Elidor ran down to the river. He knew the river very well. He knew all the best places to hide. He thought: I’ll stay here until tea-time. They will look for me. They will be very worried and they will be sorry, really sorry, because they were so unkind to me.
The evening came and it began to grow dark. Elidor stayed by the bank above the river. “I won’t go home tonight. They will be really worried.” Elidor stayed all night. The next morning, two little men came to him. They were very small, only the height of Elidor’s knee! “What are you doing here? they asked him.
Elidor told them how unhappy he was because the teachers beat him.
“Oh, in our land children are always happy and nobody beats them. Why don’t you come with us?
Elidor agreed to go with them.
The two little men walked along the bank of the river until they came to a large hole. They walked into the hole and Elidor followed them; he crawled on his hands and knees. At last he saw light ahead of him. He came out into a new land. There were corn-fields and farmers were cutting the corn. The farmer were the same size as the two little men who were with Elidor. The farmers horses were as big as dogs.
The two little men took Elidor to the king’s palace. The king was kind, “Of course you can stay in may land. And you can play with my son, the prince.” Elidor played with the prince; they played with a golden ball. At last Elidor wanted to go home to see his mother. “Of course you can go, Elidor!’ said the king, “You can come and go as you wish.”
So Elidor went across the fields and through the hole, to the river and then home to his mother. She was very pleased to see him. Elidor told his mother about that world and all the gold that was there. “Oh, Elidor, you know we are very poor. Bring some gold back with you next time.”
Elidor didn’t want to take any gold from the little people but he wanted to help his mother.
The next time he played with the prince he took the golden ball and ran across the fields. The two little men ran after him, “Elidor, come back. Come back! Don’t take the golden ball!”
Elidor ran across the fields, through the hole, to the river and back home. The two little men ran after him.
Elidor opened his mother’s door and he fell into the kitchen. He dropped the ball and the two little men shouted ‘Elidor!” They took the ball and then ran away and down to the river.
Elidor ran after them but he could not catch them. He went to the river but he could not find the hole! He looked and he looked for hours but eh could not find it anywhere. Elidor came the next day and the next but he could not find the hole. He never found it again.
Many years later, when Elidor was an old man, people sometimes asked him about the land of the little people. Tears came to his eyes when he remembered what he had done and what he had lost.
Elidor
A story from 12th Century Wales
A story from 12th Century Wales