SHR Main Page | Opera Propria | Gifts from the Moon Introduction
The House in the Forest is the weakest story in collection.
A Count of the Puster Valley married a beautiful woman and, being of jealous disposition, hid her in a tower over the Fanes Mountains. Her only company was an evil old woman who acted as her guard. The old woman took pleasure in tormenting the countess.
One day the Count declared that he was heading over the mountains to seek a particular bow for shooting eagles that he had desired for a long time. The nurse also left to visit family in Andraz. After both had left, as evening drew in, a Venetian peddler visited the tower and the Countess talked with him as he displayed his wares. At her mention of the bow the Venetian confirmed he knew its owner, who used to own a silver mine on Mount Latemar, and accepted the Countess' request that he travel there and purchase it for her. The nurse saw the tail end of this conversation as she returned from her visit.
The Count returned, annoyed at having failed to discover the whereabouts of the bow, and the old woman reported to him that his wife had been speaking with a strange man. In a fit of jealousy, he dragged his wife from the tower to a point along the road where travelers to the tower had to pass. "I'll kill your lover and make you watch!" he said, ignoring her protests of fidelity. The Venetian, however, failed to return, and the Count became increasingly angry until he struck his wife, knocking her down the bank of a ravine.
Soon after this the Venetian arrived and offered the bow to the Count. "How did you know I wanted it?" he asked, and the Venetian reported his conversation with the Countess. Filled with remorse, the Count left to find his wife. The Count climbed down the wall of the ravine but did not find his wife at the base. This meant she was alive, so he sought her along the gorge.
The Count could not find the Countess and was becoming increasingly fearful when three riders passed him. Through the evening gloom he could tell that two were men and the third wore a dress like his wife's. Struggling to keep up with them, he became convinced that the third rider was the Countess. They outdistanced him, and when he stopped to ask an old cow woman about the riders, she explained that the two men were sorcerers - with the power of the evil eye - and that the Countess was probably bewitched.
The Count tracked the group for many days down out of the Alps into the Venetian flats, but eventually he lost their trail. He traveled from place to place seeking them, selling his possessions as his money ran out. Once he had sold his rings, sword and armor, he was reduced to beggary. After a year of futile searching, he returned to the mountains and became a shepherd.
The shepherd's employer instructed him to never cross the boundary of the pasture on a certain side. Beyond it lay a forest that was haunted by terrible ghosts and ghouls, even during the day. The shepherd obeyed for a while, but eventually came to the hypothesis that the sorcerers might live in the forest and decided to explore it. After two hours of searching he came to a house, before which worked a carpenter who ignored his questions. The shepherd went inside and met the Master of the House in a room lined with books.
The Master of the House welcomed the shepherd. He said that he had a bear and a horse and that the shepherd would live well if he agreed to be their keeper. After the shepherd accepted the position, he was led to the stable. The Master of the House noted that the horse was odd in that it would never drink, but that each day the man was to lead it to the spring anyway, since eventually its thirst must force it to imbibe. The bear was kept chained in the cellar.
As the days passed, the shepherd noticed that the house was enchanted. During the day, everything was eerily silent, except for the carpenter in the courtyard, who continued to work without ever speaking. This contrasted with nights, when there was a commotion like thousands of tiny animals running about the house, and the bear would test its chains, seeking to snap them, shaking the walls of the house.
One day the Master of the House left on business. He gave the shepherd a bunch of keys but said "Do not enter the room whose door the angular key unlocks. It is certain death." The shepherd, of course, explored the house, but did not seek the room of the angular key.
That night, he noticed that all the trimmings from the carpenter's work in the courtyard turned into mice and scampered through the house. The next day, just before sunset, the shepherd collected all the little pieces of wood into a sack and threw them on the fire. The carpenter at once began to speak. "At last I am free!" he said "The two sorcerers who are masters of this house bewitched me and treated me shamefully."
"Are there any other prisoners?" asked the shepherd.
The carpenter replied that the sorcerers had brought a beautiful woman home with them after a journey. She was to be their prisoner. The younger sorcerer made plans to flee with her, and the older one quarreled with him before turning him into a bear. Adopting the younger sorcerer's idea, the older one told the beautiful woman that she was to be his bride, and at her horror-stricken expression he trapped her soul in the body of a horse. He then poisoned the spring, but the horse knew this and so refused to drink. The shepherd filled a pail of water from the kitchen well, then having given the pail to the horse, threw his arms about its neck and begged forgiveness.
The shepherd explored the house thoroughly, seeking a way to break the spell. In the library he perused the books and found one called Enemies of Witchcraft, but he found it terribly confusing, and only one sentence "Stones break spells," lodged itself in his mind after he tried to read it. He then opened the door that matched the angular key and found a small room inside furnished with a table. On the table were some eggshells, a sack of nuts, a sword and two mirrors, one small and black, the other large and green. The shepherd then broke one of the eggshells.
The house gave a "lurch, as if it had been lifted from the ground," and the shepherd heard his wife calling him. He found the horse in the courtyard, and his wife's voice said that she was now free, but her soul was trapped in the horse's mane and, being bodiless, was invisible. She counseled that he return to the forbidden room and collect all of the items on the table, but that he should do so quickly, because the bear had snapped its chain and would soon break through the cellar door. Then he was told to mount the horse and flee.
They had gone some distance into the forest when they heard a pursuer. The younger sorcerer was mounted on the bear and gaining on them rapidly. At the soul's instruction, the shepherd threw a nut onto the path behind him, and a deep crevasse opened between the two riders. The horse, exhausted from galloping, needed to rest for a day, but when they continued the bear did not catch up with them for some time. Using the last of the nuts, the shepherd opened another ravine to buy more time. When the bear again appeared the soul counseled the use of the small mirror, which became a "dark sea" that the bear swam across, but more slowly than the horse could gallop. When the bear reached the shore, the shepherd threw down the larger mirror, which became a clear, wide lake. The soul in the mane then stated she could do no more, so the shepherd sought a site in which to fight the bear.
The shepherd waited in a clearing, armed with the sword from the forbidden room. He hid the horse behind some rocks. When the bear and rider reached the clearing the sorcerer dismounted to attack the shepherd. The shepherd soon learned that the sword could not harm the sorcerer, so he discarded it, grappling with his enemy instead. This did not work, because the sorcerer quickly gained a hold on the shepherd's throat, although he failed to strangle him. As the pressure increased, the shepherd punched the sorcerer in the face. This failed to harm his enemy, but the shepherd's hand was cut, and it felt like he had punched iron.
The bear distracted the shepherd. It had discovered the horse, which was fleeing but too slowly to escape. In this moment of horrified paralysis, the sorcerer pinned the shepherd and began to strangle him. Remembering "Stones break sorcery!" the shepherd grabbed a nearby rock and threw it in the sorcerer's face. This stunned his enemy, so the shepherd leapt to his feet and recovered the sword. He pulled the bear off the horse with his left hand, pinning it against a rock so that he could drive the sword through it with his right. As the bear died, the countess resumed her human shape.
The couple then returned to the tower. The Count wanted to put the nurse in a deep, dark dungeon, which was something of a tradition at the time, but instead the Countess dismissed her from service. The nurse went to live on a high mountain, where she remained for so long that it is called "The Rock of the Witch." Soon after this, the couple abandoned their isolated tower and went to live in their castle among the people of the Punter valley.
"The House in the Forest" is the least pleasing of the stories in this collection. The plot has several convenient coincidences, and its connection to other stories, which a reader has probably seen better-rendered elsewhere, weigh against its originality. It is notably similar to the Baba Yaga story, which includes items that have a stronger symbolic similarity to the effects that they create, and it has the door of Bluebeard without the related problems. It is placed fourth in the collection, carefully sandwiched between far stronger stories on either side, so the translator may have been aware that it is one of the weaker ones.
It may be that the story lacks resonance because it is a folktale about the formation of a particular set of geographic features, to which readers outside the valleys lack an emotional connection. "The Rock of the Witch," for example, is a minor peak in the Fanes called Sass di Stria.
In Alpine folklore Men from Venice are a type of faerie, called a XXXX in the local language.
Mount Latemar is southeast of Bolzano, which places it south of the Rosegarten. In one version of Laurin's story, his daughter Moena leaves the Rosegarten when she falls in love with the Knight of Latemar. This knight is likely a faerie, since he seems to own an extraordinary weapon. There is an alternative folktale, recorded in XXXX, about the inhabitant of Latemar. He is the keeper of hundreds of magical dolls.
Although iron, silver and copper were mined in these mountains, it is unclear if this mine was an actual place. Silver mines have a certain traditional appeal for Hermetic magi, and the Knight of Latemar is a less formidable foe than King Laurin.
This bow must have exceptional range and accuracy, as eagles in the Alps are renowned for their ability to fly at great heights. It may be that this is a magical weapon. The story is old enough that this is unlikely to be a crossbow.
The translation used in preparing this document says that ghosts and ghouls haunt the wood. Ghouls are not native to the folklore of this area, so it is not clear which creature the translator means. The shepherd, when he enters and flees the wood, meets none of these creatures, so they may be mythological or defensive illusions generated by the sorcerers. The location of this house is not given.
Were player characters to seize the house, it is of sufficient size to house a small wealthy family and their personal servants. The income to run the household must come from distant business interests. It has a library filled with arcane information, although it is suitable for practitioners of cunning-folk magic rather than Hermetic magi. Some cunning folk information, such as where to find certain monsters, herbs and stones, may prove useful anyway. It might make a good chapter for an Alpine covenant.
The carpenter, or woodsman, works in the courtyard of the house, sawing logs whose chips become mice. At night these mice rampage through the house then disappear. When these mice are destroyed, he is set free. There is no explanation for why the sorcerers consider his labor necessary. While enslaved he, like the other prisoners, is dumb.
The key question when considering the sorcerers is this: why did the older sorcerer not just kill the younger one himself?
The story never clearly states that the Shepherd's escape was engineered by the older sorcerer, but consider this sequence of events. The Master of the House says to the shepherd that he will be gone for some time. The shepherd, he notes, should under no circumstances enter the room of the angular key. The Master then hands his keys - including the angular key - to the Shepherd, points out which door he means, and leaves for the rest of the story. In the room someone has left a set of magical charms. These are precisely the ones that the Shepherd needs to break the various spells holding the Countess and to kill the younger sorcerer's bear.
A further piece of evidence in support of this idea is the presence of Enemies of Witchcraft. In the library, there is a book of counter-charms, clearly labeled as such. When the shepherd reads it the only one he can remember afterwards defeats the younger sorcerer's personal protection spells.
If the entire story is a plot by the older sorcerer to do away with his young rival, it is possible he was responsible for the presence of the convenient cow woman. It is tempting to read her as a ham actor on stage: "Oh, yes. A pair of sorcerers took her that way. I'd know those sorcerers anywhere, I would."
It is possible that the stones that break the spells of the younger sorcerer have a similar effect on his older analogue. That makes it impossible for him to pick up a stone to smite his rival, because for that instant he would lack personal defenses, while his young rival would retain his powers. If the older sorcerer is affected by stones in the same way that his colleague was, it might be sensible for him to slay the Count now that his rival is disposed of, so that the knowledge of his weakness does not spread.
The shepherd arrives at the final battlefield guided by the voice of the soul of his beloved, using magic items to delay the bear and its rider just long enough to arrive at a pile of rocks. It is possible that the voice of the soul is an illusion created by the older sorcerer and that these particular rocks have a virtue that allows them to ignore the younger sorcerer's wards. The shepherd, similarly, faces the sorcerer's bear standing on this pile of rocks because his horse has hidden behind it. The bear spots the horse and pursues it, so the horse chooses the shepherd's battleground. The rocks might, for example, be Flint of Virtue, which has antimagical properties.
This count's descendants, on encountering Hermetic magi, might assume that stones are similarly effective against them. The alarming thing is, if they come from this particular source, they might be right.
It may be that the older sorcerer was or is the teacher of the younger one, and that this means that they are linked mystically. The master may be able to harm his student only in the most circumambulatory way without offending the powers that they both serve. If this is the case, these powers may seek a reckoning with the Count.
The sorcerer's geas may go further than this: he may be unable to kill. The Master of the House obviously wishes the countess to drink from the poisoned well, but this seems an inefficient way to kill a horse. He is attempting to force her to commit suicide. Why not kill her himself or order the carpenter to do it?
The young sorcerer's death may bring a curse down upon his killer. If this is the case, then the sorcerer was wise to kill his rival through an intermediary.
The sorcerers make charms; that is, their spells are held in physical vessels of power. If these physical vessels are destroyed, then the spell itself fades. The charms and their vessels include magical eggs, which hold the transformation and soul-binding spells; the nuts, which create crevasses; and the mirrors that either create or are miniaturized lakes.
The shepherd, after a moment's thought, knows that he needs to break one of the eggshells. He leaves some of the eggshells intact, and which spells they control is not described. It may be a secondary effect of the charm that someone holding one of the eggshells knows what it is doing, and to whom.
The eggshell charm has different effects on the young sorcerer and the Countess. When it is broken the invisible soul of the Countess can speak from the mane of the horse, and when the bear is destroyed the horse changes shape into her human body. Meanwhile the young sorcerer resumes his own body immediately and rides the bear in pursuit of the escapees. The bear is not his transformed body, but after killing the bear, the shepherd does not attempt to go back and kill the sorcerer, who he has stunned with a rock.
An explanation might be found by examining a related question: why did the sorcerer choose these particular animals to hold the souls of his captives? The younger sorcerer is his enemy, and yet the Master of the House contains him in the form of a bear so powerful that it almost pulls down the walls of the house each night as it struggles to escape its chains. This hints that the Master of the House cannot choose the form his captives take. The form may reflect the shape of the soul of the captive.
In the example of the young sorcerer, the spell may bind him into the body of his familiar. This would explain why once released he has both the ability to tame the bear instantly and the skill to ride on its back. The death of the bear might cause the younger sorcerer to die sympathetically, which would explain the Shepherd's lack of further concern.
The first nut in the bag creates a great crevasse. The last nuts in the bag create a similar crevasse. How the fleeing shepherd loses the rest of the nuts is not described, although it can be assumed that if he had eaten them the story would have ended at that point. There is the possibility that these nuts are not charms: they are just magical faerie nuts that rip vast cracks into the Earth.
Each mirror becomes a lake. Mechanically this means that the mirror charm alters the shape of the Earth and then puts vast amount of water in a newly-created hollow. The mirrors seem to create permanent geographical features, so feeding streams nearby must divert into the new lakes.
The sword is different from the other items in the room with the angular key for two reasons: the sword does not appear to have any magical property, and the shepherd retains it at the end of the story.
The sword's magical effects, if any, are not flashy. The sword may have been specifically designed to kill the younger sorcerer through the sympathetic link of the bear, and if this is the case it may work similarly if used on Hermetic familiars. As an alternative, the sword may grant superhuman strength. The shepherd pins the bear, using his weak hand, while holding the sword. He then drives a single thrust through the bear.
The Count may face attack from one of several sources, depending on why the older sorcerer did not kill the younger one himself. If it is that he shared a weakness with the younger sorcerer, he may now wish to kill the count. If both served a vengeful power, then it may desire to harm the Count. If killing sorcerers of this tradition releases a curse upon the killer, then the Count will require aid to protect himself.
Someone other than the sorcerer or its master may threaten the Count. The old nurse, apparently a witch, may hatch a plot against the happy couple. Faeries annoyed at the theft of their nuts or lakes might seek the user of the charms. Finally, the Man from Venice may have stolen the bow of the Knight of Latemar, and its true owner may seek a reckoning.
This story contains the tower beyond the Fanes Mountains, now uninhabited, which could house magi who earn the count's gratitude. It also contains a house filled with magical treasures, owned by a single elderly sorcerer. A party gaining control of both sets of resources has the basic material for a covenant. If vis sources exist in the haunted wood - for example a nut tree - and they can find a way to take over the older sorcerer's business interests, then the characters have the foundations for a healthy Spring covenant.
Characters may be asked to investigate the death of a young Hermetic maga in a bandit attack in the mountain passes. Their expedition discovers that she was slain with a flint arrow that ignored Hermetic protection spells. Who crafted this arrow? If they find the culprit, what can they do? Who do they tell about the arrows?
Text copyright © Timothy Ferguson 2004.