The Land Far Away

In a land far, far way from here there lived a young maiden in a village by the sea. She came from a poor fishing family and her time was spent doing chores for the home, like all the other girls in the village.

Sometimes she would go down to the sea and sit on her own on the rocks. Here she sang beautiful songs to the sea. So beautiful was her singing that the mermaids would come out of the ocean and join her in song on the black rocks by the sea.

They would sit for hours and sing praises to the mighty sea; blissfully unaware of the world of man, until it was time for the maiden to go home. Day after day she would go down to the rocks and join the choir of mermaids, without anyone in the village knowing about this. Until a young boy from the village spotted her one-day while he was out playing.

He eagerly ran home and told his parents of the miracle he had seen. The villagers were struck with amazement at the fact that one of their daughters would be deemed worthy of singing with the angels of the sea. When she returned home that evening everyone treated her like royalty, even her own family. But the villagers fawning and doting over became so extreme that she eventually decided to move away from the village, to an old abandoned shack close to the sea.

She now lived close to her sisters of the sea, and she rose before daybreak each day to join them in heralding in the new day, as the sun broke over the sea. The tale of the beautiful young maiden chosen to sing with the sirens of the sea, was told throughout the land and soon it reached the ears of King.

The King was overcome with desire at hearing the tale of the lovely maiden, so that he wished deeply to marry her and make her his queen. He traveled across the breadth of his domain to meet her by her humble dwelling by the sea. When he saw her singing on the rocks among the mermaids he was even more stricken with desire to have her.

He made his intentions clear to her and she said she needed time alone to think and consult with her sisters, the mermaids. That evening she spoke to them on the rocks. She sang of how she did not wish to be with the King, or any other man. How she had no other wish in life than to sing on the rocks with her sisters. They sang back that she should leave be her pride and marry the king, for where they went she could not follow. Her life was in the domain of the King.

They were singing songs of sadness and departing when the sun went down and they followed it into the ocean. The sea became rough then in the darkness, as she stood alone there on the rocks. Her heart was calling her to her sisters and the sea, under the brilliant round moon, and she followed them into the deep. The sea and the night took her to their bosoms.

The King and the villagers mourned their loss, and since that day much time has passed. But a young boy once told me that, if you go out alone to the beach on a misty night, you can see her sitting on the black rocks, singing among the mermaids under the clear moonlight.

Singing the praises of the deep.