On what can only be called the most beautiful summer day, the King of Summer went for a walk along the shore of the ocean. Everywhere he went, he was warmly greeted by his subjects with joy, for they loved their king. He had given them so much abundance and peace. So the seals happily barked at him, and the water birds sang out their strange songs to him. The fish jumped merrily, and the clams all opened and stood at attention. The forest creatures followed along the shore, and everywhere there was the feeling of a festival. Even the wind was warm and kind, and that’s really saying something for an ocean wind.
On this perfect midsummer day as he walked along the shore,
the King of Summer encountered a creature he had never seen before. But how can this be? he wondered to
himself. Surely all creatures know me, and I know all the creatures in my realm.
Yet here was a creature the king had never seen until this day. Combing her hair on the shore amid the
flowing seaweed was a beautiful mermaid.
She was quite caught up in her task and did not notice the king until he
was directly behind her, and then it was too late to jump back into the ocean.
Well, the king was immediately smitten as men always are
when they look at a mermaid, but in this case she was smitten as well, and that
was highly unusual. Sea creatures do not
usually have an attraction for land creatures, and their emotions are very
different because they do not have fire in their passion. But it was midsummer and this was the king
and everywhere he went, he seemed to bring magic with him. Perhaps that is what fascinated her the
most: the way the other creatures
followed him spellbound wherever he went.
 |
| The frozen seaweed of the shore. |
Whatever the cause, whatever the reason, the King of Summer
and the mermaid fell very much in love.
It was warm then and the season was magical and they were every day
together. He brought her land treats to
eat, things she had never seen before, and she delighted in the taste. She brought him sea creatures from far below
the waves that he could never have imagined, and she brought him many huge and
perfect pearls as well. Every day they
traded new gifts and talked for hours about all the things would like to do
together as time went on. He would comb
her long green hair, which was always tangled from the salt water, while she
luxuriated in a warmth she had never known in the depths of the ocean. It was the perfect love.
But time marched on and the great fiery disk in the sky that
had cast so much warmth upon them began to retreat. Each day the king would come to see the
mermaid a little later and leave a little earlier, and this confused and
worried her greatly. The animals of the
forest who had become her friends were whispering about a battle that would
take place, and this worried her even more.
Land creatures were very strange and foreign, she decided, but still she
came each day and combed her long green hair on the shore, waiting for the
king.
Long talks became short exchanges. Hours of looking into each other’s eyes
became stolen moments, and the waiting grew longer and longer. Now the mermaid was truly afraid and she
finally asked the king what was wrong.
He was utterly puzzled by her question, and she asked again, explaining
and pointing out all that had happened and all that she was experiencing. Still, he was completely puzzled and could
not understand what she was saying. He
assured her that all was well and he would always love her. She settled for that.
The day came, though, when the wind was sharp and
biting. The animals of the forest were
frenzied and could not spend much time chatting with her. Everyone seemed to be running about except
for the mermaid, who sat on the shore alone, combing her long green hair. Now there were strange sounds in the air, and
strange birds flew overhead and cackled about a terrible battle taking place in
the forest--a place where a mermaid could not go. Eventually, she heard the sounds herself, the
crashing and banging and clanking of weapons.
It was a dreadful sound she would never forget. Land animals were so strange!
Then everything was silent, and each day the silence grew
more and more. The king had not come to
see her in a long time, although she still came to the shore every day when the
rest of her kind deep in the ocean had swam to warmer places. The animals of the forest had all retreated,
and none of them came to visit her anymore.
Even most of the birds had flown away.
She was all by herself on a strange shore in a strange and cold
world. Yet still she came daily.
And then the last day came.
She arrived on the shore and started to comb her long green hair, hoping
the king might surprise her. Instead,
the wind grew terrible and very suddenly blew icy gales against her. Her long green hair flew wildly about her as
she stared out into the open ocean, which a held a sky that was almost
black. The ice came instantly,
and it was something she had never experienced before. The wind threw her violently against the
shore, and her long green hair tangled hopelessly with the seaweed all along
the shore. There her hair froze
immediately, tangled in ruthless bonds with the frozen seaweed all around her on
the shore. Alas, her cries could not be
heard over the icy gales, and in a very short time, the mermaid died on the
shore, frozen to the seaweed.
Winter was long and harsh and unforgiving, as it always is,
and the mermaid’s body was soon washed out to sea. Her hair remained though, tangled completely
with the seaweed, and no one knew what had happened. No one could have guessed that the mermaid
would still be coming to the shore at this time of year, but then all the
creatures who had known her were land animals, so how could they know she had
no knowledge of the laws of the solid Earth?
Well, nothing lasts forever, even winter. Eventually, the icy gales grew silent and
slipped away. The ice on the shore
loosened, floated off, and melted. Birds
returned and began to fill the air with song again. Forest
creatures came down to the shore again, and everyone was talking excitedly
about a battle that had taken place and the return of the king. He was coming back, they said!
And he did come back and he brought the magic with him again,
as he always did. Days turned warm and
sunny and long. Beautiful scents filled
the air. Insects hummed, fish jumped,
and the wind was soft and caressing. The
world was perfect again. But where is the mermaid? the king wondered. He
walked up and down the shore, looking for her.
Every day he came to the spot where they used to meet and waited for the
mermaid to return. Every day, he thought
of her longingly with a mixture of love and grief. He would pick up handfuls of the green
seaweed that was tangled with the mermaid’s own hair, although he didn’t know
that, and he would comb it absentmindedly, hoping she would come back.
But she never did come back.
He waited all summer, visiting every day for as long as he could, but
she never returned. He could not
understand why, and his heart was heavy with sadness and grief. He would look longingly at the wavy green
seaweed on the shore and think of his beautiful sea creature that he loved so
much, and he was never quite the same after that.
In the forest they say that the King of Summer was even
fiercer in battle than before, although there were still some battles he was
bound by the laws of Nature to lose. He
still provided handsomely for all of his subjects, but he no longer walked
freely among them. Some say he could be
found now and then on the shore, combing out the seaweed and searching for
something. No one dared approach him
during those times.
It is the nature of land creatures to follow the laws of the
land, which are with them as part of their birthright, and it is the nature of
sea creatures to follow the laws of the sea.
The creatures of the air have their own lofty rules, which they too must
follow. And the fiery disk in the sky,
tremendously powerful though it may be, has its own rhythm to keep as well. Each creature must obey its own nature and
follow the laws given to it at birth. No
creature may live in a realm for which it was not fashioned. There are rules that even gods must follow.
But that never stopped love.
Love never obeys the boundaries.
Up and down the shore all day, the waves hug the land and the land meets
the waves with open arms. It is a
dangerous game they play, a game they can never win, but it doesn’t stop them
from trying. Opposites may attract, but
they do not make two of a kind.
