The mockingbird of the Kingswood (25.07) occasionally calls out a sentence relating to Lisbet.
Elfard Gollen’s Story
On the rare occasions when Svetlana Verlime has time to sit around the fire with the Sundial Inn‘s guests, Elfard Gollens tells the story of Lisbet. Lisbet was as strong and brave as any man, but neither dwarfcraft shields nor Sanguine armor can guard a woman‘s heart. In the days when the Verlimes held grander titles but served worse beer, Lisbet left her home in Treebrush (20.08) to serve as a man-at-arms – Elfard pauses here for snickers – for Duke Verlime.
Her oaths and martial training stood her in good stead, but she had a woman‘s fickle heart which no power – Elfard pauses here to glance significantly at Svetlana – can tame. One day when Lisbet stood watch upon the beacon (21.06), a ragged and worn elf approached the door. She bade him enter and fed and watered him. They fell to talking, and Lisbet fell into his purple eyes
Soon it was more than conversation that she shared with the elf lord, and when she kept a lonely watch upon the beacon he would send a ribbon – tied to an arrow – up into the air. She would slip away from her post and they would roll about in the lilac-strewn fields. Lord Verlime never knew of her tryst – and here another look is directed meaningfully at Svetlana.
One day she sighted the arrow and rushed to the field, pausing only to slip a lilac behind her ear. But when she reached the circle of toadstools in which she and the elf lord usually lay, he was nowhere to be seen. When she made her way back she saw elves manning the beacon, and her lover leading a band of stag riders towards Verlime Citadel (18.07).
Lisbet ran to warn the Verlimes, but she could not outstrip the elves. By the time she reached the citadel, it had fallen. She took her bow and sent an arrow through the heart of her treacherous lover.
The elf lord‘s troupe seized her and, in revenge, left her tied to a post in Treebrush while they burned it to the ground. It was only then that she felt a stirring in her belly, and some months later she bore the elf lord‘s child.
As for the elf lord, I am told that his specter walks the land still, spreading lies about his lover Lisbet in the hope that one day his betrayal of the sacred bonds of love will be forgotten.
Connections:
- The child of Lisbet seems to be the author of the Journal in Green
Hooks:
- The story Elfard tells does not accord with the one told in Treebrush. What is the true story?
- What do those lines mean?
- Did Lisbet‘s daughter become the Lady (40.06)?
Lisbet’s Lament (Treebrush)
The farmers who inhabit the surrounding area avoid the village of Treebrush (20.08), but travelers who approach it for the first time see a peaceful and prosperous community with a large inn at the heart of the town.
If they choose to stay at the inn, guests will have the opportunity to listen to a fair youth play a sad lament on the lute in the common room. The song tells the story of a local girl named Lisbet whose lover was a man-at-arms at the Verlime Citadel (18.07) on the day that the elves came out of their forest. When she saw the citadel burning, she took her father’s bow and set out after the elves. But despite the tears blurring her vision, her aim was true, and she killed the very elf who slew her lover. But she was only one against an army and she was taken by the elves and tied to a post in front of the inn of Treebrush so that she could watch as the elves set the entire village ablaze in purple flame.
As the fair youth finishes the song of Lisbet’s Lament he takes a bow and doffs his hat, revealing pointed elven ears, and then disappears along with everything else around the travelers leaving them standing alone in an roofless ruin of the inn surrounded by the weathered remains of a village burnt over a century ago.
And the wind that blows through the branches of the trees that now claim the village seems to cry out the tune of Lisbet’s Lament.
Connections:
- At the Sundial Inn, Elfard Gollen tells a quite different tale about Lisbet (25.04).
- The elf is the hollow-hearted elf (31.07)
Hooks:
- What happened to Lisbet? The elves didn’t kill her nor did they make any special effort to kill the inhabitants of Treebrush (aside from, of course, burning all of their homes down).
- What are the words of her song?
Lisbet’s Lament (song)
Oh Lisbet was a lass as fair as the moon
and her kisses were warmer by far.
But the elf lord’s bow as made of white yew
and kissed the lass’s love from afar.
And fair Lisbet would sing sweet as she ran
over shining greens fields with her love.
But the elf lord’s bow had a song of its own,
the last thing the poor man heard of.
So she stood with her bow, tears blinding her eyes
and the whole elven host drawing near.
And shot straight and true with a laugh and a jest
For one and all the elf lords to hear.
“Kill me you may, but all men must die,
and I’ve taken the foul killer’s life.”
But they bound her with cords of young maidens’ hair,
and burned all she had loved in her life.
Oh fair Lisbet died not, but all the town burned
and with it all she had loved in her life.
Oh fair Lisbet died not, but all the town burned
and with it all she had loved in her life.