The Ballad of Hylah the Hapless

Once upon a time in Illiodd,
(where thick is the air and damp is the sod),
Hylah the Handsome met Gunther the King.

That changed everything,
the entire history of the land;
more than either would ever understand.

She had silvery locks near three feet long
her voice lilted and lifted like a song
of silvery notes,

“She almost floats”,
Gunther thought when he saw her, “her step is so light
the very grass leaps to her touch in delight.”

He was the new king of the land
and nearly seven feet tall did he stand.
They were both as beautiful as the dawn
and neither would ever do anything wrong.

Within a few hours of meeting they were wed,
then honeymooned with violets for a bed
and a canopy of Spanish moss and vines
draped on bedposts of knotted pine.
Cobwebs sparkling with dew
layered like blankets over the two.

When they kissed all the stars fell down
and the moon put on a golden crown.
Every bee in the land buzzed with delight.
Every bird sang, although it was night.

The fairies formed an enormous ring
then began to dance and sing.
The centaurs joined them with pipes of clay
that never a more haunting song did play.

Elves threw their caps up in the air
and played upon harps strung from dryads hair.
Even the dragons woke up and flew,
speckling the fields with diamond dew.

Because they knew
That this was the purest, truest love
Illiodd would ever hear of.

So it was when Gunther and Hylah met.
A meeting both would live to regret
but at first there was only the golden glow
of love and the moon and the horn’s sweet blow.

The next morning was the first of May,
the year’s most magical, beautiful day.
They woke to a sky of violet and blue
upon a hill speckled with crystalline dew
each drop made from a piece of moon.

They breakfasted from dragon scale spoons.
Then the whole kingdom gathered ‘round
and crowned them both with butterfly crowns.
They danced with dragonflies twined in their hair
as the they descended the palace stair
to find Eadred the Ageless waiting there.

“Yours is the truest purest love
the people of Illiodd will ever hear of.
And it will meet the saddest end
of anything that will ever begin.
but with this comes the joy of knowing
that no other love, however long in growing
will ever touch what you two feel
nothing in the world will ever be as real.”
Ageless Eadred said,
shaking his wise white head.

Gunther and Hylah were not consoled
they feared he meant they wouldn’t grow old
or have much time to enjoy their delight.
They were right.

Fairy legend foretold
of Gunther the Bold.
Within a few hours wed.
Within a few years dead.
Mind you this;
his twin, Gaither, wanted Hylah for his own.
He didn’t want to share the throne.

Legend foretold
Gaither would murder Gunther Bold
and start the nine hundred years fairy wars
with not need but greed as the ultimate cause.
Long after these two were no more
the land remained in the bloody wars
that got it’s start in the breaking of their hearts.

Yes, Gaither disguised as a bleak black knight
challenged Gunther to a fight
then cheated and killed him too
he ran him through and through
with a magical awl, (got from Eadred some say),
then married Hylah that same day.

She was named Hylah the Hapless after she died,
(never was there a sadder, more senseless demise).
Never wanting to see another tomorrow,
she cast herself in the River of Everlasting Sorrow.

The rule of Gaither was so perverse
things so quickly went from bad to worse,
that the fairies who Gunther had nicely subdued
started getting more than a little rude
and decided to put up quite a fight
they tried to kill every human in sight
for nine hundred years – what happened then?
That’s another tale, this one’s reached it’s end.