032. King Hijón’s Fats (Las Mantecas del Rey Hijón)
There was a count, whom they called count Arnaldo, who fell ill one day and no matter how many doctors and healers were called to come to examine him, no one could find the source of his illness. First the doctors came from the county and later from lands further away, but no one could diagnose the problem. They [then] searched beyond the lands known to them, but this, too, was fruitless. Until at last there appeared a very old and very wise man who lived at the end of the earth and that, after examining the count, he said that there was no cure for him unless he was rubbed with the fats of King Hijón. And everyone threw their hands on their heads as no one knew where they could find king Hijón, for no one had heard of him [before].
Count Arnaldo had a son who was already a fine young man. And this son, on hearing the diagnosis from the old, wise doctor, announced [thus]:
I am going to seek out King Hijón; as soon as I find him, I’ll take the fats from him and bring them to the palace to cure my father.
With this said, he prepared himself for the long journey, saddled up his horse and left his town and his home, and went on the road to who-knows-where with the best of spirits.
He was going along a path which crossed a mountain when he ran into an old woman with a horse from another branch of the road, who could not ride it because the poor animal was wobbling due to how emaciated it was. And the old woman said to the young man:
Aye, good young man, why don’t you swap horse with me, for I cannot mount on mine?
And the young man said to her:
Ma’am, I have a very long journey ahead which I don’t even know when it will end, and your horse won’t be able to carry me [there] when it has only skin and bones [in its current state].
But the woman insisted to him:
Aye, my good lad, if you would only swap him with me…
And he:
That won’t do, I cannot do that.
He spurred his horse on and continued without looking back. But he turned around after five minutes, for it pained him to see the poor old woman in such terrible conditions. He called out to her and said:
Grandma, have my horse and these five coins to get yourself some food at the first inn you come to.
He helped the old woman onto his horse and said goodbye to them. Then he took the emaciated horse while thinking: “Let’s see if this animal can put up with my weight.” And indeed, the horse wobbled when he gripped the mane to mount it. But when he was on it, he could not believe what he was seeing: the horse did not run, it flew as fast as it was going, and in a short time it crossed over mountains and valleys and carried him without rest all the way to the shore of the sea.
He dismounted on the seashore and there he saw a whale stranded on the shore gasping for water. And he thought: “Look at this poor animal nearing death for not being able to return to the water.”
Well, he approached the whale and, by dint of turning it over and pushing it, he managed to get [it] back into the sea. And as soon as the animal felt the waves, it turned around by itself and immediately swam away.
The count’s son remounted his horse, spurred it on and the horse went so fast that it passed over the sea and carried him to the other side. And then it trotted along the dirt roads and it was here when he saw an eagle hovering above him, trying to snatch his hat. And he said to himself: “This poor animal is hungry.”
He searched in his bag and found a large piece of cured meat, held it aloft and the eagle, at the next pass that he made, took it in its beak and disappeared.
And again he galloped away. While he was doing this, he saw a fox that sometimes went in front of the horse, sometimes circled it from the sides, [and] sometimes went to the front again, until the count’s son said to himself again: “This animal must be hungry.”
He reached into the bag once more, took out a piece of bread and threw a large piece [of it] on the ground. And the bread did not even reach the ground before the fox caught it with its mouth and ran away with it.
And so he continued on, asking questions in places where he encountered people to see if anyone could tell him about King Hijón, but no one knew anything [about this person]. And in one of these occasions, he went into some fields in which they had warned him [to stay away from], for a beast lived there that would not let anyone come near, and, going through them, he found a horseshoe of the beast and put it in the bag. And then he heard the horse say to him:
Son of the count, don’t take that for it will be your undoing.
Wow! -said the young man-. This horse can also talk. But what harm can this horseshoe do to me?
and he did not throw it away.
And they continued on. And they found a letter lying in the grass.
Look, a letter!
said the young man, and he got off the horse to pick it up.
And the horse said to him:
Son of the count, don’t take that for it will be your undoing.
The count’s son did not pay attention [to this] and kept the letter. And they arrived at a town in the evening where the young man asked for lodging, put his horse in the stable, ate dinner and went to sleep. And taking advantage of him being asleep, the innkeeper went and searched in his saddlebags and the first thing that he saw was the horseshoe. Then he waited until morning and, as soon as the young man rose from bed, he confronted him and said:
Where did you get this horseshoe?
And the young man said:
I found it on my way here, for it was on the ground.
And the innkeeper, who was also the [town] mayor, said:
Well, this horseshoe belongs to the beast [terrorizing the people here] and if you don’t bring it to us, dead or alive, we will kill you.
As soon as he was left alone, the young man began to lament his bad luck and went to where he kept his horse. And the horse saw that he was in such grief that it asked him:
What happened to you, son of the Count?
Aye -said the young man-, you already warned me that this horseshoe would be my undoing….
and he recounted what had happened.
Said the horse:
Look, I did tell you so. But anyway, get on me [now] and we will go to the lands that the beast guards.
They rode for a long time and the horse took him to the entrance of a cave with a large opening. There the horse said to him:
Now enter and you will see a sleeping beast [inside]. Take your blunderbuss in your right hand and carry a short, thin stick in your left. Go to the head of the beast and put the blunderbuss next to its ear; then prick it with the stick and, the moment that it wakes up, discharge the gun.
The young man did this and the beast fell dead instantly. Then he dragged it out of the cave until he ran out of strength, and the horse said to him:
Tie its tail to mine and get on me, for I will carry you both [back].
In this manner the young man managed to take the beast back to town. As soon as he arrived, he went to the inn and knocked on the door and, when they asked who he was, he shouted out, so that they all could hear him clearly:
The son of Count Arnaldo, who brings [you] the dead beast!
The whole town was filled with joy at the death of the beast, and because the lands that the beast guarded [terrorized] were now free.
The whole town was filled with joy at the death of the beast, and because [all] the lands that the beast guarded [terrorized] were now free. And the young man was so tired that he went to bed. And the innkeeper returned to the stable to search thoroughly in the saddlebags and found the letter. What the young man did not know was that the letter was from Queen Sabiduría (e.g. Queen Prudence, Wisdom), who was the betrothed of King Hijón. And, of course, the innkeeper went to see him right away:
Let’s see, young man, who had given you this letter?
And the young man:
Well it’s the same as before, I was walking here and found it [on the road] and kept it [with me].
And the innkeeper said:
This is Queen Sabiduría’s letter, who is King Hijón’s betrothed. If you do not bring us the queen, we will kill you.
And he went back to the stable to tell this to the horse, to see what they should do this time [around].
Come -the horse said to him- and get back on me. Look at what happened, I did warn you of this [already].
So they set out on the road again and the horse started galloping without stopping to a very faraway place where the palace of Queen Sabiduría, the betrothed of King Hijón, was located. And when they reached the gates, the count’s son asked to speak to the queen and they brought him to her.
Well, what is it that you want? -asked the queen.
I have found a letter that belonged to you -said the young man- and I have been told that if I don’t bring it to you dead or alive, they would kill me, so I have brought it here for you.
The queen was amazed at the young man’s brazenness, and she said to him:
Do you see those corpses hanging around there? They are from those who had come before you; because I have a condition that you must respect and it’s that for three nights you will hide [in the place] where you want to sleep; if in one of those nights I do not find you, I will have to marry you; but if I [manage to] find you in all three nights I will kill you and hang you like those other corpses.
The count’s son knew that he was in big trouble and [so] he went to talk to the horse. And the horse said to him:
Tonight, when you retire to bed, I will take you to the seashore. There, call for the whale whose life you had saved and asked it to swallow you [whole] and take you [along] with it to the bottom of the sea until dawn [tomorrow].
So they did this. The young man slept in the whale’s belly and the next morning he went to the palace and asked to speak to the queen; and he said to the queen:
Well, do you know where I slept last night?
And the queen replied:
Yes, I do know, that you have slept in the belly of a whale at the bottom of the sea.
And the young man said:
Yes, ma’am, that was it.
And the queen said:
Well I now have guessed correctly the first night.
When the second night came, the count’s son spoke to the horse again and the horse said to him:
This time the eagle is going to come, the one that you gave a piece of meat to when it was hungry. You will ride on it and it will take you to the sky to sleep, much higher beyond the clouds, so that no one will be able to see you.
So this happened. And the next morning, the young man went to see the queen and said to her:
Well, do you know where I have slept last night?
And the queen replied:
Yes I do know, that last night you had slept in a feathered nest high up in the sky.
And the young man said, admiringly and full of grief:
Yes ma’am, that was it.
And the queen:
Well I have guessed correctly both nights and you have only one [night] left.
The third night came and he went back to speak to the horse again. And the horse said to him [this time]:
Now the fox to whom you gave your bread will come. You will pull a strand of hair [off of its body] and go to the queen’s room; with the help of this strand of hair you will turn into a fox, enter [the room] under the door and wait hidden there; and when you see that she leaves to search for you, go and sleep under her headboard.
Night came and the queen went to search for him all over the place; by the sea, sky, on land… and she could not find him anywhere. And the next morning, the count’s son went to see the queen at the appointed time, and he said to her:
Well, do you know where I slept last night?
And the queen confessed:
Well, no, I do not know.
And the count’s son said:
Well, I have heard everything that you had been saying because I have slept next to you, under the cushions of your bed.
The queen acknowledged her defeat and told him that they now would get married and then they could go to wherever he wanted.
The count’s son, who knew that the queen was the betrothed of King Hijón for the innkeeper had told him so, told her of his plans and that he was looking for the king to get the fats from him and take them back to his father. And the two of them decided to go to King Hijón’s palace.
They arrived at the palace and announced themselves to the king. And the queen [then] came up with a ruse which she told the count’s son:
Listen well: I will prepare in the palace courtyard a bonfire and on the bonfire I will put a cauldron of boiling oil. Then I will pick a flower and announce that the first one to throw himself on the flower will get to marry me. I know that the king will throw himself on the flower, but don’t do it yourself and be prepared.
She did everything as she had said and, when they had the oil boiling, the queen stood next to the cauldron and announced:
The first one to throw himself on this flower will [get to] marry me.
King Hijón, when he heard this, threw himself headfirst [on the flower] and, without doubt, fell into the cauldron and was burned to death. Then the count’s son, who was ready [for this], approached quickly, pulled out the king, cut open his guts and removed the fats from him. And the king’s soldiers all had witnessed this, but then the young man and the queen had [already] mounted his horse and it galloped away so fast that it left everyone behind, for no one could manage to follow it.
When they arrived at Count Arnaldo’s town, he was [already] on the verge of death. The count’s son and the queen came to where the the doctors were gathering around the count and handed over the fats that the old, wise doctor had asked for. And right there they brought it to the count and smeared him with the fats and little by little he began to heal and in two days he was in full health [again].
[Nguyen: so they killed an innocent man for this….]
In view of all this, Count Arnaldo ordered that his son and the queen Sabiduría to immediately get married, and soon they celebrated the wedding with great joy from all the townspeople.
And it happened that the count’s son had left his horse in the stable and ordered the servants to treat it to the best of their ability and to bring it whatever it fancied. And when they were returning from the wedding, the count’s son felt a great commotion in the stable and, leaving everyone in the lurch, he went to see what the disturbance was about.
He arrived at the stable and saw that the horse was jumping from one side to another and was banging against the walls. And he asked those whom he had left there to assist the horse:
Well, what had you done to it that got it to behave in this way?
And the servants said to him:
We have not done anything, it got like this by its own doing.
Then the count’s son began to talk to the horse, but it did not pay any attention to him, nor did it speak, and only neighed like any normal horse.
And the count’s son, being all confused for he did not understand what was going on, was leaving [the stable] when he ran into the old woman who was with the emaciated horse, which he chanced to meet on the road to the mountain.
And the young man said to her:
What are you doing here?
And the old woman answered him:
I have come to bring you your horse and take back mine. And I am also bringing you the five coins that you gave me. Now I’m taking my horse with me, for I have already gotten you out of the predicaments that you were in.
And Count Arnaldo’s son was left all amazed. He then returned to where his spouse and his father and the guests were at the wedding, and so ends this story.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Abandonar – to depart a place, to leave
Abrasar – to burn, to scald, to scorch
Acertar – to guess correctly, to get right
A fuerza de – as a result of
Agarrarse – to clutch, to hold on, to grip
Aguantar – to bear, to support, to put up with
Alboroto – (uproar) disturbance, commotion
Alcalde – mayor
Alforja – saddlebag, knapsack
Almohadón – headrest, large pillow
Apetecer – (to want) to feel like, to fancy
Aprisa – quickly
Aprovechar – to take advantage of, to make the most of
Apuro – (difficulty) predicament, difficult situation, tight spot; (dearth) hardship
A rastras de – dragged, dragged out of; rastrear – (fishing) to trawl, to drag; to track, to trail
Ardid – ruse, trick
Arrancar – (to remove by force) to pull out, to uproot
Arrebatar – to snatch
Asombrarse – to be amazed, to be astounded
Atar – to tie
Atizar – (to prod fire) to stoke, to stir
Atravesar – to cross, to go through
Aupar – to hoist up, to lift up, to help up
Ballena – whale
Bocanada – mouthful; puff, blast, gust
Buen mozo – handsome young man, good looking
Cabecera – headboard
Cernirse sobre – to hover
Cita – appointment, meeting
Coger – to grab, to take
Cojas – you grab; coger – to grab
Cola – tail
Colchón – (furniture) mattress; (savings) cushion, emergency funds
Condado – county, earldom
Conseguir – to manage, to achieve
Crin – mane, horsehair
Cruzarse – (to meet on the way) to bump into
Curandero – (charlatan) quack, quack doctor; (shaman) witch doctor, shaman, medicine man
Darse cuenta – to realize, to notice
Darse vuelta – to turn around
Delante – in front, ahead
Derrota – loss, defeat
Desfachatez – nerve, impertinence
Despedir – to say goodbye
Dictamen – ruling, judgment, opinion
Dirigirse – to walk toward; (to talk to) to address
Discurrir – (to devise) to come up with, to think up
Disparar – to shoot, to fire
Doler – to hurt, to ache
Doliente – sick, in pain, bereaved
Encarar – to confront, to face
En efector – indeed, sure enough
En los huesos – bony, skinny
Ensillar – to saddle up, to saddle
Entender – to comprehend, to understand
Entregar – to submit, to give, to deliver
Espolear – to spur on, to spur
Establo – stable
Fiera – wild animal, wild beast
Fino – (not thick) fine, thin, slender
Flaco – thin, skinny
Fonda – cheap restaurant, boarding house, guest house
Frotar – to rub, to scrub
Fuera – outside, out, away
Herradura – horseshoe
Hervir – to boil
Hierba – herb, grass
Hoguera – bonfire
Lagarto – (animal) lizard; (wily person) fox
Lío – mess, muddle
Manera – method, way, manner
Manteca – grease, lard, butter
Meterse – to go in, to go into, (to take part in) to get involved
Moneda – coin
Mostrar – to exhibit, to show, to display
Nadar – to swim
Ora – now, sometimes
Palo – (piece of wood) stick, rod
Pared – wall
Patio – courtyard, yard
Pelito – short hair, little hair
Pero éste no le hacía ningún caso – but he did not pay any attention
Pesaroso – sad, sorrowful
Peso – weight
Picar – to spur on; to sting, to bite
Pico – beak, bill
Pinchar – to prick, to puncture
Por mas que – no matter how, much as
Prometida – fiancée
Ramal – branch (of a road)
Rebuscar – to search, to search through, to look for
Reconocer – (medicine) to examine; (to distinguish) to recognize
Registrar – to search
Relinchar – to neigh, to whinny
Revuelo – stir, commotion
Sabio – wise, sensible
Salvar – (to travel through) to cover, to go across
Sanar – to cure, to heal
Senda – way, path
Siquiera – (even if) if only, at least
Siquieda – (in negative phrases) even; at least; (if only) even if
Sitio – (location) place; room, site
Sola – alone, by itself
Supieran – they knew; saber – to know
Tambalearse – to stagger, to sway, to wobble
Tirar – to throw, to throw away
Trabuco – blunderbuss; The blunderbuss is commonly considered to be an early predecessor of the modern shotgun, with similar military and defensive use.
Tripas – guts, innards
Tropezarse – (to meet) to run into; tropezar – to stumble
Trotar – to jog, to trot
Varar – to run ashore, to run aground
Viejecillo – little old man
Vientre – belly, abdomen
Vuelco – act of overturning