The Fable of the Spurned Herd

Long ago, there existed a little village at the edge of a forest. There was an inn, and a church, and all around the village there were farmers, who grew crops and raised animals. These, the villagers would eat, and some of the animals would make things like milk and eggs for the villagers. It was a good village, at least for a time. One day, without warning, the villages’ animals began to give birth to sickly, twisted young – it began in the sheep first, and the wise men and women of the village were called out into the fields to sort out what to do about the problem of the twisted young. It was decided after much discussion that the townspeople couldn’t in good conscience kill the young, as this would bring more bad omens to the village – for that is what they decided the twisted births were. It was decided that the children would lead the twisted young animals away from the village at feeding time, and then slip away, and nature could take its’ course. This would remove the ill omen from the village, but not make them guilty of the deaths of the young animals, who were foul and abnormal in their eyes. And so, the next night, when it came time to feed all of the animals, the children were given instructions to lead the twisted sheep down the road that led into the forest, and feed them once they were deep in the woods. This the children did, and they left the poor animals there without regret, because they were children acting on their elders’ orders and didn’t know any better. This left the little animals alone, with no one to care for them, in a very dark wood. Now, it just so happened that in that wood, there lived a troll, who was out fossiking for food that night. He found the little group of animals huddling fearfully in the clearing the children had bought them to, and he waked out into it. He bent his trollish body down, and asked one of the lambs, ‘Why are you out here in the wood, little one?’, and the lamb understood him, because trolls had learned to speak the languages of the animals.

‘We were bought here to eat dinner, but we were left here because we are ugly,’ replied the lamb, ‘and now we fear we are to become dinner ourselves’.

To which the troll laughed, and replied,

‘No little one. That’s not the way things happen in my wood. Nor are you ugly, any of you here. You are all exactly as you were intended to be’. And with that, the troll stood up, and he bade the little herd of animals follow him, and then he struck a magic match that burned all night, so he could lead the animals back to his house.

The years began to roll by in the forest, and the little herd of animals lived with the troll in his house, which was really a big cave, deep in the darker part of the woods. They had meadows to eat in, and cold, clean water to drink. The troll looked after the herd that the villagers had spurned, because he had been alone for a very long time, and he enjoyed the company. He led them about, and made sure they were safe. At night, he always made sure there was a fire so the herd wouldn’t get scared, and he warded off the wolves that sometimes came down from the mountains. When one of the animals got sick, he tended it, and he told them all about how things in the forest worked, because he’d had a lot of time to work those things out. Eventually the little herd grew into adulthood, and though they still looked different physically, they were strong and healthy, and happy. Every now and again, the troll would find new animals in the woods, because the people from the village were still finding them amongst their own herds. They didn’t realize that the different-looking animals that were being born were just a natural part of life, and not something to be shunned and spurned. The herd grew, and eventually, one day, a little girl led the animals too far away from the village, and she got lost in the woods at night. The troll went to her and said, ‘Don’t be frightened, I have taken your animals, and looked after them. Come stay the night with me, and I will take you to the forests’ edge in the morning. You will be safer there than if I led you there when we can’t see’, and he was right, because he’d run out of magic matches. At first the little girl was scared, but then she listened to him, and grew curious, so she agreed to go to his cave. Inside, she did indeed find all of the animals that the villagers had taken into the woods. They didn’t know what to make of her until the troll told them who she was, and then they crowded around to smell and make their noises at her, because she reminded them of their first home. As they got close, the little girl reached out and touched one of the elder animals, and she found that it’s coat was as smooth and thick and shiny as the very best of the animals in the village, because they had grown up free and with the very best grass to crop on. For their part, the animals did not bear any ill will towards the little girl, because they knew that the people in the village were only doing what they thought to be right, and the children weren’t to blame. In any case, they had been given good lives with the troll in the forest, so they really couldn’t complain. The little girl walked amongst the spurned herd and touched each of them in turn, and was amazed by how soft and strong, but gentle each of the animals were. Now that they’d grown up, their unique bodies, which had seemed so sickly and bad in infancy, had now become a way to tell each one apart, so their personality could be identified easily. This was very different to how things were in the village, where the animals all looked and acted the same. Once the little girl had walked through the herd, and each animal had been touched and gotten a smell in turn the troll set up a bed for her very near the fire, so she could keep warm. The troll gave her milk from the herd, and some berries he knew people could eat. The milk, too, was the most delicious the little girl had ever had, and it helped her get to sleep and dream good dreams. The troll sat at the mouth of the cave, as he often did, and waited for the dawn. In the morning, the little girl woke up, and the animals bore her home on their backs, which were strong and comfortable. At the edge of the forest, she climbed down to the ground, and asked the troll, ‘What will I tell my village when they ask where I’ve been?’ and the troll replied,

‘Tell them that their animals are all here, and that they miss their fields and family’. And the little girl nodded, then thanked the troll and the spurned herd for having her, and ran back to the village. No one had gone looking for the little girl because she had no mother or father, and no one was willing to risk themselves looking for a girl no one was connected with. Nevertheless, when she scampered up to the gates, a great commotion was had, and all of the elders in the village wanted to know where she’d been, and why she wasn’t crying or sad.

‘Because,’ she said, in the way children address adults who don’t know any better, ‘I was with the herd of animals that we put in the forest for the troll to look after’. This caused more commotion in the village, for the elders had never thought that the animals they had the children take there would survive for very long, never mind thrive and take care of little girls who got lost in the woods. Nor did they ever conceive that a troll should take care of either animals or little girls.

‘You must take us to the forest and show us this troll and his herd,’ said the elders, and the little girl did, because she had little choice.

Once the villagers all got to the edge of the forest, the troll walked from the trees to stand before them, because he’d known they’d want to see with their own eyes the little girls’ troll, and he’d waited for them. Such a brazen revealing made the townsfolk all draw the weapons that they’d bought with them, for they feared the monster, but the little girl stepped forward and said,

‘This noble troll kept me safe last night, and I had no weapons or anything to give him. Please don’t fear him.’ This stopped the townsfolk from attacking straight away, but they kept their swords out, because they had always been told that trolls were dangerous beasts. The elders stepped forward and asked the troll,

‘Why did you look after this girl? And where are the animals you keep?’ to which the troll replied,

‘Because she needed the help, and she hadn’t done anything to me. And I keep no animals,’ he said. ‘They keep me. They keep me happy and fed, and they give me company in the woods. They are my friends, and though you put them there because you thought there was something wrong with them, there wasn’t. They’re just different.’ And with this, the animals began to walk out of the trees and let the townsfolk look upon them. They all moved exactly how they were meant to, and though they were animals, the people could see that they were very different from the uniform beasts of burden that they kept back home. The animals walked towards the villagers, and the villagers reached out and touched the animals. They saw that they were strong, and their coats were beautiful, and they were gentle. They hadn’t really needed to be shunned, they just needed to be taken care of in a different way, which the troll had done.

‘What do the animals want now?’ asked the elders of the troll, whilst the people made friends with the animals for the first time.

‘They want to be free to go home to their families. Their families did not exclude them from your herds – you did. And they miss them.’ Said the troll. The elders could not fault that, so they decreed,

‘From this day forth, all of the animals in the spurned herd shall be allowed onto our villages’ fields, so they can keep their families close, and the troll of the forest will ever after be a friend of the village, for showing us that things that are different are not always bad.’ And from then on, all of the animals of the village and forest were able to travel between the two, and know their families, and keep the troll who had shown them such kindness company. The bloodlines of the herd were made stronger by those who had been spurned, and through acceptance, that village became more peaceful and prosperous than it ever had or could have been.