The Tapestry Maker’s Sorrow

In the middle of the night, when all of Camelot was asleep, King Arthur heard a scream, at first he thought it was just his imagination, but he thought better of it. He rolled out of bed, grabbed a torch, and walked down the cold stone halls of the castle, he did not hear screaming but he did hear some groans. The noises led him to an entranceway covered by a thick and dense tapestry. He was positive the scream was from behind this tapestry, he lifted up the tapestry, and looked about. The room was small, and lit by a single torch, the room looked like the room of the royal tapestry maker, since the room contained a large loom, and a half made tapestry. Beside the loom sat the tapestry maker Bertha. She was an elderly woman, with wispy grey hair, frail and long fingers, and a thin and gaunt figure. She sat on a stool with her face inher hands, she looked like she had a great sorrow or some trouble indeed.

“You seem to be suffering from some great sorrow or trouble, Bertha. What is thy trouble?” inquired Arthur.

Bertha rather jumped, and had a great look of surprise on her face. “Oh your highness, I didn’t know thy were here. And thee trouble, well it is. Oh dear I am being a fool. My trouble is that I have run out of materials, for this unfinished tapestry, thee greatest one of all my tapestries. For the great Wizard Merlin.”

“I see Bertha. Why don’t you go to the shepherd down yonder on the hill and get some materials from him?” asked Arthur.

“Oh thy see, the material I need is no ordinary material, I was given the threads from Merlin himself and who knows the threads were probably spun from the sea itself, they are made of magic. But thy see he had not given thy enough of thee material, and thy has run out.” she said urgently.

“Then why don’t thee ask Merlin for more material? I believe he will be generous.” asked Arthur, he was getting rather desperate with ideas to help her.

“Oh, your highness. Thy cannot ask Merlin, he shall be spell me with something horrible if I don’t finish it, because Camelot depends upon this tapestry. These were his exact words!” exclaimed Bertha.

“Bertha, I have an idea. I will ask Merlin myself for the materials.” said Arthur, deciding that this was the best idea.

Bertha thanked Arthur nearly a thousand times, her gratitude was immense. After all of this Arthur left the room and returned to his bed, and went to sleep. The next morning. Arthur woke up and remembered his rather unusual night with the elderly woman, and wondered if it was all a dream. He got ready for the day and decided to see if he had been dreaming or not, so he looked for the room with the tapestry covering the entrance, but he could not find it. This was becoming quite strange; Arthur even inquired if there was a Tapestry maker, but everyone replied with a shake of their head. This was getting too confusing for Arthur so he decided to consult Merlin.

Merlin was one of the greatest wizards of all time, so he must know what was going on, so Arthur hurriedly went to Merlin’s cottage. Merlin was home, and gladly listened to Arthur’s story of the strange old lady named Bertha, and the tapestry. 

“Arthur, that is a strange vision indeed. But I believe it is a perfectly harmless one, since Camelot did have a tapestry maker named Bertha, about one hundred years ago, thy must have had a vision from the past, since Bertha did have a problem of the sort, poor thing, but she did actually complete the tapestry. It’s quite magnificent, I will show you.” concluded Merlin.

Merlin led Arthur to a large chest, he opened it and took out a stunning tapestry, which had images of the life of Merlin and the history of Camelot.

“ It took her a very long time to finish it, a great toil, but she did it. And no Arthur it is not made out of thread from the sea.” Said Merlin with a smile, he put back the tapestry back into its chest.

The End