The Fabulous Griffin,

by J. W. Cassandra

The Fabulous Griffin is the newest tale in my Bluebell Pixie's Tales storybook. In the book, it is followed by another, The King of Clouds, which is related to it, yet it is an independent tale. The griffin is indeed fabulous, and wonderful, as the title suggests: she has no equal in the world, she is frightening when it needs to be, beautiful and majestic when it needs to be. Her power is poured out into the world with her beautiful song every three hundred years. At the same time, her only nestling hatches in the nest at the highest cliff of the Guardian Mountains. The fairy-tale child is enchanted by the wonderful singing, and from then on, there is no peace until he reaches the sight of the griffin, whom no man has ever seen up close. He is also helped by the old wizard of the village, by which time he becomes an older boy, the youngest daughter of the Serpent King, and a little foal born of the Midnight Magic Steed, who becomes the magic steed of magic steeds. How do the three of them reach the nest of the magnificent griffin? How do they survive the adventure? This is what the tale is about, as well as the Fairy of Eternal Beauty, the King of the Clouds, and much more. I hope you like it. I wish you a good reading time.

Bluebell Pixie hopped and skipped merrily from one cliff to another, like a chamois: she could do it easily, her nimble pixie legs were thin, sinewy, and powerful, she herself was small and thin, so she climbed the steep hillsides and climbed up the almost vertical walls of the rocks in her stride. She only had to watch out for the enchanting bag that slapped her shoulder, and if she got stuck, a squirrel, a mountain goat, or a bird would come to her aid, and she would go on.

When she reached the top of the mountain that stretched into the sky in front of her, and looked back, she herself was amazed at the dangerous roads she had taken to reach the top of the crag. There she sneaked past eagles' nests, and this reminded her of the fabulous griffin, who was hiding in the enchanting bag, waiting for her turn at last, when the little pixie held a story time for a new group of children commissioned by the Spring Fairy.

Bluebell Pixie decided to delight the nearest group of children with the tale of the fabulous griffin. With that, she began to descend cautiously down the precipice, but she stepped carelessly, her foot slipped, and the mouth of the bag loosened a little, so the griffin escaped from it. Immediately, the bird caught the falling upside down, pretty frightened little pixie on her back, and began a slow descent over the precipice, then turned with a gentle curve over a small silver stream, and descended gently to its bank, with the pixie on her back. Even the mouth of the bag was closed, and neither Bluebell Pixie, nor the tales were harmed.

Where the griffin descended, there was a small mountain village hidden, following the meandering bed of the stream. The huge bird landed on its edge, and as her wings engulfed the sky like a black cloud, they covered the sun villagers swarmed up, suspecting a storm, and then a curious army of children rushed after them, and everyone could witness the arrival of the fabulous bird and the strange little pixie.

And she was indeed a fabulous griffin: her beak could have fit three cows with calves, her head was as big as the judge's house, her wings spread out covered the sky, she wore a purple bird's saddle on her back, her legs were as strong as a magic steed's legs, her claws could carry an ox with three cows at once. Her eyes gleamed with a strange light, and her feathers covered her huge body densely, and tiny eyespots glittered and sparkled on the pinions and tail feathers of her wings.

Old and young of the village were amazed at the mythical bird with their mouths open, and then the pixie climbed down from the purple saddle, untied the mouth of the enchanting bag, and the tale of the fabulous griffin bird was already unfolding.

Once upon a time, the Guardian Mountains of the Borderland towered at the very edge of the end of the world. Their highest peak reached the sky, and on their sharpest cliff, there was a huge bird's nest laying, in which lived the griffin that everyone only referred to: the fabulous griffin. And albeit the griffins are mostly formidable, for they fight dragons, compete with magic steeds, swallow devil's sons for breakfast, threaten dwarves, plunge nations into war, yet this griffin bird did not belong to one of its conspecifics. Her appearance was sufficiently frightening, but at the same time, she radiated a wild beauty, like a storm when it pours majestically down from dark clouds, ploughing heaven and earth with brimstone lightning, and she had great power: this griffin bird directed the arrival of the celestials to the Earth, so the magic steeds turned to her, fairies of all ranks looked to her for permission to appear on Earth, song of wizards, magicians, witches, enchanters, and sea monsters, elves of deep waters sang to her; in a word, all kinds of beings who could boast of even a tiny crumb of magical power.

And the griffin-bird always sat majestically on her nest, watching the order of the magical creatures, the heavens and the earth, and if there was any disturbance somewhere, she would gracefully soar, fly to where the trouble was, instruct it, and then return to her nest. This bird loved kid meal for the most part, so they gave her fresh meat at all time to keep her benevolence alive. Every hundred years the bird laid a single egg, which she incubated for two hundred years, so once in three hundred years, an offspring hatched who had the same magical powers as the griffin bird herself.

When the time of the magical beings on earth was over, and they had to return to heaven, the griffin sang in a resounding voice: she opened her huge beak, turned her head to the sky, and a beautiful melody flowed from her throat that permeated heaven and earth. Then a faint ray of light rose at the orient, and a rainbow arched from it to the occident at the bottom of the sky, through which those who had already fulfilled their mission on earth departed, and in their place new magical beings and fairies arrived on earth.

Thus, the world went its own way, until one day a poor child was born into the world in a shack with fallen and collapsed walls. This child was born at the moment when the rainbow appeared, and the song of the griffin instilled a desire in his heart. From his early childhood, he had longed to admire the fabulous griffin bird face to face, up close. For, lest I forget, no man could ever see the bird up close, only from a distance, and even that rarely!

Well, this child was always longing for the griffin and was only wondering how to get to her. He went to see the village medicine man and magician when he grew up, and asked him for advice.

"Then what is the payment if I give you a piece of advice, you child?" The wizard asked, because he was.

"I brought you a milky, shredded cake, I do not ask for advice for free!" He retorted neatly.

"Hmm," the medicine man hummed, "then why do you want to see the griffin?"

"Because I have not forgotten her song, my Daddy, and my heart longs for her miracle more and more!"

"Then how do you want to reach her?"

"That is the catch! Because if I go on horseback, I cannot reach the top. If I climbed a rock, I would slide down from there! If you would teach me the spells you know, if you would make me fit for making bait with your grasses, perhaps I would reach her...

"The fabulous griffin gives her power to those who learn to practise magic, to bewitch, to cast spells, to dissolve spells, to enchant. The bait of magic and medicinal herbs is nothing for her, you are just wasting time with it," the old wizard waved.

"And if you would teach me how to catch the wildest foal that could become a magic steed?"

"You need a good eye, an understanding eye, to know which third-grass foal [1] has a future of a magic steed ahead of it, my son! I know you are great at wielding them, but if you want the magic steed to fly up to the fabulous griffin, even it is not enough to find such a foal. But I had an idea: go to the source of the Silver Brook next time at the time of the full moon, take a wooden box with you that can be closed, and at the spring at midnight of the full moon, the Serpent King will appear. Ask him to give you his youngest daughter, who raises magic foals and milks snake milk, who has a golden crown flashing on her head, and if he is willing to hand her over, put her in the wooden box, but be careful not to knock the crown off her head! When you arrive home, that dawn the Magic Steed of Midnight will be foaled; do not let that foal suck its mother's milk, but ask this crowned serpent to give its milk to the foal. As long as the stars do not shine everywhere on the foal's fur, with the Chariots of Goencoel [2] on his hooves and the Evening Star on his forehead, let him only be fed by the serpent princess milking the snake milk, and you will see that he will grow up to be the magic steed of magic steeds! Then put a saddle on him when his fur is shining with the stars, and do sit on him no matter what! Then let the Serpent King's daughter back to the source of the Silver Brook, but if she does not want to return, do not force her! Then let her wrap around your wrist like a bracelet, and you do jump higher and higher with the magic foal every day, until you hear the song of the fabulous griffin."

"But that is pretty far away..."

"Come on, do you not believe in the power of the griffin? Do as I have said, and when the griffin's song sounds, you can aim for her nest, and there you will find what you are looking for!" The wizard master of the village finished.

The boy did so: at the next full moon, he set off at the source of the Silver Brook with a wooden box of suitable size, and waited there. At midnight, the Serpent King appeared, and as he slipped there, a golden crown of diamonds flashed on his head in the drizzling silver light, and then the kiddie stepped forward and asked the Serpent King nicely to give him his youngest daughter raising magic foals and milking snake milk.

"And how do you repay it?" The Serpent King inquired.

"When I get to the fabulous griffin, I will remember you, oh, Serpent King!" The boy replied.

"All right, that will be enough for me and my daughter. Here is she, take her then," the Serpent King allowed, and then his youngest daughter slipped out, whom the boy helped carefully into the wooden box, taking care of her crown so that it would not fall somehow.

That morning, when he arrived at home, the Magic Steed of Midnight really foaled, and the kiddie weaned the foal from his mother, and the Serpent King's daughter milked snake milk that raised magic foals, and the foal immediately accepted it and was brought up on it.

By the time he grew into a third-grass foal, all the stars of the sky shone on his fur, the Goencoel Chariots shone on his hooves, and the prodigal glow of the Evening Star scattered its fire on his forehead.

Then the boy thanked the youngest daughter of the Serpent King, the magicfoal-educator, the milker of the snake milk, for her sacrificial work, and sent her back to his father.

But the serpent princess said:

"Gently, boy! I have been by your side for three years now. This magic steed kicks the stars off the sky, flies you wherever you wish, and if he flies with you to the fabulous griffin, I want to see her, too!" With that, she gently wrapped around the boy's wrist like a bracelet, and he carried her on his wrist from then on.

Then the boy sought for his magic steed and told him what he wanted from him. The magical power of the snake's milk made the magic steed a thousand times smarter and stronger than his companions he did not ask twice, but when at last the strange, deep, sonorous, heart-warming melody sounded on a starlight quenching dawn, he threw himself into the sky with the boy in his saddle toward the nest of the fabulous griffin. He flew like the wind, flew like an arrow, flew like a thought, and by the time the rainbow that appeared in the orient reached the sky to the occident, the magic steed was already at the nest of the fabulous griffin-bird on the highest cliff in the world, under the sky.

The griffin stared at them with her strange eyes, scattered diamond light, fluttered her gigantic wings, the eyespots shone on her beautiful quills, and opened her beak to catch the boy with the magic steed, and with the serpent princess.

Oh yes, but the little snake wrapped herself around her beak and closed it, and at that moment the magic steed caught the kick of the griffin with the Chariot of Goencoel, and the boy clung to the light of the Evening Star shining on the magic steed's forehead and threw himself into the diamond fire emanating from the griffin. The serpent princess also threw herself beside him, screaming, because she felt her death, and the special kind of snake used to scream only one sharply at such times – and then a miracle happened: the fabulous griffin poured out a flood of light of the sky, silver, gold, and diamond lights sparkled from her beside the rainbow, and only her song competed with her brilliant flood: she arched a beautiful melody into the sky with a tinkling glass voice, then she sang a deeply resounding song reminiscent of the ringing of a bell, and transformed the magic steed, the serpent, and the man: the magic steed became the ray of hope of the Evening Star, the daughter of the serpent king became the Fairy of Eternal Beauty, and the boy longing to see the fabulous griffin became the fearless warrior of the fabulous griffin, the King of the Clouds, and the griffin's luxuriant splendour flooded the world.

Then the Fairy of Eternal Beauty moved to the Evening Star, from where the magic steed has been shining as a ray of hope ever since, and enthroned on a diamond cloud, the King of Clouds sets out from there every three hundred years to choose the bravest lads to his army, who are born on Earth to the song of the fabulous griffin.

And the griffin, as long as the world is a world, nests in her nest on the top of the cliff under the sky, and every hundred years she begins to breed, incubates for two hundred years, so that every three hundred years her fabulous nestling hatches, and her song is heard at every such dawn, but only the bravest can hear it from then on. And she manages the fate of heaven and earth from her nest, as long as the world is the world. But let no one think of riding her on her back, for she is no ordinary griffin, as it has come to light so far!

Whoever wants to see the fabulous griffin should raise himself a magic foal, like the boy in the fairy tale, and leap to the sky if his heart does not shiver!

The fairy tale slipped back into the enchanting bag at Bluebell Pixie's beckon, and the fabulous griffin shone in her perfect splendour as a farewell, and then she also returned to the other fairy tale characters.

Then Bluebell Pixie said goodbye to the small and large of the village, and set out to carry new tales to other regions. But before she left, she unhooked the bag from her shoulder, and it duplicated, so she left you the song of the fabulous griffin:

Rainbow arching from orient reaches to occident,
Magic of my diamond light, behold, summons its army of heros!
My beak bathing in ruby water, my feet soaking in emerald lake
Show where my nest waits for him, who gallops here on his magic steed.
Let the brave come, let the intrepid army come before me:
I will gird the protectors of heaven and earth with my magic power!
It is time to bathe in my ruby flames,
It is time to hide in my emerald fire sparks!
Promise of miracles swings in the sky, you reach it on starlight...
Magic plays in the air in which your soul trembles,
You will become a prisoner of magic, hearing my magic song...

Written: 30 / 05. 2010., by J. W. Cassandra
Translated: 25 / 09. 2025., by J. W. Cassandra

[1] This expression in Hungarian literally sounds 'third-grass', namely the foal can third time welcome a new spring, a new year. It means it is three years old. And the language of the fairy tales preserved this expression.

[2] In Hungarian folklore, the Big Dipper or Big Bear and the Little Dipper or Little Bear are known as the Chariots of Goencoel, who in legends mostly appeared as a shaman of great power, who wanted to reach the Loadstar on these chariots. There had been more legends on these constellations in our folklore.

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