What to Think of ‘The Travelling Companion’
by Dion D’Souza
We know all too well how difficult it can be to figure out the mind of another human being, but in some cases it may be necessary to go to extreme lengths. Take, for instance, the case of the ‘travelling companion’ who had to put on the wings of a swan (slain with the sword he had taken as payment for bringing to life the marionettes of an old man), make himself invisible (for he was a dead man, and these and other powers are available to such) and fly after the cruel but immensely beautiful princess, who ventured each night into the lair of a wicked old magician, who initiated her into the terrible dark arts for being his dancing partner and waltzing with him to the mad tunes of a band of tummy-thumping percussionist owls, trilling crickets and other oddball creatures. You see, the princess relied upon the magician to tell her exactly what to think about in order to thwart the advances of each of her enchanted suitors, all of whom ended up as skeletons rattling dolefully from the branches of the trees in her royal garden. Following the evil princess into the cave hidden inside a high hill, the unnamed travelling companion (who appeared out of nowhere and hailed John in prophet fashion) carefully listened each time the magician told her what to think about — shoe, glove and his own silver-haired head (which was severed and served to the flabbergasted princess as the final reply) — and reported the same faithfully to his simple and innocent friend. It is only in the end that the companion reveals his identity. He was the man whose corpse John had saved from being dishonoured by his supposed debtors, who laughed at John and made away with the meagre and only savings with which he had set out to make his fortune in the world. All of the events, one could argue, are foretold at the very beginning, in the dream John has after his ailing father’s death: he dreams of a laughing, very beautiful princess, and, of course, has a sense of déjà vu when he sees the actual princess responsible for the genocide of princes and other members of the noble gentry all over the country and in neighbouring kingdoms, who couldn’t — for the life of them — figure out what thoughts preoccupied the princess. Yet they kept coming in droves to hazard fatal guesses. No one even got as far as the second round. They were all eliminated in the very first. It is John’s pure heart and his father’s blessing that see him through this trial. Even after being chastised (with fern stems, by the companion as she flew to her magic and dancing lessons — he kept flogging her until she bled and bled; and she, ignorant and unsuspecting, merely complained that it was a very harsh wind), after seeing the chopped head of her malevolent master, after receiving John’s love, the princess does not change. It is only a magical ritual that redeems her. She is immersed three times in a tub filled with water (embellished with swan feathers and drops of a potion) by the bedside, where she transforms into first a black and then white swan, before finally being cleansed and reborn as an even more beautiful and good-hearted woman. All of the kingdom celebrates this miracle, this victory of good over evil, especially her old and bothered father, the king. Fathers, it would seem, are forever concerned only about the well-being of their children. John and the formerly bewitched and flippant princess, in any case, have their happy ending.
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