As part of my Story Threads series today, which you can read in my folklore, literature + myth section of my website, I’ll take you to the Scottish wildlands of fairytales to tell you the beautiful tale of The Black Bull of Norroway; and afterwards we’ll go into a discussion on the importance of patience on our path to destiny and the value of the apprenticeship as we follow our right path.
The Black Bull of Norroway was first published in the 1870 edition of the Popular Rhymes of Scotland which was then reprinted in an Anglicised version by Joseph Jacobs in his 1894 book More English Fairy Tales. Its narrative is considered as part of the animal bridegroom stories, of which is also the Norwegian tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon (read here), and also the famous and beloved Beauty and the Beast (read here), both of which I’ve written about in depth before.
All these have their birth place in the Greek myth of the eternal love between Cupid and Psyche (read here); and what all these tales explore is the narrative of the search for the lost husband, as well as the marriage with an animal bridegroom, all of which you can read about in my essay Wild Marriage.
Animal bridegroom narratives can be traced back to 4,000 years. When two worlds meet, they touch, they kiss, and we find that love is not only something felt in the hearts, it is known by the hands also. Sometimes the lovers can’t be together in the long term because somehow they can’t reconcile their different worlds; and other times, love does win after all, and despite being from different worlds the lovers reunite.
This reunion and ability to reach deep intimacy can only be reached once the lovers take off their masks, their false skins, and fall in the trust and self-honesty through some transformation. And while the transformations in tales are portrayed as external, the truth is that it always begins in the inner emotional and spiritual wildlands.
What I love about our story today is that within its love story, a story of trust, a story of patience, a story of the meaning of destiny unfolds and reveals itself to us. Along its way of the twists and turns of life, we remind ourselves of the path that destiny really is – of how it takes our own hands and feet to shape, of how it takes patience and dedication, faith and heart. We remind ourselves of the value that time gives us, of its wisdom, and that while the stars will grace us with what our destiny may be, it is up to us to follow its path and make it into being – make it into hands – so that when it reaches its own hands to us, we can reach ours and hold. This holding together is what becomes not just a love story but a life story; because love is a marriage between will and grace.
I love that the story reminds us of the value of apprenticeship, because it is a forgotten art in our modern world where we often race and hurry. Things take time to unfold and our life path and purpose too aren’t just overnight things – it is a path indeed; and we shouldn’t hurry the process. There is so much wisdom and skills we gain along the way through our dedication, work and devotion. Devotion is the veil through which awareness shows its beautiful face; and when it shows its face, we recognize the love, we see the truth, we see each other more fully and wholly, and only then we can truly love.
Illustration by P. J. Lynch. All rights reserved by the artist.
The Black Bull of Norroway
The story begins with the three daughters of a washerwoman, and each go to a witch to seek her fortune and destiny in life. The old woman advises each girl to stand outside the back door and wait for whoever comes is her destiny. For the first sister a beautiful rich carriage arrives with four horses; for the second sister another beautiful carriage arrives with two horses; and for the youngest and third sister a black bull comes!
The girl is horrified and says she doesn’t want to go with such horrible looking destiny, but the old woman tells her that “whatever arrives is your destiny and should be accepted.”
The girl gets on the bull’s back and they travel together a long way; and she begins to see how the bull is very gentle and kind to her in all words, gestures and movements, and how he always takes care of her; whenever she needs food he gives her, whenever she is cold he warms her.
The first night they reach a castle grand and beautiful, and it turns out the bull’s brother is king there happily married to the girl’s oldest sister. As a parting gift they gift the girl a beautiful apple and tell her to never use it until she comes to the first great need of her life, and then it would help her.
The next night the girl and the her bull reach the second castle – also beautiful and rich – and there lives the second sister happily married to the bull’s second brother to whom the castle belongs. As a parting gift this time the girl is given a beautiful pear that she is not to use until the second great need of her life.
The third night they are hosted at the youngest brother’s castle, and the girl is given a final gift of a beautiful plum, not to be used until the third great need of her life. “The bull is so kind and gentle with me, I hope he never gets hurt,” the girl shares with his brother, to which he replies, “You too are gentle and kind as he is, and I can see how you care for him sincerely.”
At last, the girl and the bull arrived at a valley of glass, and he shared with her how he was a brave knight who had been enchanted by a devil and now needs to go fight with him to conquer him. For this, he needs to go on his own into the forest and he tells the girl to wait patiently, “You must wait here and whatever you do, do not move, even an inch, or I will not be able to find you after.”
The forest was enchanted and if she spoke, the roads would all twist and turn, and they’d be lost from one another. The bull tells the girl that if the sky turns blue, then she’d know that he had won, and if the sky turns red, then she’d know that he had lost. But no matter what, she should wait still and he’ll find her.
The girl waited and waited, her heart beat with worry because she had begun to love the bull and care for him deeply. Suddenly, the sky turned blue and overjoyed she moved – so all the roads and paths began to twist and turn, and when the knight came back he couldn’t find her. “If only she had been more patient … why didn’t you listen to me, my love, I’ve grown to really love you,” the knight sighed.
In the forest was a glass mountain and no matter how hard the girl tried to climb she couldn’t as she’d always slip on the glass. She wandered around in the forest until one day she found a blacksmith, asking him if he knew the knight and that she was looking for him – so she’d need to climb the mountain. The blacksmith promised the girl he could make her special shoes with which she’d be able to climb the mountain, but only if she worked for him for seven years. And so she did; for seven years she worked for him, learning the art of patience, surrender and dedication. Yet not a day went by that she didn’t still have her bull’s heart in her heart.
After the seven years, as promised she had her special shoes with which she climbed, still longing to find her knight – and on the other side of the mountain she went to seek shelter in the house of another witch who had a daughter. The witch said she’d take her in for shelter but only if the girl could clean some bloody shirts that she and her daughter weren’t able to clean. You see, whoever cleaned the shirts was destined to marry the handsome and brave knight of Norroway.
As soon as the girl touched the shirts, even without soap, they were all clean, pure and sparkling! The witch however lied to the knight saying it was her daughter that cleaned him – so they were to marry after three days.
Devastated, the girl found she was in her first need of life and remembered the apple; once she opened it jewels came from it; and these she used to plead with the witch that if she allowed her to stay just one night in the castle of the knight of Norroway, she’d give her all the jewels. The witch agreed but put a sleeping potion in the tea of the knight; so when the girl went in front of his chamber to sing for him he didn’t hear anything.
Crying that he couldn’t hear her nor awake, the girl tirelessly and still not giving up sat and sang all night,
“Seven long years I served for thee,
The glassy hill I clamb for thee,
Thy bloody clothes I wrang for thee;
And wilt thou not waken and turn to me?”
The second night the girl offered the jewels from the pear; but the same thing happened. And for her third night the girl offered her the plum’s jewels. But just before the knight went to bed that night, he accidently spilled the drink with the sleeping potion.
So as the girl, now a woman after her seven long years, began to sing for him again in front of his door, he woke up recognizing her voice, embraced her and married her, “How long I looked for you, and longed for you, my love, praying I’d still find you.”
The lovers were finally reunited after many years, and that was their destiny all along; for he was her bull, and she was the pure hands with which his shirts would be cleaned for his destined wife. What I love about this tale is the emphasis on patience and trust because this is what love is based on.
Illustration by P. J. Lynch. All rights reserved by the artist.
Seven is a spiritual number and it invites us to shift our eyes inward, so that our inner worlds expand; and as they expand we release the fragrance of our true essence and love, and are then more able to merge with someone else in deeper and more meaningful ways. Love asks of us self awareness, and through spiritual growth we are more open to truly loving another and experiencing love more deeply within us also.
The spiritual nature of the seven also shows the undertones of their joined destiny. He was her destiny all long, from the moment he showed up for her at the door and picked her up – even though he didn’t look the way she expected externally; but she had to go through her apprenticeship of patience and maturity.
And for him, she too was his destiny, because he was always destined to marry the one who is able to clean his shirts with the purity of her spirit and heart and hands; yet he too had to go through his inner transformation when he faced the fight with the devil in the forest – symbolizing his own fight facing his inner shadow self and conquering that, so that he too matures into knight, not just an animal creature with lower instincts.
For both of them love transformed them. And funnily, both of them fell in love with each other even before their maturations – yet they needed to both grow up in order for the marriage to be fulfilled and long lasting.
We journey through life in continual moving adjustments, along the invisible secret threads, though much of them are potentials rather than predetermined designs. And yet the paths we take and weave ourselves, constantly try to align themselves to our overall life’s purpose, life’s work, soul’s calling or destiny. In other words, we can never stray too far from our what is meant for us. No matter how many twists and turns we make, the path meant to lead us towards fulfilling our calling will always reshape itself in response to the choices that we make in life.
We live in a very fast paced world where it’s all about instant validation and people are so stressed when they don’t know what their calling or purpose is. It’s the human race racing. We rarely have time to reflect, learn, research and make mistake, try again, and then mistake again … and then try again. Because there is wisdom in mistakes and each one takes us one step closer, as long as we actually learn from it. Life isn’t some “aha” moment from a Hollywood movie scene, where suddenly there are a whole bunch of sound effects and there we are, all in sparkles, finally found our calling. Okay, so what’s next?
There is wisdom set in snow, there is wisdom in the not moving, there is wisdom in the stones and rivers and ice too. There is wisdom in knowing the cycles of the land; in the knowing not to push seeds into the frozen grounds because flowers will not grow, it is just not their time yet, we’ll only hurt them and we’ll frustrate ourselves.
In tales such as The Black Bull of Norroway we are reminded of the forgotten value of apprenticeship. Developing a vision for our life takes time, a long time, just like the dress takes time to be sewn so that we see it in its full beauty and adorned flower petals. It is an ongoing process where no little daily thing is without its meaning and purpose for the overall design. It is also about accepting failures and knowing that things take time. Sometimes obstacles are need so that we learn more about patience, endurance and trust; and sometimes we just need to take a time out so that a new insight arises which is needed for our path forward. Sometimes it is because there is someone we need to yet meet on our path forward, and time is needed for our paths to cross.
The girl spends seven long years apprenticed to a blacksmith. She had to do that because it was her impatience that separated her from the prince in the first place; and so they lost each other in the enchanted forest. He looked all over for her, as did she, but the twistings of paths was done. And so she stepped off the path a little bit – for seven years – to learn patience through the work. Obviously they found each other at the end because this is what was meant to be from the start; this was their fate as the tale said. And there are many more tales like that.
The tales’ messages are clear. Sometimes we step off, learn a few more skills, and if we learn them properly, these experiences will lead us back to where we wanted to be. There is value in the learning, in the waiting, in the thinking we are not progressing. Sometimes the greatest progress is made precisely during these quiet seemingly ordinary moments. There are clocks outside of our human made clocks. There, time is unclockable and unstrikeable by us.
What binds a couple in love aren’t the physical trappings of a house nor the white picket fence, it is only and always love; our ability to adapt in any climate and landscape, and adjust through the changing shapes as we walk along the wilderness.
Whenever I write of the animal bridegroom and wild marriage stories, I think of Margaret Atwood’s poem Habitation, where she beautifully portrays the ways in which a marriage is both a challenge and an opportunity for a deepening.
The poem is basically stating that the idea of marriage is still almost primitive to us. It is something humans cannot really understand and need to work at because it is not quite natural to us. She emphasizes the need to dedicate our effort into one another and the need to build our marriage from the ground up.
The core of marriage expressed in the poem is that it must be based only on love, not on physical trappings like the ideas of house or the white picket fence. These are not what binds a couple for a lifetime. What binds us in love is our ability to adapt in any climate and adjust through the changing shapes as we walk along the wilderness.
Sometimes we need to know how to climb glass mountains; sometimes we need to know the various temperatures and winds so that we know how to navigate through; and having wilderness skills matter – knowing how to climb, to persevere, to trust and to believe, and to hold on holding on holding strong. And sometimes learning to build our own fire, as primitive as it may sound, is actually the path forward and towards each other.
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The beautiful cover art is by Maxime Simoncelli, whose official website is linked here. All rights reserved to the artist.