The Tale of the Jester and the Laughing Bird

Have you ever listened to the birds in your garden; the chuckling chaffinch or the Great Tit that chimes like a bell; the Dunnock whose song is like sparkling crystal or the Wren who riffles through notes like playing cards in the hands of an expert dealer?

 

They sound like they are singing, do they not? But listen more carefully and you may hear their notes begin to change into words and then you will realize that the birds in your garden are not singing at all but telling stories.

 

Birds love to tell stories. They tell stories all day long and every bird has a different story to tell; like how the robin got his red breast or why the crossbills beak is crooked.

 

Unfortunately, most people never listen properly and so they never get to hear these marvellous tales that have been passed down from mother to chick for countless generations but I know them well because I have spent years sitting beneath the branches of trees with my notebook in hand copying down the stories of each little bird.

 

The story which the Chaffinch tells, for example, is a particularly fine one.

 

It is a tale of merry olde England and of a clown named Trumbelo who was court jester to none

other than King Arthur and the Knights of the round table.

 

Trumbelo was not happy being a jester and he longed desperately to be a knight and go on daring adventures; rescuing maidens and slaying dragons  and, hoping to prove himself worthy of being a knight, he begged King Arthur to send him upon an errand.

 

“Ask of me anything, Sire”, he said to the king, “And I shall accomplish it, no matter how difficult or dangerous the task”.

 

But King Arthur was worried that if he sent the jester upon a real knights errand he would only get hurt and so, instead, the king made up an imaginary errand; a fool’s errand to send the jester upon.

 

“In an invisible forest, by an invisible river, in an invisible cave which is guarded by an invisible

Dragon, is an invisible princess called...errm…Invisibella. Rescue her, Jester Trumbelo”, said the king, “And I will make room for you at my round table”.

 

Hearing this, the Jester leapt up in the air, overjoyed at finally being given a chance to prove himself worthy of being a knight.

 

However, once he had come down to earth again, a problem occurred to Trumbelo.

 

“Sire?”, he asked, “If the forest is invisible and the river and the cave and the dragon which guards it and the princess within, then however am I to find them?”.

 

King Arthur gave out a hearty laugh and slapped the jester upon the back.

 

“If you are a real knight, Trumbelo”, he replied, “Then you will be able to find them”.

 

And so, the next day, climbing onto the back of his old donkey and wearing his cap and bells and motley jesters costume because he didn’t have a suit of armour to wear, Trumbelo set out from Camelot to look for the invisible forest.

 

For days and nights he rode, far over hill and dale, looking for it and, at every farm and village that he passed by, he asked people if they knew of an invisible forest where, by an invisible river, was an invisible cave guarded by an invisible dragon in which an invisible princess was held captive.

 

Unfortunately for the poor jester, whenever he asked this question, people looked at his cap and bells and his jesters outfit and the donkey he was riding upon and, assuming it was some kind of joke, only burst out laughing.

 

Eventually, saddened and worn out from riding for so long and being laughed at wherever he went, the jester stopped by the edge of a forest to set up camp for the night.

 

As he was putting up his tent, however, Trumbelo heard the sound of a Chaffinch who was sitting on the branch of a nearby willow tree and the bird sounded to the jester as if he was laughing at him.

 

Now, Trumbelo was so sick of being laughed at that he got very angry with the bird.

 

“Why, I have been laughed at by Kings and Peasants but I won’t take it from a little bird”, he shouted at the chaffinch.

 

And, picking up his Jester’s wand or Marotte, which had a little jesters head carved upon it as well

as being decorated with ribbons and bells, Trumbelo chased after the chaffinch.

 

He chased it through a wheat field and over a trickling stream and through a thick, green forest until, trying to escape, the bird flew into an old cave and soon an enraged Trumbelo was chasing the bird in circles round the cave; waving his jangling wand about.

 

Suddenly, however, a statue that had stood inside the cave for centuries; a lady called Chrysella who had long ago been turned into Crystal by an evil witch, saw the jester dressed in his bright costume and cap and bells chasing after the bird with his jesters wand and, thinking it the funniest thing she had ever seen, she started to laugh.

 

And, as she laughed, the spell that had been placed upon her began to wear off; crystal turning to flesh, long flowing hair and bright eyes.

 

Then, much to jester Trumbelo’s surprise, just as he was about to corner the Chaffinch, Lady

Chrysella threw her arms about him and kissed him.

 

Trumbelo was shocked but then the Lady explained to him who she was, saying,

 

“Many a brave but sombre and serious knight has come to try and set me free with a kiss or a

talisman or some magical word but none could ever break the spell. Only you, sweet Jester, with the power of laughter were able to set me free”.

 

Now, to the amazement of King Arthur and his court, Trumbelo returned to Camelot with the Lady Chrysella riding on the back of his donkey and, when the Lady explained to Arthur what his jester had done, the King had no option but to make him Sir Trumbelo, an official knight of the round table.

 

The Jester even married Lady Chrysella and lived with her happily in a large mansion house.

 

But, though Trumbelo became a noble, he never became so big headed that he forgot that he owed everything to the laughing bird he had chased through the forest and, even to this day, the coat of arms of the Trumbelo family is still a cap and bells and a chaffinch.