Welcomeby Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2004
(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)
Production Notes:
• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: dark fairy tale
• suitable for general audiences
• 21 characters (15 female, 6 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)
Summary of Script Content:
• “Grimmwulf” is a dark, comedic fairy tale about a trio of thieves who attempt to cheat the embittered people of a small village, thus unleashing the predations of a terrible monster.
(This play was first performed in March, 2004, at Gleneagle Secondary School in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.)
∗Published Online by Good School Plays, February 25, 2018.
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Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Scene 7
Scene 8
Scene 9
Scene 10
Scene 11
Scene 12
Scene 13
Scene 14
Scene 15
Scene 16
Scene 17
Scene 18
Scene 19
Scene 20
Scene 21
Scene 22
CHARACTERS:Grimmwulf
by Richard Stuart Dixon.
Aldred Nerian, the mayor of Raven’s Claw
Aowyn Nerian, the mayor’s wife
Odelia Nerian, the mayor’s daughter
Large Lofwine, a wandering thief who pretends to be “Grimmwulf”
Small Saskia, a wandering thief
Bertilda-in-Between, a wandering thief
Granfer Grimbold, an old cobbler
Rowena Grimbold, his ancient wife
Lucan Holt, a carpenter
Maida Holt, his wife
Godric Pendragon, a hunter in the Forest of the Fallen
Ernalina Pendragon, his wife
Lenora Pendragon, the hunter’s daughter
Govannon Irenbend, a blacksmith/Grimmwulf
Eldrida Irenbend, his wife
Brogan Irenbend, the blacksmith’s son
Freya Garmangabis, a dairy woman
Coventina Daedbot, a milkmaid
Devona Engel, a milkmaid
Elswyth Amaethon, a vegetable gardener
Nelda Amaethon, her sister, also a vegetable gardener
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 1:
(LARGE LOFWINE, SMALL SASKIA, and BERTILDA-IN-BERWEEN have been wandering through the forest and are weak and near death.)
BERTILDA
We are lost, Saskia, in this stench-filled, black infernal forest.
SASKIA
A curse upon these wet jagged stones, these roots and tendrils and mossy, dripping shrubs.
LOFWINE
And, alas, none of it can be eaten.
SASKIA
Your paunch has shrunken, Lofwine.
BERTILDA
You are no longer formidable, Lofwine.
SASKIA
Some days ago, you were a slab of a man as robust as a randy boar.
BERTILDA
Now you dwindle.
LOFWINE
This forest longs to be my death-place.
SASKIA
Bertilda, your forehead! A fever burns upon it!
BERTILDA
A fever! A fever! Ah, Saskia, this dank bog exhales putrid vapours.
SASKIA
I die soonest, small as I am, with nothing to steal in this wasteland.
(SASKIA lies down as if to die.)
LOFWINE
Three thieves in a forest…what should we steal? A toadstool? Bah!
(LOFWINE lies down to die. Sinking, BERTILDA casts a baleful look in the direction of the village of Dragon’s Tooth.)
BERTILDA
The villagers of Dragon’s Tooth drove us to this place of death.
LOFWINE
To let their brutal cudgels crunch my skull would be less horrid than this.
SASKIA
We were fools to steal their loaves.
BERTILDA
Long since eaten and pushed out in tidy turd piles along the woody trail.
LOFWINE
Nothing left within my gut but acid dregs. Ohhhhhhhhh!
(With a piteous moan, the poor devil gives in to his nasty pains and childlike despair.)
SASKIA
Urgle. Ugg…ugg…urgle.
(SASKIA faints.)
LOFWINE
Snorl. Snuzz. Garfle. Urf.
(LOFWINE faints.)
BERTILDA
Sozz. Fissle. Nunk-a-nunk.
(BERTILDA faints.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 2:
(The PENDRAGON family, a-hunting in the Forest of the Fallen, stumble upon the prostrate thieves.)
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
Godric, three lumpish strangelings on the turf. Are they dead or sleeping?
GODRIC PENDRAGON
(inspecting the fallen with the brevity of experience)
Closer to death than to sleep.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
They have fallen, and yet they are not of the Forest of the Fallen.
LENORA PENDRAGON
Big, small, and in-between. How odd they seem, strewn upon the mossy forest floor.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
We have no time for them.
LENORA PENDRAGON
Can we leave them to die, father?
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
Lenora, they are not of us, nor we of them. They abandon us to our fate, and so we abandon them to theirs.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
Why pay them more mind than other dying things? They are not meat for the pot.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
They cannot be eaten, daughter.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
And so we cannot carry them to Raven’s Claw as trophies of the hunt!
LENORA PENDRAGON
Why, then, we must carry them to Raven’s Claw as our fallen brethren.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
Brethren! How are they brethren, child? We have neither kinship nor bond with any of these stricken foreigners.
LENORA PENDRAGON
The carrion crows circling above see six of the same beasts. Three are standing and three are fallen. The large one could be you, father, and that one could be Mother. The smallest, bless her, could be me. Soon their eyes will be pecked out and I shall feel their blindness as if it was my own.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
Lenora, you open my ears and pour hot mercy on my soul.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
And you flood my heart with the blood of loving kindness. Godric, you and Lenora hasten to Raven’s Claw and bring others to make the carrying easy. I will stay to keep the crows and rats at bay.
LENORA PENDRAGON
Come along, Father, to Raven’s Claw. We will bring water, too, or better still, warm broth.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
Ernalina, they may be dead ere we return.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
Then go, go. Be fleet of foot.
(And so GODRIC and LENORA slip like deer into the forest and disappear.)
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
And so I am left to myself. The forest is a place of peril for one alone. I will sing to mark my presence and warn away the lurking things.
(ERNALINA sings or recites.)
In the Forest of the Fallen,
Where the day is always gray,
Three have fallen, three are dying,
Three are drifting far away.
One is large and one is small,
One is somewhat in-between.
Who and where and what and why?
What do these three strangers mean?
We will take them to our village.
We will feed them meat and wine
We will give them beds and blankets.
We will work to save their lives.
What if they are wealthy merchants?
What if they are rich as kings?
What if they have buried treasure:
Rubies, sapphires, golden rings.
Maybe they are ruthless bandits.
Maybe they are common thieves.
Maybe they will rob and cheat us,
Try to bring us to our knees.
Kindness can go unrewarded,
Kindness sometimes makes us rich.
Are they good or are they evil?
Who is who and which is which?
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 3:
(The other members of the village emerge from the trees, guided by GODRIC and LENORA. They gather in their family groupings, and look upon the three fallen thieves.)
ALDRED NERIAN
You have brought us far into the Forest of the Fallen, Godric Pendragon. I do not like such perilous journeys, and my bunyons burn like Lucifer’s tongue.
AOWYN NERIAN
You are the mayor, Aldren Nerian. My husband, too, alas. It is for you to decide what we must do with these three worms which lie before us.
ODELIA NERIAN
Father, father, be the mayor and state with firmness your commands. Think of the beating Mother will give you if you shame her before the people of Raven’s Claw.
(Much snickering precipitates from the wee child’s deliberate intimation of family discord.)
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
Such talk! In days gone by, no mayor would suffer such insults from his crone and brat!
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
Aye, Granfer, aye. We are led by an addled weakling. How has it come to this?
LUCAN HOLT
Jibber, jabber! Wag your tongues! You prick and needle at each other while those three brethren suffer in the stinking moss!
MAIDA HOLT
Lucan! Do not scold! Forgive his tart announcement…he is aching to be a saint.
LUCAN HOLT
Bosh, woman, bosh. I have a huge heart, though I exhaust myself hiding it from your rasping, hissing condemnations.
GOVANNON IRENBEND
I suppose I will have to carry the fat one.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
Good people of Raven’s Claw, you depend too much on Govannon’s brawny frame.
BROGAN IRENBEND
I am so tiny. None would guess I am the son of Govannon Irenbend, the mighty blacksmith.
GOVANNON IRENBEND
You do not look like me at all.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
Come, come, Govannon. You redden. I swear he is the product of your seed.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
Coventina and Devona could easily hoist and haul the small one.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
Hoist and haul? Hoist and haul? I am a milkmaid, Freya, adept at pulling the teats. I do not hoist, and neither do I haul.
DEVONA ENGEL
You stir her to anger, Coventina.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
Ungrateful to the core! I give you cows to milk and straw to sleep upon, and still you injure me with whining and belligerence!
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
I am lame…a sorry sight hobbling through the woods. Surely none here expects me to manhandle the brethren sprawled before us?
NELDA AMAETHON
Blind! My orbs plucked out by a thieving dog of a doctor who promised a cure in exchange for my little bag of gold! Oh, Elswyth, why am I here in this hateful forest?
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
Summoned to save three fallen brethren more stricken than ourselves, Nelda.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
Aye, summoned by the kindness of my daughter Lenora.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
She pities the fallen as though they were her own kindred, and teaches us a lesson that will profit our souls.
LENORA PENDRAGON
Help them, help them…no more of your interminable rambling discourses! Such agile tongues and such limp arms!
ALDRED NERIAN
We will hump them back to Raven’s Claw and revive them. Lucan and Maida Holt, you will heft the little one.
MAIDA HOLT
Just the two of us?
LUCAN HOLT
Name others to the task, Aldred Nerian.
ALDRED NERIAN
Granfer Grimbold and his crone can assist.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
I am to carry, though I can barely carry myself?
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
Cheer up, Granfer. I will add my strength to yours, and between us we will achieve the might of a wretched, sickly nanny goat.
ALDRED NERIAN
Freya Garmangabis, you and your milkmaids must lever the middle one out of the forest…
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
Who else? Who else? Must we sweat like pigs while others watch and laugh?
DEVONA ENGEL
Name others, you dog!
ALDRED NERIAN
Tiny Brogan Irenbend and Lenora Pendragon will lend their little limbs in assistance
BROGAN IRENBEND
Must I heft, Father?
GOVANNON IRENBEND
Time to be a man, Brogan, instead of a toddling snot-wailer.
LENORA PENDRAGON
You must show courage, Brogan, if you ever hope to wed. No lass will forsake her maidenhood for one who quails.
ALDRED NERIAN
Govannon Irenbend, largest of us all, will huff and chug the beefy one to the place of safety.
GOVANNON IRENBEND
Alone?
ALDRED NERIAN
Godric and Ernalina Pendragon too.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
Why am I unnamed, Aldred Nerian? Do you think I am feeble?
ODELIA NERIAN
He favours you, Eldrida. Are you in love with the blacksmith’s wench, Father?
AOWYN NERIAN
His leching eyes cast drooling looks on wenches and swains of all descriptions.
ALDRED NERIAN
I am the mayor! I am the mayor! Deride me and you deride yourselves, for you were the ones who chose me to lead for twenty circlings of the seasons!
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
A dreadful miscalculation on our part.
LUCAN HOLT
Perhaps he will die soon.
MAIDA HOLT
Eldrida Irenbend, common sense dictates that you assist your husband in the hefting, sworn as you are to obey his edicts.
GOVANNON IRENBEND
I am not a man to lord it over my wife.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
All the more reason why I want to help.
ALDRED NERIAN
Then help, damn it! Get your coarse-woven underthings wet with the sweat of rough labour. See if I care!
FREYA GARMANGABIS
He is vile beyond belief.
LUCAN HOLT
Why are you and your hags exempt from the hauling, Aldred Nerian?
ALDRED NERIAN
They must assist me with my bunyons.
MAIDA HOLT
Your bunyons are an invention.
LENORA PENDRAGON
Please, please stop this endless invective! Let us haul now before the brethren are stone-cold dead!
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
We have been spared, Nelda. In the end, there was no need for our laboured journey to this death-place.
NELDA AMAETHON
I want my cot, there to snuggle in the coarse blankets, my blind eyes shut to the darkness without and open to the dreaming within.
(The villagers, aware that talk will no longer stall the hefting, begrudgingly cart the limp thieves off through the forest and back to Raven’s Claw.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 4:
(The MILK MAIDS idle away the time, avoiding their daunting duties, gossiping shamelessly.)
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
Too much milking, Devona Engel. I grow weary of the flopping teats and the dreary drizzle of milk into the wooden bucket. I crave a man.
DEVONA ENGEL
No man will marry a maid who reeks of stale milk.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
They say the large one from the Forest of the Fallen is fast regaining his stamina.
DEVONA ENGEL
I have heard that beneath his rags he bears the hallmark of worthy manhood.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
Who saw? Who saw?
DEVONA ENGEL
Ernalina Pendragon. She says he could provide ample service.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
Perhaps I shall court him.
DEVONA ENGEL
He exudes virility, and could no doubt provide well for a wench.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
And a wench seeks provision, does she not?
DEVONA ENGEL
With passion, Coventina Daedbot, in the hope of many birthings and future fortune.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
You speak as though you seek his abundant flesh for yourself alone, Devona Engel.
DEVONA ENGEL
And why not? One man for one woman, Coventina. I shall not share.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
I cannot stand the thought of his powerful frame devoted to your pleasure and not mine.
DEVONA ENGEL
Then go drown yourself in a milk barrel for all I care!
(Into their midst strides FREYA GARMANGABIS, the fearsome patroness who serves up their paltry recompense.)
FREYA GARMANGABIS
Layabouts! Why do you not push the dung out of the stalls?
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
The stinking piles repel me, Freya Garmangabis.
DEVONA ENGEL
One day I shall marry and be free of you, Freya.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
Neither of you will ever take a man with any sense. And if you marry a fool, you will soon regret belittling me, your provider and benefactress.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
Perhaps the large forest foundling who is quickly mending will marry me. I would be well-able to assuage his manly urgings.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
Ha! You cannot accommodate a few cows with their simple need to be milked! How could you ever satisfy the sort of man who offers true husbandhood?
DEVONA ENGEL
You crush our simple dreams so that we will stay forever in your milk-barn, Freya Garmangabis.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
Then fight over that large strangeling! You know nothing of him, except idle gossip about his sex parts! Perhaps one of you will succeed in seducing the giant, only to find yourself beaten senseless and abandoned in the forest.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
Life without risk is slavery.
DEVONA ENGEL
Do your own dung-shovelling!
(COVENTINA and DEVONA storm off, leaving FREYA GARMANGABIS aghast and furious.)
FREYA GARMANGABIS
They are desperate for a man, and leave me stranded with my cows, their udders stretched to the limit.
(FREYA hurries to do the milking by herself.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 5:
(GRANFER GRIMBOLD seeks sunshine in the village square, with ROWENA GRIMBOLD by his side.)
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
They call me “Granfer”, but I am granddad to no one.
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
Granfer, Granfer, I regret my barren womb.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
Perhaps I’m to blame. Not all that’s planted grows.
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
If only we could have the little strangeling from the forest, to clasp close to our bosoms in our declining years.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
They say she is reviving rapidly, and sups enormous quantities of broth.
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
I would feed her ‘til she burst, and love her ‘til she shone like the sun.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
Perhaps she would let me take her fishing.
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
How can we make her ours? Is such a thing within reason?
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
Ancient are our bones, and we smell. Soon we will die. Let’s pursue the small strangeling, and offer her our humble estate in exchange for a few of her years.
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
We know nothing of her. Perhaps she is evil.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD So small and weak, a foundling…how could she be evil?
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
We must claim her, and seize this slim chance for something more than aches and pains!
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
Come along, come along. We will see, we will see.
(They hobble away, lost in their dream of a perfect child.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 6:
(LUCAN HOLT paces in his woodshop, his thoughts dwelling persistently on the in-between foundling. MAIDA HOLT appears, and watches him askance.)
MAIDA HOLT
Lucan, why do you pace?
LUCAN HOLT
Maida, Maida, my thoughts are always on the in-between foundling.
MAIDA HOLT
In love, are you?
LUCAN HOLT
With her? Never! Do not presume to know my heart, Maida.
MAIDA HOLT
Then why, Lucan, why? There is no need to think about a weakened stranger dragged from the forest.
LUCAN HOLT
My sister is dead.
MAIDA HOLT
Ah, yes. You have wept a storm of tears for her.
LUCAN HOLT
I have not poured water from my sockets in your presence, Maida.
MAIDA HOLT
You try to hide your blubbering, but you are loud, Lucan, you are loud.
LUCAN HOLT
When I was a lad, I built a raft for my darling sister to play on, and like a fool, I launched her on the throbbing river.
MAIDA HOLT
And the raft rammed a lurking log, catapulting the girl to muddy death by drowning.
LUCAN HOLT
That in-between strangeling is my sister reincarnate.
MAIDA HOLT
Your sister reincarnate? How so, Lucan? Surely you are daft.
LUCAN HOLT
She has her look, her smell, her stalwart form.
MAIDA HOLT
Madness!
LUCAN HOLT
Not madness…magic!
MAIDA HOLT
Stop it, foolish man.
LUCAN HOLT
Maida, Maida…my guilt! A sister drowned, and now a sister returned! I must make amends.
MAIDA HOLT
Delusions! You are a carpenter. Do not simper and whine about a dead sister. Work your wood and shut up.
LUCAN HOLT
I will not shut up.
MAIDA HOLT
What, will you tell all of Raven’s Claw your crazy tale of a soggy sister returned?
LUCAN HOLT
Clobber me if you must…you have done that and more in the long, sorry tale of our marriage, but I will go to the in-between one and give her whatever she asks.
MAIDA HOLT
A curse on my father for making me marry a madman!
(MAIDA hustles away, in a fury of resentment.)
LUCAN HOLT
My sister reincarnate! A chance for redemption!
(LUCAN wanders away, captivated by the thought of his dead sister’s forgiveness.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 7:
(ELSWYTH AMAETHON watches her blind sister NELDA rooting about in their vegetable garden.)
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
You are lucky to be able to bend to the earth and pluck weeds, Nelda. When I try, my joints scream at me to stop.
NELDA AMAETHON
Do you think I enjoy fingering the plants in a futile effort to determine which is weed and which is struggling vegetable? I would trade my blindness for your lame leg in a flash, Elswyth.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
Afflictions cannot be traded, so stop wishing for mine.
NELDA AMAETHON
I can smell you today, Elswyth. Why do you not bathe?
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
Because of the pain, nitwit. You are in the dark in more ways than one.
NELDA AMAETHON
The garden is doomed to die. We will starve when the winter snows settle upon the stunted plants that fail to grow.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
Help is required, and desperately.
NELDA AMAETHON
Those three strangelings from the forest…perhaps they could be persuaded to tend the plants for us.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
They cannot tend vegetables. I saw their hands. No garden callouses, no earth beneath their fingernails.
NELDA AMAETHON
You could sit on a stool and tell them what to do.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
And what would you do?
NELDA AMAETHON
Lie in my cot and dream, for only in my dreams can I see.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
I am more suited to life on a cot, what with my constant aches. You should sit on the stool and bark orders to the strangelings.
NELDA AMAETHON
You must! You must! You were the one who summoned the doctor who stole my eyeballs and my money!
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
How was I to know he was a villain? He had a kindly face.
NELDA AMAETHON
The last face that ever I saw!
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
Very well. We will ask the strangelings to help and take turns telling them how to nurture the plants.
NELDA AMAETHON
Done. Lead me to them.
(They limp away on their quest to avoid starvation.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 8:
(BROGAN IRENBEND rides joyously on his father GOVANNON’S brawny back, the two of them enjoying a romp in a meadow, while ELDRIDA IRENBEND watches with love.)
BROGAN IRENBEND
Faster, father, faster! Carry me to the edge of the earth!
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
Oho, tiny chap, you cling like a squirrel to the mighty back of your sire!
GOVANNON IRENBEND
Even the mighty tire, Eldrida. Dismount, Brogan, I do not wish to be your steed forever.
BROGAN IRENBEND
(clambering down as though from a mighty oak)
Where do you go at night, Father?
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
That is a forbidden question, little squirrel.
BROGAN IRENBEND
I only ask because I am afraid in my tiny bed with Father gone.
GOVANNON IRENBEND
I must go into the night, Brogan. That is all I can say.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
He returns to greet us as we rise from our dream lives each and every morning.
BROGAN IRENBEND
Those three from the Forest of the Fallen…do you know what they are, Father?
GOVANNON IRENBEND
You are asking too much, Brogan.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
Secrecy, Brogan. It is a thing treasured by we three. The gossiping fools of the village must never hear a word about your father’s nocturnal doings.
GOVANNON IRENBEND
Be sure you keep your cake-hole shut when you are in earshot of the villagers.
BROGAN IRENBEND
Why am I small?
GOVANNON IRENBEND
Questions! Questions! Just be glad you have a life.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
Aye, Brogan…you have a life. Relish it. There are so many who must remain unborn for all eternity.
GOVANNON IRENBEND
Away with us, to Eldrida’s stew pot for a feast. Let us stuff Brogan full of boiled meat. Perhaps he will grow.
(They gladly traverse the meadow in anticipation of ELDRIDA IRENBEND’S large pot.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 9:
(ALDRED NERIAN tries to find a quiet spot in his yard in which to sleep. Sensing he is alone, he reclines on the earth and attempts to nod off, only to be awakened by AOWYN NERIAN.)
AOWYN NERIAN
Aldred Nerian, you lump! Get up, and be quick about it!
ALDRED NERIAN
I was only seeking a moment of quiet reflection, Aowyn, to sort out some of the puzzling dilemmas I face as mayor of Raven’s Claw.
AOWYN NERIAN
Your mouth spews manure! Laziness and stupidity have formed an unwholesome marriage and taken up residence in your head.
ALDRED NERIAN
To think you once loved me.
AOWYN NERIAN
Love? Love? How dare you utter that sacred word, you profane toady!
(ODELIA NERIAN enters and runs to her mother, flush with excitement.)
ODELIA NERIAN
Mother, Mother, the three strangelings from the forest are up and about in their locked dormitory!
ALDRED NERIAN
Moving, are they?
ODELIA NERIAN
All three are well again. They prowl about the dormitory like wolves, sniffing for a way out.
AOWYN NERIAN
We have given them a fortune in broth and butter, meat and bread. No wonder they are alert.
ODELIA NERIAN
What will we do with them, Mother?
ALDRED NERIAN
That is for me to decide, Odelia, not your ranting mother.
AOWYN NERIAN
You are incapable of deciding anything, Aldred. You cannot even decide when to empty your bowels.
ALDRED NERIAN
Why should I when nature does such a superb job of choosing for me?
ODELIA NERIAN
Mother, give the three strangelings to me, for I would be an inventive slave-owner, extracting profit and pleasure from them.
AOWYN NERIAN
I would do it, Odelia, but the villagers have their greedy eyes on those foundlings, thus staying me from such a course.
ALDRED NERIAN
So what will you do with them, Aowyn…sell them to the highest bidder?
AOWYN NERIAN
Shut your gaping gob, you simpering fool. Odelia, the three must have their freedom.
ODELIA NERIAN
Why, oh why? We have saved them so they owe us their lives.
ALDRED NERIAN
The girl speaks my exact thoughts.
AOWYN NERIAN
Shut up, I say. They must go free so that I can find out what they are, and thus find a way to use them. Odelia, you will follow them in secret and tell me everything you see, hear, and smell.
ODELIA NERIAN
Gladly, so gladly, my mother. I love to watch in secret.
ALDRED NERIAN
Vile brat, I know I have felt your peeping eyes on me while I bathe.
ODELIA NERIAN
Why would I waste my sight on your repulsive flesh?
AOWYN NERIAN
We three are a lovely family. Now, Aldred, we must go at once and you must set those strangelings free.
(They set about their task with industry.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 10:
(GODRIC PENDRAGON is disconsolate. He no longer wishes to venture into the forest. ERNALINA and LENORA try to unravel his feelings.)
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
We have not entered the forest for days, Godric. I am aching to hunt, and find myself without purpose in these dragging hours.
LENORA PENDRAGON
Why have you forbidden us to take our bows in search of game?
GODRIC PENDRAGON
I do not trust the forest.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
Those three that we found, are they the cause of your mistrust?
LENORA PENDRAGON
Tell us, Father, what you feel. Is the forest corrupted?
GODRIC PENDRAGON
I cannot say. Something has changed, that is certain.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
We must hunt to live. We cannot stay out of the forest forever.
LENORA PENDRAGON
What could possibly befall us? The forest has always been like a mother to us.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
No more wheedling! We are staying well away from that damned forest until those three strangelings are far, far from Raven’s Claw.
LENORA PENDRAGON
But why? We saved them. They are unarmed and in our debt. What harm could they possibly do?
GODRIC PENDRAGON
How should I know, daughter? I’m a hunter, not a prophet.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
Then hunt. And let Lenora and me hunt too.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
We will not hunt until those three are gone.
LENORA PENDRAGON
Go with us, Father, to look upon the three strangelings. Perhaps you will see only three grateful strangers, and your premonitions will dissolve like honey in a cup of hot wine.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
We saved them because Lenora said they were us, and we were them. Perhaps we should look at our own souls to find the cause of our misgivings.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
No. Lenora is right. I will look into their eyes. Perhaps something of their souls will become manifest.
(They go to look upon the strangelings.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 11:
(LARGE LOFWINE, SMALL SASKIA, and BERTILDA-IN-BETWEEN await their fortunes in the locked dormitory.)
SASKIA
We are saved. My belly is full and my mind is clear.
BERTILDA
Yes, saved, but imprisoned. These village simpletons must know we are thieves.
LOFWINE
They know nothing, and that is why they lock us up. We are a mystery to them.
SASKIA
Then we must end the mystery.
BERTILDA
And be put in sacks and thrown in the river?
SASKIA
No. We will lie to them, and lie well.
LOFWINE
A clever lie to fool these gullible rustics.
BERTILDA
A story we will tell them, about our flight into the forest.
SASKIA
We will say a terrible thing pursued us. A monster.
LOFWINE
A thing of the night, a wolf-beast of incredible ferocity and power.
BERTILDA
We will tell them it destroyed our village, and means to destroy theirs.
SASKIA
All this and more we will tell them, and if we are agile in our lying, we will get all the gold and jewels in this village and escape to the sea.
LOFWINE
Let us huddle in a corner and plan more.
(They hurry off to elaborate on their false tale.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 12:
(COVENTINA DAEDBOT and DEVONA ENGEL emerge in the village square.)
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
Devona, my milky colleague, we will wait here in the village square until the mayor makes his daily proclamations. Then we will ask him if we can visit and woo the large strangeling.
DEVONA ENGEL
The mayor is an emasculated gelding. His wife is the true ruler of Raven’s Claw.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
True, true. Let us hope she does not covet the great beast for herself.
DEVONA ENGEL
If I am the one who wins the affection of the massive strangeling, will you hate me forever, Coventina?
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
You will not win, for I am more fair of face and comely of form.
DEVONA ENGEL
Ha! You have the flabby bottom of one who has spent too much time on a milking stool daydreaming of romantic victory.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
And what of you, with your drooping bosom, your fish-eyed goggle and your lank and dreary mop of sweat-soaked hair?
(FREYA GARMANGABIS, searching for the maids, prowls into the square.)
FREYA GARMANGABIS
Be thankful I have milked enough to relieve the strain on the udders of my cows. The laws of the village say you should be flogged for breaking your covenant with me.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
Perhaps Devona will be flogged, but none will dare touch me when the giant becomes my lover.
DEVONA ENGEL
Your assumptions may prove false, Coventina. Perhaps I am more homely, but I sense that I will be a formidable lovemaker.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
I was a fool to accept two such vile orphans into my employment.
(GRANFER GRIMBOLD hobbles onto the square with ROWENA GRIMBOLD close behind.)
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
Soon the mayor will babble his daily words.
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
And we will petition him to let us have the little strangeling.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
A child at last! We will quickly fatten her up.
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
And I will tell her stories at bedtime.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
It does not matter that she is already a woman. She will indulge us when she senses our addled devotion.
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
Who in the world does not want to be loved?
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
Who would not pretend to be a child in exchange for unconditional affection?
(LUCAN HOLT comes to the square, in hopes of seeing the in-between foundling. MAIDA follows close behind.)
MAIDA HOLT
Surely you will not make an abject display of yourself in front of the whole village, Lucan Holt?
LUCAN HOLT
I will do what I must to ease my guilt, Maida.
MAIDA HOLT
That in-between foundling is not your dead sister, you clot-brained imbecile.
LUCAN HOLT
I am certain that she is.
MAIDA HOLT
If you gain audience with her, she will reject you for the fool that you are.
LUCAN HOLT
I am prepared to give her everything.
MAIDA HOLT
Everything?
LUCAN HOLT
The woodshop, the hut, my life itself, if it comes to that.
MAIDA HOLT
Madness! Madness! What about me?
LUCAN HOLT
Each must do what must be done. Do what you must do.
MAIDA HOLT
Perhaps I will do you with an axe in the dark of night, you monstrous dog.
(ELSWYTH AMAETHON limpingly guides poor blind NELDA AMAETHON onto the village square.)
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
Oh, my aching joints! The village square at last.
NELDA AMAETHON
Is the degenerate mayor simpering on his podium yet?
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
No, no. I am surprised your nose does not tell you such a thing. The mayor is rank.
NELDA AMAETHON
Nonetheless, we must ask for the three strangelings. Their industry in our garden plot will save us from withering death by starvation.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
What if the three decline our offer of employment?
NELDA AMAETHON
You must wail and weep and cast piteous looks at them.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
And you, Nelda? What will you do to provoke their sympathy?
NELDA AMAETHON
I will stumble in my blindness, and cry out with pain and despair. Even monsters could not turn away from such abject need.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
All will be worth it if they succumb to our pleadings. They will grow a fine harvest, and we will lie well-fed in our warm cots as winter rages impotent beyond the walls of our hut.
(BROGAN IRENBEND rides to the village square on the back of ELDRIDA IRENBEND, as GOVANNON IRENBEND strides heartily behind.)
BROGAN IRENBEND
I do not know who hefts best, Mother, you or my giant father!
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
One day, little squirrel, you will have to heft yourself. Perhaps more use of your shrunken legs would encourage their growth.
BROGAN IRENBEND
(hauling himself down from his mother’s well-muscled back)
Perhaps I shall always be tiny.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
Perhaps.
GOVANNON IRENBEND
I was tiny until one special evening.
BROGAN IRENBEND
What brought on your spectacular growth, Father?
GOVANNON IRENBEND
An event blessed by a full moon, deep in the forest. But enough said.
BROGAN IRENBEND
Go on, go on, do not tease me with partial details.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
Morsels of truth will have to do for now, Brogan. Now let us await the seedy mayor’s daily proclamations.
(GODRIC, ERNALINA, and LENORA PENDRAGON glide onto the square, all graceful and adept at movement, being hunters by profession.)
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
We will request audience with the three strangelings. Godric, you must make an earnest effort to control your revulsion when you petition the mayor.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
I do not like to grovel for anything from that loathesome mayor.
LENORA PENDRAGON
Why was he selected for such a prestigious role, Father?
GODRIC PENDRAGON
In our foolishness, we grown-ups of Raven’s Claw thought we could control him, and thus have some semblance of control over our own lives.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
We thought his weakness and mutability would enable us to bend him to our will.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
But his accursed wife is the one who bends him, squeezing him till he farts out whatever she wants.
LENORA PENDRAGON
He does fart, that’s certain. And his daughter Odelia is beyond redemption.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
A nasty family, to be sure. I shall be glad when we can return to the forest. No putrid mayor defiles its leafy realm.
LENORA PENDRAGON
Then let’s go there at once.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
Not until we look into the eyes of the three strangelings, as we agreed. I must know something of their purpose.
(ALDRED NERIAN mounts the podium with false pomposity, his vile wife and child close behind.)
ALDRED NERIAN
Good people of Raven’s Claw, no proclamations today but one.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
Then make it, you lump!
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
Hush, Granfer. You are too eager for the little one.
AOWYN NERIAN
My husband the mayor has good news for you all, so crane your necks towards him and hear his mumbling!
ODELIA NERIAN
Such a proclamation he will make! You will see my clumsy father not as misshapen and vile, but as your jolly mayor!
ALDRED NERIAN
The three strangelings we hefted from the Forest of the Fallen have returned to the fullness of life, and in our magnanimity, we have released them from the locked dormitory.
LUCAN HOLT
Released! My moment is fast approaching.
MAIDA HOLT
All is happening too quickly.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
We must ready ourselves, Nelda. The three will appear in a trice.
NELDA AMAETHON
All depends on our efforts in this moment, Elswyth.
BROGAN IRENBEND
Father, Father, the three are free to mix with us!
GOVANNON IRENBEND
Aye, aye, little squirrel, they are to be free, but what will they choose to do?
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
Now we will see if they offer goodness or villainy.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
I must catch the eye of the giant. He must bear me away from the endless pulling of the teats and shovelling of the dung.
DEVONA ENGEL
If the giant chooses me, I fear you will do me harm, Coventina.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
Fools! You cannot catch the giant so easily, and even if you do, the very thing you desire may prove to be your doom.
LENORA PENDRAGON
The moment of peering into the eyes of the threesome is hard upon us, Father.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
Into the depths of their secret selves I must stare, if ever we are to return to the forest.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
All eyes are windows. No wonder so many folk avert their gaze so as to avoid discovery.
ALDRED NERIAN
And now, the three!
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 13:
(SASKIA, BERTILDA, and LOFWINE snake their way onto the podium, as ALDRED NERIAN yields the speaking-place to them. The villagers enter a deep hush, in awe of the three they saved.)
SASKIA
I am Small Saskia.
LOFWINE
I am Large Lofwine.
BERTILDA
I am Bertilda-in-Between.
SASKIA
We are from the lost village of Starling’s Breath.
LOFWINE
We are the only survivors.
BERTILDA
Our story is one of despair, and one of hope.
SASKIA
A darkness came upon our village.
LOFWINE
A darkness brought by a demon-thing.
BERTILDA
A demon-thing in the shape of a giant wolf.
SASKIA
A demon-thing, a fearsome beast whose ancient name is Grimmwulf.
LOFWINE
Grimmwulf came out of the primordial forests to the east, in search of prey.
BERTILDA
At first, Grimmwulf took the farm animals of the outlying peasants.
SASKIA
Chickens, goats, sheep, and cattle, all stolen by Grimmwulf. Stolen and eaten, with only blood-soaked earth to mark the gobbling.
LOFWINE
And then the first of the children was taken.
BERTILDA
A small, blonde-haired child playing in the forest, ragged off by Grimmwulf.
SASKIA
Dragged off and gobbled, with only a bloody twist of her yellow hair to tell of her fate.
LOFWINE
Then other children, too, were taken from under the very noses of their sleeping mothers and fathers.
BERTILDA
We people of Starling’s Breath armed ourselves well, and sortied into the forest to do battle with Grimmwulf. But nothing but the cold wind came forth to challenge our steel and arrows.
SASKIA
And then the old were taken, and the sick. And we few who struggled on locked our doors and boarded our windows and hid in the darkness of our cold huts.
LOFWINE
And as we hid, we heard the screams of those who were taken, and the horrible howls of Grimmwulf…
BERTILDA
Small Saskia and Large Lofwine came to me, begging for shelter in my stout hut. We watched through a peephole, and saw Grimmwulf.
SASKIA
He slavered blood from his chops.
LOFWINE
His eyes burned and his fangs glistened.
BERTILDA
We saw the mangled head of our mayor crushed in Grimmwulf’s jaws and gobbled like an oily, blood-soaked potato.
ALDRED NERIAN
Crushed! Aowyn, the mayor’s head, gobbled like a tuber!
SASKIA
The sun rose, and Grimmwulf slid back into the forest. And we three fled.
LOFWINE
We trudged by day, and hid at night, pushing into the turf of the forest and covering ourselves with wet leaves and soggy sticks.
BERTILDA
And as we lay quaking, we could hear the nearby piercing howls of Grimmwulf.
SASKIA
And at last, exhausted and near death, we collapsed in the Forest of the Fallen, where you found us and saved us.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
And what of Grimmwulf?
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
Would he gobble an old, dried, bit of boot like me?
LOFWINE
Grimmwulf bides his time, as he did at Starling’s Breath.
BERTILDA
He will wait until he is sure of his victims.
SASKIA
He will watch you until he knows your habits.
LOFWINE
Then he will strike, and the end will begin.
MAIDA HOLT
Does that in-between one look like your dead sister now, Lucan?
LUCAN HOLT
Perhaps Grimmwulf dragged my sister down into the muddy water and ate her up. Her body never bobbed to the surface.
BERTILDA
Grimmwulf stalks everywhere, even in the rivers.
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
Grimmwulf must have stolen the eggs from my womb.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
But how?
SASKIA
Grimmwulf’s breath sickens the womb and leaves a woman barren.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
Grimmwulf’s breath must have fallen upon our vegetables, Nelda.
NELDA AMAETHON
Aye, Elswyth. The withering is explained. And my eyes! Given, perhaps, by that doctor as an offering to the wolf-thing…
LOFWINE
When Grimmwulf takes you, blind woman, he will gobble the rest of you.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
Giant strangeling! You cannot protect me from Grimmwulf, for you yourself had to flee from the beast.
DEVONA ENGEL
What use is a big man! Now I have no need to seduce you, giant, and every need to leap into a hole and hide from Grimmwulf.
BERTILDA
No hole is deep enough.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
My cows! Alone and vulnerable to Grimmwulf’s depradations!
SASKIA
First your cows will Grimmwulf gobble, and then you.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
Now we know why the forest has become a haunted place.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
We hunters have become the hunted, helpless prey to the ravaging beast.
LENORA PENDRAGON
Father, your instincts were correct.
LOFWINE
The forest offers nothing but grisly death.
ALDRED NERIAN
The beast chewed the head of the mayor of Starling’s Breath! And soon, those massive jaws will close around my precious melon, squeezing and squeezing until my brains spurt through my nose holes!
AOWYN NERIAN
Slobbering coward! You think only of your head, while Odelia and I face horrid mutilation!
ODELIA NERIAN
I will not spy upon the three strangelings now, no matter what you say, Mothe. Grimmwulf would drag me off and bloody my tunic with his slavering jaws.
GOVANNON IRENBEND
The wolf is loose upon the land, coursing swiftly towards us, his gaze fixed upon the village of Raven’s Claw.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
What course of action is best? What will we do to cling to the thin thread of life?
LENORA PENDRAGON
All of Starling’s Breath gone, save these three haunted strangers. And now Raven’s Claw lies exposed and defenseless before the baleful gaze of Grimmwulf.
SASKIA
You have but one hope.
ALDRED NERIAN
Tell us, tell us. We will do anything.
LOFWINE
Grimmwulf is greedy for gold and precious things.
BERTILDA
Starling’s Breath was a poor village, but still the demon gobbled the few coins and copper rings he found.
SASKIA
Perhaps Raven’s Claw is wealthier. Perhaps you have enough precious things to rid yourselves of Grimmwulf.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
How, how?
LOFWINE
In our desperate search for a way to fight Grimmwulf, we found an ancient piece of parchment.
BERTILDA
It told of Grimmwulf’s greed…
SASKIA
It told that Grimmwulf would gobble gold, silver, and jewels until he was plugged, and then crawl heavily into a secret den and fall into a deep, deep sleep.
LOFWINE
And so he would sleep, for ten generations.
LUCAN HOLT
The village treasure! We must offer it to Lofwine!
MAIDA HOLT
The treasure is sacred, and kept by tradition in a locked casket buried in the mayor’s yard.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
Now we know why the treasure is sacred, and has been protected from use all these many generations.
BERTILDA
Your treasure will save you from Grimmwulf.
AOWYN NERIAN
But it is a fortune!
SASKIA
Do you prefer bloody death?
ODELIA NERIAN
What must we do with the treasure so that Grimmwulf will gobble it?
LOFWINE
Take it to the Forest of the Fallen, to the mossy vale where we three lay dying, and leave it there.
BERTILDA
The beast will find it just as he almost found us.
LUCAN HOLT
I have dreamt about that shining treasure, and how it could change our lives. But I never dreamt it would come to pass like this.
MAIDA HOLT
That treasure did me no good buried in ALDRED NERIAN’s yard. It may as well be buried in the belly of that beast.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
It was meant to save us one day, and that day has come.
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
It is only treasure. We are precious living flesh and brains.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
We can always get more treasure if we work and work, but we will never get our lives back if Grimmwulf gobbles us.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
Give the treasure to the beast and be done with it!
DEVONA ENGEL
I would give anything to avoid the bloody fangs of Grimmwulf.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
Dig up the casket! Haul it to the forest!
NELDA AMAETHON
I will dig too, even though I am blind.
BROGAN IRENBEND
Father, do you think we should give the treasure to Grimmwulf?
GOVANNON IRENBEND
The people of the village are doing what they think is best, little squirrel.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
And so we will accede to the will of the majority.
LENORA PENDRAGON
We hefted you three strangelings from the forest, and now we must heft the treasure into the forest. It is an expensive exchange.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
You brought Grimmwulf hither, and now we are forced to pay our communal fortune to rid him from Raven’s Claw.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
We gave you broth and butter, meat and milk, and saved you from death in the forest. And in return, you tell us we must part with our treasure.
SASKIA
Why do you three speak this way? Perhaps you were planning to steal the treasure.
LENORA PENDRAGON
Steal it?
LOFWINE
And now you cannot have it, you blame us.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
We are hunters. We do not steal.
BERTILDA
People of Raven’s Claw, you have thieves in your midst!
ODELIA NERIAN
Lock them up in the dormitory, father!
AOWYN NERIAN
Thieves or not, we must get them out of the way. We don’t have time to fuss with dissidents.
ALDRED NERIAN
Take hold of them!
(FREYA GARMANGABIS, COVENTINA DAEDBOT, DEVONA ENGEL, LUCAN HOLT, and MAIDA HOLT take firm hold of the PENDRAGONS.)
ALDRED NERIAN
Lock them in the dormitory and then come and help us heft the treasure to the forest! And hurry! Grimmwulf longs to crush my head!
(There is an exodus, leaving only the STRANGELINGS.)
SASKIA
Those hunters could have been our undoing.
LOFWINE
They are much cleverer than their crude and stupid neighbours.
BERTILDA
If the hunters were really clever, they would have left us to die in the forest. They were sentimental fools to save us.
SASKIA
We’ll let the villagers haul the treasure to the forest, and in the dead of night we will return to steal it.
LOFWINE
They will think Grimmwulf took it.
BERTILDA
We will leave some of our garments bloodied and torn, and the fools will think Grimmwulf gobbled us.
SASKIA
That casket of treasure may be heavy, but we will manhandle it to the sea, and hire a boat and crew to take us far from this accursed country.
(They saunter away, secure in the certainty of their future wealth.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 14:
(The people of Raven’s Claw heft the casket along the trail through the forest as they return to the very place they found the strangelings. GOVANNON, ERNALINA , LUCAN HOLT, and FREYA GARMANGABIS do the carrying. The rest, in procession, clump along behind. They pause for rest.)
AOWYN NERIAN
We are in the place where the strangelings lay on the day we found them.
ALDRED NERIAN
Let us hurry home. I can feel the breath of Grimmwulf upon my neck.
ODELIA NERIAN
I thought I saw the eyes of the demon thing glinting in the murky distance.
LUCAN HOLT
If I’m not mistaken, there is the musky smell of a huge beast in the foul air.
MAIDA HOLT
We must huddle together as we travel. A straggler could easily be taken and gobbled.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
I will be very glad to leave this treasure and flee from the forest.
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
The sooner we abandon this casket, the better.
DEVONA ENGEL
Why do we talk? We must go, and now.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
I am lame. What if I fall behind?
NELDA AMAETHON
If Elswyth falls behind, so shall I, because she is my guide.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
Govannon and I will carry you both if necessary.
GOVANNON IRENBEND
Are we not your neighbours, who are bound to help you when you are in need?
BROGAN IRENBEND
Please please let us leave this place. Can you not sense the terrible shadowy presence of Grimmwulf? (the villagers hurry away through the forest, desperate to return to their homes. The casket sits alone in the vale.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 15:
(Moonlight in the vale. The three thieves sidle into the small mossy place, and fall upon the treasure with delight.)
SASKIA
What a large casket!
LOFWINE
And it is ours for the taking!
BERTILDA
Our fortunes have been made!
SASKIA
Shut up! Was that a crackling in the trees beyond?
LOFWINE
You are joking with us.
BERTILDA
A crackling! Don’t be absurd, Saskia.
SASKIA
Quiet! There it is again!
LOFWINE Perhaps it is a squirrel.
BERTILDA Or a grass snake.
SASKIA
Something is moving in the forest. Something large…
LOFWINE
Large? You mean a man?
SASKIA Larger. I am certain of it.
BERTILDA
Are you trying to scare me and Lofwine away so you can steal the treasure for yourself?
LOFWINE
I will break your neck, Saskia, if you try to cheat us!
SASKIA
Can’t you hear it? Smell it? We must flee from this place!
(SASKIA clambers to her feet, intent on running away, but the awful GRIMMWULF, part wolf, part man, part demon, roars into the clearing and falls upon the screaming thieves, tearing at them and hurling them offstage like matchsticks, broken and dead. GRIMMWULF takes up the treasure and lopes into the forest.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 16:
(FREYA GARMANGABIS, COVENTINA, and DEVONA prepare for sleep in FREYA GARMANGABIS’s hut.)
COVENTINA DAEDBOT
It is past midnight. By now Grimmwulf must have gobbled the treasure.
DEVONA ENGEL
We are safe, thanks to the three strangelings.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
I wonder where they are? Perhaps eaten by Grimmwulf before the beast swallowed our treasure. Forgive me, my milkmaids, for my harsh domination of your young lives.
COVENTINA and DEVONA
(in unison)
We forgive you, Freya Garmangabis. And now, please forgive our laziness.
FREYA GARMANGABIS
I forgive you, my milkmaids.
(GRIMMWULF crashes in and falls upon the screaming trio, casting them about like ragdolls, and throwing them offstage, where he goes to gobble them. We hear their shrill screams, which end abruptly. GRIMMWULF returning almost immediately, crossing the stage and wiping his slavering chops after his quick feast.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 17:
(ELSWYTH and NELDA AMAETHON snuggle into their blankets.)
NELDA AMAETHON
Do you think the three strangelings will help us grow our garden, Elswyth?
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
I think they have gone away, Nelda. No one has seen them since our return.
NELDA AMAETHON
Perhaps they have gone back to Starling’s Breath, to start life anew.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
It’s not so bad to be lame or blind, so long as we are not being gobbled by a demon beast.
NELDA AMAETHON
We have each other, dear Elswyth, and that is enough.
ELSWYTH AMAETHON
Yes, it is enough.
(GRIMMWULF rushes at the sickly sisters and tumbles them about in their blankets, then drags them offstage, where he makes howls and grunts and slobbering noises, then returning almost immediately, loping across the stage as he wipes his chops.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 18:
(LUCAN HOLT and MAIDA HOLT cuddle in their hut.)
MAIDA HOLT
Hours ago, I cursed you and called you a madman. Now I want to snuggle with you.
LUCAN HOLT
Perhaps we were both in the spell of Grimmwulf. But now we are free and, with your permission, we shall have a child together.
MAIDA HOLT
Do you promise to stop thinking about your dead sister?
LUCAN HOLT
I no longer need to think of her now I know Grimmwulf was the agent of her death.
MAIDA HOLT
At last we are free to love each other.
(They embrace as GRIMMWULF falls upon them and throws them offstage and gobbles them, just as he did the others. He crosses the stage, perhaps with an article of clothing in his teeth, well-satisfied with his feast.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 19:
(GRANFER and ROWENA GRIMBOLD walk in the darkness.)
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
It is good to walk in the darkness without fear.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
I am at peace. I do not even want that little strangeling anymore.
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
Being saved from Grimmwulf makes me understand that I should be satisfied with what I have and stop wanting what I can’t have.
GRANFER GRIMBOLD
You have me and my love, Rowena.
ROWENA GRIMBOLD
Just as you have me and mine, Granfer.
(GRIMMWULF falls upon them, and lets out a great roar. They faint. GRIMMWULF hauls them away for more feasting, complete with the noises of a bad-mannered gobbler. He crosses the stage somewhat heavily, having consumed so many villagers. He perhaps burps long and loud.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 20:
(ALDRED NERIAN, AOWYN, and ODELIA NERIAN confer about the day’s doings.)
AOWYN NERIAN
I had hoped to have that treasure for myself one day. What a vile turn of events!
ODELIA NERIAN
Still, we are alive, Mother, and can go on to cheat the villagers another day.
ALDRED NERIAN
I almost soiled my trousers in the forest. I’d pay anything to keep Grimmwulf from my door.
AOWYN NERIAN
You are a vile, useless coward, Aldred. You deserve to be gobbled by Grimmwulf.
(GRIMMWULF rushes in and tosses ODELIA and AOWYN NERIAN out. The terrified ALDRED NERIAN, prostrate with fear, screams and screams as GRIMMWULF drags him away to his ignominious fate. GRIMMWULF shortly returns, now completely satiated, perhaps rubbing his belly and making sounds of contentment.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 21:
(BROGAN and ELDRIDA IRENBEND await the return of GOVANNON.)
BROGAN IRENBEND
When will Father come home, Mother?
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
When he has completed his duties.
BROGAN IRENBEND
What duties?
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
You ask too many questions, little squirrel.
BROGAN IRENBEND
I am growing smaller every day.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
Yes. But do not despair, Brogan. All will be well.
(GOVANNON IRENBEND joins them. He is well-satisfied.)
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
Govannon! Is it time?
GOVANNON IRENBEND
Yes, Eldrida. Come, Brogan, leap upon my back. We are leaving Raven’s Claw forever.
BROGAN IRENBEND
Leaving our home?
GOVANNON IRENBEND
Don’t worry, little squirrel, we go to a new and better home, far, far from here.
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
See how fit and healthy your father looks, Brogan?
BROGAN IRENBEND
And yet I am smaller than ever.
GOVANNON IRENBEND
I have done all I set out to do in this village, Brogan. I am sorry that you must dwindle, but it is our sad fortune to see you always shrinking.
BROGAN IRENBEND
Will I disappear one day?
ELDRIDA IRENBEND
All of us disappear in the end, Brogan.
GOVANNON IRENBEND
Come along, on my back. The forest trails are beckoning.
(BROGAN IRENBEND clambers on his father’s back. The family makes their way into the depths of the forest, never to be seen in those parts again.)
Grimmwulf by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 22:
(GODRIC and ERNALINA PENDRAGON wait in the locked dormitory. LENORA approaches them.)
LENORA PENDRAGON
Mother! Father! The door is no longer locked!
GODRIC PENDRAGON
Then we are free.
LENORA PENDRAGON
And there is a casket of treasure by the door, and this parchment.
(LENOR hands the parchment to her wondering mother.)
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
(reading the runes carefully)
The parchment bears the name “Grimmwulf”. It says the treasure has fallen to us to do with what we will. And it begs us not to grieve for our neighbours, for they failed the test of true neighbourliness and abandoned us to their fear. And Godric, it says we Pendragons are to be lord and lady of this land, which has been reborn.
GODRIC PENDRAGON
I am a hunter, not a lord.
LENORA PENDRAGON
Father, we three and the casket of treasure are in the belly of Grimmwulf. The land is Grimmwulf, and the land has spoken. There has been a rebirth. We must rule, and wisely.
ERNALINA PENDRAGON
How do you know this, Lenora?
LENORA PENDRAGON
Those we saved were meant to die. Our act of kindness kindled the spirit of Grimmwulf. The three strangelings told lies that were the truth. The haunted, hateful suffering of our neighbours has ended. All begins anew.
GODRIC and ERNALINA
(joining LENORA in a tableau, facing the audience and speaking to them in unison)
All begins anew.
LENORA
(to the audience)
All begins anew.