Rumpelstiltskin. Part Two

Part Two.

King Herbert Marries.

After the king’s first wife died, he thought of himself and his beastly urges, saying to himself: ‘I am in need of a queen for my urges are many and my need are unfulfilled’. One day while walking among his sheep, the king spotted a women whom caused desire in his loins. And the king courted the women and the women the king, for he had riches and she had none. The future queen accompanied the king on many trips to different lands. One morning, the king found all that he had wished for came to pass. The king began to pave the way for the people to accept his impending marriage. He began relating how God allowed the first queen to die, because she could not have kept up such a grueling pace, could not have remained a companion and wife to him in this new phase of his kingship. He took the women half his age in marriage, and the pretty became the second queen who would sit with him at many banquets in other lands.

 Wealth of a Nation.

Over time the king and all the kingdoms leaders demanded supreme respect, because they had the most gold and silver. As long as their empirical selves and power base was not shaken, the king could do as he pleased. While the governors of the land did what they wanted and ripped off everyone, the king kept the people happy with wonderful scenarios of a coming world kingdom. Day after day he served up to the people a dose of mush, brainwashing the people into thinking that the land of milk and honey was soon to materialize.

The king thought that the people would continue to fear him and that they would never break the laws of the land, and thus the civil and ruling authorities would be safe from any rebellion or coup and could continue their criminal activities against the people. It was the perfect setup. And for this, the governors were allowed any gold or silver that they could shake from the general masses of people in the name of God and king. Both the governors and the king lived happily together, as each needed the other. For the king had a legislative board to pass laws that suited his purpose and had those who were willing to crackdown and brutally enforce such legislation at the point of a sword. As wealth is an instrument of power, force is the instrument of policy.

Disenchantment in the Kingdom.

And it came to pass that many of the people became more and more disenchanted with the lifestyles of those who ruled over them. They came to see the hypocrisy of the king and that of his henchmen. The king could now no longer placate the mesmerized masses that formerly rocked together with arms raised and eyes closed in a hypnotic stupor within the court of the king! The lavish quarters of the king, expensive chariots, luxurious homes, costly clothes, and the finest cuisine caused the people to grumble. For the people lived in squalor and drove chariots that would lose their wheels, their clothes tattered and worn, and their food was of the lowest quality. The king had even forbidden the use of shamans when illness was to strike a family member, yet the king was exempt when he himself was afflicted.

Divorce and Scandal.

After some time, the king became increasingly disenchanted with his marriage. The mighty ruler had grown disgusted with his queen, and it was his belief there had been a plot to remove him from his kingship and place him into a mental institution. But what could he do to save face?

The king had wanted it to appear that the queen was committing a lawless offense so he could invoke the scripture of old which said: “If the unbeliever depart, let him (her) depart….” As king he could change the laws of the land on a whimper. And change the law he did! The king disallowed the women of the kingdom the one luxury that they had to hold onto their self esteem. The king outlawed the painting of faces! An old custom that the king made legal in order to please the queen before they married!

So it came to pass that the court of the law was to grant the king and his queen a decree of divorce. The queen had disclosed to the court that the king had boasted of an incestuous relationship with his daughter from the first queen. The court not wishing the king to suffer, forbade the telling of the incest to the people of the kingdom. But not all wished to protect the king, for there was found within the kingdom a governor who spoke truth. A man who had moral direction.