The Ash, the Oak and the Yew

As I've said before, God is creative, so I'm pretty sure He loves it when we're creative too. Here's a fairytale for ya, because reading smart stuff all the time is boring :)

There were once three trees; an ash, an oak and a yew. All three trees were very wise, and great leaders from far and wide came to ask for their advice.

   They were the oldest trees in the forest, perhaps in the whole world. They stood in a clearing at the top of a hill. The ash was very cruel and enjoyed watching others suffer, and he considered himself far above ordinary creatures. The oak was very kind and loved all living things, from the children who gathered his acorns to the gnats that landed on his bark. The yew, the most magical of all trees, was very strange and she spoke honestly or not at all.

   One day the Queen of the Fairies came to the hilltop where the trees stood. She was tall and willowy, she wore a gown made of butterfly wings and her silver hair flowed behind her like a veil of mist.

   She knew the disposition of each of the trees and so she went first to the ash because he was aloof like she was. She said to him, “Ash! My husband has left me because he says he has fallen in love with another woman. How can I win him back?”

   The ash thought for a moment before replying, “you must kill this other woman and he will return to you.”

   The Queen went away and followed the Ash’s advice. She poisoned the woman her husband loved but he did not return to her. So the Queen had the ash chopped down.

   Then she went to the oak because she knew he would help her as best he could and she asked him the same question she had asked the ash.

   The oak answered immediately, “the only way to win him back is to love him, my lady.”

   So the Queen went to her husband, who was grieving, and made him a delicious meal and comforted him in his sadness. But she had not been kind to him for a hundred years and he did not trust her. So he left in the night without telling the Queen where he was going. She ordered the oak to be cut down as well.

   Finally the Queen of the Fairies went to the yew tree and asked her the same question she had asked the ash and the oak.

   Now, the yew had watched her brothers be killed at the hands of the Queen and she would only reply honestly or not at all, so she thought a long time before giving her answer.

   “My lady,” she said, “I cannot answer your question.”

   “Why not?” asked the Queen, imperiously.

   “Because I have seen your heart. If the king knows even a fraction of what is there he will never return to you because you have no real love to offer him.”

   At the yew tree’s words the Queen flew into such a rage that she ran like the wind back down the hill to get an axe and chop the tree down herself. But when she returned the yew was gone. Only a deep hole in the earth showed where she had been.

   As the yew tree predicted the Queens husband never returned to her. The ash became the beams and door of a house but after only a year the house was abandoned and still stands empty today. The oak, on the other hand, was made into a handsome set of doors for a castle and kept its people safe for a very long time.

   Nobody knows what happened to the yew tree, but some say that she hid in a church yard where the Queen of the Fairies would never dare follow.

   The End

I tried to think of a good moral for this story but all I could come up with was this: always give honest advice but be careful who you give it to. It’s actually part of a longer fairytale-type-novel that I’m writing so I didn’t write it with a moral in mind, although it fits in nicely with the broader story.

Inspired by my grandma who regularly took me on jaunts to fairyland by way of the magic swing in her garden.