The Moon-Flower

The Moon-Flower by Laurence Housman

"The Moon-Flower" tells of Princess Berenice, daughter of a Moon-king, who lives in a silver chamber inside the hollow Moon, from which she can look down upon the Earth. When her mother's pearl slips from her hand and falls to Earth along a moonbeam, she follows it down, intending to retrieve it and return before the next full moon. Meanwhile, on Earth, a dying king leaves his three elder sons kingdoms but gives his youngest son only a pair of enchanted travelling shoes, promising they will lead him to fortune. Wearing the shoes, the young Prince gets lost hunting in a forest. One shoe vanishes overnight; when he discards the other in frustration, it runs off on its own, and he chases it barefoot until it leads him to a walled bronze house. Inside he finds opulent, empty rooms and a locked garden covered by an almost invisible silver net that traps whatever is within. At dusk the house's doors open, and the Prince meets Berenice, luminous and pale by day, radiant at night. She reveals she is a mortal Moon-dweller held captive by a lovesick, vengeful gnome who takes the form of a Red Mole; having failed to win her hand while she searched Earth for her pearl, he imprisoned her behind the netted walls for a year, cutting her off from any reflecting pool through which she might dive back into the Moon's mirrored face and escape. The Prince and Berenice fall in love. She explains the lore of her people: Moon-dwellers grow insubstantial and weightless in sunlight, able to ride moonbeams down to Earth, but regain solid form at night; to return home they must find still water reflecting the full moon, kiss the reflection, and cry to be let in as a "Moon-child." Berenice gives the Prince her opal ring, marrying him and making him one of the Moon-people in heart, though he remains of the Earth too. The Prince sets about digging a well into a pool deep enough to catch the full moon's reflection, laboring daily while Berenice's beauty waxes with the coming moon. On the eve of the full moon the pool is ready, but as the Prince runs to fetch jewels for her mother, the Red Mole seizes his chance: Berenice vanishes, leaving only the mole scurrying underground. The Prince searches frantically and grieves, until a dream hints that a mole, a full moon, and a leap into water are connected — and he notices a strange white, sunflower-like bloom drooping by the well, seemingly sharing his sorrow. Testing the flower with whispered questions, he discovers it can answer by bowing or shaking its head — and realizes the flower is Berenice herself, transformed by the vengeful gnome to keep her rooted and unable to reach the reflected moon. Heartbroken but devoted, the Prince keeps vigil beside the Moon-flower, sleeping beneath it each night as it bends to rest against his face. Months pass. He notices a small mound rising at the flower's roots, which grows steadily — evidence, he realizes, of the Red Mole's continued underground mischief, though the flower's beauty only strengthens with each full moon. Eventually, during another full moon, silvery laughter rises from beneath the mound: digging it open, the Prince frees a tiny quicksilver child who springs out laughing, only for the enraged Red Mole to give chase. The child dashes to the pool and leaps into the moon's reflected image, which opens like a "door of pearl" to admit him before closing again, foiling the mole. A month later, watching an eclipse cross the moon, the Prince realizes the Earth's shadow can serve as a passage too. The silver child, now on the Moon, touches the Earth's shadow on the moon's face and is drawn back down through it into the pool on Earth, emerging to embrace the Moon-flower and call her "mother" — Berenice. His kiss restores her to her true form, and she learns her son has been named Gammelyn. Reunited, the Prince, Berenice, and Gammelyn all leap together into the pool as the Red Mole and the full moon's reflection converge. The Prince invokes his Earth-child status to pass through the Earth's shadow, then all three invoke their Moon-child status to pass through the Moon's reflected face, arriving safely in Berenice's father's silver palace on the Moon. Looking back down the moonbeam, they see the thwarted Red Mole below; the Prince hurls down his old travelling shoes, which strike and kill the gnome. The tale closes noting that Gammelyn and the shoes have further adventures told elsewhere, while the Prince and Berenice live out the rest of their days in a happiness "too great even to be told of."

By Laurence Housman · Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Romance · 7,710 words

First lines

Princess Berenice sat by a window of her father's palace, looking out of the Moon. In her hand she held a great white pearl, and smiled, for it was her mother's birthday gift. The chamber in which she sat was of pure silver, and in the floor was a small window by which she could see out of the Moon and right down on to the Earth, where the moonbeams were going. There it lay like a great green emerald; and wherever the clouds parted to let the moonbeams go through, she could see the tops of the trees, and broad fields with streams running by.

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The Moon-Flower is listed on Textopian as a short story by Laurence Housman, dated Date unknown.

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fantasy · fairy tale · children's literature · Victorian literature · British literature · magical realism · romance · adventure · folklore · mythical beings · enchantment · moral tale

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