Slain By Hungary’s King 9.6.2008 Poem by Margaret Alice

Once a mother, a gossip-monger, had beaten her son
for refusing to divulge his dream, his crying attracted
their King whose youngest daughter got beaten by him
for insisting on learning his dream

Saved from the gallows by Hungary’s King who resolved
to learn his dream, he slapped the princess who, at her
father’s behest, was doing her best to hear his dream,
and he was locked up

War-instigating riddles had been sent to Hungary’s King
by the Sultan of Turkey and the answers came from the
locked-up son, he was released, his magic sword
slaying the Turkish horde

The Princess was betrothed to him, he became King,
then he thanked his mother for beating him, thus
attracting their King; now he was finally free to
divulge his dream:

He had dreamt that he became Hungary’s King; had he
told his mother and she told everyone, Hungary’s King
would have slain him…

From Folk Tales of the Magyars, Andrew Lang Collection