The words “this wide, beautiful, crazy world of ours” have been part of my introduction for this podcast for years. In my experience, this is an accurate picture and yet the meaning and context for the descriptors: “wide,” “beautiful,” and “crazy,”–especially “crazy,” —has changed over time. Many things happen that surprise me. Developments in all areas of life that I didn’t imagine, let alone predict. A level of chaos and uncertainty that I never expected to entertain in my lifetime.
Among the pieces of good news, and there are many, is this: we’re in the boat together my friend. Called to re-evaluate and re-imagine what has importance and value. Called to change. The company that you keep and the places that you look for guidance will determine how you feel about this present moment.
This line of thinking brought me to the story that I want to tell you today, a fairy tale called “Iron John,” or “Iron Hans” if you look for the Grimm Brother’s version. This fairy tale resurfaced in the popular imagination in early the 1990s when Robert Bly shared it with men in need of story work. Bly also published a book under that title that you might find interesting.
I’m going to tell the story in two parts over two episodes, so you and I both have some time to let the details and images of the story sink in. Time to imagine with and through it. This is part 1. I’ll tell the rest of “Iron John” in the next episode.
Now on with the story….
Transcript of Iron John and finding the wild man
Hello, and welcome to Myth Matters, storytelling and conversation about mythology and why myth matters to your life today. I’m your host and personal mythologist Dr. Catherine Svehla. Wherever you may be in this wide, beautiful, crazy world of ours, you are part of this story circle.
The words “this wide, beautiful, crazy world of ours” have been part of my introduction for this podcast for years. In my experience, this is an accurate picture and yet the meaning and context for the descriptors: “wide,” “beautiful,” and “crazy,”–especially “crazy,” —has changed over time. Many things happen that surprise me. Developments in all areas of life that I didn’t imagine, let alone predict. A level of chaos and uncertainty that I never expected to entertain in my lifetime.
Among the pieces of good news, and there are many, is this: we’re in the boat together my friend. Called to re-evaluate and re-imagine what has importance and value. Called to change. The company that you keep and the places that you look for guidance will determine how you feel about this present moment.
This line of thinking brought me to the story that I want to tell you today, a fairy tale called “Iron John,” or “Iron Hans” if you look for the Grimm Brother’s version. This fairy tale resurfaced in the popular imagination in early the 1990s when Robert Bly shared it with men in need of story work. Bly also published a book under that title that you might find interesting.
I’m going to tell the story in two parts over two episodes, so you and I both have some time to let the details and images of the story sink in. Time to imagine with and through it. This is part 1. I’ll tell the rest of “Iron John” in the next episode.
As always I invite you to relax and listen to the story. Notice the details or moment in the story that attract your attention. This is an opening into the story for you right now, part of the power and a way that the story can work on us, educate and soften us.
Part 1 of “Iron John”
Once upon a time, there was a king who had a great forest full of all kinds of wild animals near his castle. One day he sent a huntsman out to shoot a deer. Evening fell and the huntsman did not come back.
“Perhaps he has had an accident” said the king. The following day he sent out two other huntsmen to search for him, but they did not return either. On the third day, he summoned all his huntsmen and said, “Search through the whole forest and do not give up until you have found all three.”
But none of these came home again either, nor were any of the hounds from the pack that they had taken with them ever seen again.
From that time on, no one dared to go into these woods. They lay there in deep quiet and solitude. All that one saw from there was an occasional eagle or hawk flying overhead.
This situation lasted for many years. Then an unknown huntsman presented himself to the king seeking a position. “I have no need for a huntsman,” the king told him. But the huntsman volunteered to go into the dangerous woods.
The king did not want to give his permission. “It is haunted in there” he said, “I am afraid that you will do no better than the others, and that you will never come out again.”
The huntsman answered, “Sir, I will proceed at my own risk. I’m not afraid.”
The huntsman set off into the woods with his dog. It was not long before the dog picked up a scent. The dog started to follow it but had run only a few steps when it came to a deep pool and could go no further. A naked arm reached out of the water, seized the dog, and pulled it under.
When the huntsman saw this, he went back and got three men. They returned with buckets and bailed the water out of the pool. When they could see to the bottom, there was a wild man lying there. His body was brown like rusty iron, and his hair hung over his face down to his knees. They pulled him out, bound him with cords, and led him away to the castle.
Everyone was greatly astonished at the wild man. The king had him put into an iron cage in his courtyard, and forbid anyone to open the cage door, on pain of death. He gave the key to the cage to the queen, for safe keeping.
Now everyone could go safely into the woods again.
The king had a son who was eight years old. One day, the boy went to play in the courtyard. During his game, his golden ball fell into the cage.
The boy ran to the cage and said, “Give me my ball.”
“First you must open the door for me,” answered the wild man.
“No” said the boy, “I will not do that. The king has forbidden it.” And he ran away.
The next day he came again and demanded his ball.
The wild man said, “Open my door,” but the boy would not do so.
On the third day the king went out hunting. The boy went out to the wild man and said, “Even if I wanted to, I could not open the door. I do not have the key.”
“It is under your mother’s pillow” the wild man said, “You can get it there.”
The boy really wanted his ball back. He threw all caution to the wind and got the key. The cage door opened with difficulty and the boy pinched his finger. When it was open, the wild man stepped out, gave him the golden ball, and hurried away.
The boy looked at the empty cage. He was scared. He called after the wild man, “Oh, wild man, do not go away, or I shall get a beating.”
The wild man turned around and picked him up. He set the boy on his shoulders and ran into the woods.
When the king came home he noticed the empty cage. He asked the queen how it had happened. She knew nothing about it and looked for the key, but it was gone. She called her son, but no one answered.
The king sent people out to look for his son but they did not find him. Then he could easily guess what had happened. A great sorrow ruled at the royal court.
The wild man ran far into the dark woods. Then he took the boy down from his shoulders. “You will never see your father and mother again” he said, “but I will keep you with me, for you have set me free and I have compassion for you. If you do what I tell you, it will go well with you. I have enough treasures and gold, more than anyone in the world.”
He made a bed of moss for the boy, who soon fell asleep. The next morning the man took him to a spring and said, “Look, this golden spring is as bright and clear as crystal. You shall sit beside it and take care that nothing falls into it, otherwise it will be polluted. I shall come every evening to see if you have obeyed my order.”
The boy sat down at the edge of the spring. He saw how sometimes a golden fish and sometimes a golden snake appeared from within, and took care that nothing fell into the water. But while he was sitting there, his finger started to hurt. It hurt him so fiercely that he forgot and put it into the water. He quickly pulled it out again but his finger was completely covered with gold. He tried to wipe it off but the gold stayed, no matter how hard he rubbed.
That evening the wild man came back. He looked at the boy. “What has happened to the spring?” he asked.
“Nothing, nothing,” the boy answered. He held his finger behind his back, so the man wouldn’t see it.
“You have dipped your finger into the water” the man said. “This time I will let it go, but be careful that you do not let anything else fall in.”
Very early the next morning the boy was already sitting by the spring, keeping watch. His finger still hurt him. He rubbed it across his head. Unfortunately, a hair fell into the spring. He quickly pulled it out, but it was already completely covered with gold.
The wild man came and he already knew what had happened. “You have let a hair fall into the spring,” he said. “I will overlook this once more, but if it happens a third time then the spring will be polluted, and you will no longer be able to stay with me.”
On the third day the boy sat by the spring and did not move his finger, however much it hurt him. But time passed slowly for him, and he looked at the reflection of his face in the water. He bent down lower and lower, wanting to look straight into his own eyes. His long hair fell from his shoulders down into the water. He quickly straightened himself up, but all the hair on his head was already covered with gold and glistened like the sun. He was terribly frightened. He took his handkerchief and tied it around his head, so the man wouldn’t be able to see his hair.
When the man came, he already knew everything and said, “Untie the handkerchief.”
The golden hair streamed forth, and no excuse that the boy could offer was of any use.
“You have failed the test,” the wild man said, “and you can stay here no longer. Go out into the world. There you will learn what poverty is. But because you are not bad at heart, and because I mean well by you, I will grant you one thing: If you are ever in need, go into the woods and cry out, ‘Iron John,’ and then I will come and help you. My power is great, greater than you think, and I have more than enough gold and silver.”
You probably recognize the contours of this story and some of the elements, the golden ball for example, and the king who can’t quite manage his kingdom any longer. The fact that his young son ends up the woods, however unwittingly, the place that the king dared not go. And of course, there is a test for the young boy, and he fails it.
There are many stories that share this plot and yet we seem to need them all. Stories like this one tell us about the process of change, about how people and kingdoms develop, evolve, mature, and renew themselves. Something or someone unfamiliar, perhaps scary or dangerous, an emissary from a different world, will appear. You cross paths with them intentionally or by mistake. Their help is necessary, and they assign tasks. Impossible tasks and tests with real consequences.
At some point, each of us inhabits this story line. At least once. The stories provide some clues about how to get to the “happily ever after” part. These clues are found in the story. The possibilities that the story holds for you can be explored further by posing some questions. I’ll offer a few that might be useful for your personal reflection, after we take a look at the story.
Here are some things that I notice at this point in the story.
“Iron John” begins with a king, the ultimate authority and creator of the rules, the one who protects the established order. A fairy tale king symbolizes the status quo and state of the community or kingdom. This king controls and owns the great woods full of wild animals. He gets what he wants from the woods to satisfy his desires as he defines them, deer and rabbit and fox perhaps, but he doesn’t really know what’s in there.
When mystery and danger appear, he doesn’t go into the woods himself in search of answers. When all of his huntsmen are lost, he simply tells people to stay away.
Someone from outside the kingdom, the unknown huntsman, is the one who finds the wild man. It seems that he knew what or who he was dealing with. He knew how to get to the bottom of the pool.
When the king sees the wild man, he puts him in a cage. Containing something dangerous is the only issue on his mind. There’s no evidence of curiosity. The rest of the people in the kingdom seem to share the king’s ignorance about the wild man. They’re fascinated. They’ve never seen such a being before. As for the queen, she plays her role in the king’s plan.
The king has a young son. King’s often have children in fairy tales, or desperately try to gain one, because a child symbolizes the possibility for growth and change and renewal. Each of has an aspect of self, a dimension of our psyche, who operates as the king. Each of us also has a young self, a child, something evergreen in the psyche that is receptive, learning, and able to refresh what has gotten stale and stuck. This is true even as we age. The tasks may change, as the different stages of life bring new challenges and opportunities, and yet there is flexibility as long as it is nurtured.
The presence of gold in the story tells us that what’s at stake is quite valuable. Gold has been material wealth for a very long time, and it also symbolizes the highest essence of something or someone. Golden balls are often interpreted as symbols of the self. Losing a golden ball signals a change, a call to maturity. I wonder about the king’s young son, who traded the security of his father’s kingdom for an adventure with the wild man. He didn’t do this on purpose, in the way that an adult might have. His strong attachment to the ball, his willingness to transgress, and his impetuous opening of the cage, his fear and running away, all tell us something about the nature of our younger self. Thank goodness our psychic community contains some youth, right? Although you might shake your head a little at this young boy, he is essential to evolution and transformation in consciousness.
Sometimes, life is a matter of making mistakes. In Part 2 we’ll discover the consequences of the boy’s failure to protect the wild man’s magical spring.
I’m not going to comment about the wild man, Iron John, today. Better to let his presence in the story stimulate your ideas about him. Let me pose some questions now, questions that I’m asking myself.
How much control does your king exert today, and is he preoccupied with what he perceives to be dangerous? Maybe preoccupied enough to overlook important opportunities?
Are you in touch with the youthful aspect of your psyche, the one who treasures the golden ball and will allow himself to be carried away by the wild man?
Who or what is the wild man in your imagination? The wild man in our story says that he has more gold and silver than anyone. If you ran off with the wild man yourself and got his help, perhaps his wealth, what would it be, for you?
Let’s stop here for today. If this story intrigues you, please listen to part 2 in the next podcast, which will be available in a couple of weeks.
Before we part ways, I want to give a big welcome to new subscribers- Brandi, Jerry, Jacqueline, and Anastasia. Thanks for subscribing for email announcements about the podcast and my other programs.
If you’re new to Myth Matters, I invite you to head over to the Mythic Mojo website, where you will find information about Myths Matters, a variety of ways to subscribe to this podcast, and also information about the other work that I do with people to use stories to gain insight into life.
Also, a shout out to the patrons and supporters of this podcast whose financial contributions keep it all going. In particular, thank you to Ronny for becoming a new patron on Patreon. And thank you to my long-time patrons, Carmen, Belinda, and Paula! Your support of Myth Matters makes a huge difference for me, as the podcast is literally a one-woman show, and I do all of the work to create and share it with you.
If you are finding something of value here in Myths Matters and can afford $5 or $10/month to sustain this podcast, I hope that you’ll join me on Patreon too.
I have a poem for you before I say good bye for now. It’s titled “Sleeping in the Forest” by Mary Oliver, and it brings to mind my image of the king’s young son, sleeping on the bed of moss prepared by the wild man. I hope you like it too.
Sleeping in the Forest
I thought the earth
remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.
—Mary Oliver
I invite you to email me if you have comments or questions about today’s episode. I always enjoy hearing from you.
And that’s it for me, Catherine Svehla and Myth Matters. Thank you so much for listening. Take good care of yourself, and until next time, happy mythmaking and keep the mystery in your life alive.
