Part 2 of “Iron John,” a fairy tale popularized by Robert Bly, and a meditation on outer riches, inner rewards, self-worth, and the quest to own your gold.
Transcript of Iron John (part 2) Owning your gold
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.
This program is Part 2 of “Iron John,” a Grimm Brother’s fairy tale. As I mentioned in part 1, this story received recognition in the 1990s, when Robert Bly wrote a book for men about the story and what it suggests about the path men face in becoming full, authentic human beings. At this time here in the US and other parts of the world, there is a lively conversation about sexism and oppression, about gender, and about the plentiful, serious problems that patriarchy poses to all of us.
Although the protagonist in this fairy tale is male, it speaks to the diverse members in the inner community of every person’s psychology. Each of us has a king and a queen, for example, and the capacity for growth represented by children in these stories.
So, let’s return to the story. You recall that a wild man was discovered in a pool of water, out in the king’s forest. The king had this man put in a cage, and there he was, in the palace courtyard, until a valuable golden ball, property of the young prince, rolled into the cage. The prince stole the key to the cage from underneath his mother the queen’s pillow, and freed the wild man named Iron John, in exchange for the return of his ball. But realizing that his act would be discovered and that he would be severely punished, the boy went off with the wild man into the woods.
Iron John gave the young prince the task of guarding his magical spring that turned things to gold. But the boy failed this test so he’s been sent off into the world alone. Alone but with the promise that Iron John will come to his aid if he needs help. And the boy now has a head of bright shining gold hair.
As always I invite you to relax and listen to the story. Let the images evoked by the story take shape in your mind’s eye. What we see and how we feel in their presence is a response deeper than the words we find to describe it, and a way that the story can work on us.
Part 2 of Iron John or Iron Hans
The prince left the woods and walked by beaten and unbeaten paths, on and on until at last, he reached a great city. He looked for work but he was not able to find any because he had not learned a trade by which he could make a living. Finally, he went to the castle and asked if they would take him in.
The people at court did not know how they would be able to use him, but they took a liking to him, and told him to stay. Then the cook took him into service, saying that he could carry wood and water, and rake up the ashes.
Once when no one else was at hand, the cook ordered him to carry the food to the royal table. Because he did not want them to see his golden hair, the boy kept his cap on. Nothing like this had ever happened to the king before and he said, “When you approach the royal table you must take your hat off.”
“Oh, sir,” he answered, “I cannot. I have an ugly sore on my head.”
The king summoned the cook and scolded him, asking him how he could take such a boy into his service. The cook was to send him away at once. But the cook took pity on him, and let him trade places with gardener’s boy.
Now the boy had to plant and water the garden, hoe and dig, and put up with the wind and bad weather.
Once in summer when he was working alone in the garden, the day was so hot that he took his hat off so that the air would cool him. As the sun shone on his hair it glistened and sparkled. The rays fell into the princess’s bedroom, and she jumped up to see what it was.
She saw the boy and called out to him, “Boy, bring me a bouquet of flowers.”
He quickly put on his cap, picked some wildflowers, and tied them together.
As he was climbing the steps with them, the gardener met him and said, “How can you take the princess a bouquet of such common flowers? Quick! Go and get some other ones, and choose only the most beautiful and the rarest ones.”
“Oh, no,” replied the boy, “the wild ones have a stronger scent, and she will like them better.”
When he got into the room, the princess said, “Take your cap off. It is not polite to keep it on in my presence.”
He responded, “I cannot do that. I have a sore on my head.”
But she took hold of his cap and pulled it off. His golden hair rolled down onto his shoulders. It was a magnificent sight. He wanted to run away, but she held him by his arm and gave him a handful of ducats. He went away with them but he did not care about the gold.
He took the gold pieces to the gardener, saying, “I am giving these things to your children to play with.”
The next day the princess called to him again, asking him to bring her a bouquet of wildflowers. When he went in with it, she immediately grabbed at his cap and wanted to take it away from him, but he held it firmly with both hands. She gave him another handful of ducats. He did not want to keep them and handed them to the gardener for his children to play with.
On the third day it was no different. She was not able to take his cap away from him, and he did not want her gold.
Not long afterwards, the country was overrun by war. The king gathered together his people, not knowing whether or not to fight back against the enemy, who was more powerful and had a large army. The people decided to fight.
The gardener’s boy said, “I’m grown up and I want to go to war as well. Just give me a horse.”
The others laughed and said, “After we have left, then look for one by yourself. We will leave one behind for you in the stable.”
After they left, he went into the stable and led the horse out. It had a lame foot, and it limped higgledy-hop, higgledy-hop.
Nevertheless, he mounted it and rode away into the dark woods. When he came to the edge of the woods he called “Iron John” three times, so loudly that it sounded through the trees.
The wild man appeared immediately and said, “What do you need?”
“I need a strong steed, for I am going to war.”
“That you shall have, and even more than you are asking for.”
The wild man went back into the woods, and before long a stable-boy came out of the woods leading a horse. It was snorting and pawing the ground and could hardly be restrained. Behind followed a large army of warriors, outfitted with iron armor, their swords flashing in the sun.
The youth left his three-legged horse with the stable-boy, mounted the other horse, and rode at the head of the army. When he approached the battlefield, he saw that a large number of the king’s men had already fallen, and before long the others would have to retreat. The youth galloped up with his iron army and attacked the enemies like a storm, beating down all who opposed him. They tried to flee but the youth was right behind them, and did not stop until not a single man was left.
But instead of returning to the king, he led his army on a roundabout way back into the woods. He called for Iron John.
“What do you need?” asked the wild man.
“Take back your steed and your army, and give me my three-legged horse again.”
It all happened just as he had requested, and he rode home on his three-legged horse.
When the king returned to his castle, his daughter went to meet him and congratulated him for his victory.
“I am not the one who earned the victory” he said, “but a strange knight who came to my aid with his army.”
The daughter asked who the strange knight was, but the king did not know. “He pursued the enemy and I did not see him again,” he told his daughter.
She asked the gardener where his boy was, but the gardener laughed and said, “He has just come home on his three-legged horse. The others have been making fun of him and shouting, ‘Here comes our higgledy-hop back again.’ They also asked him, ‘Under what hedge have you been lying asleep all this time?’ But he said, ‘I did better than anyone else. Without me it would have gone badly.’ And then they laughed at him all the more.”
The king said to his daughter, “I will proclaim a great festival. It shall last for three days and you shall throw a golden apple. Perhaps the unknown knight will come.”
When the festival was announced, the youth went out into the woods and called Iron John.
“What do you need?” he asked.
“To catch the princess’s golden apple.”
“It is as good as done” said Iron John, “And further, you shall have a suit of red armor and ride on a spirited chestnut horse.”
When the day came, the youth galloped up and took his place among the knights. No one recognized him. The princess came forward and threw a golden apple to the knights. He was the only one who caught it. As soon as he had it, he galloped away.
On the second day, Iron John outfitted him as a white knight and gave him a white horse. Again, he was the only one who caught the apple. Without lingering an instant, he galloped away with it.
Now the king grew angry and said, “That is not allowed. He must appear before me and tell me his name.”
He gave the order that if the knight who caught the apple rode away again, they should pursue him. If he would not come back willingly, they were to strike and stab at him.
On the third day, Iron John gave the youth a suit of black armor and a black horse. He caught the apple again. But when he was galloping away with it, the king’s men pursued him. One of them got so close to him that he wounded the youth’s leg with the point of his sword. In spite of this he escaped, but his horse jumped so violently that his helmet fell from his head and they could see his golden hair. They rode back and reported everything to the king.
The next day the princess asked the gardener about his boy.
“He is at work in the garden. The strange fellow has been at the festival too. He came home only yesterday evening. And furthermore, he showed my children three golden apples that he won.”
The king summoned him and he appeared with his cap on his head. But the princess went up to him and took it off. His golden hair fell down over his shoulders and he was so handsome that everyone was amazed.
“Are you the knight who came to the festival every day, each time in a different color, and caught the three golden apples?” asked the king.
“Yes” he answered, “and here are the apples.” He took them out of his pocket and gave them to the king. “If you need more proof, you can see the wound that your men gave me. I am also the knight who helped you to your victory over your enemies.”
“If you can perform deeds like these then you are not a gardener’s boy. Tell me, who is your father?”
“My father is a powerful king and I have as much gold as I might need.”
“I owe you my thanks” said the king, “can I do anything for you?”
“Yes” said the youth, “You can indeed. Let me marry your daughter.”
The princess laughed and said, “He does not care much for ceremony, but I already knew that he was not a gardener’s boy.” Then she went and kissed him.
His father and mother came to the wedding and were filled with joy, for they had given up all hope of ever seeing their dear son again.
While they sitting at the wedding feast, the music suddenly stopped. The doors opened and a proud king came in with a great retinue. He walked up to the youth, embraced him, and said, “I am Iron John. I was transformed into a wild man by a magic spell but you have broken it. All the treasures that I possess shall belong to you.”
The end.
In the last episode with Part1 of this story, I said that stories like this one tell us about the process of change, about how people and kingdoms develop, evolve, mature, and renew themselves.
In the first part of the story, the wild man is found and the king’s young son frees him and ends up in the forest with him. There he is tested and he fails, and is sent away alone. But the essential transformation is already underway. His “gold,” that is his highest nature and essence, is no longer a toy, a ball that he plays with, but a defining and visible part of himself. He has golden hair.
Now his true value can be recognized by others, but the boy isn’t mature and wise enough yet, to fulfill it. His golden hair is the promise of a possible future, when and if he is ready to live it. He needs to grow up, and he needs to learn what is valuable. Knowing what has true value, and knowing your own value, is necessary wisdom.
According to our story, the boy can’t work and contribute to the community, or take care of himself, because he doesn’t have useful skills. He works for the palace cook and then for the palace gardener. He learns the useful skills of cooking, planting, tending, and being in service, all necessary to sustain life. He finds the value in what is simple and natural, the scent of the wildflowers, and isn’t seduced by the gold ducats.
The youth also develops a sense of his own value through becoming useful, self-sufficient, and self-determining. You notice that he doesn’t march in to the palace of this king and insist that he is a prince. He doesn’t seek immediate recognition and reward from the king. He waits until he is in full possession of his gold and is ready to take responsibility for it and to share it, to enrich himself and others.
There is so much pressure isn’t there, to reveal your gold before you are ready? Pressure from the outside world, which wants to make use of you without regard to the rhythm and timing of your development, and will deplete your riches and move on to the next head of golden hair.
And pressure from the inside, from that part of you that is ready to claim what appears to be rich payment, on the surface, but is a fraction of what you are truly worth. The price of taking your cap off too soon is full possession of your self-worth, and the power of choice. Choice in how it–how you– will be used.
The youth calls upon Iron John, the wild man whose appearance in his father’s court some years earlier, put all of this in motion. Who or what, is Iron John? There’s more than one answer to this question. My reflection begins with the very end of the story. Iron John tells the young man that he was transformed into a wild man by a magic spell and is now restored to his true form as a king. At first, this could suggest that his wildness was a misfortune. But Iron John is called a wild man because he was found at the bottom of a pool in the forest, looking like an animal, not because he himself was “wild.”
In this instance, what is wild is that which is out of bounds, beyond civilization. Iron John and his tremendous wealth are necessary to people, to kingdoms, but they have been hidden away and must be found by someone with enough courage and ingenuity. Iron John must be recognized to be properly valued, like the youth. He must be treated as more than a curiosity in a cage, as our young man must be appreciated as more than a gardener’s boy with weird golden hair.
Both of these figures go through a process that unites the natural and instinctual with the need to learn how to sustain life and be useful, to appreciate the value of the earth.
They are both kings at the end of the story because this wisdom is essential to a functioning, flourishing kingdom. The scent of the wildflowers is dearer to life than a handful of gold coins.
What is your wild man? Are you willing to go into the forest to find a greater share of your inner riches, so that you too can say, as this boy turned man- “I have as much gold as I need”?
This brings to mind a poem by e.g.wise. She writes:
Down, down
deep into the well
that is my own
true source,
deeper and deeper,
emerging
on the other side—
a woman, alive
with her hands
full of gold.
—e.g. wise
I mentioned Robert Bly earlier and I’m amazed at the synchronicity of our work with this story right now. Robert Bly passed away last week at the age of 94. He was a wise man who contributed a great deal to storytelling and American poetry. I wonder about Bly’s relationship to this story. Many people dismissed him over the years, seeing only a gardener’s boy riding a three-legged horse, when he had a head of golden hair.
I’ll close with one of Bly’s poems. First, I want to give a big welcome to new subscribers: Regino, Robert, Jacqui, and Paul. Thank you for subscribing for email announcements about the podcast and my other programs.
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Let’s close with this poem by Robert Bly, titled “Keeping Our Small Boat Afloat.”
KEEPING OUR SMALL BOAT AFLOAT
So many blessings have been given to us
During the first distribution of light, that we are
Admired in a thousand galaxies for our grief.
Don’t expect us to appreciate creation or to
Avoid mistakes. Each of us is a latecomer
To the earth, picking up wood for the fire.
Every night another beam of light slips out
From the oyster’s closed eye. So don’t give up hope
that the door of mercy may still be open.
Seth and Shem, tell me, are you still grieving
Over the spark of light that descended with no
Defender near into the Egypt of Mary’s womb?
It’s hard to grasp how much generosity
Is involved in letting us go on breathing,
When we contribute nothing valuable but our grief.
Each of us deserves to be forgiven, if only for
Our persistence in keeping our small boat afloat
When so many have gone down in the storm.
–-Robert Bly, former poet laureate of Minnesota
And that’s it for me, Catherine Svehla and Myth Matters. Thank you so much for listening. I invite you to email me if you have comments or questions about today’s episode. I always enjoy hearing from you.
Take good care of yourself, and until next time, happy mythmaking and keep the mystery in your life alive.
