The Tryst: a modern folktale
difficult to understand— so they did not try, but indulged and feasted without respite. Just as their namesakes in the local legend had met and become obsessed with each other at once, so this modern couple, not unaware of the comparison, were helplessly enraptured too. In the old story the hero and heroine are enchanted to desire against their will, and equally, any reluctance in this modern duo was surmounted and vanquished at once, and they were like slaves without choice, though no spell was ever cast.
In the very early morning daylight, the prospect of parting after such a night was terrible and frightening, and they lingered many hours together, making plans to meet again as soon as possible. Kaveran walked Kayna through the woods to her home, and they paused by an old pear tree that grew, incongruously enough, in a little clearing amid the beeches and oaks. A couple of lovers, munching on a pear after making sport in the grass many years previously, had let the pips fall, and so the tree had sprung up. Now a new couple lingered at this place, desperate not to part, and so making hot work of parting.
Kaveran wanted to take her directly to her door, but Kayna, remembering her mother’s displeasure, thought better of it, and determined to return the rest of the way alone. At difficult length, Kaveran resolved to leave, and promised to meet her there again at the tree after the fair closed for the evening. Kayna in her turn promised to come and watch him perform his sword tricks all day, and then keep the rendezvous.
With a painful disinclination they said goodbye, each hurrying off determinedly, with a wilful effort not to look back again. Kayna reached her door after a few minutes, and there, finally overcome with the high pitch of emotion she had sustained all night, dropped down on the threshold and wept hot tears.
She could not have told you the cause of these tears, but they flowed angrily and fast. Imagine faithfully keeping a vital secret for many years, not telling a single soul, and then, in a careless moment, blurting it out by mistake to the very person who should not know it; imagine building a fine reputation for yourself, earning respect for your abilities and integrity, and then carelessly embarrassing yourself so outrageously that anybody could ridicule you; imagine being suddenly told that you are insane, and in defending yourself against this rude charge, finding you can only gibber like a lunatic in spite of yourself: feelings like these wracked the tears out of Kayna. At last, in a strange confusion, she chased up to bed.
Kaveran returned to the fairground encampment, and to his tired surprise found Lanval sat outside his caravan, smoking a pipe.
‘You’re up early, Joe,’ said the young man.
‘So are you.’
‘No, I’m up late.’
‘Were you with that girl?’
Kaveran only smiled, and made to go inside, but Lanval suddenly snatched his wrist as he passed, and yanked him back.
‘You were with her?’ Lanval demanded.
‘What’s it to you?’ said Kaveran, annoyed at this rough handling.
‘That’s none of your business! Now tell me straight: were you with Mary’s girl all this time?’
‘That’s none of your business!’
‘Were you or weren’t you?’ Lanval exploded, starting up furiously. ‘It’s all my business, do you hear? Didn’t I bring you up from a baby? Didn’t I rescue you when nobody wanted you? Didn’t I give you a name, and schooling, and a livelihood?’
‘You never gave me such grief before, though!’ retorted Kaveran then. ‘It’s my own life, isn’t it? Or did you give me that as well?’
Lanval gnashed his teeth in rage at this, and Kaveran, seeing he had gotten the upper hand in the quarrel, went on: ‘I’ll do what I like, do you hear me? If I want to spend every hour of every day with Kayna, I will!’
‘Kayna!’ Lanval cried. ‘Is that what she was called?’ He laughed rather mirthlessly and released Kaveran’s arm. ‘Well then, how can I stand between Kaveran and his Kayna?’
‘You can’t,’ snapped the other, and stomped inside.
Lanval returned the pipe to his lips with an intense expression that suggested he would make the attempt nevertheless.
When the fair opened that day, Kayna, sleepless, was among the first to arrive, and she sat watching all the displays and entertainments. She was listless and tired for long stretches, but when Kaveran appeared, she was alert and interested. As often as he could manage, he came to keep her company, and for a few hours in the early afternoon they disappeared together.
Kaveran, during his presentations of swordsmanship and mock-battles, was nervous and unsteady, parrying badly and missing his cues, always diverting his eyes to the young woman sat in the crowd.
Just before the grand finale swordfight, Lanval stood up and announced to the crowd that with great regret the medieval fair must pack up and be off that very night. Although they had planned to stay until the weekend, it couldn’t be helped, and they must go. He thanked the crowd for their support and patronage, and bid them all a hearty farewell. The crowd, glad to have caught the show in time, cheered and clapped at the appropriate points, and munched toffee apples merrily; but Kayna stared at Kaveran, pale-faced and aghast, while he, urgently trying to catch Lanval’s eye, frowned in confusion at this unexpected announcement.
Lanval dodged these enquiring looks, however, jangled the bells on his jester’s hat, and picked up his sword to begin the finale. Kaveran, distracted, forgot his script for a moment in searching the confusion of faces for Kayna; but she had disappeared, and so, with a frustrated sigh, he bellowed out his words and engaged with Lanval.
The two men fought with more than usual vigour, Kaveran making heavy, wild strokes with his broadsword and laying dangerous blows where he may; but Lanval skipped and danced and avoided him deftly, sticking in a jab or a slap against his opponent’s armour, to the amusement of the spectators.
The time for the great climax arrived at last, and the astonishing bird-trick was performed: Lanval knelt, trembling; Kaveran called on the judgement of the fair citizens; the citizens bayed for blood; the young man aimed and struck the beheading blow; the jester’s hat rolled empty to the ground, and a panicking partridge sprang from Lanval’s place and darted for cover.
Immediately the show was ended, Kaveran shed his costume and donned his jeans. Without stopping for any refreshment he dashed about the grassy yard of the ruined priory, hunting for Kayna, but she was nowhere to be seen. He concluded, then, that she had gone to meet him at the assigned place beneath the pear tree, and so he ran as quickly as possible in the direction of the wood. His fellow showmen, calling out after his retreating form, could not distract him, and they muttered among themselves about rats and sinking ships, and wondered why Lanval had decided to pack up the fair early; the man himself could not be found.
Kayna, meanwhile, had gone to the woods too, much perturbed in her mind by this news of the fair’s departure. She wondered whether Kaveran had known he would be going, whether he meant to leave her behind, whether he really cared for her, as much as she did for him. She quizzed herself about her unreasonable feelings as she traversed the pathways between the trees, unable to determine whether she had any right to ask him to stay with her, or whether she should leave with him, or whether it would be better to let him go, or whether the pain of losing him so abruptly would be too much.
Kaveran also made his way into the wood, occupied with similar anxieties. He knew that, for whatever reason, Lanval had taken a prejudice against Kayna, and attributed the removal of the fair to this; but he was resolved to break his ties with that man, and risk the loss of his friends and work for this girl he’d found. But he worried that she would rebuff him, feel smothered by his resolve to stay, lose the interest in him that she had confessed last night.
After pursuing a maze of little tracks, he arrived at the clearing, and saw Kayna beneath the pear tree. His doubts surged in him, and hers equally in her, on seeing him arrive; but nevertheless they hurried into each other’s arms, full of need, both talking at once, urgently and fast, speaking into each other??
?s shoulders, necks, hair, cheeks; and now their voices failing as their faces met, they merged into a kiss.
But Lanval had followed Kaveran to this tryst, and now, seeing this kiss in progress, tears dropped from his eyes, and he emerged into the clearing. Kayna, seeing him first, was startled, and cried out; Kaveran turned, and in surprise asked what he wanted, but Lanval did not reply. He stepped forward and drew the broadsword he had brought from the fair. Kayna gasped, Kaveran stumbled back, and with swift certainty Lanval swished the blade through the air and dealt a decapitating blow to the young man. Kayna screamed, the sword cleaved Kaveran’s throat, and in that moment he vanished, and a merlin fluttered into the air, a flurry of brown speckled feathers raining into the grass.
Kayna, in a kind of frenzy, reached up to chase the fleeing bird, and snatch at its flight, but it escaped her. She glanced around, bewildered, at the assailant, and Lanval fixed her with a sorrowful, streaming eye.
‘What have you done? What have you done?’ she shrieked at him, but he only shook his head in terrible sadness, sheathed the sword and ran away into the wood; and you must know that he was never seen in Cornwall again.
A folk singer, who knew Kaveran well, and subsequently achieved some fame for her songs, wrote a ballad about this modern Kaveran