The Well Beyond Grief
By William Morris
1896
The Life He Refused
What could make Ralph abandon everything?
Lots had sent his three brothers into the world, yet ordered the youngest to stay and inherit.
Ralph loved the river meadows and every sleeping face beneath the high roof.
Still, his hands tightened whenever that borrowed future closed around him.
He slipped through the mist with his bright sword, leaving Upmeads before anyone could stop him.
At Wulstead, his godmother placed a jeweled chaplet in his palm and spoke of deathless water.
What is that water, and how may I find it?
She named the Well at the World's End, and his restless road finally found direction.
The Woman in the Wood
The chaplet flashed beneath ancient oaks as Ralph entered Wood Perilous.
At a hidden crossroads, two armed men dragged a red-haired woman by a rope.
They rushed Ralph together, and his bright sword answered before doubt could root him.
Both attackers fell, and the thorns went silent.
The freed Lady of Abundance kissed him once, warned him from danger, and rode away alone.
Her grey eyes vanished between the trees, but Ralph carried their calm like a wound.
A watchful woodman named Roger claimed the Lady wanted Ralph guided onward.
Ralph mistrusted him, yet followed through the wilderness toward the Castle of Abundance.
Its white walls rose beyond hayfields, offering shelter and hiding a deeper snare.
The Book and the Blade
Inside the white walls, silence received Ralph like a host.
Tapestries showed the Lady of Abundance unchanged beneath crowns and passing years.
A book claimed she drank from the Well at the World's End and ensnared every man who saw her.
Hope warmed his face, then fear chilled it.
Ralph waited for days, afraid she would arrive whenever he crossed the empty threshold.
Obsession finally drove him into Wood Perilous toward the Water of the Oak.
There, the Knight of the Sun stood over a fallen rival and threatened the Lady.
Ralph charged, but the giant knight hammered him senseless beside the still water.
He woke beneath a raised sword.
The Lady of Abundance offered to go with the Knight if Ralph lived and joined them.
The sword stopped, but freedom closed around them both.
Away From Death
That stopped blade became a chain beside the rival's campfire.
The Knight of the Sun returned Ralph's weapons and urged flight before morning.
Ralph set down his sword, refusing to abandon the Lady of Abundance.
Before dawn, her fingers pulled him into the forest.
They ran until the campfire vanished behind rain.
She had brought him away from death.
She revealed the Knight as her estranged husband, who had cursed and cast her out.
Ralph asked whether her love would bless him or ruin him.
I am good to thee, and will be true to thee.
Their faces softened as they chose each other beneath the boughs.
She promised to guide Ralph to the Well at the World's End.
The Chamber of Love
The promised road narrowed to the Desert-House, a white-sanded cave above a clear stream.
The Lady of Abundance called it their Chamber of Love and set bread beside the stones.
Ralph watched her hands work as if a shared life had already begun.
She sent him hunting while she readied their refuge.
Near the stream, her scream tore through the green stillness.
Help me, O help, lovely creature of God!
Ralph turned unarmed and saw the Knight of the Sun drive steel through her breast.
He snatched his bow from the grass.
One arrow struck through the Knight's eye, and the huge body fell.
Ralph's hands stopped above her wound because she was already gone.
The stream kept moving beside them.
The Last Promise
The stream sounded through a night Ralph could not escape.
He knelt beside the Lady until cold light entered the Desert-House.
At dawn, he sealed her beneath stones in their refuge.
Outside, he raised another cairn over the Knight of the Sun.
Each stone replaced one stroke of rage with exhausted mercy.
Ralph freed her horse into the thorns.
Home waited behind him, but he could not return unchanged.
Ahead lay the Well at the World's End, the water she had promised to show him.
Ralph walked from the wilderness carrying grief, while their last promise carried him forward.

The Well at the World's End - Story Book

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