Today is part one of two where we are talking to Jason Dorough about his debut novel Akothar’s Greatest Trick. Over the next 2 weeks you will learn how much he plans out his novels, how he built his TikTok following, and what he sees coming next for his Teshovar series.

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Jason Dorough is the author of Akithar’s Greatest Trick, the first book in the Teshovar series. Originally from Georgia, Jason now lives in Florida, where he works as a voiceover artist when he’s not writing.

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Welcome to Freya's Fairy Tales, where we believe fairy tales are both stories we enjoyed as children and something that we can achieve ourselves.

Each week we will talk to authors about their favorite fairy tales when they were kids and their adventure to holding their very own fairy tale in their hands.

At the end of each episode, we will finish off with the fairytale or short story read as close to the original author's version as possible.

I am your host, Freya Victoria.

I'm an audiobook narrator that loves reading fairy tales, novels and bringing stories to life through narration.

I'm also fascinated by talking to authors and learning about their why and how for creating their stories.

We have included all of the links for today's author and our show in the show Notes.

Today is part one of two where we are talking to Jason Durrow about his debut novel, Akatar's Greatest Trick.

Over the next two weeks, you will learn how much he plans out his novels, how he built his Tik Tok following, and what he sees coming next for his Teshavar series, demon scientist, charlatan or sorcerer, the great Akathar is the most famous stage position in a realm where real magic is outlawed.

Over the past decade, Akathar and his troupe have built a reputation and a home in the dense coastal city of Klwbridge.

Every night, he thrills audiences with his controversial performances.

Backstage, Akathar hides a secret more dangerous than any of his engineered illusions.

Far inland, an ancient and mysterious tyrant dispatches an elite band of mage hunters to crush magical insurrection.

When their Hunt brings them to Kluebridge, they suspect that Akathar's magic might be more than mere stage trickery.

Akathar and his company will have to rely on a cunning heist, desperate improvisation and the art of deception to save their theater and even their very lives.

Akathar's Greatest Trick is the first novel in Jason Durham's epic fantasy Teshuvar series.

The diverse cast of characters found family themes and surprising revelations set in a gas lamp world of magic and trickery make this a must read for fans of Brandon Sanderson, Susannah Clarke, and Erin Morgenstern.

So your name is Jason Durrow, and I actually found you on Tik Tok promoting your book and just talking about being an author in general.

I didn't realize that your debut novel just came out last year and you told me that you've done podcasting and stuff in the past as well.

So the premise of this show is twofold.

So the name of the show is Freyas Fairy Tales, and that's two fold.

So Fairy tales.

Everyone as a kid has some kind of fairy tale that you either watch the movie or you liked a book that had that fairy tale in it, or whatever the case may be.

But also for authors, you spend weeks, months, years writing a book.

And so once you're able to either traditionally publish or self publish that book, that's a bit of a fairy tale for you as well, getting to that point where, oh, my gosh, my book is in print now.

So as a kid, starting back at the very beginning, is there any particular fairy tale that you remember, story wise, that you really liked as a kid, and did that change from when you were a kid to a teenager or grown up?

Did your favorite change?

Yeah, it's kind of interesting because I certainly have grown up with knowing fairy tales and seeing them mostly exposed when I was younger through like, the Disney cartoons and things like that.

But when I was younger, I don't even remember how old I was.

I was a kid, but the Disney movie that grabbed me was not even a traditional fairy tale, but I think it served sort of the purpose that fairy tales did for a lot of kids.

I just became obsessed with Disney's The Black Cauldron.

When I was a kid, that was my first real exposure to fantasy fiction at all.

And I was just all in on that.

It had sort of the whole Chosen One thing, and it had Dragons in it, it had monsters and all that kind of stuff.

And it just pulled me in and I was just along the path after that.

And I still like it's been a few years since I've watched it, and I think it's one of those things that if I had found it later in life, it probably wouldn't have hit me as directly as it did.

But it got me into reading the original books that was based on The Chronicles of Prudain and got me into just this whole path of fantasy later on.

And now I'm an epic fantasy writer, so I guess it kind of led me somehow to this.

So is that still your favorite, or did that kind of change over time to where now you have a new favorite in that genre that helps shape your books or just in general?

Yeah, I think that it was very influential to me early on in getting me into the genre.

I don't think it's necessarily as complex as a lot of the things that I like nowadays as far as reading.

I think one of my favorite fantasy series now is the Miss Born series by Brandon Sanderson.

Those were really influential specifically on my writing and on on sort of honing my craft and figuring out exactly what I wanted to do with this.

So when people ask what got me started along this path, it's usually The Black Cauldron from the fantasy side.

And then I also was a huge Star Wars kid that really got me into it as well.

That's where I came from.

And where I ended up now is I'm very focused on a sort of complex story set in speculative universes and having sort of complex magic systems and politics and all that in it, which The Black Cauldron didn't really have all of that, but it was a good introduction to it for me.

So now at what age did you know or start thinking you might want to be a writer?

Was there anything that specifically influenced you starting to write?

Did you have a couple of false starts earlier on?

How did you get to actually publishing a book?

Yeah, when I was younger, probably in elementary school, I guess I was really into reading mystery books.

I can't remember what I got into first, but eventually I found like Agatha Christie and I was reading like, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys and all that kind of stuff.

And I really wanted to be a mystery writer at that time.

And so I started writing short stories and was writing just typical murder mystery kind of things and was sending them off.

When I was in middle school, I started sending them off to magazines like Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

I was trying to get just a short story published, and here and there I would get something put into a magazine, nothing as big as those, but just like little literary magazines.

And so I was all in on becoming a mystery writer at that time.

But then sort of through high school, I was doing that.

And then I went to College, and in College I studied computer science, which that was just purely because at that time everybody was like, oh, you make all the money in computers.

You're good at computers.

That's what you should do.

So I did that.

But in doing that and doing sort of a technical College degree, it didn't give me the right kind of energy that I would need to continue writing.

And it kind of pulled that kind of creativity out of me for a while.

And so throughout College, I really didn't do any writing.

And it took a little while after College to get back around to it and to kind of realize this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

And I kind of knew it all along, but just it took a while to accept it, and then I finally got back into it.

And by that time, I was really into fantasy and coming up with worlds and all that kind of stuff.

So that's when I started writing epic fantasy and then worked through some world building for a long time and developing stories.

And then eventually I'll start writing the series that I'm doing now.

And that's how I got to hear what inspired the current book that just came out.

How do you say I know Greatest Trick, obviously, but how do you say that?

I'm guessing it's the world name.

Yeah.

The characters Akathar is the name of a magician that was in the world.

The world is called Teshuvar, and the name of the series is Teshuvar.

But the first book is Akathar's Greatest Trick.

And then there's also a prequel novella that I have available that is called The Gem of Togath.

But yeah, the start of that, I had sort of an idea for something I thought it would be interesting as sort of a political setup and sort of a world state where there's this world that magic exists in, but it's ruled by an ancient despot who has outlawed magic, and this ruler is magical but has outlawed the use of magic for everyone else.

And the process of that has also outlawed religion and also all kinds of other things.

So that kind of world state seemed interesting to me, and I started getting ideas from there.

But specifically for the first book, I had an idea, well, in this world where magic is outlawed, what about a story that is about a stage magician who is working in this world that is putting on stage shows, doing magic as entertainment but not using real magic to do it, how would that sort of fit into this sort of world and political state?

And so it sort of grew from there for the first book and follows a theater group in this world and sort of how they bump up against the politics and against the illegal magic and all of that.

Okay.

And now you fantasy writers.

It's either one or the other.

Obviously, you've created the character name and the world name.

I've narrated for one author who created his own language in the book.

Beyond names and stuff, do you have some language that you created, or is the book mostly set in, like, people are going to know how to read it or do they need a pronunciation guide?

It's funny, actually.

There is a language that I've had to create for it.

It's not a language that's used a lot in it, but there is a language that is sort of a hold over it's left from ancient times in the world when magic was more readily used and was not illegal.

It's sort of the old language that the people who still use magic know this language, but it's not something you have to learn like cling on or something like that.

But the writing I try to make it as accessible as possible and try to make it so that the world building.

While it does get a little bit complicated and complex, it doesn't have to be something that has a huge learning curve.

The different things are kind of introduced bit by bit as it goes along.

And I very much am an outliner.

When I write, I can't do what a lot of people call discovery writing or pantry, where you just sort of make things up as you go along.

I have to outline everything in just as much detail as possible before I even start writing the first scene.

So with this series, I actually have a rough outline of the entire series already.

And then as I'm writing each book, I outline down to the scene level when I start writing a scene, I already know in that scene what characters need to be there, what conversations need to happen, what action needs to occur, and where things need to end up.

So I'm very much a planner in that way.

So in your plan, how many books is the series in your current plan supposed to be?

Yeah, the core series is set up to be a trilogy of trilogies, so that's nine books overall.

But there are other things that I want to do with it.

Like I have this prequel novella that I've written that I'm giving away for free to people who join my mailing list.

And so that's an additional book that isn't part of the core nine.

And there are other ideas for some other sort of offshoot books that I want to write, that some of them might be sort of stand alone, and some of them there might be some separate sort of smaller, shorter series that sprout up along the way.

But the core series is set up to be nine books, and then outside of that, other things can happen.

So it's kind of you have the main series, but you're going to have little like Bunny trails that we kind of take here and there with the characters as well.

Yeah.

The way that I'm kind of thinking about it and the way that someone kind of phrased it to me after they read the initial book was that the way the world building is set up, it almost feels like I have built out a world for a role playing campaign that has lots of different elements to it, like different classes almost that would be interesting to explore and different corners of the universe that would be interesting to explore, that maybe get touched on in the main series, but that would be a lot more interesting to explore with something that would actually focus on them.

For example, I'd really like to write a book of short stories set in this world, and I really have enjoyed reading, like, Stephen King short stories.

I just recently read a Clive Barker collection.

I'm talking all about horror here, but this is what I'm writing.

Stephen King is definitely not happy fantasy.

Yeah.

But I would like to write a collection of short stories.

I'd like to do some shorter works and quicker things because most of the books that I'm writing for the main series are pretty huge books.

Like the one that came out last year is 170,000 words.

And the one that I'm working on right now is probably going to be about 200,000 words.

So they're pretty sizable.

And I like to have sort of shorter things in between to break that up, because I could feel like my brain would sort of fall out if I just went from one huge thing to another.

Right.

So you have a Kindle version and a hardcover version as a narrator I have to ask, do you have plans or in the works of audiobook for at least the first book right when you want to have it done?

Well, right now I have the paperback hardcover and the Kendall Unlimited.

And the next project that I'm planning after I finish drafting the book that I'm drifting now is to actually record the audiobook of the first one.

And my day job, as I call it, is doing voiceover work.

But I do mostly ads and advertising and things like that.

I tend to avoid doing audiobooks because they are so hard.

So big props to you for doing that difficult work.

But I am going to try recording.

I've had a lot of requests from readers and also from folks on Tik Tok to actually narrate my own book.

And so I'm going to see how that goes, and I'm going to be honest with myself.

And if it doesn't go well, then I'll have to look at some other options.

But I'm going to see if I can do it myself and then just see how that goes.

Yeah.

Now I'm actually working on my own book, which is fantasy, but more in the superhero subgenre.

And this is totally a control thing.

But I'm like, I'm definitely narrating my own book just because I want it like the way that it was in my head while I wrote it.

I totally get that.

The control thing is a big reason that I went indie with my publishing overall.

It was a quick choice because I wanted to be able to choose my cover.

I wanted to be able to determine when different formats are released.

So I 100% get that.

So do you have a plan?

Is book two done?

Are you just working on the shorter books now?

Do you have a timeline for book two coming out?

Yeah, I am writing book two right now, and it will be coming out sometime this year.

I don't have an actual date set for it yet.

It's going to depend on sort of how things are looking as the draft is finished up and then how long editing takes and all that.

But it will be coming this year, and my plan is to release that this year and then to get the audiobook for book one done and get that out this year, and then to see what else I can get this year.

I would like to have a shorter workout this year as well, but it'll just depend on sort of how things all fall into place.

And then after that, I'll be getting to work on actually doing the initial planning and outlining and everything for book three, which I know what's going to happen in book three because I've done the general outline for the whole series.

But as far as breaking it down into chapters and scenes and all that, that is what will happen with book three before I start actually writing that one you said that you like doing.

How did this whole I know you said you very in depth outline everything, but how exactly did you get to this storyline?

What spawned the actual writing of this book?

Was it something that you just thought, hey, this would be cool, or how did like the for example, the last author that I talked to, she had a dream that brought it about.

Oh, wow, I wish that would happen for me.

Yeah.

But what spawned the idea for all of this?

Yeah, there's a core story that I want to get told in the main nine books and the series that came to me that it started with the idea of the universe and the magic system and just that idea that I had and then just sort of playing that out in my head.

A lot of times I'll have my subconscious just kind of working through stories and coming up with ideas.

I don't really know where ideas come to me from, but I have ideas all the time.

They just appear, hey.

That would be cool.

Yeah.

It would be nice to have just like the machine that you turn a crank and the ideas come out.

I have to tell you, man, if my ideas came to me from dreams, I have some pretty Stephen King esque dreams, which is weird.

Yeah.

I can imagine.

Yes.

I don't think I have used ideas from dreams before, but it'll just kind of come to me.

And it's usually a thing where I will have two separate things that I'm thinking about, and I haven't really associated them together, but in my subconscious, suddenly they'll get connected somehow, and I'll suddenly think, oh, that would be interesting to explore what would happen if this and I sort of play a game of what if in my head?

And I'll say, well, if we have this situation where magic is outlawed and there's this guy who is a stage magician, then what would be the implications of this and that?

And it sort of grows out of that.

But when I was initially sort of conceptualizing the series, I thought that the book that's going to be book four.

I thought that was going to be the first book that I was going to write.

And I actually started planning that a little bit because it sort of leads into some things that will be at some of the core of the story.

But then I realized that I needed to do a lot more world building.

I needed to do a lot more introductions to different concepts in the universe.

And then that sort of led me to realize that I needed at least a few more books.

So I decided to.

Okay, well, this is going to be a trilogy before what I initially thought was going to be the start, and then after that, everything sort of fell into place as far as when things need to happen in the series and how things need to be structured out, and it sort of grew from there.

But yeah, my ideas and the initial sort of germ of a story, I never know where it's going to come from.

It might be that I'm listening to a podcast and somebody as an example for this first book, I had the idea about a thing set around a theater where there was a magic show in this world where magic is illegal.

And I had some story ideas going around that.

But then I haven't listened to an episode of this American Life where they were talking about a heist that somebody pulled off.

And I was thinking about that and I thought, oh, Hi, stories are pretty cool.

And then I thought, well, that fits in perfectly with a hole that I was trying to fill here.

So let's put a heist into this book.

And so it just sort of connects.

And I don't really know the alchemy of it.

I don't know the how's or Why's of it, but it always just seems to come together.

And then I have these ideas.

I tend to have way too many ideas, and I know I'll never get them all written, but I'm doing my best.

I feel like you need to partner with, like an idea house.

Here's the idea.

Let someone else run with it.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I have a notebook that I keep my ideas in as I think of them, and it'll be just like a one line description or a couple of lines of description as I think of them.

And it's almost sad how much stuff is in that notebook because I'm a fairly slow writer and compared at least to a lot of people that I know on Tik Tok and a lot of other writers that I know.

But I'll look through that book and I'll be like, Gosh, I have some really fun ideas here.

I'm never going to get around to all these.

I mean, at least you have options.

Yeah, that's true.

It's kind of funny because a lot of times people who are readers specifically, one of the most common questions that I will get asked is where I get ideas.

Actually, I made a TikTok video about this a while back, but I think there's a concept that ideas are a sort of precious resource, that they're hard to come by, and that's where everything comes from.

But it's really not.

The ideas are kind of a dime a dozen.

It's really the execution of the ideas, and it's actually the follow through and how each individual writer executes on that idea.

That is the hard part, and that turns it into what really matters.

You can have any number of ideas, but if you don't figure out a good way to get them into a book or story format, it doesn't even matter.

Well, I'll say when I was a kid, there was a movie on Disney Channel where the girl would write in this Journal thing that she would have published.

And none of her friends knew that she was the author of this Journal or journalist story thing that got published from then.

And I don't remember how old I was when that movie came out, but that was when I first started thinking it would be cool to write a book.

But like you said, I would have ideas and I would start writing, and then it would just fall flat.

It's like, okay, I've got an idea, but I can't come up with the rest of the story.

You can't develop a book based on, like, three sentences.

Exactly.

And that's such a common thing, too.

I saw the statistic a while back.

I can't remember the number, but it was well below 10% of people who start writing a book actually even finished the first draft.

And it's because of things like that that they will either get sidetracked by something or it's hard to develop it out into the full story.

And a lot of things can get in the way of that.

But it's extremely rare for people to start writing a book and actually finish it with your writing.

Congratulations on progress and everything.

That's an accomplishment.

Yes.

So far, I'm about 50 pages in on the first draft.

I have fully fledged in my head where it needs to go and like, what I want it to do.

The issue is time because I took on a few too many.

So I just started narrating in September, and I auditioned for everything fiction, nonfiction, was willing to take whatever would pay me.

So I'm like, we'll take whatever.

All I got hired on was nonfiction, nonfiction after nonfiction after nonfiction.

And so eventually I just gave up on auditioning for fiction because no one wanted me.

And then in January, after I had three nonfictions that I finished the week before Christmas, went on vacation for a week, came back, got covered, had to take, like, four weeks off because my voice sounded very rough, and then was like, well, if we're going to do five auditions a day, let's let two of those be fiction.

And then I got like, end of January, I booked my first fiction, and then it was like, Dominoes.

That's awesome.

Congratulations on that.

So I'm like, I've been narrating since I was a kid.

I have been narrating, telling stories aloud and reading stories aloud and making character voices and stuff.

But it's really only been since January that it's been an official thing.

So this is a new thing.

That's awesome.

You definitely have the voice for it.

And I certainly can hear you narrating books.

And so I think you found the right thing to be in.

Well, and part of this podcast.

So at the end, not while we're on here, but I will read the blurb from your Amazon, and there will be affiliate links for you have, I believe, books on your website.

Do you do signed copies on your website?

I am working on that.

It's kind of funny.

I had been trying to figure out a way to do signed copies for a while, and then I just kind of let that go by the wayside while I was doing other things.

And then someone that I became friends with here on TikTok, she's Alex, reads Romance on TikTok here.

She wanted a signed copy of my book, and she basically bullied me into figuring out how to do it.

I'll be honest, I did that with the fiction books that I finished so far.

I was like, so you need to send me a signed copy because I want this, like, collection now.

Freya is not my actual name.

My day job can't have me associated with some of the books that I narrate.

Right.

And so I use a pseudonym for this.

But I was like, I want to have this secret collection of all these books.

I've narrated that the authors signed these copies.

I've kind of bullied a few, too, I guess.

It's good bullying, though, and she got me to get a copy and sign up for her.

And then after that was telling me I should figure out a way to do it through my website.

So I have in the works a way that people will be able to get signed paperbacks through my website.

It's not quite up yet, but it's on the to do list.

So hopefully within the next couple of weeks, I'm hoping to have something up there that people can get signed copies there.

All right.

Yeah, that's cool.

I think most of the at least the ones that I've talked to, they just, like, ordered because I'm sure you have the KDP printing stuff for yours.

So they just ordered a copy and had it shipped to them and then signed it and are shipping it to me.

Yes.

What I have done at this point, I went ahead and I've ordered several copies.

I ordered sort of a case of the books to have on hand.

And my plan is I'm going to set up a form on my website that the people can specify if they want me to personalize it or if they want it just a signature.

And if they want fast shipping or slow shipping.

And there will be a couple of different flat rates they can pay to just buy the book and it includes shipping, and then I'll sign it and send it off.

And then when I start running low on my supply here, I'll order another box of them from Amazon and sort of keep my supply going here.

But it will depend on how quickly they go because I really have no idea what the demand will be for signed books.

But I guess I'll need to find out quickly.

Jason's favorite movie when he was a kid was the Black Cauldron.

The Black Cauldron is a 1985 American animated dark fantasy adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions in association with Silver Screen Partners Too and released by Walt Disney Pictures, the 25th Disney animated feature film.

It is loosely based on the first two books in The Chronicles of prideon by Lloyd Alexander, a series of five novels that are in turn based on Welsh mythology.

Set in the mythical land of Prydian during the early Middle Ages, the film centers on a wicked Emperor known as the Horned King who hopes to secure an ancient magical cauldron that will aid him in his desire to conquer the world.

He's opposed by young Swineherd, Taran, the young Princess Ilonwe, the heart playing Bard fluterflam, and a friendly wild creature named Gurgy who seek to destroy the cauldron to prevent the Horned King from ruling the world.

Today we'll be reading one of the Welsh mythology stories.

Don't forget, we are also continuing the original story of Beauty and the Beast on our Patreon Branwin, the daughter of Lear.

Here's the second portion of the Mabinogi.

Bendigaid Ran, the son of Lea, was the crowned King of this island.

And he was exalted from the Crown of London.

And one afternoon he was at Harlech in Ardidwee at his court.

And he sat upon the rock of Harlech looking over the sea.

And with him were his brother Mana Wyden, the son of Li, and his brothers by the motherside Nissan and Evanisan, and many nobles.

Likewise, as was fitting to see around a King, his two brothers by the mother's side were the sons of Eurosvid by his mother, Hernadine, the daughter of Belly, son of Menagen.

And one of these youths was a good youth and of gentle nature, and would make peace between his kindred and cause his family to be friends when their wrath was at the highest.

And this one was nissyn.

But the other would cause strife between his two brothers when they were most at peace.

And as they sat thus they beheld 13 ships coming from the south of Ireland and making towards them.

And they came with a Swift motion, the wind being behind them, and they neared them rapidly.

I see ships afar, said the King, coming swiftly towards the land.

Command the men of the court, that they equipped themselves and go and learn their intent.

So the men equipped themselves and went down towards them.

And when they saw the ships near, certain were they that they had never seen ships better furnished.

Beautiful flags of satin were upon them.

And behold one of the ships outstripped the others.

And they saw a shield lifted up above the side of the ship.

And the point of the shield was upwards in token of peace.

And the men drew near that they might hold converse.

Then they put out boats and came towards the land and they saluted the King.

Now the King could hear them from the place where he was upon the rock above their heads.

Heaven prosper you, said he, and be you welcome.

To whom do these ships belong?

And who is the chief amongst you, Lord?

Said they.

Maltaich, King of Ireland, is here, and these ships belong to him.

Wherefor comes he?

Asked the King.

And will he come to the land?

He is a suitor unto thee, Lord, said they, and he will not land unless he has his boon.

And what may that be?

Inquired the King.

He desires to ally himself with thee, Lord, said they.

And he comes to ask Branwen, the daughter of Lea, that if it seems well to thee, the island of the mighty may be leaked with Ireland, and both become more powerful.

Verily, said he, let him come to land, and we will take counsel thereupon.

And this answer was brought to Maltai.

I will go willingly, said he.

So he landed, and they received him joyfully.

And great was the throng in the palace that night between his hosts and those of the court.

And the next day they took counsel, and they resolved to bestow Branwen upon Malthui.

Now she was one of the three chief ladies of this island, and she was the fairest damsel in the world.

And they fixed upon Aberfraw as the place where she should become his bride.

And they went thence and toward Aberfrom.

The hosts proceeded Malzuch and his host in their ships.

Bendigaid ran and his host by land until they came to Aberfraw.

And at Aberfraw they began the feast and sat down.

And thus sate the King of the island of the mighty.

And MENA Widen the son of Lear on one side and Malthawich on the other side, and Branwen the daughter of Le beside him.

And they were not within a house, but under tents no house could ever contain.

Bendiguide vRAN.

And they began the banquet and caroused in discourse.

And when it was more pleasing to them to sleep than to Corral, they went to rest.

And that night Branwen became Maltovich's bride.

The next day they arose, and all they of the court and the officers began to equip and to range the horses and the attendants.

And they arranged them in order as far as the sea.

And behold, one day Ethniusian, the quarrelsome man of whom it is spoken above, came by chance into the place where the horses of Maltawich were and asked whose horses they might be.

They are the horses of Malta, witch King of Ireland, who is married to Branwen.

My sister, his horses are they.

And is it thus they have done with a maiden such as she, and Moreover, my sister bestowing her without my consent.

They could have offered no greater insult to me than this, said he.

And thereupon he rushed under the horses and cut off their lips at the teeth and their ears close to their heads and their tails close to their backs.

And wherever he could clutch their eyelids, he cut them to the very bone, and he disfigured the horses and rendered them useless.

And they came with these tidings onto Malthewitch, saying that the horses were disfigured and injured so that not one of them could ever be of any use again.

Verily, Lord, said one, it was an insult unto thee, and as such was it meant of the truth.

It is a Marvel to me that if they desire to insult me, they should have given me a maiden of such high rank and so much beloved of her kindred as they have done.

Lord, said another, thou Seest that thus it is, and there is nothing for thee to do but to go to thy ships.

And thereupon towards his ships he set out, and Tidings came to Bendigeidfran, that mouth of which was quitting the court without asking leave, and messengers were sent to inquire of him Wherefore he did so, and the messengers that went were Idiot, the son of an Ardwid, and Heavy ad here, and these overtook him and asked of him what he designed to do and Wherefore he went forth of a truth, said he, if I had known I had not come hither, I have been altogether insulted.

No one had ever worse treatment than I have had here.

But one thing surprises me above all.

What is that?

Asked they, that Bran, when the daughter of Lea, one of the three chief ladies of this island and the daughter of the King of the island of the mighty, should have been given me as a bride, and that after that I should have been insulted, and I marveled that the insult was not done me before they had bestowed upon me a maiden so exalted as she truly, Lord, it was not the will of any veteran of the court, said they, nor of any that are of the Council, that thou shouldest have received this insult, and as thou hast been insulted, the dishonor is greater unto Bendigaid vRAN than unto thee, Verily, said he.

I think so.

Nevertheless, he cannot recall the insult.

These men returned with that answer to the place where Bendigard Ran was, and they told him what reply Malthoitz had given them.

Truly, said he, there are no means by which we may prevent his going away at enmity with us that we will not take well, Lord, said they, send after him another embassy.

I will do so, said he.

Arrives Manawaiden, son of Lear, and Heavy Adhere and Eunuch glue Yeastwood and go after him, and tell him that he shall have a sound horse for everyone that has been injured, and Besides that as an atonement for the insult, he shall have a staff of silver as large and as tall as himself, and a plate of gold of the breadth of his face, and show unto him who it was that did this, and that it was done against my will.

But that he who did it is my brother by the mother's side, and therefore it would be hard for me to put him to death and let him come and meet me, said he, and we will make peace in any way he may desire.

The embassy went after Maltawitch and told him all these things'in a friendly manner, and he listened thereon to two men, said he, I will take counsel.

So to the Council he went, and in the Council they considered that if they should refuse this, they were likely to have more shame rather than to obtain so great an atonement.

They resolved therefore to accept it, and they returned to the court in peace.

Then the pavilions and the tents were set in order after the fashion of a hall, and they went to meet.

And as they had sat at the beginning of the feast, so sat they there, and Malthavich and Bendigaid Fran began to discourse.

And behold, it seemed to Bendiguide Fran while they talked that Malta witch was not so cheerful as he had been before.

And he thought that the chieftain might be sad because of the smallness of the atonement which he had for the wrong that had been done him.

O man, said Bendigeidfran, thou DOST not discourse tonight so cheerfully as thou wast want, and if it be because of the smallness of the atonement, thou shalt add thereunto whatsoever thou mayest choose.

And tomorrow I will pay thee the horses.

Lord, said he, heaven reward thee, and I will enhance the atonement, said Bendiguide vRAN, for I will give unto the acaldron the property of which is if one of thy men be slain today and be cast therein tomorrow, he will be as well as ever.

He was at the best, except that he will not regain his speech, and thereupon he gave him great thanks, and very joyful was he for that cause.

And the next morning they paid mouthwitch the horses as long as the trained horses lasted.

And then they journeyed into another commod, where they paid him with Colts until the hole had been paid, and from thenceforth that commod was called Telbolian, and a second Knight sat day together.

My Lord, said Malthwich, when tast thou the cauldron which thou hast given me?

I had it of a man who had been in thy land, said he, and I would not give it except to one from there.

Who was it?

Asked he Lisarlis Gwynnewood.

He came here from Ireland with Kymid Yu Kaminneval, his wife, who escaped from the iron house in Ireland when it was made red hot around them and fled hither.

And it is a Marvel to me that thou shouldst know nothing concerning the matter, something I do know, said he, and as much as I know, I will tell thee.

One day I was hunting in Ireland, and I came to the mound at the head of the Lake, which is called the Lake of the cauldron.

And I beheld a huge, yellow haired man coming from the Lake with a cauldron upon his back.

And he was a man of vast size and of horrid aspect.

And a woman followed after him.

And if the man was tall, twice as large as he was the woman.

And they came towards me and greeted me.

Verily asks I, Wherefore are you journeying?

Behold this, he said to me, is the cause that we journey at the end of a month and a fortnight.

This woman will have a son and the child that will be born at the end of the month.

And the Fortnite will be a warrior fully armed.

So I took them with me and maintained them, and they were with me for a year.

And that year I had them with me, not grudgingly.

But thenceforth was their murmuring, because that they were with me.

For from the beginning of the fourth month, they had begun to make themselves hated and to be disorderly in the land, committing outrages and molesting and harassing the nobles and ladies.

And thenceforward my people rose up and besought me to part with them.

And they bade me to choose between them and my dominions.

And I applied to the Council of my country to know what should be done concerning them.

For of their own free will, they would not go.

Neither could they be compelled against their will through fighting.

And the people of the country being in this Strait, they caused a Chamber to be made all of iron.

Now, when the Chamber was ready, there came there every Smith that was in Ireland, and everyone who owned tongs and hammer.

And they caused coals to be piled up as high as the top of the Chamber.

And they had the man and the woman and the children served with plenty of meat and drink.

But when it was known that they were drunk, they began to put fire to the coals about the Chamber, and they blew it with bellows until the house was red hot all around them.

Then with their accounts held in the center of the floor of the Chamber and the man tarried until the plates of iron were all of a white heat.

And then, by reason of the great heat, the man dashed against the plate with his shoulder and struck them out, and his wife followed him.

But except him and his wife, none escaped thence.

And then, I suppose, Lord, said Maltoich unto Bendigaide vRAN that he came over unto thee.

Doubtless he came here, said he, and gave unto me the cauldron.

In what manner didst thou receive them?

I disperse them through every part of my dominions, and they have become numerous and are prospering everywhere.

And they fortified the places where they are with men and arms of the best that were ever seen.

That night they continued to discourse as much as they would, and had menstrualcy and carousing and when it was more pleasant to them to sleep than to sit longer, they went to rest.

And thus was the banquet carried on with joyousness.

And when it was finished, Malzowitz journeyed towards Ireland, and Branwen with him.

And they went from Aber Minai with 13 ships and came to Ireland.

And in Ireland was their great joy because of their coming.

And not one great man or Noble Lady visited Branwen, unto whom she gave not either a clasp or a ring or a Royal jewel to keep, such as it was honorable to be seen departing with.

And in these things she spent that year in much renown.

And she passed her time pleasantly, enjoying honor and friendship.

And in the Meanwhile it changed that she became pregnant.

And in due time a son was born unto her.

And the name that they gave him was Guern, the son of Mathewich.

And they put the boy out to be foster nursed in a place where we're the best men of Ireland.

And behold, in the second year a tumult arose in Ireland on account of the insult which Maltowitz had received in Cambria.

And the payment made for his horses.

And his foster brothers, and such as were nearest unto him, blamed him openly for that matter.

And he might have no peace by reason of the tumult until they should revenge upon him this disgrace.

And the vengeance which they took was to drive away Bronwyn from the same Chamber with him, and to make her Cook for the court.

And they caused the Butcher, after he had cut up the meat, to come to her and give her every day a blow on the ear.

And such they made her punishment Verily.

Lord said his men to Malthwitch forbid now the ships and the ferry boats and the quarryls, that they go not into Cambria, and such as come over from Cambria.

Hither imprisoned them, that they go not back for this thing to be known there.

And he did so.

And it was thus for not less than three years.

And Branwen reared a Starling in the cover of the kneading trough.

And she taught it to speak.

And she taught the bird what manner of man her brother was.

And she wrote a letter of her woes and the despite with which she was treated.

And she bound the letter to the root of the bird's ring and sent it toward Britain.

And the bird came to this island.

And one day it found Bendiguide vRAN at Sears in Arvin, conferring there, and it alighted upon his shoulder and ruffled its feathers so that the letter was seen.

And they knew that the bird had been reared in a domestic manner.

Then Bendiguied Brand took the letter and looked upon it.

And when he had read the letter he grieved exceedingly at the tidings of Branwin's woes.

And immediately he began sending messengers to summon the island together.

And he caused seven score in four countries to come unto him.

And he complained to them himself of the grief that his sister endured.

So they took counsel, and in the Council they resolved to go to Ireland and to leave seven men as Princes here.

And Cardawick, the son of Bran and the chief of them, and their seven Knights, and Eddie Nyon where these men left.

And for this reason were the seven Knights placed in the town.

Now the names of these seven men were Cardiwick, the son of Bran and Heavy Adhere and Eunuch Glue Yiswood, and Itch, the son of Annawick Galton and photo, the son of Evelyar and Guilliach Minis Yarn, and La SAR, the son of La Ciar, Lisa Gwyd and Pender, and Daved as young Page with them.

And these abode as seven ministers to take charge of this island.

And Cardawick, the son of Bran, was the chief amongst them.

Bendiguide ran with the host of which we spoke, sailed towards Ireland, and it was not far across the sea.

And he came to Shoalwater.

It was caused by two Rivers.

The Lee and the Arkan were they called, and the nations covered the sea.

Then he proceeded with what provisions he had on his own back and approached the shore of Ireland.

Now the swine herds of mouthwick were upon the seashore, and they came to Maltawich.

Lord, said they, greeting be unto thee.

Heaven protect you, said he.

Have you any news?

Lord, said they, we have marvelous news.

A wood we have seen upon the sea in a place where we never yet saw a single tree.

This is indeed a Marvel, said he, saw you odds we saw, Lord, said they, a vast mountain beside the wood, which moved.

And there was a lofty Ridge on the top of the mountain and a Lake on each side of the Ridge, and the wood and the mountain and all these things moved.

Verily, said he, there is none who can no aught concerning this unless it be Branwin messengers.

Then went unto Branwen.

Lady, said they, what Thinkst thou that this is the men of the island of the mighty, who have come hither on hearing of my ill treatment and my woes?

What is the forest that is seen upon the sea?

Ask they, the yards and the masts of ships?

She answered.

Alas, said they, what is the mountain that is seen by the side of the ships?

Bendiguide, my brother, she replied, coming to Shoalwater, there is no ship that can contain him in it.

What is the lofty Ridge with the Lake on each side thereof?

On looking towards this island, he is Roth and his two eyes, one on each side of his nose are the two Lakes beside the Ridge.

The warriors and the chief men of Ireland were brought together in haste, and they took counsel.

Lord, said the nobles unto Maltawich.

There is no other Council than to retreat over the linen.

A river which is in Ireland and to keep the river between thee and him, and to break down the bridge that is across the river.

For there is a load stone at the bottom of the river that neither ship nor vessel can pass over.

So they retreated across the river and broke down the bridge.

Then decayed Ran came to land and a fleet with him by the bank of the river.

Lord, said his chieftains, knowest thou the nature of this river, that nothing can go across it, and there is no bridge over it.

What, said they, is thy Council concerning a bridge?

There is none, said he, except that he who will be chief, let him be a bridge, and I will be so, said he.

And then was that saying the first uttered?

And it is still used as a proverb.

And when he had lain down across the river, hurdles were placed upon him and the host passed over thereby.

And as he rose up, behold, the messengers of Maltawich came to him and saluted him and gave him greeting in the name of Maltawich, his Kinsman, and showed how that of his good will he had merited of him nothing but good.

For Maltawych has given the Kingdom of Ireland to guarantee the son of Maltaitch, thy nephew and thy sister's son.

And this he places before thee as a compensation for the wrong.

And despite that has been done unto Branwen and Malthewich shall be maintained wheresoever thou wilt either here or in the island of the mighty, said Bendigeidfran, shall not I myself have the Kingdom?

Then per adventure, I may take counsel concerning your message.

From this time until then, no answer will you get from me.

Verily, said they, the best message that we receive for thee.

We will convey it unto thee.

And do thou await our message unto him?

I will wait, answered he.

And do you return?

Quickly the messenger set forth and came to Malthewich.

Lord, said they, prepare a better message for Bendigoi.

He would not listen at all to the message that we bore him.

My friends, said Maltawitch, what may be your counsel?

Lord, said they, there is no other Council than this alone.

He was never known to be within a house.

Make therefore, a house that will contain him and the men of the island of the mighty on the one side and thyself and thy host on the other.

And give over thy Kingdom to his will, and do him homage.

So by reason of the honor thou DOST him in making him a house, whereas he never before had a house to contain him.

He will make peace with thee.

So the messengers went back to Bendigaid Fran bearing him this message.

And he took counsel.

And in the Council it was resolved that he should accept this.

And this was all done by the advice of Branwin, unless the country should be destroyed.

And this piece was made, and the house was built both vast and strong.

But the Irish planned a crafty device, and the craft was that they should put brackets on each side of the hundred pillars that were in the house and should place a Leathern bag on each bracket and an armed man in every one of them.

Then Evneasin came in before the host of the island of the Mighty and scanned the house with fierce and Savage looks and described the Leathern bags which were around the pillars.

What is in this bag?

Asked he of one of the Irish.

Mulgood soul, said he and Evansean felt about it until he came to the man's head, and he squeezed the head until he felt his fingers meet together in the brain through the bone, and he left that one and put his hand upon another and asked what was therein.

Meal, said the Irishman.

So he did the like unto every one of them until he had not left alive of all the 200 men, save one only, and when he came to him he asked what was there.

Meal good soul, said the Irishman, and he felt about until he felt the head, and he squeezed that head as he had done the others, and albeit he found that the head of this one was armed, he left him nod until he had killed him.

And then he sang, In England there is in this bag a different sort of meal, the ready combatant when the assault is made by his fellow warriors prepared for battle.

Thereupon came the hosts onto the house.

The men of the island of Ireland entered the house on the one side and the men of the island of the Mighty on the other, and as soon as they had sat down there was Concord between them, and the sovereignty was conferred upon the boy.

When the peace was concluded, Mendeguide vRAN called the boy unto him, and from Bendigi vRAN the boy went unto Mandowenden, and he was beloved by all that beheld him, and from Mandylandin the boy was called by Nissan the son of Uraswid, and the boy went unto him lovingly.

Wherefor, said Ivanisan, Come not my nephew, the son of my sister unto me, though he were not King of Ireland, yet willingly would I fondle the boy cheerfully.

Let him go to thee, said Bendigeidfran, and the boy went unto him cheerfully.

By my confession to heaven, said Ivanisian in his heart, unthought of by the household, it is slaughtered that I will this instant commit.

Then he arose and took up the boy by the feet, and before anyone in the house could seize hold of him, he thrust the boy headlong into the blazing fire, and when Branwen saw her son burning in the fire, she strove to leap into the fire also from the place where she sat between her two brothers, the Bendigoied friend grasped her with one hand and his shield with the other.

Then they all hurried about the house, and never was there made so great a tumult by any host in one house as was made by them as each man armed himself.

Then said Mordite, the Gad flies of Morda woolon's cow.

And while they all sought their arms, Bendigaid Van supported Branwen between his shield and his shoulder, and the Irish kindled a fire under the cauldron of Renovation.

And they cast the dead bodies into the cauldron until it was full.

And the next day they came forth fighting men as good as before, except that they were not able to speak.

Then when Evanisian saw the dead bodies of the men of the island of the mighty nowhere resuscitated, he said in his heart, Alas, woe is me that I should have been the cause of bringing the men of the island of the mighty into so great a Strait.

Evil betide me if I find not a deliverance therefrom.

And he cast himself among the dead bodies of the Irish, and two unshot Irishmen came to him, and taking him to be one of the Irish flung him into the cauldron, and he stretched himself out in the cauldron so that he rent the cauldron into four pieces and burst his own heart also.

In consequence of that, the men of the island of the mighty obtained such success as they had, but they were not victorious, for only seven men of them all escaped.

And Bendigaid Van himself was wounded in the foot with a poisoned Dart.

Now the seven men that escaped were Pryderi, Manawaidan, Glenniel, Il, Taren, Tulsion, Nuak, Rudy, and the son of Muriel and Haileyan, the son of Gwen and Hen.

And Bendigoid Van commanded them that they should cut off his head and take you my head, said he, and bear it even unto the white Mount in London and bury it there with the face towards France.

And a long time will you be upon the road in Harlow you will be feasting seven years, the birds of Rhiannon singing unto you all the while.

And all of that time the head will be to you as pleasant company as it ever was when on my body.

And at Gwyls and Pen road you will be fourscore years, and you may remain there and the head's with you uncorrupted until you open the door that looks towards Aber Hendrin and towards Cornwall.

And after you have opened that door there, you may no longer Terry set forth into London to bury the head and go straight forward.

So they cut off his head and the seven went forward therewith, and Branwyn was the 8th with them, and they came to land at Aber Allah in Talebolian.

And they sat down to rest.

And Branwen looked towards Ireland and towards the island of the mighty to see if she could describe them.

Alas, said she, Woe is me that I was ever born.

Two Islands have been destroyed because of me.

And she uttered a loud groan.

And there broke her heart, and they made her a four sided grave and buried her upon the banks of the Allah.

And the seven men journeyed forwards toward Harlek, bearing the head with them.

And as they went, behold, there met them a multitude of men and of women.

Have you any tidings?

Asked Mendawaiden.

We have none, said they, save the Casawan.

The son of Belly has conquered the island of the mighty and is crowned King in London.

What has become, said they, of Cardwac, the son of Bran, and the seven men who were left with him in this island.

Casawalwin came upon them and slew six of the men, and Cardik's heart broke for grief thereof, for he could see the sword that slew the men, but knew not who it was that wielded it casualen had flung upon him the veil of illusion, so that no one could see him slay the men, but the sword only could they see.

And it liked him not to slay Cardawick, because he was the nephew, the son of his cousin, and now he was the third whose heart had broke through grief.

Pendyavid, who had remained as a young age with these men, escaped into the woods, said they.

Then they went on to Harlick, and there stopped to rest, and they provided meat and liquor, and sat down to eat and to drink.

And there came three birds, and began singing unto them a certain song.

And all the songs they had ever heard were unpleasant compared there too.

And the birds seemed to them to be at a great distance from them over the sea.

Yet they appeared as distinct as if they were close by.

And at this repast they continued seven years, and at the close of the 7th year they went forth to Gwales in Penrose.

And there they found a fair and Regal spot overlooking the ocean, and a spacious hall was therein.

And they went into the hall, and two of its doors were open, but the third door was closed.

That which looked towards Cornwall sea under, said mendewiden, is the door that we may not open.

And that night they regaled themselves and were joyful.

And of all they had seen of food laid before them, and of all they had heard of, they remembered nothing, neither of that nor of any sorrow whatsoever.

And there they remained fourscore years unconscious of having ever spent a time more joyous and mirthful.

And they were not more weary than when first they came.

Neither did they any of them know the time they had been there.

And it was not more irksome to them having the head with them than if Bendgard vRAN had been with them himself.

And because of these fourscore years it was called the entertaining of the Noble head.

The entertaining of Branwen and Maltawich was in the time that they went to Ireland.

One day, said Helen and the son of Gwyn, evil betide me if I do not open the door.

To know if that is true.

Which is said concerning it.

So he opened the door and looked towards Cornwall and Eberheville.

And when they had looked.

They were as conscious of all the evils they had ever sustained.

And of all the friends and companions they had lost.

And of all the misery that had befallen them.

As if all had happened in that very spot.

And especially of the fate of their Lord.

And because of their perturbation.

They could not rest.

But journeyed forth with the head towards London.

And they buried the head in the white Mount.

And when it was buried.

This was the third goodly concealment.

And it was the third ill fated disclosure.

When it was disinterred.

And as much as no invasion from across the sea came to this island while the head was in that concealment.

And thus it's the story related of those who journeyed over from Ireland.

In Ireland.

None of them were left alive.

Except five pregnant women in a cave in the Irish wilderness.

And these five women in the same night were born five sons whom they nursed until they became grownup youths.

And they thought about wives.

And they at the same time desired to possess them.

And each took a wife of the mothers of their companions.

And they governed the country and peopled it.

And these five divided it amongst them.

And because of this partition.

Are the five divisions of Ireland still so termed.

And they examined the land where the battles had taken place.

And they found gold and silver until they became wealthy.

And thus ends this portion of the Mabinogi.

Concerning the blow given to Branwin.

Which was the third unhappy blow of this island.

And concerning the entertainment of Bran.

When the hosts of seven score countries and ten.

Went over to Ireland.

To revenge the blow given to Branwen.

And concerning the seven years banquet in Harlech.

And the singing of the birds of Rihannann.

And the sojourning of the head for the space of fourscore years.

Thank you for joining Freya's fairy tales.

Be sure to come back next week for the conclusion of Jason's journey.

To holding his own fairy tale in his hand.