Berners Monkey

I began out loud to translate the parchment just found, in whose words a riddle within a tale was hid. In its four verses it did speak to me, each written in hand and tongue now forgot by all but few, of which I be one. It told of an ancient evil that still lives and walks this land for two millennia now past. Then when finished I then did write it down, keeping the style and grammar of all its verses of the young boy whose work it was. My client, now in utter awe at my accomplishment, took the two from me and retired into the dining room, where she then sat at its table, placing them side by side for comparison there. Her gaze swapped constantly between the parchment and its translation, with ever increasing facial puzzlement as to the meaning of the words I had written, before passing on to me both thoughts and judgement.


The monkee cryed and dyed by mother hande. This Barbarie ape of my Father’s from Portugal was. For I escaped from the fire. Quarterly and Impaled into the holy Arms of a Wyseman. I who bore his name. The purpose of its Visitation was to tell. Near its badge that I did find then hid. Answers he my heir shalle learn still there.


That tell of an ancient pagan Goddess of a Queen. One of war and fire three times victory was had. A fourth denied by Roman Hand. In return her Master’s familiar did kill by flame. That once dwelt within the soule of the first borne of her my kin.


Was then by bell, book and candle. Cast out by him from the bosom. Of our Holie Mother Church here, in Heaven and on earth. By he here in God’s name rule in Old English. After the Conqueror of the same name dyd come.


"But this evil dyd still live defying death. In innocent disguise and with deceit they hid across the ages. For they are the Devil’s Imp of fire. He here dyd prophecie that now hid. That thee to come. Who they fear. May yet destroy them. When the Flames of Redemption. Are upon their wicked soule."


"Then, when but ten yards from it, what I feared did come upon us all; our eyes were blinded by a light so bright that nothing could now be seen in every direction, the dark curtain that separated the present from the past was drawn back to reveal a vision of what had been. Our skin grew hot, our nostrils filled with the stench of acrid smoke and our eyes saw the flames that were all about. We were trapped in another time, when hell had come calling on this place. I in fear of my life, was running along a paneled hall to its end, a screeching monkey clinging to my neck; from within the evil smoke a woman came at me, grabbing my robe and pulling me backwards towards the flames, screaming words of bile upon my cursed soul."

"Then, when but ten yards from it, what I feared did come upon us all; our eyes were blinded by a light so bright that nothing could now be seen in every direction, the dark curtain that separated the present from the past was drawn back to reveal a vision of what had been. Our skin grew hot, our nostrils filled with the stench of acrid smoke and our eyes saw the flames that were all about. We were trapped in another time, when hell had come calling on this place. I in fear of my life, was running along a paneled hall to its end, a screeching monkey clinging to my neck; from within the evil smoke a woman came at me, grabbing my robe and pulling me backwards towards the flames, screaming words of bile upon my cursed soul."


"In a blind rage, my lungs choking and my flesh scorched, I pushed hard at she who was my mother; into the flames that surrounded me, she fell; the monkey lost its hold on my neck and followed her into oblivion. I had killed my hated mother and the monkey, I loved. Before the inferno could consume me too, the Wiseman’s arms were at hand, on pressing them a hidden door opened, through which I escaped into the darkness beyond…"

"In a blind rage, my lungs choking and my flesh scorched, I pushed hard at she who was my mother; into the flames that surrounded me, she fell; the monkey lost its hold on my neck and followed her into oblivion. I had killed my hated mother and the monkey, I loved. Before the inferno could consume me too, the Wiseman’s arms were at hand, on pressing them a hidden door opened, through which I escaped into the darkness beyond…"


"The vision was suddenly no more and we three were back safe in the time that is now. I on bended knees, began to weep at all I had seen; Elisabeth held me tight, shaking with fear at the horror just witnessed; Snuggles, his blackened fur still hot, licked the soot from our faces, before running off into the cooling water of the nearby moat, barking as he went. The reality of this terror as seen by us all, put a stop to any further exploration of this once holy place; now defiled by flame and murder, where only the presence of evil would be found within its walls."

"The vision was suddenly no more and we three were back safe in the time that is now. I on bended knees, began to weep at all I had seen; Elisabeth held me tight, shaking with fear at the horror just witnessed; Snuggles, his blackened fur still hot, licked the soot from our faces, before running off into the cooling water of the nearby moat, barking as he went. The reality of this terror as seen by us all, put a stop to any further exploration of this once holy place; now defiled by flame and murder, where only the presence of evil would be found within its walls."