THE GOLDEN RING AND ITS CURSE

THE GOLDEN RING AND ITS CURSE - PART ONE
A version for young people

Adapted from the original by Andrew Swanson

PROLOGUE

I wrote this adaptation when my children were of middle school age, setting the story in the White Mountains of New Hampshire where on rainy summer days they frequently listened to it. I reset the location to the Southwest, in the area we now call Tucson and the mountains which surround the Tucson basin,for this version. I then decided to make it available to you bloggers and especially for your children in their middle school years. The story, in four parts, is based on ancient Viking (Norse: Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) legends. The occasional use of German names is taken from the version Richard Wagner used for his four opera series, “The Nibelung’s Ring”. A guide to the pronunciation of these German names will be provided at the end of Part Four. Now let your minds travel back several millennia to a time when the mountains were higher and the rivers ran deeper ......

PART ONE

It all happened many, many centuries ago. Long, long before the Anasazi, the forefathers of our native American tribes, settled here and a few generations before the Great Flood. The mountains were much higher, not having eroded into the shapes we see today. The rivers flowed freely, clear and deep through what we now call the San Pedro, the Santa Cruz and others. There were three races of peoples, something like the peoples of today, who lived in this area. They were the Darktribe who lived in deep caves below the mountains in a dark place called Darkunder. These caves we now call Colossal Cave and its much larger neighbor not yet named by us. Then there were the Earthlings – humans, called the Trantors and the Walmanns. Then there were a superior, immortal race of powerful people who lived among the mountain tops and were regarded by the lesser people as Gods because they had Godlike powers and responsibilities towards everything that happened on the earth. Among the Earthlings were a related group of giants of whom two, Fafnir and Fasolt, we will also meet in our story.
Our story begins deep in the San Pedro river. Three river maidens, Earthlings able to live underwater, were swimming happily around a pile of yellow gold hidden in the depths of the river. But this was a very special gold because anyone who could steal this gold and could make a Ring and other magic items out of it and who would also give up love completely could then gain the power to rule the whole world – including the Gods. The river maidens had been ordered by their long dead father to always guard the gold and never allow it to fall into the hands of evil persons who would use it for world power.
One dark day the chief of the Darktribe, Albdark, appeared. His first interest was in the river maidens who were all quite beautiful. He hoped to capture one of them and make her his wife. Being more used to living and moving deep in the water the river maidens easily avoided Albdark’s clumsy efforts to catch one of them, teasing him as they did. As they teased him the sun, came out shining through the water and lit up the gold. Enjoying the beauty of the shining gold, the river maidens forgot and revealed the powers of the gold and their responsibility to guard it. Albdark, heard this, decided that if he couldn’t catch one of the river maidens for his wife he might as well give up love, steal the gold and make himself master of the world. Being very strong Albdark quickly tore the gold from its base and, to the river maiden's horror, he collected all the gold together and took it back to his home in Darkunder deep underneath the mountains known to us today as the Rincons.
Our story shifts now to the top of the second highest mountain in the range we now call the Santa Ritas. There on this summit two giants have just completed the building of a great castle for the chief God, Vodin. Vodin had foolishly promised that one of the lesser goddesses, Freja, would become wife to the giants if they properly completed the building of this castle. Nearby, Vodin and his wife Erica had been sleeping peacefully while the construction took place. Beside Vodin lay his powerful spear made from a bough cut from the world’s ash tree, a very large and ancient tree almost as old as the world’s people themselves. Erica woke up, noticed that the castle was complete, and wakened Vodin. Vodin quickly and proudly named his new castle Valhalla. The giants, discovering that Vodin was awake, came to him asking for their payment. Vodin, finally realizing that his promise to give Freja to the giants was very wrong, tried to get out of the bargain by refusing to give up Freja. An argument followed and a stalemate developed.
Just now Loge, the God of fire, arrived on the scene with the news that Albdark had stolen the gold and had made the Ring that would give him the power to rule the world.
Vodin, angry at this news, asked Loge what might be done. The giants, meanwhile having overheard of the stealing of all this gold, offered to take the gold in payment for Valhalla in place of Freja. Vodin at first did not agree since he couldn’t pay with gold he did not possess. But Loge had an idea. He and Vodin would go to Darkunder, attempt to catch Albdark and take the gold – and the Ring – from him. Vodin asked Loge how he thought they could take the gold away from Albdark now that he had made the Ring. Loge, being very clever, answered “We will trick him.” Vodin then agreed to the giants offer to take the gold in place of Freja and decided to go with Loge to Darkunder. The giants decided to hold Freja as hostage until they received the gold.
Vodin and Loge then went down into the dark and dreary underworld of Darkunder. There they first met a blacksmith named Littmann, who was a slave to Albdark,. Littmann not only had already made the Ring but had also made a thing out of the gold called an alterhelm which allowed its wearer to become invisible as well as to change his shape. Littmann told Vodin and Loge of the terrible life the Darktribe led under the cruel leader Albdark. Albdark soon arrived, invisible thanks to the Alterhelm, and whipped Littmann for allowing strangers to enter Darkunder. Albdark then revealed himself, bragging to Vodin and Loge how he will conquer the world with his new powers.
Loge challenged Albdark to show off his power by changing his shape. Loge first suggested that Albdark take a shape which would frighten anyone. Putting on the alterhelm, Albdark changed himself into a fierce dragon and then, just as quickly, changed back to his normal shape. Loge then suggested to Albdark that to change himself into something very small might be a better way to protect himself against enemies. That way, being very small, he could easily hide. Loge claimed to doubt that Albdark could do this. Albdark, laughing, immediately changed himself into a small toad. Loge wasted no time and quickly covered the toad with a net which caught Albdark when he changed back to his normal self. Albdark cursed Loge for tricking him but was unable to free himself from the net – the Ring could not help him in this kind of situation. Loge and Vodin then carried Albdark off to Valhalla.
Once back at Valhalla, Vodin and Loge found the other Gods feeling very weak. Their immortality depended upon being fed golden apples which Freja grew and provided. Without Freja, there had been no golden apples. Vodin commanded Albdark to call his Darkunder slaves and have them bring all the gold to Valhalla. Once the gold had arrived, the giants were called, together with Freja – who quickly fed the Gods their golden apples – and the giants demanded the gold. For enough gold to free Freja, Fasolt demanded that the pile of gold must be high and wide enough to hide Freja from his sight. Fasolt was in love with Freja and he would probably rather have had the beautiful Freja for his wife than any of the gold. All of the gold was piled up and almost hid Freja except for a small hole in the pile. Fafnir noticed the Ring on Albdark’s finger and demanded that it be added to the pile. Vodin, knowing the Ring’s power, refused to allow it to be added to the pile of gold. Another argument had developed.
At this point a strange, almost ghostlike, woman rose up from within the ground. This was Altwoman, an immortal woman who has lived since the world began and knows all that has ever happened, all that is and all that will happen in the future. Predicting that the Ring will bring disaster to its owner she advised Vodin to give up the Ring. After some persuasion he did and the Ring was thrown onto the pile to fill the hole – but not before Albdark placed a curse upon it which would bring disaster to its future owners until the Ring once again became his. Albdark was then freed and returned to Darkunder.
Now that the pile of gold was satisfactory to the giants Fasolt and Fafnir began to take up the gold with Fafnir grabbing the most. Fasolt protested. Fafnir promptly killed Fasolt, took all of the gold for himself and departed. Vodin said that he now knows the power of the Ring and Albdark’s curse and also decided that he must find and ask Altwoman as to what must be done to control the situation that had developed.
During all of this action dark clouds had covered the mountain tops and hidden Valhalla from view. Donder, the God of thunderstorms, created a mighty thunderstorm which cleared the air so that all the other mountains surrounding what we call the Tucson basin were now clearly visible. Donder then caused a beautiful and huge rainbow to develop between where he stood and the entrance to Valhalla. Using the rainbow as a sort of beautiful bridge, the Gods walked across it and entered their new home.

Andrew Swanson is an independent representative of Shaklee Corp. offering, among many other products, a remarkable new life extension product called Vivix. For further information contact him at http://www.prosperityandhealthnow.com. He also offers a free e-book entitled "The Seven Great Lies of Network Marketing". You can optain this very informative free e-book from Andrew Swanson at his address: seswan2@comcast.net. Simply send an e-mail with your name,internet address, and telephone number to him at seswan2@comcast.net requesting this free e-book