Prince Rostflugelfee (Rust Wing Fairy)

Short story, 2.5k words

John Atkinson Grimshaw, Spirit of the Night, 1879

(This story is dedicated to my wife Clare, who, between the two of us, is the expert on fairy tales. It was with her consultation on Jewish mythology and European fairy tale rules that this fairy tale was able to be finally written.)

So, you have heard already about General George Washington, and how he led the American revolution with dignity and discipline in the American War of Independence. But what you have not heard is how he brought calamity to the Ohio valley lands, and what magic happened there, and what strange spell still lies on those lands even three hundred years later because of him and because he sent for the Baron von Steuben. But I will tell you all about it. I have lived in the Ohio Valley, and I have seen it all myself; and more, I have been told by those who live there about the adventures of the tyrannous trickster, Prince Rostflugelfee.

Baron von Steuben was a Prussian who was hired by the Congress in America to train the Continental Army. Before von Steuben crossed the Atlantic, he served as chancellor for Prince Josef Friedrich Wilhelm of Hodenzollern-Hechingen in Germany, a town located very near to the ancient and enchanted Black Forest. Prince Josef enjoyed too much of an extravagant lifestyle and became very much in debt. To avoid the scandal of this debt, he inquired everywhere that he could discreetly for underground opportunities to secure loans to pay off his debtors. One day, while on a walk outside of the town, Baron von Steuben found himself beset on all sides by a band of very well-dressed Jewish rogues. The Holy Roman Emperor had just decreed that the Jews were to be expelled from Germany, you see, but these Jewish fellows had managed to hide themselves and their families in the inns of the Black Forest. As they surrounded von Steuben, their jolly captain approached him and said,

“Right now, my lord, empty your pockets and let us be on our way.”

“But I haven’t a penny to my name!” von Steuben protested.

“The chancellor of Hodenzollern-Hechingen doesn’t have a penny to his name?” Said the happy Jew, and he laughed, and his men laughed, and von Steuben was certain that they would kill him there and then.

But he was mistaken, for when they took hold of him and held his legs over him and shook very hard not a penny fell out, nor coin purse. And when they sent one among their company, a dwarf upon a pony, into town to inquire with the banker about obtaining a promissory note in the name of the chancellor they had captured, the dwarf returned sadly with a hastily scribbled letter from the exchequer which stated that von Steuben had not had money in the bank for some time.

“What a scandal!” laughed their captain.

“Please spare my life, I have nothing of value for you.” Von Steuben cried.

“Please!” warned the captain. “I may be a thief, a gambler, and a seducer of women. But I am no murderer.”

“Then, what use can you have for me?” the poor chancellor asked.

“You have some influence with the prince here.” The Jew said. “And we know he is in considerable debt. Perhaps a deal can be worked out between our folk and his.”

So, von Steuben led the roguish band into the town of Hodenzollern-Hechingen and he led them to the very court of Josef Friedrich Wilhelm, and even brought them before the prince himself.

“And who are these persons?” Said Wilhelm to von Steuben.

“They are merchants.” Von Steuben said timidly. “From… from…”

“From Venice.” Said the captain. He affected an Italian accent, and he bowed low with his purple hat in his hand as the Italians did, and his men did the same.

“From Venice.” Von Steuben said. He pulled out a handkerchief to dry the spots of perspiration forming on his forehead.

“You are welcome in my court.” Said Wilhelm. “To what do I owe this honor?”

“We have a proposition of business for you.” The captain said. “We would be willing to offer you a great sum of money to accept and keep safe… a locked chest.”

“How much?” Said Wilhelm cautiously.

“We are told by your chancellor that there is a certain discreet sum…”

“Yes, yes.” Wilhelm said quickly, embarrassed that his debts were brought to his attention yet again.

“Accept and keep this chest for us, and we will pay any sum!” the captain said. His smile was bright and white, and his teeth gleamed in the candlelight.

“What is in this chest?” Wilhelm asked.

“With all respect my lord!” the captain said, “We are not at liberty to say, for to say the name of what it is out loud would undo the spell upon the chest and release whatever it is inside!”

“This sounds like witchcraft, my lord!” said a Prince-Bishop at the court to Wilhelm. “What would the Holy Roman Emperor say about this?”

“Consider, my lord,” said von Steuben quickly. “The darkest cell in your prison would be sufficient to hide this chest from the world, from even the Holy Roman Emperor. And what a sum you would get for this service to these… merchants…”.

“Why do you want to get rid of whatever is in this chest so badly?” Said Wilhelm to the Jews.

“We found it in the Black Forest and were barely able to lock it in a chest that we happened to have on us. Believe me, my lord, if I owned a secure dungeon such as yours, I would never have approached you. But it has been such a pain to me to keep in the chest, that I would pay anything to get just get rid of it!”

So, Wilhelm, against the advice of his entire court save for the Baron von Steuben, accepted the rogue’s proposition. After three days they came back to the court and came carrying in two chests. The first they opened to reveal a considerable amount of gold. But the second chest was locked, and it had great chains which wrapped around the top and bottom, and a great iron cage over all of that as well. And as they carried in the chest it shook and jolted the men who carried it, until it was set upon the marble floor of Wilhelm’s court where it continued to shake and shiver.

“Let me out!” A small voice said in the box. “Let me out, I say!”

And the box shook and leapt into the air by a few inches.

“What is in that box?” Wilhelm said with horror. He turned to the Prince-Bishop and signed himself with a cross. “What devilry is this?”

“None such that your lordship must ever suffer, lest you say the little beast’s name.” Smiled the Jew. And he bowed very low, and his band bowed low too, and they left the court.

“He never said what the name of it is.” Said von Steuben to Wilhelm. “So, there is no possibility that whatever it is could get out…”

“Rostflugelfee!” Said the little voice in the box. And the box hopped and shook, and two guards had to rush over to it and hold it down to keep it from moving.

“My name is Rostflugelfee!”

So, Wilhelm had the guards bring the chest down to the dungeon, and they locked it in the deepest cell there. The whole of the court was sworn to secrecy about the name of the thing inside the chest, and no one was allowed to go near it for fear that the name would be said, and the thing inside of the chest released.

But this would not last. Prince Josef began to have horrible dreams every night where he was visited by spirits which held him at gunpoint or with rapiers or bloodied daggers and demanded that he say out loud the name of Rostflugelfee. Then they would say horrible things about him, and his court, and especially about his chancellor Baron von Steuben.

“He seduces the youth of your court!”

“Beware of von Steuben, he has got a lecherous disease!”

“Send him away, send him away, and with him send Rostflugelfee!”

For three weeks Prince Josef suffered these terrors. In the day he would make secret inquiries and would send spies to find out if the accusations against his chancellor were true. Eventually, whether true or not, the dreams were too much for him. He was convinced that the chest was cursed, and that sending the Baron away with the chest would be the right solution. So, Josef summoned the Baron to his court.

“You are to go to the American colonies.” He said.

“They are in rebellion there.” Von Steuben said.

“Yes, against King George III.”

“Is he not a relation of your lordship?”

“It is no matter. We have received a letter from the general of the colonists, George Washington, who has need of a drill master. We thought of your service for the late and great Frederick in the Prussian Wars and have recommended you.”

“Is that all, my lord?” Von Steuben said. He was downcast and was afraid for his life, for there were rumors about him that he feared were said to the prince.

“No, it is not.” You are to take the chest which was given to me by the Venetians. Take it with you to the Americas and cast it into the wilderness where it can never be heard from again.”

“My lord, I beg you do not ask me to take that cursed thing with me!” Von Steuben cried.

“Either go with it or be cast into the dungeon in its place.” Said the prince without feeling.

Such it was that the Baron was sent to France, and in his possession, he brought with him the speaking chest. And his mission would have been in vain for certain, for everywhere he went the chest shouted out, “Rostflugelfee! Say my name, it is Rostflugelfee!” had he not discovered that the beast inside the chest was pacified when he would secrete a drop of laudanum through the keyhole of the chest. Then the voice would become quieter and quieter until it would sleep and be silent for days. In this way, the Baron was able to keep the chest quiet all the way to Brest where he found a ship bound for Philadelphia.

When the bottle of laudanum ran out, the Baron had not anymore, and the voice in the chest began to talk in the cabin on the ship in which the Baron stayed.

“Rostflugelfee! Rostflugelfee! Say my name with me! Oh! My aching head! No more of that flower-juice I beg of thee!”

“Be quiet!” The Baron said. “Why won’t you be quiet?”

“Let me loose, and I swear I shall reward thee!”

“Not for the world, demon! You are to be cast into the darkest woods I can find in the Americas and left there until the end of time.”

“Say my name, and let me loose, and I shall give thee anything you ask of me!”

“Anything?”

“Surely! Just say my name, Rostflugelfee! Rostflugelfee!”

So, the Baron thought to himself a clever thought, and he risked the wrath of Prince Josef, and his own soul’s surety.

“Very well… Rostflugelfee!”

Suddenly, the chest lid slammed wide open, and a very bright light was emitted all over the cabin which blinded the Baron. When he opened his eyes, he beheld a boy fairy dressed all in armor which was rusted all over red. And the Baron could see that everywhere in the cabin where there was iron, every surface was now rusted over too.

“I am Prince Rostflugelfee, Lord of the Rusty-winged Fairies.” The boy fairy said. He spread out his little wings which looked like the most delicate metalwork that the Baron had ever seen.

“I am Baron von Steuben.”

“You have released me!” Said the fairy prince. “What do you wish for? Ask me it quickly and I will grant it to you!”

“I wish that you would fall asleep and never wake up.” Said the clever Baron.

“What?” Said the fairy prince.

“Sleep such that you can’t wake up.” Said von Steuben.

“You are a cruel man, indeed!” Shouted Rostflugelfee. And he wept little fairy tears which streaked down his little suit of rusty armor and streamed away from his feet on the floor of the cabin in little red rivulets. “Sleep forever and never wake up! Have you no mercy? What have I done to you?”

“You swore to me that you would do whatever I asked!” Said von Steuben. “Obey me!”

“Wait, just wait, would you?” Said the fairy. “I cannot sleep forever; no enchantment is that strong. But I could sleep for many years.”

“Ten thousand years!” Said the Baron.

“Less, please I beg you!”

“One thousand, then! What difference is it to me? I will be long dead by then.

“You would be in the grave after one hundred years, too.” Said Rostflugelfee hopefully.

“Very well.” Said the Baron. “Sleep for… two hundred years.”

“Surely one hundred years is enough.”

“Sleep for two hundred, just to be sure.”

“I shall.” Said the prince of fairies gravely. “So long as you agree that, when I wake, I shall have dominion over whatever land I wake in, and that I may hold court there and rule without contest or condition for another hundred years after!”

“Let it be as you say.” Laughed the Baron. “For I shall not live to see it! Now back in the chest with you!”

“No!” Begged the fairy. “Not that prison, not again. Let me sleep in any other place, but not that chest!”

“What do you suggest, then?” The Baron asked.

“Your pocket watch. Let me sleep in there!”

“Why would I do that?” Said von Steuben.

“As long as I sleep in it, for as long as you live, you will never have to wind it again.”

And the Baron liked that proposal. So, he opened the gold and silver watch, and by magic the fairy prince stepped in between the gears and found for himself a little place within the watch where he could sleep comfortably. And the watch worked without needing winding until the Baron died on his farm in New York.

Now, there is a town on the Ohio river which is named in honor of the Baron and his contributions to the colonists who fought for independence. There had been a fort built there which was also named after him, but the fort had been torn down shortly after it was erected. In the nineteen-eighties there was a movement to rebuild and restore the fort. That movement included the acquisition of some of the Baron’s personal items. When their museum purchased the watch from the Baron’s house in New York, the Ohio town was a bustling steel-town.

But as soon as the watch came, there came trouble with it. The steel industry died in the Ohio Valley, and the steel mills up and down the river shut down. Thousands lost their jobs. The huge steel mills went unused and were all rusted over, and the towns were all rusted too. For a long time, no one knew why or how this happened. Certainly no one thought that the pocket watch of Baron von Steuben, which had popped open in the Baron von Steuben Museum had anything to do with it.

Here and there, however, folk today will say that they can’t leave anything outside that is metal, for overnight a thin layer of rust will form over any steel outside. Sometimes children will report sightings of little fairies dancing on the riverside. Even rarer, sometimes, they will say that a funny little man with brown-red filigreed wings comes to them in their dreams and tells them stories about Prince Rostflugelfee who rules with an iron grip over the Ohio Valley.