The Woodcutter's Wife Volume 1.5 (Revised)
Legend tells of a woodcutter who built a shack deep within the pine forest. There, he hoped to live in peace and prosperity with his family.
The woodcutter's family lived well for a time, but without warning, the weather turned bitterly cold and spoiled the harvest. Before long, with their meager supply of food all but gone, the family was starving.
Late one snowy night, a traveler knocked on the cabin door seeking shelter from the biting cold. Always generous of heart, the woodcutter welcomed the stranger into his home, apologizing that he had no food to offer.
With a smile, the traveler cast off his cloak to reveal the garments of a wizard. As the woodcutter and his family looked on, the mysterious visitor reached into his satchel and withdrew a scroll tied with a silver ribbon. No sooner had the wizard unfurled the scroll and read the words aloud, when a great feast appeared from out of thin air. That night, nobody in the woodcutter's cabin went hungry.
Day by day, the snow piled up. Every night, the wizard produced another scroll from his bag and read the words, each time summoning a new feast. On the fifth night, the woodcutters wife awoke her husband to confess her mistrust of their magical guest. Surely, she argued, there was some price to pay for the magical feasts that everyone enjoyed night after night.
The woodcutter would have none of it. After nearly dying from the lack of food, his family was eating well. The divines had sent them a gift, he explained, and it was foolish to question their wisdom. "By the grace of the divines, we have been saved from starvation."
But the woodcutter's wife would not be persuaded. Every night, she grew more fearful and more desperate. She was certain that the family had entered into a devil's bargain, and the time would soon come when the wizard would ask for something unspeakable in return for his gifts. She became obsessed with the notion.
While everyone in the cabin slept, the woodcutter's wife snuck out of bed and took her husbands legendary silver axe in hand. She crept into the traveler's room and with one mighty swing, the silver axe-head cut neatly through skin, and vertebrae lopping off his head.
Suddenly, the wizard's disembodied head awoke. His eyes opened wide and when he beheld his maimed body, he let forth a terribly painful cry.
Awakened by the horrified scream, the woodcutter and his children rushed into the room and gasped at the terrible sight of the decapitated wizard.
With his last gasp of breath, the traveler laid a fearful curse on the woodcutter's wife. After her mortal death, she was damned to rise once again and walk the woods alone only to burn at the rising sun.
To this day, those who walk the pine forest late at night tell tale of a weeping woman glimpsed between the trees. She carries a bloody axe, the stories say, and is terrifying to behold.
She is known by those whom have encountered her as the 'White Lady', she may have been the one and the same wife from the woodcutter tale, or perhaps another unknown tale of how she became cursed to wander the pine forest alone for eternity. I can only speculate that she is the woodcutter's wife, her name long since forgotten through the ages. But their is a weeping in the winds of the great pine forest, it can be heard at night by anyone with ears to hear it.
As Told By Naamah
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