Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - The Classic FairyTale: The Magician's Tea-Party

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Starting point is 00:00:46 please go to sleepcove.com slash support. That's sleepcove.com slash support. If you can't support the show right now, please subscribe with a bell to get alerts on all new free content thank you have you ever gazed in wonder at the great pyramid have you marvelled at the golden face of Tudankhamun

Starting point is 00:01:16 or admired the delicate features of Queen Nefertiti if you have you'll probably like the History of Egypt podcast every week we explore tales of this ancient culture The history of Egypt is available wherever you get your podcasting fix. Come, let me introduce you to the world of ancient Egypt. And welcome to Sleep Cove with me, Christopher Fitton, the place to come for a great night's sleep. I'm your host, and tonight we have a delightful episode in store for you. Get ready to enter a world of life.

Starting point is 00:02:05 magic and wonder as we delve into the magician's tea party, Sharp. In this enchanting tale, we join a young king and a young girl who meet a magician who tries to change how they look upon the world. I really enjoy these fairy tales from Evan and Sharp and she is one of the best authors I've read. Sleep Cove is your sanctuary, where stress and worries fain, leaving space for tranquility and peace. Find a cozy spot, snuggle under the blankets, and let me guide you into a serene slumber. Little King Whistle slipped through the palace gates and went to. went out into his kingdom to look for something new.

Starting point is 00:03:15 He was only eight years old, so he was not a very big king, but he had been king as long as he could remember. He had been looking for something new the whole time. Now his kingdom was entirely made of islands, and in the days when the old king and queen were a long, Live, these islands were known as the cheerful Isles. But King Whistful changed their name soon after he came to the throne

Starting point is 00:03:51 and insisted on there being called the Monotonous Isles. For strange as it may sound, this little king of eight years old thought his kingdom was the dullest and the ugliest and the ugliest and the the most wearisome place in the world. And nothing that his nurses or his counsellors could do ever succeeded in making him laugh and play like other little boys. Only look at the stupid things, muttered his majesty impatiently, as he stood and surveyed his kingdom from the top of a small, grassy hillock. Five round islands in a row.

Starting point is 00:04:45 Always five round islands in a row. Some of them were square. It would be something. At the bottom of the hill was a wood. One of those pale green baby woods, where the trees are young and slender, and nothing grows very plentiful. except the bracken and the heather

Starting point is 00:05:13 as the king stood and felt very sorry for himself at the top of the hill at the bottom of the hill came the sound of a little girl's voice singing a quaint little song was the song

Starting point is 00:05:35 sing song don't be long whistful whistle come and play sing song it's very wrong to stay and stay and stay away. The world is much too nicer place, to make you pull so long a face. It's full of people being kind and full of flowers for you to find.

Starting point is 00:06:03 There's heaps of folks for you to tease and all the naughtiness you please. The sulk is surely waste of time when all those trees are yours to climb. Tringling, make haste, king. I've something really nice to say. Trinoling, a proper king, would not make me sing all day. King wistful, thrilled all over with excitement.

Starting point is 00:06:35 Was something really going to happen at last? He had hardly time to think, however, before the little singer came out of the wood into the open. She wore a on her head was a large white sun bonnet, and under the sunbonnet were two of the brightest brown eyes the king had ever seen. He stepped down the hill towards her, wondering how anything so pretty and so merry. could have come into his kingdom.

Starting point is 00:07:19 And at the same instant, the little girl saw the king and came running up the hill towards him. So it was not long before they stood together, hand in hand, halfway down the hillside. Where did you come from? And who are you? And how long have you been here? asked the king breathlessly, answered the little girl smiling.

Starting point is 00:07:53 I've always been here. Who taught you to sing that song about me? demanded the king. The magician, answered I bright, and he told me to sing it every day until you came. But you have been a long time coming. I'm very sorry, replied his mouth. Majesty, apologetically. You see, the magician did not tell me to come. In fact, I didn't even know

Starting point is 00:08:26 who the magician is. Are you not the king then? asked I bright, opening her great brown eyes as wide as they would go. Their little king felt it was hardly necessary to answer this, but he set his heels together and took off his crown and made her the best bow he had learned at his dancing class just to show beyond any doubt that he was the king. Eye bright still looked a little doubtful. Then how is it that you do not know the magician? She asked him, What is the use of being king if you do not know everybody who lives in your kingdom?

Starting point is 00:09:20 It isn't any use. I never said I wanted to be king, did I? Said His Majesty a little crossly, it was not pleasant to find that somebody else and only a little girl in a sunbonnet knew more about his kingdom than he did. what a very funny boy you are, remarked I bright, without noticing his crossness. I always thought it must be so splendid to be a king, and to have a banquet whenever you like,

Starting point is 00:10:00 and never to go out without a procession, and to wear a crown instead of a sunbonnet, and That's all you know about it interrupted the king somewhat impolitely There aren't any banquets And when they are You only have stupid things

Starting point is 00:10:25 With long names to eat And you never know Whether to eat them with a fork or a spoon And it's always wrong Whichever you do and if you ask for jumbles or chocolate creams or plum-cate, you're told you mustn't spoil your dinner.

Starting point is 00:10:49 The procession you ever get is a procession of nurses who won't even let you step in a puddle if you want to. Dear me, said I bright, you're no better off than a little boy in an ordinary nursery. The little king drew himself up on a tiptoe with great dignity. Some of your remarks are most foolish, he said. You forget that I have a kingdom of my own as well as a nursery. To be sure, he added sadly, it is not much to boast of, for it is a very sure.

Starting point is 00:11:39 stupid kingdom, and nothing nice ever happens in it. What do you mean? exclaimed Ibrite. Your kingdom is the nicest kingdom in the whole world. King Whistful had managed to keep his temper so far, but this was more than he could bear. Rubbish! He cried, completely forgetting his royal manners. You come up the hill with me

Starting point is 00:12:14 and I'll show you what a stupid kingdom it is. So they raced up to the top of the five round islands in a row. Did you ever see anything so dull? That little girl shook her head. I think it is all as pretty as it can be. she said, Look how the sun glints on the cornfields And see the red and blue patches of flowers

Starting point is 00:12:54 But they're always the same flowers Complained his majesty yawning They're supposed to be the same flowers But they never are Answered I bright If you were to pick them Kings never pick flowers he replied haughtily.

Starting point is 00:13:17 Perhaps that is why you know so little about them, retorted Ibright, and his majesty began to feel he was not getting the best of it. He continued hastily, you must own that the sea never changes. Oh, said Ibright, that is because you have not learned the sea properly. It has ever so many different faces, and ever so many different voices too. The king turned and stared at her. Are you a witch? He asked wonderingly.

Starting point is 00:14:02 No, laughed eye-bright merrily. If I were, I would make you see things right instead of wrong. Then she suddenly scampered down the hill again. Come along quick, she cried. We'll go and ask the magician to disenchant you. King Wistful had to run his hardest to catch her. For the little girl in the sunbonnet certainly knew how to put one foot in front of the other.

Starting point is 00:14:41 A sunbott did tumble off a person's head as a crown, and that makes all the difference in a running race. Where does the magician live? He panted when he came up with her. In the Middle Island, she answered, we'll find the boat and follow the river down to the sea. She plunged into the wood as she spoke and threaded her way through the slender young trees.

Starting point is 00:15:18 with His Majesty close at her heels Sometimes the bracken Was as tall as she was But the boy behind Could always see the sun bonnet bobbing up and down just ahead of him And he followed it Until they came out

Starting point is 00:15:41 At the other side of the wood And found themselves On the banks of a little charming river. A small round boat like a tub, lined with pink rose leaves, was waiting for them. And into this they both jumped. Uh-oh! cried I bright, jumping up and down with tonight.

Starting point is 00:16:09 The fairies are out today. Look at them. The purple ones in the loose strife. And the pink and white ones. in the confray, and you'll upset the boat if he don't sit still, interrupted the king. You felt cross because he could not see the fairies. Let me have the oars, and I'll take you down the stream.

Starting point is 00:16:36 You need not do anything of the sort, said Ibrite, for this is the boat the magician gave me, and it always takes you wherever. you want to go. So they just sat in the sunshine and floated lazily along water and made as wet as they pleased the branches above as they passed under them and they leaned over the side and stretched after everything that grew out of reach and in short if they had not been in a ferry boat It is very certain that they would have tumbled into the water several times before they reached their journey's end. Presently, the river widened out into a big, calm sea.

Starting point is 00:17:53 Fair is snow well enough that nobody wants to dawdle about in an open sea, where there are no tadpoles to catch, and no trees that sweep their. branches down to meet the water. When the boat stopped, they found themselves on the edge of a shore covered with sea lilac and yellow poppies and wonderful shells that sang without being put to anyone's and just a little way along the beach was the magician's cave. There was no doubt about it being the right cave, for over the door of it was written in square acid tablets. This is the magician's cave. Beside the whole cave was dug out of a solid almond rock, and of course any other person's

Starting point is 00:18:59 cave would have been made of plain rock without come along, said Ibrite. and the two children walked up the beach, people might think that a cave on the seashore would be full of giraffes and jellyfish and wet shrimps. But this particular cave was just like the nicest room that ever belonged to a castle in the air. The wonder of it was that whoever went into it, found the very things he had never had and always wanted. And none of the things that he had always had and never wanted. So I bright immediately found a beautiful storybook with a coloured picture on every page

Starting point is 00:20:08 and all the sad stories squeezed between the happy ones. so that no one who read it could ever cry for long at a time, while the king found the inside of a clock, waiting to be picked to pieces, and an open pocket knife with a bit of firewood lying handy, and a full-rigged schooner ready to be sailed, and they both saw the deer. He was dressed,

Starting point is 00:20:50 in a long cloak that always began by being a green cloak but changed every other minute to a different colour. According to the mood the magician was in and as he was

Starting point is 00:21:08 always in a nice mood whether it was a sad or a merry one his cloak always managed to be a nice colour. On his head was a high pointed hat, with crackers sticking out of it, and a pattern worked all over it in caramels and preserved cherries. And he wore furry foxgloves on his hands to keep them warm,

Starting point is 00:21:40 because he was not so young as he used to be. He had been practising as a magician for over a thousand years. But he did not look very old, for all he was what might be called pleasantly old, for he had soft white hair and a curly white beard, and a pink complexion like a schoolboys. This is how a magician grows on, when he has always been a johnny magician, straight up on his knee and hugged him. I've brought the king to see you, she announced, and we want you to be a nice, kind, lovely magician,

Starting point is 00:22:38 and help him to be disenchanted. The magician stood up and shook hands with the king, just to make him feel at home. And the boy did not feel shy another minute, and quite forgot that he had never paid a visit before without a procession of nurses to look after him. You are very good children to call me at tea time, said the magician. If there is one thing more than another that makes me feel the ache in my bones, it is having tea by myself.

Starting point is 00:23:22 Now would you like to have you like to have? it on the floor, or shall I call up a table? The king, who had meals on a table, all his life, voted for the floor. But when I bright said it would be more fun to see what would happen if they chose a table. He had to own that perhaps she was right. What happened was very, simplistic. The magician just stamped on the floor and a neat little table, covered with a nice white cloth, walked in at the door, like a person, and took up its position in the middle of the floor. Well, exclaimed I bright, I never knew tables could walk before. What do you suppose they have four legs?

Starting point is 00:24:24 for, asked the magician smiling. My nursery table does not work, observed the little king, said the magician wisely. Some tables do not know how to put two and two together, now for some chairs. He stamped on the floor again, and two little armchairs bustled into the room, as fast as their fat little legs would carry them. If you excuse me, they're being in such a hurry, said the magician. They have been playing at musical chairs all their lives you see. Now, while you were laying the table, I will boil the kettle.

Starting point is 00:25:13 Crockery is in the left-hand cupboard and eatables in the right-hand cupboard. So the magician set to one. and lighted the fire with peppermint sticks and the two children opened the doors of his wonderful cupboards. A crockery in the left-hand cupboard was the right sort of crockery for none of it matched. So it did not take a minute to find a small pink cup and a green saucer for eye bright and a big blue cup and a big blue cup and a red saucer. red saucer for the magician, and a nice purple mug without any saucer at all, the king whistle. As for the right-hand cupboard, their little king was overjoyed when he found it stopped with jumbles and chocolate grains and plum-cake. I am glad, he said with a sigh of relief,

Starting point is 00:26:19 that you don't keep seed cake in your cupboard. Seed cake always reminds me of 11 o'clock in the morning. Ah, said the magician, the wimps saw to that when they filled my cupboard for me centuries ago. There's never any bread and butter in it either, until you've had as much plum cake as you can eat. There was a delightful tea party The magician did not mind in the least

Starting point is 00:26:54 When they made polite remarks about the food And told him his jumbles might have been kept a little longer With advantage Or that his chocolate creams Were not quite so soft As some they had known But they hastened to add That his tea was the nicest

Starting point is 00:27:17 tea they had ever tasted because it had only a grown-up amount of milk in it, so he would have been rather a cross-magician if he had minded. Nor did he raise any objection when they walked out in the middle of the tea and took a look at the picture book or whittled away the piece of firewood, or danced around the cave, and shouted because everything was so nice. And after tea, there were all the magician's treasures to be turned out of on to be tried, and his clean sheets of note paper to be scribbled over. Even as the magician saw, it was the right moment to begin telling, them his true stories, but even why they had come to see the magician. Well, what could

Starting point is 00:29:09 before they had time to say anything? For truly, he would not have been a magician at all if he had not known what he smiled so encouragingly that the little king answered him at once. It's like this, he began. something wrong with the way I see things. Of course there is, said the magician. The whims threw dust in your eyes when you were a baby, and you cannot expect to see things in the same light as other people when the wimps have thrown dust in your eyes. Why did they throw dust in my eyes? asked the little king whistle. Usual reason, answered the magician briefly.

Starting point is 00:30:13 They were not asked to your christening, that's all. If people were persist in leaving the wimps out when they give a party, they must take the consequences. However, as you were not to blame in the matter, the wimps would be the first to own that you ought not to be whipped any longer. The best thing you can do is go up to Wimperland yourself and ask them to take away the spell.

Starting point is 00:30:48 The little king looked at eye-bright and hesitated. It is a long way to go all alone, he remarked, and I-bright immediately stepped up to him and took his hand. I'll come with you, she said. I've always not to go to the other side of the sun. How are we to get there magician? Answered the magician. The usual way is to climb up a sunbeam,

Starting point is 00:31:22 but that's not very quick, and some beams are apt to be sniffery in the dry weather. Shall I send you up in a flash of lightning, or on the spur of alarm? Spare of a lark, echoed the king. You mean on the spur of a moment, don't you? Not a bit of it, answered the magician. You'd never go up to Wimpland on the spur of anything but a lark. I can tell you. You have to get up there very early, in any case, if you want to be even with a wimps. So the best way is to rise with the lark. However, as it is getting rather late in the days for narks, I had better sent up a lightning flash.

Starting point is 00:32:21 Will you manage it alone, or shall I send a conductor with it? Whether conductor shows the way, asked I bright, Dear me no, said the magician. lightning conductors never show anything but the stupidity of some people. Perhaps you'd better have the lightning without a conductor. So stand on one side while I pick you out a nice quiet flash without any thunder hanging to it. He took down a large sack, labelled storms from the shell. shelf and tied the torched his head into it. I bright stole a little closer to the king than before

Starting point is 00:33:17 and hoped that nothing would go off with a bang. I say, said his majesty, putting his arm around her, it strikes me. That is impossible, interrupted the magician in a stuffy voice from the middle of the sack, for I've got it in both hands, and it isn't going to strike anybody so long as you treat it kindly. Now, off you go in a flush, and off they did go in something, though they never knew what it was, for they had no time to see anything, before they found themselves dropped off with a thud on the other side of the sun. For a moment or two, they just lay where they had fallen without moving. Then they sat up and rubbed their eyes and looked around. Oh! exclaimed eye-bright, clasping her hands tight. I had no idea

Starting point is 00:34:29 it was like this. Of course I Bright knew no more about Wimpland than she had learned in her geography lessons and we all know how little geography books ever tell us

Starting point is 00:34:45 about the really nice places in the world. So although she knew as well as any other little girl that Wimpland has no physical features and its inhabitants have no occupation, but its climate is dull and foggy, and its government is a sleeping monarchy.

Starting point is 00:35:09 She was not in the least prepared for what she did see. Well, said a voice somewhere near, what do you think of it? Just in front of them, a wimp was standing on his head, which is a wimp's favourite way of resting his legs. He seemed to be a wimps. He seemed, to expect an answer, so the king did his best to think of one that should be both polite and trustful. As a matter of fact, he did not think much of Wimpland at all. It is rather full of fog, isn't it? He began a little nervously, the Wimp fairly wimpled when he heard this. You've hit it. He cried in a delighted tone.

Starting point is 00:36:01 That's what it is really. It's the folks from the front of the sun who call it yellow fog. They're blinded by their own sunshine they are. This is the back of the sun, you see, and the sunshine naturally loses a bit of its polish by the time it has worked through. I think I like bright sunshine best, observed the king. This is not absurd, said the Wimp. Why you can't look at it without blinking to begin with?

Starting point is 00:36:38 In Wimpland, you get all of the advantages of the sun and none of the drawbacks. No sun blinds, or sunstrokes, or sunsports. You must be a stupid boy if you can't see that. It's your fault not mine, answered the King of the King of the King of the King. boldly, you shouldn't have thrown dust in my eyes if you wanted me to see Wimpland in the right light. The Wimp turned several somersaults to show his amazement at the King's words and finally stood thoughtfully on one leg. That's serious, he said. We didn't know you'd ever come up here, or we shouldn't have done it. However, it can't be out now, so you'd better go back

Starting point is 00:37:34 again. It doesn't matter if you do see things wrong at the front of the sun. But it does matter, they both exclaimed. And that's why we want you to take away the spell please. The wimp stood on his head again and shook it from side to side, which no one but a wimp could have done, considering the awkwardness of the position. There's only one thing to be done, he said at last, you must exchange eyes. They stared at the wimp, and then at each other. The little king began to think businy, but eye bright spoke without things. thinking at all. Very well, she said. How is it to be done? Quite easy, answered the wimp cheerfully. All you've got to do is to wish with all your might to have the king's eyes

Starting point is 00:38:38 instead of your own. And there you are. At that moment, the king finished his thinking. Stop, he shouted. If I take her eyes away, she will always see things wrong. But the king had spoken too late. Eye bright had already wished with all her might, and her eyes had turned as blue as deep water, while his majesties were round and large and brown. What fun!

Starting point is 00:39:14 She cried, laughing happening, isn't it a nice change to have somebody else's eyes? Their little king, however, was far too furious to listen to her. Stand up and let me knock you down, he cried, shaking his fist at the wimp. Look what you have done. She will see things wrong to the end of her days. Don't be a foolish little boy, said the wimp calmly. Take her home and try to see things right yourself. The king certainly did not take her home, not himself, either. But it is the truth that they both found themselves at the very next minute, standing on top of the small green hillock and looking down at the kingdom of the monotonous aisles.

Starting point is 00:40:11 Hurrah! shouted King Whistful, waving his crown joyfully. What a beautiful kingdom I've got! Look how the sun glints on the cornfields! And see the great red and blue patches of flowers. Don't you think it is a beautiful kingdom? He added, turning to the little girl in the sunbonnet. Eye bright was distinctly puzzled. She thought she owned.

Starting point is 00:40:42 only saw five round islands in a row. But of course, it was impossible that the king should be mistaken. So she looked once more over the kingdom of the monotonous aisles, and then back and the anxious face of the little king. Yes, she said softly, it is, as you say, a beautiful kingdom, then she ran down the hill and disappeared a little king. among the slender trees of the baby wood, and little king Whistle went home to bed. There is a queen now as well as a king of the monotonous aisles. She has black hair and blue eyes, and she wears a crown instead of a sunbonnet, as she quite agrees with the king whenever he tells her how beautiful they

Starting point is 00:41:42 their kingdom is, and if this should seem remarkable to some people, it need only be remembered that the Queen sees everything with the King's eyes.

Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - The Classic FairyTale: The Magician's Tea-Party

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