I came across the story of Iron John in Robert Bly's famous book "Iron John". I intend to do a commentary on the story from a Pakistani perspective. But first -- enjoy my (slight) re-writeup of the story below. I will post my thoughts on what the story is actually about soon.
Once upon a time, there was a kingdom. It was surrounded on one side by a vast forest. One day, a man set off to explore the forest, and he didn’t come back. His brothers and neighbors went to look for him, and they didn’t come back. The matter of these disappearances was brought before the king. The king sent a platoon of his troops to find out what was going on. But they didn’t return either. Pretty soon, no one went into that forest anymore. All kinds of stories and legends began to fill people’s imaginations about the forest – of vile and vicious creatures, unending perils, hypnotizing spirits, even of mysterious and seductive women whose charms ensnare unsuspecting men who can’t resist their temptations.
Many years passed like this until a young man with golden hair arrived in the kingdom from elsewhere. His hair was so beautiful that a lot of people came out to see him and took him to meet their king. As young men are, he too had a sense of immortality and an air of fearlessness about him. He met the king and said, “Is there anything here that one shouldn’t really do?” The king said, “Well there is this part of the forest which no one goes to any longer because the return rate is very low!”. “Exactly, what I wanted!”, says the young man and sets out towards the forest the very next today taking only his dog along. After many hours of walking through the thick jungle and making a clearing with a machete, they come to a pond. His dog runs to the pond to get a drink. As soon as the dog reaches the edge of the pond, a hand comes out of the water, grabs the dog and pulls him under.
However, instead of panicking and pissing himself, the young man says: “This must be the place.”
He returns to the kingdom and calls in his buddies to accompany him to the forest. They have buckets. Working diligently, they empty out the pond, one bucket at a time, and that takes a long, long time. At the bottom of the pond, they find a strange man, covered with hair from head to toe. They call him Iron John. These young men, take Iron John in chains and put him in a cage in the King’s courtyard. People from all over the kingdom come to the king’s castle to look at Iron John. They rebuke Iron John and praise the brave men who led to his capture.
The king has a son who loves to play in the courtyard with his golden ball. The king and the queen tell the prince to stay away from the wild creature’s cage. Iron John calls the young boy to come over many times but, being a good son, he stays away from the cage. One evening, the prince’s golden ball rolls into Iron John’s cage through its metal bars. The boy gulps, walks over to the cage and says: “Mr. Iron John, please give me my ball back.”
Iron John says, “Not unless you open my cage and let me out!”
The boy knows he should never do that. It’s very frightening to let Iron John out into his life and out into the world. But he really wants the golden ball. So he says, “But I don’t know how to let you out.”
Iron John says, “The key to the cage is under your mother’s pillow.”
So, the boy waits until the king and queen are gone. Then he sneaks into his parents’ room, and there under his mother’s pillow is the key. He steals the key and opens the door of the cage. Iron John hands him the golden ball and starts heading out to the forest.
The boy looks around and realizes he’s committed an unforgivable sin. He’s done something for which his parents will never forgive him. He knows they’ll never see him the way they used to, and knows he can’t stay in the castle anymore. The ball is useless to him as he cannot play with it in the courtyard any longer.
He cries out to Iron John: “Help me!”
Iron John picks him up and sets him on his shoulders and heads into the forest. The young prince is crying at losing the world he knows behind him. He has tears rolling down his cheeks. Iron John says, “Don’t worry! I have riches which are more than you’ll ever need, but you can never go home again.”
So, Iron John takes the boy to another pond in the forest. The pond is filled with pristine, crystal-clear water. Iron John makes a bed of moss and says to the boy, “I have to go away for the day. Your job is to guard the pond and not let anything fall into the pond.”
Iron John leaves the prince sitting there. The boy looks in the water and he sees golden fish and golden snakes. As he sits there, he gets weary. He realizes that his finger got pinched in the cage when he opened the door to let Iron John out, and it hurts. And he forgets himself. He puts his finger into the pond for some relief, and when he pulls it out, his finger has been turned to gold. He tries to rub it off but to no effect. He’s scared and worried about what’ll happen if Iron John discovers that he has broken his rule.
Iron John comes back that evening and says, “How did you do?” And the boy hides his finger behind his back and says, “Fine.” But Iron John knows what has happened. He says, “I forgive you. Just don’t let it happen again.”
The next day, Iron John gives the same instructions and leaves for the day. And the boy gets bored. He’s looking in the water and leans out over the water, and his hat falls off. He tries to catch it, but it falls into the water. It, too, turns to gold.
Again, he tries to hide it from Iron John. But Iron John knows what’s happened, and says, “Again, I forgive you, but don’t let it happen again.”
The third day Iron John leaves and gives the same instructions to the boy. Again, the boy is bored with this useless task. He leans over, and he sees his reflection for the first time. He’s so taken with his appearance, he leans further over the pond, and a lock of his hair falls over his face and into the water. His hair turns radiant gold.
When he hears Iron John coming, he covers it up with a handkerchief. But it’s hopeless. Iron John knows what has happened. Iron John tells the boy, “You can’t stay with me any longer. But if you need me, come to the edge of the forest and call my name and I’ll come to your help.
He sets the boy off on a journey down a lonely road, all by himself. He has lost his fortune, his family, his reputation, and friends. He has lost everything. The former prince has no money. He has no talent. But Iron John gave him the only thing he will ever need: Beautiful Golden Hair.
