Sunday Scribblings #254 - A Thousand Years

Sunday Scribblings #254 - A Thousand Years 

            A thousand years ago, St. Valentine (work with me here…) and his apprentice Cupido freed the confectioners and jewelry makers from imprisonment. It was a dark time in history. But, aren’t they all. Under the rule of King Ethelred, “The Unready” (whose middle initial was W ironically), son of King Edger, the men had been thrown into jail for trying to create the first worker’s unions ever seen in recorded times.

Valentino seeing the unjust treatment of such skilled men, petitioned the king to set them free. His request was denied immediately. The King said that men were there to provide for the queen and him and would not be allowed to make rules for themselves. Undeterred, Valentino went to the gallows to speak to the prisoners. He told them all that he would continue to fight for their freedom. He promised that until that time, their wives would be properly taken care of. The prisoners were highly grateful, not knowing that when Valentino said “taken care of” he meant sexually, and they all cheered him, calling him a saint!

“I have a plan,” Valentino told them. “The only person that our king listens to is his queen, so we must gain her support. We cannot do this in an obvious way for it may turn against us if the king sees we’ve gone around his back. Therefore, you men, creators of the things that women fancy, must give the queen gifts, but she must think they are from her husband. So pleased with the king’s gestures, she will shower him with affection.”

“But, what will that do for us?” the men shouted.

“We will then go to the king,” Valentino answered. “And tell him that you all are the reason for his newfound marital bliss. I will promise him that if he sets you free, you will provide him with new gifts to give the queen, every year, on this same day.”

The men cheered and began to plot their course.

Jared, the leader of the jewelers, gathered his men and described a design of exquisite beauty – it would be a gift for the queen like she’d never seen before. All the jewelers worked tirelessly for days (fortunate to have all their equipment with them in jail) and in the end they produced a bracelet of linked precious stones, which the men called “charms.” There was one charm for each of the queen’s eight sons. The bracelet was breathtaking and Jared named it “Pandora.”

Godiva, the elder of the confectioners, told his lot that his son Truffle had a recipe for miniature cannon balls made of chocolate. They would make a different candied center for each of the queen’s eight sons.

On the fourteenth day of February, the year 1011, Cupido snuck into the castle and placed the gifts by the queen’s bed as she slept. Valentino’s half-brother, Hallmarkus, had provided the idea for a final touch - a note was also left on top of the package. It simply read, “Love Ethelred.”

The rest is history…

By D Paré