“Not so!  You are the last of my children; if you are lost, all is lost indeed!”

But he begged so hard that at length the good Queen his mother bade him God-speed, and girt about his waist his father’s sword, the brand that never struck in vain, and as she girt it on she chanted the spell that gives victory.

So Childe Rowland bade her good-bye and went to the cave of the Great Magician Merlin.

“Yet once more, Master,” said the youth, “and but once more, tell how man or mother’s son may find fair Burd Helen and her brothers twain in the Dark Tower of Elfland.”

“My son,” replied the wizard Merlin, “there be things twain; simple they seem to say, but hard are they to perform.  One thing is to do, and one thing is not to do.  Now the first thing you have to do is this:  after you have once entered the Land of Faery, whoever speaks to you, you must out with your father’s brand and cut off their head.  In this you must not fail.  And the second thing you have not to do is this:  after you have entered the Land of Faery, bite no bit, sup no drop; for if in Elfland you sup one drop or bite one bit, never again will you see Middle Earth.”

Then Childe Rowland said these two lessons over and over until he knew them by heart; so, well schooled, he thanked the Great Master and went on his way to seek the Dark Tower of Elfland.

And he journeyed far, and he journeyed fast, until at last on a wide moorland he came upon a horse-herd feeding his horses; and the horses were wild, and their eyes were like coals of fire.

Then he knew they must be the horses of the King of Elfland, and that at last he must be in the Land of Faery.

So Childe Rowland said to the horse-herd, “Canst tell me where lies the Dark Tower of the Elfland King?”

And the horse-herd answered, “Nay, that is beyond my ken; but go a little farther and thou wilt come to a cow-herd who mayhap can tell thee.”

Then at once Childe Rowland drew his father’s sword that never struck in vain, and smote off the horse-herd’s head, so that it rolled on the wide moorland and frightened the King of Elfland’s horses.  And he journeyed further till he came to a wide pasture where a cow-herd was herding cows.  And the cows looked at him with fiery eyes, so he knew that they must be the King of Elfland’s cows, and that he was still in the Land of Faery.  Then he said to the cow-herd: 

“Canst tell me where lies the Dark Tower of the Elfland King?”

And the cow-herd answered, “Nay, that is beyond my ken; but go a little farther and thou wilt come to a hen-wife who, mayhap, can tell thee.”

So at once Childe Rowland, remembering his lesson, out with his father’s good sword that never struck in vain, and off went the cow-herd’s head spinning amongst the grasses and frightening the King of Elfland’s cows.

Then he journeyed further till he came to an orchard where an old woman in a grey cloak was feeding fowls.