THE MAN WITH TWO DOGS

_{The old king and his son.}

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There once was a king of France who had only one child, a daughter. He was very saddened not to have a son to succeed him, and he said to himself with pain:

"My race will therefore die out with me!"

And this thought tormented him greatly. Although already old, he and the queen prayed to God every day to grant them a son. Their prayers were finally answered, and a son was born to them, a very beautiful child.

The old king died soon after, having married his daughter to a powerful king; and the queen also was not long in following him. The young prince, named Jean, was to ascend the throne at the age of twenty-one; but, while awaiting his majority, his sister and her husband were invested with sovereign authority. The birth of the prince had thwarted his sister's ambitious plans; so she showed him little affection. She relegated him to a farmer's house, some distance from the palace, and she rarely went to see him. Meanwhile, the young prince grew up; the farmer loved him as his son, and he was at home as well as at court, and perhaps better. One day his sister came to see him, and noticing how well he looked and promised to be strong and vigorous, she was frightened and told the farmer that if he wanted to kill him, she would give him the farm, a magnificent farm. The farmer promised, but he never had the courage to carry out his promise. Yet he swore he had done it.

The young prince, disguised from that day on as a little shepherd, went with the young shepherds of the farm to look after the sheep on the moor, and he took great pleasure there, singing and playing with them, and looking for nests in the spring. There was a black sheep in the flock that he loved above all others. One day she had two little lambs, one black and the other completely white. Jean's joy was very great. At sunset, when the flock returned to the farm, he took the little white lamb in his arms and brought it to the fold. From that moment on, he was his most faithful companion and best friend. The lamb followed him everywhere, like a little dog.

At the age of eighteen, however, Jean grew tired of this life and wanted to travel to seek adventures. The farmer loved him very much; however, as he feared that his sister, seeing him one day, would recognize him, he let him go. So here he is on the roads, going at random, where God will lead him, and accompanied only by his white lamb. One day, while crossing a large forest, he encountered a hunter, followed by two dogs.

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Source: L’Homme aux deux chiens. from the French book Contes et légendes de Basse-Bretagne published in 1891.

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Part 2

Previous Tale: The Giant Goulaffre

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Hello, my name is Vincent Celier.

 

I am writing translations of folk tales that I found in public domain French books, so that people who do not understand French may enjoy them too.

 
In this new tale, the main character is apparently the son of a king, that must hide because his life is in danger.

There is still no hint who the man with two dogs is, as Jean, the son of the king, has only a lamb as a pet.

 

Lake Lafarge

This evening I went to a local lake: Lafarge Lake. It was originally a quarry exploited by the Lafarge company. When they had extracted all that they wanted, they gave the land to the city of Coquitlam, which filled the quarry with water and created a park around this artificial lake.

Every year, the city puts illuminations around the lake in December and January. It takes three weeks to put all the lights in November and three weeks to remove them in February.

Here are some of the pictures I took while I walked around the lake.

 

 

 

 

-- Vincent Celier