Module 1: "Theseus and the Minotaur" and "The Golden Key"

One morning, Prince Theseus awoke to sobs and screams of woe—from the king’s palace, from the streets, and from the temples.

“Young man,” asked he, with his stern voice, “are you not appalled at the certainty of being devoured by this terrible Minotaur?”

She said, “In the center of this labyrinth is the Minotaur, and, Theseus, you must go thither to seek him.”

Poor King Egeus, day after day, infirm as he was, had clambered to the summit of a cliff that overhung the sea, and there sat watching for Prince Theseus, homeward bound; and no sooner did he behold the fatal blackness of the sails than he concluded that his dear son had been eaten by the Minotaur.

He could not bear the thought of living any longer; so he stooped forward and fell headlong over the cliff, and was drowned, poor soul, in the waves that foamed at its base.

Food was scarce, so the animals that had once inhabited the land left to seek more bountiful homes, plentiful with food and shelter.

One evening, after a dinner of broth so meager, it ran from the spoon like water, Marney’s grandfather sat beside her at the fire.

“Marney, you are a perceptive and sensitive child. As you know, things are not going well for us on the farm this year. Marney, you are the only person that can save the farm from demise.”

“Marney, you are a perceptive and sensitive child. As you know, things are not going well for us on the farm this year. Marney, you are the only person that can save the farm from demise.”

He said that in the year that you turned ten, our beauteous and fertile farm would become barren, the trees would not bear fruit and the land would become so tough that no seeds would be planted. Soon the farm and all of us would perish.

And as for Lord Dismalt…well, he lives happily in the paddock, munching grass and basking in the light of day!

And as for Lord Dismalt…well, he lives happily in the paddock, munching grass and basking in the light of day!