The Continuing Adventures of Don Juan

Don Juan’s story did not end with the return of the Adarna to his father

and although the Adarna plays a lesser role on this part of his story, it

still was a catalyst for what came to pass. With this in mind, I will recount

here the ongoing saga of Don Juan and his treacherous siblings Don

Pedro and Don Diego.

Following their return to the palace and the recovery of King Ferdinand,

Don Juan had begged his father for mercy on his brothers, which was

much more than they deserved considering they mistreatment of their

younger brother. Instead of death, the brothers were tasked with

watching the Adarna in its cage of gold to ensure that nothing happened

to the precious bird which would be useful should the King or any of his

family fall ill in the future.

Despite the kindness of their brother in ensuring that their lives were

spared, Don Pedro and Don Deigo were not happy and still held a lot of

resentment towards their younger brother. One evening, once Do Juan

had gone to sleep, the two older brothers came up with a plan to get rid

of their brother. They decided that their father would be angry that Don

Juan had fallen asleep and as a result the Adarna had escaped its cage,

so they opened the door and let the Adarna free. Their resentment of

their younger brother overrode their common sense when it came to

releasing a bird that could cure any of their ailments in future!

When he realised that the Adarna was gone, Don Juan was filled with

shame and believed it was his fault for falling asleep. Don Juan quietly

left the palace to begin the search for the Adarna to return it to his

father’s palace.

When King Fernando came to realise what had happened, he ordered

his two older sons to set out as well in search of both the Adarna and

this king’s favourite son. Neither Don Pedro or Don Deigo was overly

enthusiastic about this idea, but they did not dare to anger their father in

case he decided to return to his ideas of execution and Don Juan was

no longer there to beg for mercy! As much as they hated their younger

brother, he did have his uses when it came to saving them from the

wrath of their father!

Don Pedro and Don Deigo went in search of their brother, and they

found him in Armenia. The brothers realised that they liked the area and

decided to stay. Despite their best efforts, the Adarna bird remain

elusive. The three brothers tolerated each other as well as siblings can,

and whilst exploring the area in search of the elusive Adarna they came

across an interesting well which they decided to investigate further.

Inside the well, were two mysterious palaces which Don Juan

discovered as he was the only one who managed to descend all the way

into the well. Don Pedro and Don Deigo had tried to descend into the

well but had insisted on being pulled back to the surface as fear

overcame them.

The two enchanted palaces were occupied by two princesses. The first

princess, Donya Juana explained to Don Juan that she was being held

against her will by a giant. The second princess, Don Leonora was also

a captive, but she was being held by a large seven headed serpent.

Now, Don Juan was not just a kind and gentle man, he was a warrior of

renown, and he killed both the giant and the serpent to free the

princesses from their captivity. Once free he signalled for his brothers to

pull them back to the service. When they saw the beautiful women, Don

Pedro and Don Deigo wanted nothing more than to take them from their

brother.

Donya Leonora realised she had left her ring in the well and Don Juan,

being a good man, offered to retrieve it. When he was climbing down the

rope, his brothers cut it and he fell the rest of the way, being severely

injured in the fall. You would think from past experience Don Juan would

be wary of trusting his brothers, especially when it came to deep wells,

but he was a trusting soul!

When looking into Don Juan’s story, there are as always differing facts

and so some tales say that Don Diego married Donya Juana, and some

say Don Pedro was the lucky man. Either way, one of the brothers

married Donya Juana but Donya Leonora refused to marry either brother

and asked that she be given seven years as she was carrying

unrequited feelings for Don Juan.

Back at the bottom of the well had found the enchanted ring that Donya

Leonora had forgotten, and the ring allowed for an enchanted fox (or

wolf in some tales) to tend to his wounds. The enchanted fox brought

healing waters from the River Jordan which fixed his broken and

dislocated bones. The fox also carried him out of the well.

By now, Don Juan had come to the conclusion that the Adarna was gone

and that he would not be able to find it again. He decided it was time for

him to return home to his father’s palace. However, something strange

happened. Don Juan could not remember who to get home and no one

he asked seemed to be able to help him and could not point him in the

direction that would take him home to the Berbanian Kingdom.

In a last-ditch attempt to find his way home, he talked to three hermits he

came across but two of the hermits had no information. The third hermit

called all the birds of the area to him and asked them to provide the

information. The birds did not know, but then the King of the Birds, a

giant eagle took pity on Don Juan and promised to take Don Juan

wherever he wanted to go.

The eagle carried Don Juan on a long and tiring journey until they took a

rest on the shore of a crystal lake. This lake was where the daughters of

a powerful, and feared ruler Kind Salermo would come to bathe and

swim. Unaware of this Don Juan was relaxing on the shore when he

became away of the three, beautiful, naked princesses diving into the

crystal-clear waters of the lake. Don Juan, in a break for from usual good

manners, hid from the princesses but he took one of their dresses with

him. When he came to his senses, Don Juan begged the princess for

her forgiveness and pledged his undying love for her beauty.

The princess immediately fell in love with Don Juan, but she told him he

should leave as her father was fearsome and would turn her into stone

to be an eternal part of the walls of his enchanted palace. This was a

fate that had befallen all suitors who had approached the sisters.

The girl’s name was Maria Blanca and despite her warnings, her father

heard of Don Juan’s adventures and called for him to present himself at

the palace. Despite his fearsome nature, King Salermo was impressed

by Don Juan and he decided that he would set him tests which would be

impossible for an ordinary mortal to complete.

King Salermo set the following tests for Don Juan.

For the first test, Don Juan was given two baskets of wheat which King

Salermo demanded be planted on the top of a mountain, which Don

Juan would have to convert to level land before he planted the wheat.

The day after the mountain was levelled and the wheat was planted,

Don Juan must use the grain to make bread for the King and all his

courtiers. This was an impossible task as no mortal man can level a

mountain!

The second test involved another mountain. For this test, King Salermo

instructed Don Juan to move the mountain from the front of his palace

and move it to the back of the palace. The mountain blocked the cool

winds from reaching the palace and the King demanded that the winds

be returned to his palace.

Now for the third task, was a task which to the modern person is

distasteful and, unfortunately, is a sign of the times when the epic poem

was written telling the tale of Don Juan. In the poem, the author states

that the third test demanded by King Salermo was for Don Juan to

capture all the slaves he could find and throw them into the sea in a big

bottle.

For the fourth test, Don Juan was to build a new castle in the sea where

the king’s troop and weapons could be stored. The castle must be

constructed within a day and meet the requirements of the King.

Finally, the king threw one of his rings into the ocean and made Don

Juan retrieve it.

Against all odds, Don Juan succeeded because Donya Maria Blanca

had given him a talisman as she was skilled in enchantment like her

father.

From this point, the story varies. In some Maria Blanca is punished for

helping Don Juan and is cursed by her father by being turned into a snail

and all memories of her are wiped from Don Juan’s memory.

In others, she is cut into pieces to allow Don Juan to succeed. Following

this, it appears she was put back together, and the King made Don Juan

pick out Maria Blanca from amongst her sisters by recognising her

finger. Maria Blanca had cut her finger, so this was easy to do. Although

the king declared he was content that Don Juan had earnt the right to his

daughter, Maria Blanca knew her father and told Don Juan that they

should flee. She directed Don Juan to steal the best horse in the stables

which was the seventh horse from the left, but Don Juan miscounted

and took the eighth horse, and the king was able to chase them on the

fastest of his horses. The lovers were saved by Maria Blanca’s

enchantment ability as she created a stream between them and her

father which he was unable to cross.

Now, we come to the part of this tale where Don Juan showed that he

was not much better than his brothers and betrayed his beloved Maria

Blanca. She was unable to enter the palace and Don Juan went alone,

promising to return. However, Don Juan forgot all about Maria Blanca

when he set his eyes on Donya Leonora. Maria Blanca heard about this

infidelity and using her enchantment powers created a jewelled coach

pulled by sorrel horses and in a true power move, rolled up to the palace

to attend the wedding of Don Juan and Donya Leonora.

When she heard that King Ferdinand was happier for Don Juan to marry

Leonora than Maria Blanca, she threated to bring hell fire itself down on

the kingdom of Barbania. There is, of course, no wrath like that of a

woman scorned!

In fear, King Ferdinand back tracked and urged Donya Leonora to marry

Don Deigo instead which she did for the good of the kingdom. They had

a double wedding with Don Juan and Donya Maria Blanca who, now she

had secured her man, took back her threats and the Kingdom of

Berbanian returned to ‘tranquillity and joy’.

Author Edit: there are a lot of darker parts to this story that have

been left out as we do not feel are appropriate for us to retell. If you

wish to read the full story, it is available online, but it is a hard read

and is a testament to the views of people at the time about slavery.

These sections do not add anything to the story, in the writer’s

opinion, and so were left out as it is not our intention to upset or

write just for shock value.