The 13 Clocks
Encyclopedia
The 13 Clocks is a fantasy tale written by James Thurber
in 1950 in Bermuda, while he was completing one of his other novels. It is written in a unique cadenced style, in which a mysterious prince must complete a seemingly impossible task to free a maiden from the clutches of an evil duke. It invokes many fairy tale
motifs.
The story is noted for Thurber's constant, complex wordplay, and his use of an almost continuous internal meter, with occasional hidden rhymes — akin to blank verse
, but with no line breaks to advertise the structure. Other fantasy books by Thurber, such as Many Moons
, The Wonderful O
(published 1958), and particularly The White Deer
, also contained hints of this unusual prose form, but here it becomes a universal feature of the text, to the point where it is possible to predict the word order for a given phrase (for example, "the Golux said" vs. "said the Golux") by looking at the pattern of emphasis in the preceding phrase.
By the time he wrote this book, Thurber was blind, so he could not draw cartoons for the book, as he had done with The White Deer five years earlier. He enlisted his friend Marc Simont
to illustrate the original edition. The Golux is said to wear an "indescribable hat". Thurber made Simont describe all his illustrations, and was satisfied when Simont was unable to describe the hat. When it was reissued by Puffin Books
, it was illustrated by Ronald Searle
. The book has been reprinted by The New York Review Children's Collection
, with original illustrations by Marc Simont
and an introduction by Neil Gaiman
.
Suitors to the hand of Princess Saralinda are ordered to perform impossible tasks, and in many cases suitors have been slain by the Duke over trifles or over slight (or even imaginary) insults.
Saralinda is about to turn 21 when a mysterious minstrel named Xingu arrives in the town below the castle. The minstrel hatches a plan to gain access to the castle by singing a silly song about the Duke, as this invariably enrages the Duke (as do names which begin with X). As the minstrel finishes his song, the Golux materializes and announces his intention to help both the minstrel and the Princess.
Although the Golux admits he forgets things and makes things up, he is "on the side of good" and he gives the minstrel advice on how to deal with the Duke. He mysteriously vanishes as the Iron Guards arrive to arrest the minstrel.
The next day the minstrel is brought before the Duke, who, instead of killing him outright, sets the minstrel to perform an impossible task, even though the minstrel points out that "only princes may aspire to Saralinda's hand."
Back in the dungeon, the minstrel again encounters the Golux, who has mysteriously appeared claiming to have forgotten to tell the minstrel something important. He tells the minstrel to convince the Duke to make the intended task a search for 1,000 jewels, and it is now revealed that the minstrel is actually Prince Zorn of Zorna. Zorn believes that the only place to find 1,000 jewels is in his father's "casks and vaults and coffers", and that the task will take 99 days to complete: "three-and-thirty days to go, and three-and-thirty days to come back here ... [and] it always takes my father three-and-thirty days to make decisions."
Zorn is worried about completing the task, but the Golux reassures him that he has "other plans than one." On their way to the Duke's presence, a guard tells the Prince about the Todal, a creature that "looks like a blob of glup ... makes a sound like rabbits screaming and smells of old unopened rooms ... an agent of the Devil, sent to punish evildoers for having done less evil than they should."
Accompanied by his spies, Hark and Listen, the Duke reveals the task which the Prince must complete: bring the Duke 1,000 jewels within 99 hours, and return when the clocks are striking five o'clock. As the prince leaves the castle, Saralinda throws a rose to him from her window.
Not far from the castle, the Golux reappears and reveals himself to be the Duke's spy Listen. The Golux comes up with what he believes is a sure-fire plan: there is a woman nearby, Hagga, who was given the magical power to weep jewels instead of tears. The rose which Saralinda tossed to the prince serves as a compass to guide them, and they travel for two days until they reach Hagga's hut. Hagga is alive and well, but unfortunately, she has been made to weep so much in the past by people who wanted jewels that she is no longer able to weep even at the saddest stories.
Although the prince and the Golux try and fail to make Hagga weep, they find an oaken chest filled to the brim with jewels. Hagga tells them that they are "the jewels of laughter", beautiful but of no use to the Prince in his quest as they last but a fortnight, unlike the jewels of sorrow which last forever. As they watch, the jewels dissolve back into tears. In desperation, the Golux and the Prince try to make Hagga laugh and fail at this also. Inexplicably, Hagga laughs uncontrollably until the hut is ankle-deep in jewels. The Golux and the Prince gather 1,000 jewels, thank Hagga and leave.
At the castle, the Duke, with Hark in attendance, is waiting impatiently counting down the Prince's remaining time. He reveals his intention to marry Princess Saralinda himself when she has turned twenty-one; when Hark objects, the Duke reveals that Saralinda is not really his niece, but a princess whom he had kidnapped when she was a baby. Unfortunately for him, Saralinda's nurse was a witch, and cast a spell upon him as he fled with Saralinda.
Under the spell, he cannot marry Saralinda until she is 21 and must keep her safe from his schemes until then, he must allow princes to seek her hand in marriage although he is allowed to set them whatever tasks he pleases so that they may prove themselves, and, most importantly, "she can be saved, and [the Duke] destroyed, only by a prince whose name begins with X and doesn't." The Duke feels himself safe, but Hark gleefully reminds him that Prince Zorn of Zorna had been disguised as a minstrel named Xingu ... so Zorn of Zorna is the prince whose name begins with X and doesn't.
The Duke becomes worried that the Prince and the Golux have secretly gotten into the castle and orders all his guards (each of whom had been guarding a clock) to follow him in a search of the castle. Once the room is deserted, the Golux and Princess Saralinda enter through a secret passage, and the Golux figures out how Saralinda can start the clocks again.
When the Duke and Listen return, Prince Zorn, Saralinda and the Golux are waiting for them, with a pile of jewels on the oak table and the clocks are chiming five. While the Duke is counting the jewels, the Golux and Hark reveal that Saralinda's father is the good King Gwain of Yarrow, who gave Hagga the power to weep jewels. Hark also reveals himself to be a servant of King Gwain who was forced to work for the Duke and unable to save the princess himself due to being under a witch's spell.
The count completed, the group leaves the castle: the Prince and Princess journey together to Yarrow and then to Zorna, although Hark must remain a fortnight longer to complete the curse laid upon him, and the Golux mysteriously disappears after magically producing two white horses for Zorn and Saralinda ("The Golux makes things up, you know!").
A fortnight later, the Duke is gloating over his jewels when they turn back into tears. The room is plunged into darkness, and the Todal materializes to fulfill its function. Hark enters the room a little later to find the room completely deserted except for the Duke's sword, a small mysterious black ball stamped with scarlet owls and a puddle of tears on the table.
and McComas
praised the book as "magically adorned with touches of modern humor, hints of dark Jacobean terror, and gleams of pure poetry.".
and appeared in 1953 as the 5th episode of The Motorola Television Hour
, with Basil Rathbone
as the evil Duke.
It was also adapted and produced by Stephen Teeter for use in the 1960s in a production in Berkeley, CA. Later it was adapted and produced by Frank Lowe for stage, and published in 1976 by Samuel French, Inc [ISBN 978-0-573-65122-9]. Audio recordings have also been produced, performed by Lauren Bacall
, Peter Ustinov
and Edward Woodward
. The BBC produced a radio version of the story with Heron Carvic
as the Golux.
Christopher Theofanidis wrote an opera based on the story in 2002.
James Thurber
James Grover Thurber was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories published in The New Yorker magazine.-Life:...
in 1950 in Bermuda, while he was completing one of his other novels. It is written in a unique cadenced style, in which a mysterious prince must complete a seemingly impossible task to free a maiden from the clutches of an evil duke. It invokes many fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
motifs.
The story is noted for Thurber's constant, complex wordplay, and his use of an almost continuous internal meter, with occasional hidden rhymes — akin to blank verse
Blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...
, but with no line breaks to advertise the structure. Other fantasy books by Thurber, such as Many Moons
Many Moons
Many Moons is a children's picture book written by James Thurber and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. It was published by Harcourt, Brace & Company in 1943 and won the Caldecott Medal in 1944. Princess Lenore becomes ill, and only one thing will make her better: the moon...
, The Wonderful O
The Wonderful O
The Wonderful O is the last of James Thurber’s 5 short-book fairy tales for children. See also Many Moons, The Great Quillow , The White Deer , The 13 Clocks . It was published in 1957 by Hamish Hamilton / Simon Schuster...
(published 1958), and particularly The White Deer
The White Deer
The White Deer is a 96-page children's novel written by James Thurber in 1945. It is a fairy tale about the quest of the three sons of King Clode who are set perilous tasks to win the heart and hand of a princess without her memories who had once been a beautiful white deer....
, also contained hints of this unusual prose form, but here it becomes a universal feature of the text, to the point where it is possible to predict the word order for a given phrase (for example, "the Golux said" vs. "said the Golux") by looking at the pattern of emphasis in the preceding phrase.
By the time he wrote this book, Thurber was blind, so he could not draw cartoons for the book, as he had done with The White Deer five years earlier. He enlisted his friend Marc Simont
Marc Simont
Marc Simont is an artist, political cartoonist, and illustrator of more than a hundred children's books. Marc, inspired by his father, Spanish painter Joseph Simont, began drawing at a very young age. Mr...
to illustrate the original edition. The Golux is said to wear an "indescribable hat". Thurber made Simont describe all his illustrations, and was satisfied when Simont was unable to describe the hat. When it was reissued by Puffin Books
Puffin Books
Puffin Books is the children's imprint of British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s it has been the largest publisher of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world.-Early history:...
, it was illustrated by Ronald Searle
Ronald Searle
Ronald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI, is a British artist and cartoonist, best known as the creator of St Trinian's School. He is also the co-author of the Molesworth series....
. The book has been reprinted by The New York Review Children's Collection
The New York Review Children's Collection
New York Review Books Children's Collection is a series of children's books released under the publishing imprint New York Review Books. This series' mission is to reintroduce some of the many children's books that have fallen out of print, or simply out of mainstream attention...
, with original illustrations by Marc Simont
Marc Simont
Marc Simont is an artist, political cartoonist, and illustrator of more than a hundred children's books. Marc, inspired by his father, Spanish painter Joseph Simont, began drawing at a very young age. Mr...
and an introduction by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
.
Plot summary
The evil Duke of Coffin Castle lives with his niece, the beautiful Saralinda. The castle's thirteen clocks are stopped at "ten minutes to five". After many attempts to get them working again the Duke has decided that he killed Time.Suitors to the hand of Princess Saralinda are ordered to perform impossible tasks, and in many cases suitors have been slain by the Duke over trifles or over slight (or even imaginary) insults.
Saralinda is about to turn 21 when a mysterious minstrel named Xingu arrives in the town below the castle. The minstrel hatches a plan to gain access to the castle by singing a silly song about the Duke, as this invariably enrages the Duke (as do names which begin with X). As the minstrel finishes his song, the Golux materializes and announces his intention to help both the minstrel and the Princess.
Although the Golux admits he forgets things and makes things up, he is "on the side of good" and he gives the minstrel advice on how to deal with the Duke. He mysteriously vanishes as the Iron Guards arrive to arrest the minstrel.
The next day the minstrel is brought before the Duke, who, instead of killing him outright, sets the minstrel to perform an impossible task, even though the minstrel points out that "only princes may aspire to Saralinda's hand."
Back in the dungeon, the minstrel again encounters the Golux, who has mysteriously appeared claiming to have forgotten to tell the minstrel something important. He tells the minstrel to convince the Duke to make the intended task a search for 1,000 jewels, and it is now revealed that the minstrel is actually Prince Zorn of Zorna. Zorn believes that the only place to find 1,000 jewels is in his father's "casks and vaults and coffers", and that the task will take 99 days to complete: "three-and-thirty days to go, and three-and-thirty days to come back here ... [and] it always takes my father three-and-thirty days to make decisions."
Zorn is worried about completing the task, but the Golux reassures him that he has "other plans than one." On their way to the Duke's presence, a guard tells the Prince about the Todal, a creature that "looks like a blob of glup ... makes a sound like rabbits screaming and smells of old unopened rooms ... an agent of the Devil, sent to punish evildoers for having done less evil than they should."
Accompanied by his spies, Hark and Listen, the Duke reveals the task which the Prince must complete: bring the Duke 1,000 jewels within 99 hours, and return when the clocks are striking five o'clock. As the prince leaves the castle, Saralinda throws a rose to him from her window.
Not far from the castle, the Golux reappears and reveals himself to be the Duke's spy Listen. The Golux comes up with what he believes is a sure-fire plan: there is a woman nearby, Hagga, who was given the magical power to weep jewels instead of tears. The rose which Saralinda tossed to the prince serves as a compass to guide them, and they travel for two days until they reach Hagga's hut. Hagga is alive and well, but unfortunately, she has been made to weep so much in the past by people who wanted jewels that she is no longer able to weep even at the saddest stories.
Although the prince and the Golux try and fail to make Hagga weep, they find an oaken chest filled to the brim with jewels. Hagga tells them that they are "the jewels of laughter", beautiful but of no use to the Prince in his quest as they last but a fortnight, unlike the jewels of sorrow which last forever. As they watch, the jewels dissolve back into tears. In desperation, the Golux and the Prince try to make Hagga laugh and fail at this also. Inexplicably, Hagga laughs uncontrollably until the hut is ankle-deep in jewels. The Golux and the Prince gather 1,000 jewels, thank Hagga and leave.
At the castle, the Duke, with Hark in attendance, is waiting impatiently counting down the Prince's remaining time. He reveals his intention to marry Princess Saralinda himself when she has turned twenty-one; when Hark objects, the Duke reveals that Saralinda is not really his niece, but a princess whom he had kidnapped when she was a baby. Unfortunately for him, Saralinda's nurse was a witch, and cast a spell upon him as he fled with Saralinda.
Under the spell, he cannot marry Saralinda until she is 21 and must keep her safe from his schemes until then, he must allow princes to seek her hand in marriage although he is allowed to set them whatever tasks he pleases so that they may prove themselves, and, most importantly, "she can be saved, and [the Duke] destroyed, only by a prince whose name begins with X and doesn't." The Duke feels himself safe, but Hark gleefully reminds him that Prince Zorn of Zorna had been disguised as a minstrel named Xingu ... so Zorn of Zorna is the prince whose name begins with X and doesn't.
The Duke becomes worried that the Prince and the Golux have secretly gotten into the castle and orders all his guards (each of whom had been guarding a clock) to follow him in a search of the castle. Once the room is deserted, the Golux and Princess Saralinda enter through a secret passage, and the Golux figures out how Saralinda can start the clocks again.
When the Duke and Listen return, Prince Zorn, Saralinda and the Golux are waiting for them, with a pile of jewels on the oak table and the clocks are chiming five. While the Duke is counting the jewels, the Golux and Hark reveal that Saralinda's father is the good King Gwain of Yarrow, who gave Hagga the power to weep jewels. Hark also reveals himself to be a servant of King Gwain who was forced to work for the Duke and unable to save the princess himself due to being under a witch's spell.
The count completed, the group leaves the castle: the Prince and Princess journey together to Yarrow and then to Zorna, although Hark must remain a fortnight longer to complete the curse laid upon him, and the Golux mysteriously disappears after magically producing two white horses for Zorn and Saralinda ("The Golux makes things up, you know!").
A fortnight later, the Duke is gloating over his jewels when they turn back into tears. The room is plunged into darkness, and the Todal materializes to fulfill its function. Hark enters the room a little later to find the room completely deserted except for the Duke's sword, a small mysterious black ball stamped with scarlet owls and a puddle of tears on the table.
Reception
BoucherAnthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
and McComas
J. Francis McComas
Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....
praised the book as "magically adorned with touches of modern humor, hints of dark Jacobean terror, and gleams of pure poetry.".
Stage and film
The story was set to music by Mark BucciMark Bucci
Mark Bucci was an American composer, lyricist, and dramatist. Influenced by Giacomo Puccini, his work is composed in a contemporary yet lyrical style which frequently employs marked rhythms and memorable harmonies and melodies.-Career:Bucci studied music composition with Tibor Serly in New York...
and appeared in 1953 as the 5th episode of The Motorola Television Hour
The Motorola Television Hour
The Motorola Television Hour was an hour-long anthology series which alternated bi-weekly with The United States Steel Hour on ABC. The show premiered on November 3, 1953 and was last aired on June 1, 1954. It was sponsored by Motorola.-External links:...
, with Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
as the evil Duke.
It was also adapted and produced by Stephen Teeter for use in the 1960s in a production in Berkeley, CA. Later it was adapted and produced by Frank Lowe for stage, and published in 1976 by Samuel French, Inc [ISBN 978-0-573-65122-9]. Audio recordings have also been produced, performed by Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...
, Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
and Edward Woodward
Edward Woodward
Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE was an English stage and screen actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art , Woodward began his career on stage, and throughout his career he appeared in productions in both the West End in London and on Broadway in New York...
. The BBC produced a radio version of the story with Heron Carvic
Heron Carvic
Heron Carvic was a British actor and writer who provided the voice for Gandalf in the BBC Radio version of The Hobbit, and played Caiphas the High Priest every time the play cycle The Man Born To Be King was broadcast....
as the Golux.
Christopher Theofanidis wrote an opera based on the story in 2002.
External links
- "The Motorola Television Hour", 1953http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0651592/