#merlingifs

One of the techniques of knot magic is to tie a knot especially around the image of a person, literally "binding" the image with a cord, or the image to an object, with the intention of inhibiting the person's actions, thoughts, and so on. "He's bound to do it" harks back to a time when this was literally believed - someone would do something because his or her image had been bound.

It is said that there he was healed; and that he lives on still, lying in a deep sleep, waiting for the bell to ring from the mountain and the mighty sword to be drawn. And that, when it happens, Arthur will surely awaken and come back to rule again, for he is the Once and Future King.

Is that it? she might wonder. Am I done now? Is it all finally finished?

But here she is, just midway upon her journey of her life, and standing on the threshold of the dark wood. The old witch's cottage has no occupant now; the fire is unlit, the oven has grown cold and the candles inside the skulls atop the fenceposts have all burned out. The cottage, waiting for her, bides its time. For today, though, the shadows lengthen, the sun's light softens, the tawny owls hoot in the clearing beyond. The stars shine vivid in the night sky again and autumn, she remembers, has always been the loveliest season of all. And she realizes then - as the sun sinks lower in the sky, as the swallows gather and fly south, as the tree sways in the light warmth of an early evening breeze and hands reach up to her branches - that harvesting of the fruit was the moment she had always been waiting for.