Altheda

Altheda is one of the three witches who undertake the quest for the Fountain of Fair Fortune, but her journey changes the meaning of what she seeks. A sorcerer has taken her home, gold, and wand, leaving her powerless and poor; by the time the travelers reach the Fountain, she has discovered that her knowledge of herbs may restore both her livelihood and her agency. Her part in the tale turns the promise of miraculous rescue into a story of resourcefulness, care, and shared good fortune.

Identity and Initial Hardship

Altheda meets Asha and Amata on the outskirts of a crowd gathered before the garden walls. Each woman arrives with a different burden: Asha suffers from a malady no Healer can cure, while Amata grieves for a man who deserted her. Altheda has been robbed by an evil sorcerer of her home, her gold, and her wand. She hopes that bathing in the Fountain will relieve her poverty and powerlessness, making her objective both material and personal.

The three women pity one another and agree that, if they get the opportunity, they will make the attempt together. Their mutual agreement sets their quest apart from the crowd’s individual competition for the Fountain’s promised blessing. When a gap opens in the garden wall at sunrise, the rush of people and the garden’s creepers draw the women through together; Amata is caught on a dismal-looking knight’s armour, and the knight is pulled from his horse along with them. Their entry is thus not a solitary triumph by Altheda, but the beginning of a shared ordeal that also brings Sir Luckless into their company.

The Journey and Its Trials

At the hill, the group encounters a monstrous white Worm that demands proof of pain. Sir Luckless tries to kill it with his sword, which breaks; Altheda throws rocks, while Asha and Amata try spells. Neither magic nor force works. The Worm relents only after Asha begins to weep and it drinks her tears. The episode places Altheda’s practical effort among several attempted answers to the obstacle, while making clear that none of the travelers can simply overpower it.

A later challenge demands the fruit of their labours. Sir Luckless offers his only coin, but it rolls away, and the travelers continue climbing without seeming to gain ground. As the sun crosses the sky and begins to sink, Altheda walks faster and harder than the others and urges them to follow her example. Her exertion does not immediately advance them up the enchanted hill. She nevertheless calls on her friends not to yield, wiping sweat from her brow; as the drops fall onto the earth, the inscription blocking their way vanishes. The travelers can move upward again, and the Fountain comes into view. The reversal makes bodily effort—not wealth, a weapon, or a spell—the answer to the trial, and Altheda’s persistence helps the group pass it.

Healing Asha and Renouncing the Fountain

Near the summit, Asha collapses, exhausted and close to death. She is in mortal agony and begs her companions not to touch her, so carrying her to the Fountain is not an acceptable solution. Altheda instead gathers the herbs she judges most promising, mixes them into water from Sir Luckless’s gourd, and gives Asha the potion. Asha immediately stands, and the symptoms of her malady disappear.

Asha recognizes that she no longer needs the Fountain and offers her turn to Altheda. But Altheda is already gathering more herbs in her apron. She sees in the cure a way to earn gold by treating the disease, a prospect directly responsive to the poverty that brought her on the quest. She therefore gives her own opportunity to bathe to Amata. Her choice is not a rejection of material security: it is a recognition that she may be able to secure it through her skill, while another traveler still has something to gain from the Fountain.

Amata also declines the offer. The stream has washed away her regret for the lover who abandoned her, and she now understands him as cruel and faithless; freedom from that attachment is enough. She urges Sir Luckless to bathe as a reward for his chivalry. The sequence of offers moves the Fountain’s promised boon from one traveler to another until Altheda’s healing work and Amata’s changed understanding have made it unnecessary for both women. Altheda’s particular contribution is to turn an answer sought as a miracle into a means of earning a living and to pass the chance onward rather than claim it for herself.

Character and Narrative Significance

Altheda’s arc is shaped by a change in how she can confront her original hardship. At first she hopes the Fountain will undo the powerlessness and poverty caused by the sorcerer’s theft. On the road, she persists when progress stalls; at the summit, she applies her knowledge to Asha’s illness and recognizes that the same knowledge may provide income. The story presents this change through concrete actions: climbing, encouraging her companions, collecting herbs, preparing the potion, and gathering more herbs for later use.

Her generosity does not erase the specific loss that begins her story, and the evidence does not specify what becomes of her home or wand. Instead, the tale gives her a credible alternative to the remedy she initially sought: a useful skill and a chance to earn gold. By curing Asha and yielding her turn to Amata, Altheda helps show how the companions’ needs can be met without any of them claiming the Fountain for herself. Her story links perseverance to practical ingenuity and makes cooperation, rather than possession of the miraculous prize, the source of a changed future.