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Tale Summary

In Cornwall, the first mole was once a beautiful woman. She was an only child; her family was lordly, and her father dead. Her name was Anne of the Combe, and she was very lovely, and most striking of all her features were her big blue eyes. Every man wanted her, but she had her heart set on Sir Beville of Stowe - a valorous knight. One day, a banquet was held at Stowe, and Anne was invited. She dressed herself magnificently, in luxurious velvet fabrics and jewels, and stood with her mother in front of the mirror and adored herself. The girl’s mother said a prayer that her daughter would bend the heart of Sir Beville and make him fall in love with her, and Anne haughtily replied that with such beautiful eyes as her, she needed no prayer. Suddenly, she shrieked, and in a beam of light she was gone forever. Years went by without any sign of the girl, until a gardener saw a small hill of dirt, and upon it, the ring she had worn when she disappeared. The ring had a Cornish inscription, which read:

“Beryan erde Ayn und perde!”

A priest from Morwenna was called, and interpreted the legend of the ring:

“The earth must hide
Both eyes and pride!”

Those there beheld a small creature with dark velvet skin very much like Anne of the Combe’s robe, and watched how it crawled along the ground without eyes. The ancient priest wept, because he knew that this animal was a maiden who was doomed because of pride.

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