The Talisman of Protection Sterling Silver Necklace
Sterling Silver Talisman on Sterling Silver Chain, made by Klah's Royal Artist in New Zealand.
Total length of necklace (lobster clasp to bottom of pendant): 28cm
Chain length: 23cm
Talisman size; 5cm length x 5cm width x 0.6cm height
Accompanied by the Talisman of Protection story, in box.
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The Talisman of Protection was first discovered carved into the side of a cave, part way up a steep grassy hill on the East Coast of Klah.
Queen Bethylfig (1658-1747) and a party of her followers had been having a picturesque Royal Picnic in a dappled clearing by the beach, when suddenly a swarm of Bloodsucking Vacuumflies gatecrashed the party and began frantically hoovering up not only people’s precious blood from their veins, but the precious Royal Jam too. Chaos had ensued, bread rolls and bow-ties were thrown at the intruders, snorkels and bits of silverbeet were used as swatting devices - but to no avail; still the Bloodsuckers descended and still the blood was hoovered. A small dog was almost carried away in a takeaway Tupperware by a group of particularly organized Vacuumflies and only saved by the reflexes of the Queen’s Footman, who in his time had played a lot of Snap.
“We must flee to the hills!” cried the Footman, who as well as honing his reflexes at cards had read a lot of exciting stories about fleeing to such places. So the Royal Party fled to the hills, crashing through creeks and bashing through bushes (where they disrupted a family of pythons having a picnic of their own) before stumbling into the cave, many of them still clutching half-eaten cream buns.
Two of the guards carrying an enormous vat of Royal Jam between them lagged behind, slipping and tripping but somehow not spilling a drop, as the Vacuumflies closed in, bloodlust swirling all the way from their eyelids to their ankles, closely followed by the pythons who were just really, really grumpy. “AGH!” screamed the Queen, not just because she’d realised she had a blob of cream on her nose but because she did genuinely like her Palace Guards as well as her vat of Royal Jam. The Queen pulled out the only weapon she had - not a sword as she’d left that back at the picnic (makes a great cheese platter), but the torch she always carried for emergencies, which this most certainly was. Remembering half a fact she’d heard somewhere - something about insects and light - she switched the torch on. Although she obviously hadn’t been listening properly in Insect Studies and had the fact totally back to front, she inadvertently lit up the emblem carved into the cave wall.
As soon as the Bloodsucking Vacuumflies saw the mysterious symbol, they swerved abruptly and flew to the other side of the island to pursue entirely new victims. As soon as the pythons saw the mysterious symbol, they too slithered off at such speed a patch of grass caught fire. As soon as the fire caught sight of the mysterious symbol, it threw itself into a nearby stream and extinguished itself. The Royal Party cheered, had a shot of jam and toasted their new talisman.
Since this day the symbol has been hung over entranceways, embroidered into babies’ shawls, graffitied onto bridges that people aren’t sure about, and worn for protection. In 1689 it became Klah’s flag.