A priest once told me about a manuscript written in Old Javanese that tells a bloody tale of an event in the eleventh century, or maybe tenth, before the kingdom of Singosari was established in East Java. The story fascinated me, because the priest also explained his own interpretation. He called it `The Tale of Ken Arok and a Kris'.

Later I found the text of this story in some museums, in a few versions, in old, half-decipherable letterin