Unspun
Page 25
My mother told me every detail of how she barely escaped death again and again after her father passed away from a fever, very like the one that took my own. She told me of how my father had insisted on arresting Marwyn for her crimes, and how she had no idea what the people or my father had in store. She told me of the curse and the pillar of ice that had stood as a quiet reminder that her own happiness would be short-lived.
“But now this place is dry. Its cursing is wrung out, and you are restored to me, my sweet boy.” She kissed my head.
“What if Grandmother is right? Do we hold too much power over our people?”
“People want to be led. The people loved your father because he made them feel as though they were righteous and just, even when their actions were vicious. The people loved my mother because she made them see her as lovely. You have asked the right question. What have we done to deserve their praise? If I can answer honestly that I have done my best to respect their will and lead without coercion, then I can sleep at night with an undisturbed heart.”
A glow lit her from within. Demanding though ruling by example could be, I saw in her the peace of knowing she led by her own daily walk of unselfish kindness.
“How could you love Father after what he did?” I asked.
“It took time for me to forgive him, but he did what he thought he must to protect me. Sometimes I even wonder if Marwyn influenced his decision herself, to justify her own cruelty.” She sighed and took my hand in hers, just like when I was a boy. “And you can choose to be better than he was, learn from the mistakes he made.”
“I miss him,” I confessed.
“So do I,” she whispered. “The ones we love don’t have to be perfect. They just have to be loved.”
“I think”—I wiped my nose on the sleeve of my shirt—“I think I’m ready to go home.”
* * *
The jubilation of the week-long coronation festival drove all memory of the strange days before it out of the people’s memory. Prince Bertram’s ensorcelled madness was branded as a strange manifestation of nervousness preceding the assumption of his new place as king. He made amends to those he had harmed, even promoting the guards who had stood against him in defense of Snow White.
Queen Marwyn’s words of troubled times that would surely come his people’s way did not leave him, however, and as soon as the kingdom settled back into the rhythms of daily life he began to lay up stores, to educate those within his influence, to build alliances with his neighbors. Snow watched her careful, thoughtful son grow into a wise and prudent king with beaming pride. And though turbulent times did come, as they always must, Bertram and Snow faced them with grace and fortitude, leading by example, and even at times finding happiness thereafter.
The Original Tales
Jack and the Beanstalk
Country of origin: England
“Jack and the Beanstalk” is a classic story in which Jack trades a cow for magic beans, climbs the beanstalk, and steals treasures from a giant. The tale has roots in the oral tradition and has been recorded numerous times; a common version was penned in 1890 by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales.
Rumpelstiltskin
Country of origin: Germany (related stories can be found from Slovakia to Japan)
In “Rumpelstiltskin,” a miller’s daughter must spin straw into gold in order to save her life and marry the king. The most well-known version of the story is included in the 1812 edition of Children’s and Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm.
Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird, and the Gray Wolf
Country of origin: Russia
A wolf helps young Ivan on his quest for the firebird, the horse with a golden mane, and a beautiful princess. This story was collected by Alexander Afanasyev. Both Ivan and the firebird are common characters in Slavic folklore, appearing in multiple fairy tales.
Tatterhood
Country of origin: Norway
An ugly princess with a goat and a spoon fights trolls (or in some versions, witches) to rescue her sister’s head; her heroic efforts results in her marriage to a foreign prince. This story was collected by the Norwegian folklorists Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe.
The Little Mermaid
Country of Origin: Denmark
A mermaid makes a trade with a sea witch so she can become human; when her prince marries someone else, she turns into sea foam. This story was written and published by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837.
The Yule Cat
Country of Origin: Iceland
The Yule Cat is a traditional monster from Icelandic folklore that would eat children who did not receive new clothes on Christmas Eve; today, Icelandic children still receive clothing at Christmastime. Other Icelandic Christmas traditions focus on the tricksters known as the Yule Lads.
The Princess and the Pea
Country of Origin: possibly Sweden; first published in Denmark
A prince tries to find a “real princess” without success; when a soaking princess arrives at their door, the queen tests her by placing a pea underneath twenty mattresses. Hans Christian Andersen retold this story in 1835.
The Pied Piper
Country of Origin: Germany
When a town refuses to pay the rat catcher, he leads away their children with a magical pipe. This legend originated in the Middle Ages and has been retold by many, including Goethe and the Brothers Grimm.
The Nutcracker
Country of Origin: Germany
A girl’s Christmas toy comes to life, battles a mouse king, and then brings the girl to a magical land. “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” was written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffman, retold by Alexandre Dumas, and then adapted into the ballet The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Hansel and Gretel
Country of Origin: Germany
Two children are abandoned in the forest by their father and stepmother. When they are captured by a witch living in a gingerbread house, they must trick and ultimately kill her to avoid being eaten. This story was collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in their 1812 edition of Children’s and Household Tales.
Snow White
Country of Origin: Germany
Snow White hides from her wicked stepmother (the queen) with the help of seven dwarves; the queen poisons Snow White. Snow White is saved by a prince and at their wedding the queen is killed. This story was collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in their 1812 edition of Children’s and Household Tales.
About the Authors
Anika Arrington
Anika Arrington is a devoted wife and mother of six. As a Hufflepuff and a pluviophile, curling up with a good book and a mug of cocoa on a rainy day constitutes her personal heaven.
She’s written fantasy fiction since her early teens, and her first novel, The Accidental Apprentice, was a Whitney Award finalist. You can find her quipping/griping on Twitter @AnikaArrington and talking movies on her website www.anikasantics.com.
Sarah Chow
Sarah Chow is an editor who lives in the desert outskirts of greater Los Angeles with her husband and two quirky kids. Every morning the kids ask her to check for coyotes in the wash behind their house. Sarah is the communications editor for Cesium, an open source library for creating 3D maps. But she’s also worked on everything from children’s magazines to computer graphics research books. She loves stories and books of all types, but any time she walks into a library, she winds up in the folklore section (call number 398, if you’re looking) because fairy tales are her favorite—especially problematic ones.
Katherine Cowley
Katherine Cowley loves European chocolate, steampunk fashion, and videos of goats doing parkour. She has worked as a radio producer, a documentary film producer, and a college writing professor. She is an award-winning author of short stories and essays, which have appeared in publications including Steel
and Bone, 365 Tomorrows, Mad Scientist Journal, Defenestration, and Segullah.
Katherine lives with her husband and three daughters in Kalamazoo, Michigan. You can read many of her published stories on katherinecowley.com or follow her on Twitter @kathycowley.
Scott Cowley
Dr. Scott Cowley is an award-winning digital marketing professor at Western Michigan University. Prior to completing his Ph.D. at Arizona State University and beginning an academic career, he was a marketing strategist and consultant in Salt Lake City. You can learn more at scottcowley.com and on Twitter @scottcowley.
Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler is an immunologist. His experiments in world-renowned labs at Emory University and Harvard aim to unravel the mysterious role that sugars play in immune cells. When not growing cells or staring through microscopes, he can often be found writing poetry. He collects words of all kinds, from the scientific (e.g., glycoproteomic, lemniscate, and bleb) to the poetic (e.g., vituperative, anodyne, and elide). He loves lyrical language and good stories, and he regularly stays up all night to read “just one more chapter.” Despite living a mere thirty minutes from Walden Pond, he has yet to embrace a solitary life in the woods, though he does like to take his kids there for walks.
Sarah Blake Johnson
Sarah Blake Johnson is the author of the fantasy novel Crossings. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
She has stepped in quicksand in Brazil, walked on the frozen Baltic Ocean in Finland, cooked dinner in a geyser in Iceland, learned to play an ancient instrument in China, explored abandoned castle ruins in Germany, worked as an economist in Nigeria, and scuba dived in the Red Sea in Egypt, all countries where she has lived.
Learn more about Sarah at sarahblakejohnson.com and www.sarahblakejohnson.blogspot.com.
Ruth Nickle
“Take this weapon forged in darkness; some see a pen, I see a harpoon.”
—Tyler Joseph
Barely tethered to earth, Ruth Nickle spends her days weaving reality into colorful tapestries of art with her computer. She began writing at age eleven after her wildly popular fan fiction of The Hobbit received rave reviews from her mother. However, with a family full of math teachers, she was woefully unaware that she could, in fact, sculpt her daydreams into a career. Now, after a twenty-year hiatus, she is plunging head first into the beautiful torture that is writing.
Ruth is a wife, mother, writer, graphic designer, photographer, and artist. You can read her diary at https://elsanickle.wordpress.com.
Kaki Olsen
Kaki Olsen is always in search of a place to visit and a story to tell. Though her mild-mannered alter ego has a desk job, Kaki can tell you what it’s like to hike a pilgrim’s trail in Austria or eat the world’s best gazpacho in Barcelona. Closer to home, she loves following the Red Sox and contributing to a local speculative fiction symposium. Not all of her stories are inspired by ballet, but her debut novel, Swan and Shadow, is based on another Tchaikovsky classic. She blames the Boston Ballet and the teacher who once gave her The Nutcracker for Chanukah. She has also published personal essays, writing articles, and a science-fiction fantasy with a dragon-smuggling android. Links to her published works, her blog, and news can all be found at www.kakiolsenbooks.com.
Robin Prehn
Robin Prehn has always loved fairy tales and spent her early school years reading (and re-reading) her way through Andrew Lang’s “color” books. After wishing she could grow up and become Laura Ingalls Wilder, she found a way to start and run her own one-room school for seven years—and discovered for herself how fairy tales really end (some good, some not as good).
Like the princess with her pea, Robin has also had sleeping issues. One of her tricks involves telling herself stories about what comes after “the end” in her favorite books, and that’s how she learned she loved to create tales and build worlds.
Currently, she lives on the edge of the Rocky Mountains with her husband and their two teenagers, and life is mostly happily ever after (with a fair amount of work, of course).
Jeanna Mason Stay
Jeanna Mason Stay has always been a sucker for a good fairy tale. The romantic kind, the gruesome, the utterly bizarre—she’ll take them all. And then she’ll rewrite them. Her favorite fairy tale of all, though, is the one she lives daily with her dreamy husband and their four charming children. They are currently happily-ever-aftering in Maryland.
When she’s not getting lost in a book or keeping the baby from eating one, she’s probably debating one with friends or listening to the older children reenact literary scenes. Along with books, Jeanna also loves fireflies, serial commas, and birds of paradise. She dreams of one day owning a herd of Chia sheep.
You can find her blogging when fancy strikes at calloohcallaycallay.blogspot.com and fortnightly-ish at mormonmommywriters.blogspot.com.
PJ Switzer
PJ Switzer is a child of dreams. As a girl she dreamed of being Princess Leia but that job was already taken. So was lead singer of the Eurythmics and first woman in space. As a grownup she dreamed of being an Olympic rhythmic gymnast but middle-aged, goddess-sized ladies don’t usually make the team. Today she’s a writer because the world always needs more stories and there’s no age restriction. PJ is encouraged in these and all her endeavors by her husband and three sons, as well as the wonder pooch, Rosie. You can follow her on Instagram at @pjswitzer and on Twitter @switzerpj.