How I wanted a child! But it would kill me to have one. I couldn’t bear to see the child try to walk, stumble, and fall. I can’t bear defeat!

At last, after twelve years of marriage, I gave birth to a boy, but, of course, I could not live to see him suffer. I weakened, and, after only a few days, I called my husband to my bedside. I said, “Never let the child put his feet on the ground, for as soon as he does, he will fall into the power of a wicked Fairy who will do him much harm.”

That is the way it has been with me, and those who have gone before me. Stay childless, stay away from the earth, lest you come to some harm. I know now, as I am dying, that our fear has only increased my dark sister’s power.

Queen of an Ungrounded Child in The Glass Axe, Yellow Fairy Book. Picture by Sulamith Wulfing.