Why did my father have to take a wife? He didn't want one. But here she is, with her nasty daughter. They torment me constantly. Now in the middle of winter, when the snow has piled high as the windows, my stepmother is ordering me to wear a paper dress and go out to...
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Bullied Husband
I'm thinner than my wife, and not as strong, and she used to beat me black and blue. But the day came when I could no longer endure the abuse. On that day, I was out in the fields, and I caught a crane in my net. The crane spoke and said, “If you let me go free, I...
Child Who Came From An Egg
On my tenth birthday, my nurse showed me a little basket that was hidden between the sheets of my cradle. It had egg shells in it. She said that my mother wanted me to know a secret. I didn’t remember my mother. She died when I was only two. The old nurse told me a...
Clay Doll
An old man with a beard longer than himself made me. He put clay into a mold and made a doll as large as life. When he was finished, he bored a hole into my breast and put a piece of bread inside, followed by a poisonous snake. Then he took the blood of a girl named...
Bullied Brother
My mother told me and my sister that the river brought us to her when we were babies. We were lying in a crystal cradle. Father took us home and brought us up with eight other children. Our foster parents love us, but our brothers and sisters don’t. The boys are...
Ugly Duckling
I had gone through many trials through the winter. I had suffered loneliness and the frigid cold, but nothing and no one was crueler to me than my own kind. It was very difficult for me to forget the old mother duck who said, "Have you ever seen anything quite as ugly...
Honey Pot
He was a sweet boy who had been terribly abused. He wanted to die, and who could blame him? He reached for me, thinking that I contained poison. But I did not. I was full of honey. He ate the honey and said to himself, "Folks say death is bitter, but it tastes very...
Fault-Finding Shoemaker
No, that's not right. You don't do it that way! Are you going to tell me those stitches are EVEN? Oh, and I suppose the cow flies over the moon. Did you measure that heel? No, you didn't. Look, it's higher than the other. And the shoe's too long. You dolt! You want to...
Hungry Dwarf
I'm hungry! Gimme some of that food. Now, gimme more. More, I say. More more more. Shameless? Why, you.... Ow! Stop beating me with that club, you man. Stop it, I say! Stop it! Okay, okay! I'll go back to my hole. He's gone now. Aakk. I'm bored. Why should I have to...
Fed-Up Mother
Enough is enough! I adopted the shepherd's son after his parents died. I thought it would be nice to have someone around the house, especially after my bad illness. Not that I needed a child. I have always enjoyed my own company. I have never felt the least bit lonely...
King Who Regrets
After her mother died, my daughter urged me to marry the countess. I refused. I neither liked nor trusted her. She was a schemer. But I had promised my daughter that I would always grant her wishes. So, I married the countess. As soon as she became queen, her...
Old Friend of Sparrow
I am an old man with a hard-hearted wife, and she's only gotten meaner over the years. I try to ignore her. I light my pipe and go sit out on the porch. I listen to birdsong and tune my ears to something else other than her scolding tongue. Now she's done something I...
Bad-Mouthed Girl
When the creepy little man came up out of the heather and asked me what I was doing pulling the heather off his roof, I threatened him with my stick. He asked for some of my dinner. "I'll give you dinner!" I shouted. "I'll give you a whack with my stick. How about...
Iron King
I rule with an Iron Fist. I sit on a black throne in a black, curtained hall. The courtiers are all dressed in black because they are mourning the people I put to death. An intruder has been brought before me. He says he is a king. I demand to know what he is doing in...
Troll Boss
I live in a bank in the middle of the wild forest and I hold power over men and beasts. When a man comes looking for employment, I put him in charge of feeding all the animals in the forest. Then I have some sport with him. I lock the beasts in the stable, turn the...
Nun
After I left the cloister, I met up with a couple of fellows who had lost their way. We traveled together through the forest and came to an old, abandoned castle. We decided to make it our own kind of home. I agreed to look after the house while the other two went out...
Poor Brother
It's Christmas Eve and we have no food in the house. I go to my rich brother's house, and I ask him for a piece of bread or meat. He throws a ham at me and says, "You can have the whole ham if you promise to go straight to Dead Man's Hall." I don't why he says that,...
Pot of Pinks
When Felicia's parents died, her brother Bruno inherited the house and all its possessions except for a silver ring and myself, a humble pot of pink flowers. He wouldn't even share his food with Felicia. He ate an egg for supper and threw her the shell. “There, that...
Working Witch-Maiden
The reason our handsome guest finds a coin under his pillow every morning is that he has swallowed a bird's heart. My mother, who is a witch, wants me to get it from him. She says we have more right to it than he does. I hate the jobs she makes me do! How am I going...
Masella the Disgusted Mother
I have six pretty daughters, all upright as fir trees, and one son who is a complete idiot. Not a day goes by when I don't have to say, "Antonio, what are you doing, you useless creature?" He's the stupidest kid you can imagine. Yesterday, I broke down and gave him...
An Ordinary Ass
I'm not precious, okay? Diamonds and rubies don't fall out of my mouth when you say the word, "bricklebrit." I'm just an ordinary working mule. I don't get special treatment in the landlord's stable. Nobody feeds me the best oats and hay. When Antonio mistook me for...
Cold-Blooded Stepmother
I didn't ask to raise my husband's daughter. I've got my own, and that's all I need. I can't stand the way the girl fawns. I wish she'd stop trying to please me. She's never going to be my own flesh and blood. And for the sake of God, stop crying! I've had it. I'll...
Twin Sister
Our stepmother hates me and my twin brother. She beats us and drives us out of the house. We don't dare tell our father how cruel she is. Father wouldn't believe us, and besides, he needs her to look after the house. She was very kind to us this morning. She said,...
Cinderella’s Eldest Step-sister
We decided to shove her out right away. We weren't going to be pushed around by our new stepsister. I began the conversation after our first meal in the parlor. Mother had gone out. "Is this stupid goose going to sit in the parlor with us?" I asked, turning to my...
Sister Who Leads Her Brother Away from Danger
The beatings got so bad, and we had become so hungry that one day my brother said, "The dog under the table is better off than we are. God pity us, if our mother only knew! Come, let us go forth together into the wide world." We walked the whole day over meadows,...
Princess in the Great Forest Castle
When men come to my castle, I offer them food, drink, and rest. When they go to sleep, they do not wake. Sixteen years have passed and my castle is overflowing with sleeping men. I wonder what would happen if a man came in and refused my offer to eat and drink? What...
Beaten-Up Irishman
Some thanks I get! After three horrific nights in the castle, I broke the spell on the princess, and woke everybody up. Many of the men had been asleep for over a decade. I gave them a meal, filled their pockets with silver and gold, and watched them leave. When I...
Cinderwench
My stepsisters have taken my room and now I live in a drafty garret, and I sleep on a straw bed. My stepmother calls me Cinderwench and so do her daughters, although the youngest, who is not quite as mean, calls me Cinderella. I haven’t eaten much for days. I’m not...
Aladdin
One day when I was playing in the streets, a stranger came up to me. He asked me if I was the son of Mustapha the tailor. "I am, sir," I said, "but he died a long time ago." The man put his arms around me and told me he was my uncle. "Go tell your mother I'm coming,"...