One winter evening, I put my seven children to bed and tucked them in warmly. Then I went to join my husband in the next room. The charcoal glowed in the hibachi and all the doors of the house were tightly shut, for it was bitterly cold outside, and the first big...
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Prince Who Loves a Pea-Hen
I have fallen in love with a pea-hen! I met her when I was keeping watch because every night my father’s golden apple trees were getting stripped of their fruit. I woke at midnight and saw nine golden pea-hens land in the tree. The ninth hen fluttered to the ground...
Grandmother Wolf
Where had my grandson gone? I searched for him everywhere. While I was searching, I went to Mink’s cottage to buy some sea urchins’ eggs. As soon as I got inside, I saw the wolf skin which I guessed belonged to my grandson. “I knew he was dead – I knew it! I knew it!”...
Lover of the Lost Princess
There was a great crevasse in the king's glass mountain, and he declared that anyone who could cross it without falling into the void would be able to marry his daughter. Well, I loved his daughter already, and I was prepared to do anything for her. When the time came...
Queen Who Loses Her Child
We tried to have a child for years, and at last we were blessed with a little boy. One day, at the height of a most intoxicating summer, when my son was sleeping in the garden in his golden cradle, and the king and I were absorbed in planning his future, a dark shadow...
Labyrinth of Despair
Woe to those who pass the dragons at my gate and come into this desolate wood! Here, human hands reach out of the ground, and miserable people roam the cypress wood. They have cords tied around their necks, and when they meet, they become attached and fall to the...
Starving Cobbler
I couldn't make a living as a cobbler, for all my hard work. My wife and I went without eating, but that couldn't go on forever. Finally I borrowed a neighbor's fishing rod and went out to fish in the stream. I was there for days and didn't hook anything, and then one...
Handless Maiden’s Mother
"Why does she have to leave, husband? We have the money to support her for the rest of her life. She doesn't need to go off into the wild forest! How well will she fare, with no hands? You brought this evil upon her, you must fix it!" My husband sits at the table,...
Merchant Father
I can tell you firsthand that the wealthiest merchant can lose his fortune overnight, and fall into the direst poverty! My house burned to the ground quite suddenly. My six sons and six daughters fortunately survived the fire, but all the splendid furniture, the...
King Sheep
I waited and waited in the forest for Miranda to return to me. But she did not come. At last I set off to the palace. At the door, I asked for Miranda. The people who came out said they had heard about the King of Sheep, and Miranda did not want to come back to me. I...