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...
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Grandmother Wolf
Themes: Despair | Grief | Loss | Retribution
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
Themes: Despair | Grief | Loss
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
Themes: Despair | Grief | Loss | Theft
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...
Merchant Father
Themes: Betrayal | Despair | Isolation | Loss
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...
Labyrinth of Despair
Themes: Darkness | Despair | Suffering
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
Themes: Despair | Hunger | Nourishment | Salvation
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
Themes: Despair | Grief | Loss | Regret
"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,...
Abandoned Sweetheart
Themes: Despair | Separation | Transformation
Roland went away to see his father and make arrangements for our wedding. I had nowhere to go, and so I decided to stay in the field. I used the magic wand to turn myself into a red stone land-mark. I waited and I waited for Roland to return. He never came back. At...