The gods in the Hall of High Heaven gave me to the Young Prince, among with many other arrows feathered by heavenly birds. They sent him over the Floating Bridge, to bring peace to the land of the Reed Plains. When his feet touched the tops of the high hills, he...
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Soothsayer Who Comes to Unai
I had come to the end of the long road of my life. My travels ended in Unai. I was so weary and footsore, I could not take another step. I knocked on the door of a house that stood close to the river where the wisteria grew on a trellis and reached down into the...
Rai-Taro, Son of Thunder
In the cool of the evening, my father and I walked upon the ramparts of the Castle of Cloud as we often did. My father was a great and mighty god of Thunder and all the Elements. From the ramparts we viewed the doings of men upon the Land of Reed Plains. North and...
Princess Who Marries a Pig
I knew from the moment I heard him speak that he was not an ordinary pig. But he was still a pig! And he had come to the castle to marry me. I had no escape. The street was full of pigs. All the pigs in the world had come to the castle that day. What could I do? It...
The Book of Destiny
I am a lying open on a large table in a locked room. The table is laid with a gorgeous cloth, made with care by many hands. My pages contain the destinies of the King’s three daughters. They have just come into the room. The eldest princess steps forward and dares to...
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...
Birch Tree at the Crossroads
I stand with two other birch trees at the crossing of three roads. One day three princes came along with their bows and arrows. The eldest took an arrow and shot it into my trunk. Turning to his brothers he said, “Let's each mark one of these trees before we go our...
Frog Friend in the Underworld
The queen did not wish to stay in the underworld, and who could blame her? It was a dismal place inhabited mostly by dragons, reptiles, and ravens. A fairy in the shape of a lion kept her imprisoned there. She asked me how she might escape, and I didn't know, so I...
Constellation of Stars
We were consulted when the boy was born, and then everybody knew that the prince's life would come to an end at the age of sixteen. On his sixteenth birthday, the lad disappeared while hunting in the forest. The men searched the woods, but soon gave up, believing that...
Destiny
Catherine had come of age. She was sitting in her room in her father's well-appointed house when I flew in with my wheel of fortune. "Catherine," I said. "Which would you rather have? A happy youth or a happy old age?" After some consideration she said, "Give me a...
Feather King
My two elder sons are clever and self-assured, but my third is a different sort of chap altogether. Very good-hearted, but simple. I'm not sure which of my sons is meant to be king. I'll throw three feathers to the wind and let the wind decide. See which way the wind...
Old Toad Under the Castle
The king threw three feathers to the wind to determine which of his three sons will be king. The two older boys ran off to follow the feathers that flew to the east and the west. But the third son, the simpleton, went nowhere. His feather floated down to the ground in...
Mermaid’s Prince
When I was sixteen, I hadn't seen anything of the world beyond the palace walls. Then one day, my mother and father called me to them, and my father told me a marvelous story about the time before I was born. He and his crew had been shipwrecked in a storm, and just...
Hazelnut Child
My mother is a worrier. She doesn't think that anything could possibly become of me. I am so little. But I know what I'm meant to be. And I know how to get around. Of course I don't use my own feet. I use the horse's feet. I get up under the saddle and prick the horse...
King Who Doesn’t Like the Prophecy
I like to travel around the kingdom in disguise so I can see what is really going on. I just learned that a village boy has been born with a caul. The villagers believe that such a child is special, and that anything he undertakes will turn out well. They also say...
Handless Maiden
When I came into the house and I saw our sudden wealth, I knew it must have come at a price. Right away, my father told me what he had done. He had promised me to the Devil, in writing. In three years the Devil would come to claim me. My father never stops weeping...
King Who Orders the Spindles Burnt
I will not allow the thirteenth wise woman to change the fate of my child. Nothing will happen on her fifteenth birthday. She will not prick her finger on a spindle and fall asleep for a hundred years! I will not have any of the queen's women meddling in my daughter's...
Youngest Fairy
The fairies gave the princess all their best gifts: beauty, an angel's wit, grace, and talents for dancing, singing and playing instruments. Then the spiteful Old Fairy came in and gave her a curse. The princess would be pierced by a spindle and would die of the...
Brass Princess
A prophet told my father the king that I would have a son who would kill him. My father would not allow that prophecy to come true, and so he locked me in a deep brass prison, sunk into the earth. No one could see me there. Only the sun could see me, passing by the...
Electing Eagle
The town is preparing for an election, and all the people have gathered in the marketplace. At the appointed hour, I am released from my cage, and it is my job to appoint the new ruler by lighting on his shoulder. I need only circle once over the heads of the crowd...
Monk Godfather
One evening, I met a man who was on his way to the village because his wife had just given birth to a son. I asked him if he would allow me to spend the night in his home, and he willingly granted my wish. He considered it good luck to have a monk in his home on that...
Princess Who Changes a Letter
In the heat of the afternoon, when everyone had gone to sleep, I left the governor's house and went walking in the garden. I rambled about in my favorite nooks and crannies, and when I turned a corner, I came upon a man sleeping under a tree. I nearly tripped over...
Naming Father
I was sitting on the front steps with my three daughters one night after the farm work had been done. They were grown up and it was time to be thinking about marriage. Jovially, I asked my eldest if she had decided what her husband's name will be. Names are important,...