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...
She wrote upon me in great sorrow. How I felt for the daughter of the Dragon King of Dungting Lake! Her father had married her to a faithless, philandering Dragon who had sent her out to pasture to look after his sheep. I am to be taken to her father, and my contents...
It is almost impossible to find me. I am buried in the yolk of an egg, which is buried in the womb of a bird, which is buried in the belly of a bull. Who will cut through the bull to reach me? I break all spells and delusions. Hold me in the face of the wicked...
I am an egg that contains a palace, or rather, I am a palace that has been contained in an egg. I am a marvel made into a miniature so that I can travel between worlds. If you were to discover me in the underworld and take me to the upper world, you would find that I...
I am made from an elder tree, a tree that grew out of a hole that contained a secret. The secret was spoken into the hole by a young man who could no longer keep it in his heart. The shepherds have been making flutes from my elder, and we all play the same tune. It...
He has taken my linen shift! My sisters have flown from the lake, and I am stranded here. Where did he go? I will find him. I will plead for the linen. I will tell him the truth. I’ve been seized by a witch and shut up in a glass mountain! I pray that he will...
One day, I drove my horses to the house of a peasant. When the old man opened the door, he asked me how he could help me. I stretched out my hand, and I said, “I want nothing more than to enjoy a good old fashioned country dish. Cook me some potatoes the way you...
Under the light of a full moon, I could see the old woman coming down to the well. The light from the orb of the moon over the mountain was so bright that you could have found a needle in the grass. I watched from the tree as the old woman knelt before the well. She...
I really did not know what to do. My father was deathly ill, and he made me to promise to marry a king’s daughter I had not even met. I had already become engaged, but I gave my father my word. Needless to say, my fiancé was heartbroken. I thought I would never...
I don’t think that the princess has a clue what to wear, or who she is, or who she wants to be! Yet I am her brightest dress. I shine even more brightly than her golden dress, or her silver dress. Why does she keep us hidden in a nutshell? Why does she go around...
