I was much loved by my mother and father, and I grew up tall and strong and handsome. I learned to run and shoot, and I could swim and dive better than any lad my age in the isles of the west. I knew how to sail, I sang with the harp, and I liked nothing better than...
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Maiden in the Dark
Themes: Dependency | Exposure | Isolation | Vulnerability
The drummer has taken my linen shift! My sisters have flown from the lake, and I am stranded here. I have to follow him. But I’m naked! I’ll keep myself hidden, but what else can I do? Without my linen I have no wings to fly back to the castle. I follow him home and...
High and Mighty Tower
Themes: Arrogance | Isolation | Success
I am a landmark in this country. People can see me from miles away. A high and mighty princess inhabits my high apartments, and she can see the whole kingdom through my twelve windows. Through the first window she can see more clearly than any human being, in every...
Servant Girl
I was in the carriage with the family when the robbers attacked. They sprang out of the thicket, and killed everyone but me. I ran and ran and now I'm alone in the woods, without any food or shelter. What will I do? I can't find my way back to the road, and even if I...
Mirror of Understanding
Themes: Enchantment | Isolation | Sympathy
The Snow Queen calls me the Mirror of Understanding, but I am cracked in a thousand pieces. She has recruited an intelligent little boy named Kay to fit my pieces together, but he has gone quite black and blue with cold. His heart has become a lump of ice, and yet he...
Snowflake
Themes: Grief | Isolation | Longing
My mother and father wanted a child so much that they made me out of snow, and I came to life. They called me Snowflake. Spring has arrived. The fields are full of flowers. Nightingales sing in the trees, and my friends are playing outside and shouting with glee. The...
Little Match Girl
Themes: Imagination | Isolation | Salvation
I make my living selling matches on the street. They burn so prettily, why won't anyone buy them? I know, because they already have light in their homes, and so much warmth. Oh, what warmth! I don't have any of that. I'm freezing cold but I don't want to go home...
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...
Parrot of the Beast
When the girl came into our room of parrots and cockatoos, she had songbirds from the aviary perching on her shoulders and her head. I squawked. "Awk! Hello, pretty bird. Pretty songs. Awk!“ "Aren't you a handsome fellow!" she said, opening my cage door. "You might...
Abandoned Youth
Themes: Dread | Isolation | Threshold
I have been surviving alone on this island for months. Winter has come, and I've collected all the driftwood I can. I'm standing on the shore and looking out towards the mainland, thinking of Christmas Eve last year and the fun I had celebrating with my friends....
Glass Princess
Themes: Isolation
Everybody wants to realize the dream, and I am the dream. I sit in my silver room, in my golden castle on a high glass mountain. The suitor who reaches the top and plucks the golden apple from the tree will join me in my enchanted life. Many have died trying. The...
Child Left to the Wolves
Themes: Hunger | Isolation | Transformation | Vulnerability
My sister went into the woods and she never came back. Something must have eaten her. Where am I going to get more food? Now I've gone into the woods and I've eaten all the nuts I can find. The snow is coming, and, oh, I'm so cold! The wolves are howling, and I'm...
Snow-daughter
Themes: Insecurity | Isolation | Protection
I am cold. I have always been cold. I must stay in the cold or I'll melt. In the winter, I live in the forest. In the summer, I come inside, and I stay in the cold cellar. My brother is the opposite. He must have heat. He spends his summers outside, and, in the...
Dying Emperor
Themes: Death | Isolation | Regret
I am cold and pale and the halls of the palace are silent. I am dying slowly...too slowly. The monotony is deadening. If only someone would sing to me! Music would drive away the doom that weighs on my chest. Even the moonlight streaming through the window is silent....