Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Eight

 

Fifteen years later a very strange news reached the queen.

The son of the wicked king wanted to marry a girl who maintained turkeys.

The son was sure that the girl would say yes and he had even had wedding

dresses made and had arranged the festivities. However, the girl finally

refused to marry the son of the wicked king.

The queen was curious as to why a poor little turkey-maiden did

not want to be a queen. 

The queen told the fairy about this.

The fairy decided to investigate. She changed herself into a little mouse

and went to the poultry yard of the turkey-maiden.

The turkey-maiden was dressed in a coarse dress and she was sitting

on a stone and there were many robes made of gold and silver and

some diamonds and pearls at her feet and the turkey-maiden

looked miserable.

The ugly looking dwarf son of the wicked king was there. “If you

do not marry me, I will kill you.”

The turkey-maiden looked proud and shook her head. “You are as

ugly as your wicked father. I want nothing more than to be left

in peace with my turkeys. Please leave me alone.”

The son of the wicked king fumed, fretted and finally left the place.

After that the good fairy changed herself to look like an old woman.

“You have some fine turkey birds here.”

The girl turned to the old woman. “I want to be with my birds. But those

people want me to marry the prince. They just do not leave me alone.”

The old woman shook her head. “You do not know the weight or the

price of a crown. That is why you have refused it.”

The girl sighed. “I know well all about the crown though I do not know

who my father or mother is and neither do I have a single friend.”

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Seven

The fairy ran back to the prison and looked terrified.

“What happened?”

“Cancaline is a cruel fairy who hates me. She is older and more powerful than me. Cancaline stole the princess when she was alone in the basket outside the prison.”

The queen was heart-broken and she begged the fairy to try her best to find the princess.

It was at this time that the man looking after the prison came and saw that the princess was not in the prison. He immediately went and told the king about this.

Soon, the king stormed into the tower-prison.

“What has happened to the princess?” The king thundered angrily.

The queen was crestfallen and she mumbled an answer. “A fairy whose name I do not know came and carried off the princess.”

The wicked king was furious. “I will hang you now. You are of no use to me now.”

The king himself dragged the queen to the nearest tree to try and hang her. 

When the king climbed the tree to look for a branch, the fairy who had made herself invisible appeared behind the king and gave the king a push.

The king fell off the branch and broke four of teeth. He was trying to mend it when the fairy carried the queen off in her flying chariot to a beautiful castle.

The queen and the fairy lived in the castle henceforth.

Other than the loss of her daughter, the queen lived well there in the castle with the fairy.

Fifteen years passed this way and the queen had recovered from the loss of her child.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Six

The queen was astonished when she realized that the mouse had spoken.

Before the queen’s eyes, the mouse changed into the fairy who had come with the wicked king to visit her.

“I wanted to see whether you were faithful and capable of feeling real friendship towards me.” The fairy sighed. “We fairies are very rich but we do not have many friends.”

The queen hugged the fairy and kissed her. “Anyone would want to be your friend.”

The fairy shook her head. “There are many who are friendly because it is to their advantage. That does not count.” The fairy studied the queen. “You cared for a little mouse. You could not know that there was nothing that you could gain by being nice to me, but you were.” The fairy smiled again. “I wanted to test you and I took the form of the old woman who had talked from the window and then I realized that you were a really good friend."

Saying this, the fairy kissed the little princess. “Little one, I promise that you will be richer than your father and you will live a hundred years looking pretty and being happy.”

The queen was delighted when she heard this. She asked the fairy to take the princess away from the tower and bring her up as her own.

The fairy agreed to this.

So the two women first lowered the baby in the basket outside the prison walls on the streets below.

After that the fairy changed herself into a mouse to leave the prison and get out of there.

This took some time and disaster struck because of this delay.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Five

The old woman looked at the queen from inside the prison in the tower. “What is it? You seem like you are in trouble. How can I help?”

The queen was thrilled on hearing the old woman’s words. “If you stay there, I will send my baby down in a basket. If you bring up the child well, when I am rich again, I will reward you.”

The old woman thought for some time. “I do not want your reward. But I would like to have a tender good mouse. If you can give me that, I will do what you ask and look after your baby.”

The queen did not reply and she started crying when she heard this.

The old woman was surprised. “What is wrong?”

“There is one mouse in this prison and I cannot bear for the mouse to get hurt.” The queen cried.

The old woman was shocked. “You care more about a mouse than your old baby!” The old woman shook her head. “I am leaving now.”

The old woman walked away grumbling and cursing under her breath.

The queen was sad and that night she could neither enjoy the mouse’s dancing nor could she eat the delicious food that had appeared in the prison.

The queen realized that she just had to hope for the best and act now if she had to save her baby. She placed her child in the basket and wrote on a note that the child’s name was Delicia and decided to lower the basket out of the prison and hoped that someone good would find the child and raise her well.

Before sending the basket down, the queen looked at the mouse in the prison. “I am now not sure whether my Delicia would be taken care of well or not. But I could not let the old woman hurt you.”

“You will never regret your kindness!” The words came from the tiny little mouse.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Four

The queen realized that the kindness she had shown to the mouse had been rewarded.

After that, the queen gave whatever was left to the little mouse

The mouse danced merrily.

The next day when the man who brought the food for the queen and the princess brought the three peas, the mouse came and ate up the peas immediately.

The queen was enraged when she saw this, but delicious food suddenly appeared on the plate where the three peas had been brought for the queen.

The queen and the princess had a hearty meal. 

Now as the queen sat at the spinning wheel, she wondered how she could help her daughter escape the clutches of the wicked king and the dwarf.

At that time, the queen saw the mouse playing with some straw in the corner of the prison.

 The queen began to plait all the straws to make it into a basket.

Throughout the entire time, the mouse danced for the queen and the queen gave the three peas and a piece of the black bread that she got, to the mouse and in return she found delicious food for her and Delia. Though the queen did not know how the food appeared, she accepted it as such.

The queen spent all her free time on making the straw basket.

The queen wanted to place the princess in the basket and let her escape from the prison to any good passerby who outside the prison.

After finishing the basket, the queen looked down from the window to decide how much cord she would have to make to lower the basket to the ground from the tower prison.

That was when the queen saw an old woman leaning on a stick looking up at her from outside the prison.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Three

“I brought you here to tell me whether the princess would be pretty and fortunate.” The king told the fairy. “I did not bring you here to have whispered conversations with the Queen.”

The fairy then turned to the king. “This little girl would be pretty and clever and be as well brought up as it was possible to be.”

The king was very happy to hear this.

He turned to the Queen. “It is a good thing that your daughter is going to marry my son. Otherwise, I would have hanged both of you.”

The king left with the fairy and the queen was miserable again. “If my daughter was pretty, then she would have to marry the prince. If my daughter was ugly then we would both be killed.” The queen was even more unhappy. “How I wish I could hide my daughter so that the wicked king could never find her.”

But there was nothing that the queen could do.

Things were far too bad there. 

The man who had kept the two people in prison in the tower was also a cruel man. He gave very little food to the two people - three boiled peas and a tiny morsel of black bread.

Worse, the king made the queen work day and night at the spinning wheel in the prison.

Things were going thus when a little mouse crept inside the hole of the prison.

The queen sighed as she looked at the mouse. “Why are you here, little mouse? I have only three peas with me.”

However the mouse danced around the cell and finally the queen gave the mouse one little pea. “This is all I can offer to you for the amusement you have given me.”

The queen turned and was shocked to see plenty of delicious food appear before her.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Two

 

“The Jolly king is dead.” The messenger told the queen as soon as he got down his horse and found the queen in the palace.

The queen fell senseless and that was when there was great confusion and noise around the palace. The wicked king stormed the Jolly King’s palace to find the queen.

The maids in the palace hid the queen and the princess under the bed clothes and then the maids ran for their lives.

The wicked king found the queen and he dragged her to his own kingdom. There the wicked king wanted to have the queen and the princess killed.

One of the ministers of the wicked king felt sorry for the queen and the princess and wanted to save them. The minister carefully went to the king and had a simple suggestion. When the princess grew up, she would make a fine wife for the king’s son, but that was possible only when the king did not kill the queen and the princess now.

The wicked king liked this idea immediately. He had the queen and the princess imprisoned in the tall tower in the kingdom.

After that, the wicked king had a fairy who lived in the kingdom come to see the queen. The king wanted the fairy to look at the princess and determine whether the princess would be fortunate when she grew up and so would make a good wife for the prince.

The king first gave the fairy a feast and after that, the king took the fairy to look at the queen.

When the fairy saw the queen and the princess imprisoned in the tower, the fairy felt sorry for them and she was determined to help them.

The fairy told the queen that she would help the queen and the princess, but before the fairy could say anything else, the king interrupted their conversation.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part One

Once in a particular kingdom, there was a king and queen who were always happy. They were always together and were happy in each other’s company. Together the royal couple had a little daughter - Princess Delia. The subjects of this kingdom followed the royal couple and the people there in the kingdom were always happy. That was the reason that this kingdom was called the Joyous Land.

The irony was that the next kingdom was quite opposite in every single way. The king of the next kingdom always frowned and the people in the kingdom were always in fear of the king. In fact the frowning king was so wicked that if he found anyone happy in his kingdom, he killed the happy person instantly. The king had an ugly dwarf of a son who was also angry all the time. This kingdom was called the Land of Tears.

The wicked king heard about the Jolly king and his happy kingdom and the wicked king was furious. He was determined to stop the Jolly king from being happy and so the wicked king gathered a huge army and attacked the Joyous land.

The Queen of the Joyous Land was afraid when she learnt of this. She wanted the Jolly king to run away from this. But the Jolly king did not want to be a coward and he wanted to fight back.

The Jolly king collected all his armed men and he mounted his horse and rode into battle.

The Queen saw her husband go into battle and was unhappy and wondered about the fate of herself and her daughter, should anything happen to Jolly king.

But the Queen realized that there was nothing she could do and she waited.

The Jolly king sent her a letter everyday from the warfront.

However, one day, there was no letter and the Queen saw a messenger galloping towards the palace hurriedly.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

The Samurai’s Daughter - Part Four

 

The nobleman stared at Genzaburo, unable to speak.

That was when the nobleman’s son looked aghast and spoke. “You have to forgive me, father. This whole thing is my mistake.” The nobleman’s son looked miserable. “I asked you to organize this feast in the hope that O Cho San would break the porcelain plates by mistake and then come to me for help.”

O Cho San then bowed before the nobleman. “Please sir, I do not wish to cause any trouble in the family. I am the root cause of the entire trouble and I want you to let this go and not be angry with either your son or your servant for this.”

O Cho San looked at the nobleman. “I will leave this job and work elsewhere. My only desire is to earn some more yen for my mother.”

The nobleman considered all this.

The nobleman forgave Genzaburo for his long and honest service. He also forgave his son and realized that his son needed no punishment because the son now knew that O Cho San would never love him.

O Cho San was allowed to continue to work in the household and everyone was forbidden to speak about the plates after that.

O Cho San was paid more and she earned more yen for the welfare of her dear mother.

Adapted from Japanese Folktales

The Samurai’s Daughter - Part Three

“You cannot punish her for this crime.” Genzaburo’s rough voice shot through.

Everyone turned as Genzaburo continued. “I broke the plate.” Genzaburo told the nobleman. “I thought that she was cold and remote towards me and would never marry me. But then I realized that if she lost her finger then she would come to me for help. I would win her as my wife then.” Genzaburo nodded. “That is the reason that I broke the plate.”

The nobleman did not think that Genzaburo had done this. “How did you do this?”

Genzaburo smiled. “I was asked to mend the lid where the plates were kept.” Genzaburo nodded at the nobleman. “If you show me the box, I will show it to you.”

Genzaburo went to the place and waved at the box. “I saw the lid and then thought that this would be a good way to marry O Cho San and I used my hammer to break a plate.”

Genzaburo pulled out the hammer in his hands. “Just like this.”

Genzaburo brought the hammer down and in a swift blow destroyed all the other plates of the nobleman.

The nobleman was shocked. O Cho San screamed.

But now all that remained was the pieces of the porcelain plates.

“This man is mad.” The nobleman yelled angrily.

“No sir.” Genzaburo shook his head. “Take all my fingers or even my life, if the wishes of your ancestor have to be carried out.” Genzaburo nodded firmly. “I shall be very happy because I know that no other maid will have to go through this ever again.”

Adapted from Japanese Folktales

The Samurai’s Daughter - Part Two

One of the servants in the nobleman’s house was Genzaburo. Genzaburo was rough, but an honest and strong worker. O Cho San did not have any troubles from Genzaburo.

The Samurai’s daughter had problems from the nobleman’s son. The nobleman’s son loved O Cho San. 

But O Cho San did not care for him at all. 

The nobleman’s son was angry that O Cho San refused to listen to him and he was not a good man at heart and decided to have revenge on the maid. The nobleman’s son decided to ask his father to organize a huge feast where the precious porcelain plates would be used. The nobleman’s son was sure that O Cho San would break the plates while cleaning them. At that time O Cho San would come to him for help because if she did not do that, she would lose a finger.

The nobleman’s son’s plan worked. 

The precious plates were used in the feast. O Cho San washed the plates and dried them and carefully set them away. The plates were unbroken and clean after O Cho San had worked on them.

Unfortunately, when the nobleman came to check on the plates, the plate in the bottom of the pile was broken.

O Cho San wept before the nobleman. “After I cleaned them, the vessels were clean, my Lord. I did not break the plates.”

But O Cho San could not prove who did it. So in the absence of any proof, it was believed that O Cho San had to be punished for this.

O Cho San was afraid. “If you have to punish me, please cut a piece of my face and not my hand. That way I can work with my hands to support my mother.”

The nobleman was afraid of disobeying the law and at the same time, he did not want to hurt O Cho San either.

Adapted from Japanese Folktales