Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): You Are Water by Haley Westenra.
In my 10 awesome fairy tales you've never heard of post I made a teensy weensy footnote that mentioned quite subtly ;) to keep en eye for something special concerning the fairy tale King Thrushbeard. Well, here it is.
I wrote a story for you guys.
Yep, that's right. I wrote a story just for you to read, spread, or shred as you will. Like so many of you, I love fairy tale retellings. Adore them you could even say. Fairy tales were after all originally an oral tradition and changed as they passed from person to person, and I like seeing that tradition continue.
King Thrushbeard has special value for me. It is one of those fairy tales that I cannot understand why it didn't become one of the popular famous ones. It is so good, and really very sweet. It is about a haughty princess, who after insulting so many suitors, her father promises he will marry her to the first beggar that comes to the door. It happens to be a wandering minstrel, who rather regrets knocking on that particular door. She has to learn the most basic of things, and learns the lessons of her pride, and in the process, finds love.
I really wanted to make this a modern story, just to see if the old adage "fairy tales are timeless" was really true. In the process, I came up with a rather interesting twist.
I would recommend reading the original King Thrushbeard first. Then you can spot the parallels (it's like Where's Waldo, but with words instead of men in striped shirts). But you don't have to. I wrote this so that it could also stand alone.
I hope I did this PDF uploader thing right, and I really hope you enjoy my first superhero present to you. ^_^
Viva la fairy tales.
Thrushsong - A Modern Retelling of the Fairy Tale of King Thrushbeard
Did I mention that you can do whatever you want with this? I'm putting it under a Creative Commons License. Convert it, download it, share it, digitally paint it, whatever. :) Please just give credit where you got it from. That would make me happy. ^_^
(Photo courtesy of queenofbeasts on Deviant Art)
Do you remember King Thrushbeard?
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5 comments:
It seems to download okay! I will have to read the original (as it's all new to me) first! And then I'll read your superhero gem :)
YAY!! *off to read now!* :) :) :)
Sweet! I hope you guys enjoy it.
I think the tale hasn't become popular because of how anti-feminist it is. It would be different if she had been cast out and found humility on her own, but since a man set up everything for her and then she accepted the deceit, I don't think too many people would want to teach that to little girls.
You have a good start here with the retelling. My biggest question is why is he in love with her if she was making fun of him that night? He doesn't seem like a virtuous "I must humble her" type. I like that you did not bring her father back into it or make her husband secretly rich. That would be too much like the original tale and really would not make sense in modern times.
Have you ever considered writing your own original fairy tale? I am currently in the process of writing my own. Retellings are wonderful, but I think it is important to have new fairy tales that relate to the world we live in better than the old tales do. And plus it is a ton of fun.
I've read this!! I have this random book of stories I bought at a yardsale and it's in it. It's told a bit differently there, I think, but I sorta like it.
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