A fairytale with a twist
Nov. 3rd, 2005 07:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
narcasseToday in the post I received a befuddled frog. He journeyed from lands affair with his precious cargo bequeathed by the noble and wise ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nekonexus and kintail but that is only the tiniest portion of the story...
You see, the befuddled frog wasn’t just any sort of a frog but a befuddled frog prince, that is to say he had once been a human prince in lands afar before a terrible fate befell him and this is his tale.
Not so very long ago in a land just off the edge of a largish continent there was a country, small and somewhat archaic but pretty none the less and in that country lived a great many aristocrats, as there always are in fairytales, and the prince was one of their number. He was young and fair and kind and hopeful and all those other lovely things that fair princes often are. He dreamed of a future where there could be Joy and Fairness As He Saw It for all.
It was all a lovely idea certainly. Until in another land somewhat further West a terrible and wicked enchanter heard of the prince’s plans for an endlessly cheerful and bright future and the wicked enchanter didn’t like the sound of it one bit. But not one to prejudge he decided to visit the little kingdom and see for himself what this prince proposed to do.
So the enchanter arrived in the wonderful kingdom of aristocrats and went about searching for the fair prince. It did take him some time though, since there were lots of fair young aristocrats who might possibly have similar ideas and it would be remise of him to overlook them all.
First there was a wicked youth who taunted the enchanter with his pretty eyes and his silence, then a handsome rogue who laughed and wouldn’t be tricked into anything, then mired in flowers a nymph who knew all the enchanter’s secrets and finally a goddess of white marble whom the enchanter barely dared look upon but none of these were the fair prince and the enchanter was exhausted from his searches.
Coming to rest by a clear stream the enchanter lay down in the grass and pondered the futility of his search. He had all but resolved to give up his search until by chance he spied a delicate youth walking along the banks of the stream and he knew at once that this was the prince for whom he had long searched. And it was the simplest task itself to waylay the fair prince and though the wickedest trickery steal from his innocent lips but one kiss, for a kiss was all that it took for the enchanter to work his magic and in an instant the fair prince had become a frog.
The enchanter picked up the stunned frog in the palm of his hand and laughed his most wicked laugh. The frog stared at him in confusion and with the merest fluttering of his eyelashes the enchanter cursed the prince again, that he should be forever a frog with no manner of changing back what so ever.
Now of course in most conventional tales the story would end there with the prince a frog and lost forever but the enchanter was a little bit more pragmatic than that. Carefully placing the frog in a box to keep him from escaping, the enchanter stepped up to the edge of the stream perhaps to do some further mischief or simply to admire his reflection, we shall never know because at that instant from the corner of his eye he saw the box containing the prince snatched away by one of his own dear, wicked companions. Again this is where the tale differs from the conventional telling because that story will tell us that it was his daughter who snatched the box away when it truth such relationships where far more murky.
The wicked princess taunted the enchanter with the trapped prince and knowing how much he loved to collect such treasures proposed that she would only give the box back to the enchanter if he should allow her to replace the missing prince instead of some summoned doppelganger. He agreed at once and she cast the box towards the river as she made her escape, her silvery laughter trailing behind. But the enchanter’s reflexes were quicker than that and he recaptured the frog prince and set off towards his own kingdom once again.
And from the prow of his ship, while the kingdom of aristocrats was still in sight, he cast one last curse upon the wicked princess herself so that should she ever fall into that stream or any stream like it she should at once lose all her powers and become foolish and giddy just like the fair prince had been.
And to this very day, in the fair of kingdom of aristocrats, the wicked Fürsten curses every time it rains.
As for the frog prince, he never did become human again and was fated to spend the rest of his days in the company of the enchanter who not long after decided that he’d like to collect vampires as well as princes and maybe the odd white marble goddess or two. But that my dears, is another tale...
nekonexus and kintail but that is only the tiniest portion of the story...You see, the befuddled frog wasn’t just any sort of a frog but a befuddled frog prince, that is to say he had once been a human prince in lands afar before a terrible fate befell him and this is his tale.
Not so very long ago in a land just off the edge of a largish continent there was a country, small and somewhat archaic but pretty none the less and in that country lived a great many aristocrats, as there always are in fairytales, and the prince was one of their number. He was young and fair and kind and hopeful and all those other lovely things that fair princes often are. He dreamed of a future where there could be Joy and Fairness As He Saw It for all.
It was all a lovely idea certainly. Until in another land somewhat further West a terrible and wicked enchanter heard of the prince’s plans for an endlessly cheerful and bright future and the wicked enchanter didn’t like the sound of it one bit. But not one to prejudge he decided to visit the little kingdom and see for himself what this prince proposed to do.
So the enchanter arrived in the wonderful kingdom of aristocrats and went about searching for the fair prince. It did take him some time though, since there were lots of fair young aristocrats who might possibly have similar ideas and it would be remise of him to overlook them all.
First there was a wicked youth who taunted the enchanter with his pretty eyes and his silence, then a handsome rogue who laughed and wouldn’t be tricked into anything, then mired in flowers a nymph who knew all the enchanter’s secrets and finally a goddess of white marble whom the enchanter barely dared look upon but none of these were the fair prince and the enchanter was exhausted from his searches.
Coming to rest by a clear stream the enchanter lay down in the grass and pondered the futility of his search. He had all but resolved to give up his search until by chance he spied a delicate youth walking along the banks of the stream and he knew at once that this was the prince for whom he had long searched. And it was the simplest task itself to waylay the fair prince and though the wickedest trickery steal from his innocent lips but one kiss, for a kiss was all that it took for the enchanter to work his magic and in an instant the fair prince had become a frog.
The enchanter picked up the stunned frog in the palm of his hand and laughed his most wicked laugh. The frog stared at him in confusion and with the merest fluttering of his eyelashes the enchanter cursed the prince again, that he should be forever a frog with no manner of changing back what so ever.
Now of course in most conventional tales the story would end there with the prince a frog and lost forever but the enchanter was a little bit more pragmatic than that. Carefully placing the frog in a box to keep him from escaping, the enchanter stepped up to the edge of the stream perhaps to do some further mischief or simply to admire his reflection, we shall never know because at that instant from the corner of his eye he saw the box containing the prince snatched away by one of his own dear, wicked companions. Again this is where the tale differs from the conventional telling because that story will tell us that it was his daughter who snatched the box away when it truth such relationships where far more murky.
The wicked princess taunted the enchanter with the trapped prince and knowing how much he loved to collect such treasures proposed that she would only give the box back to the enchanter if he should allow her to replace the missing prince instead of some summoned doppelganger. He agreed at once and she cast the box towards the river as she made her escape, her silvery laughter trailing behind. But the enchanter’s reflexes were quicker than that and he recaptured the frog prince and set off towards his own kingdom once again.
And from the prow of his ship, while the kingdom of aristocrats was still in sight, he cast one last curse upon the wicked princess herself so that should she ever fall into that stream or any stream like it she should at once lose all her powers and become foolish and giddy just like the fair prince had been.
And to this very day, in the fair of kingdom of aristocrats, the wicked Fürsten curses every time it rains.
As for the frog prince, he never did become human again and was fated to spend the rest of his days in the company of the enchanter who not long after decided that he’d like to collect vampires as well as princes and maybe the odd white marble goddess or two. But that my dears, is another tale...
