Week 12 Storytelling

Gladys and Silva 

Once upon a time there was a beautiful queen, Gladys and her stunning daughter, Silva. They lived in a castle and spent much of their time laughing and dancing together. One day, when the pair were going for a walk through the glen, they came to a pond. 

"Silva, dear!" Gladys called to her daughter, "i'm going to rest for a while by this pond, go pick some flowers for us to put on the dinner table." 

Silva as a young lass

found on Livejournal

Silva did as her mother told and Gladys lounged by the calm waters of the pond. She glanced down at the water and suddenly saw two eyes staring straight up at her. She leaned down closer to see what it was when all of a sudden, a trout popped its head out of the water and began to speak! "Hello beautiful queen! How are you this morn?" said the trout. After getting over the initial shock of a talking fish, Gladys replied, "I'm doing well, pray thee answer me one question?" The trout nodded and Gladys said, "Troutie bonny little fellow, am not I the most beautiful queen in the world?" The trout seemed to contemplate momentarily, gazing up at the statuesque woman with long red hair, before saying, "Indeed, you are beautiful, but there is another more fair." The queen was immediately angered and demanded to know who he deemed to be more beautiful than her. "Why, your daughter Silva of course!" he replied happily before saying he had to go and swimming away without another word. 

Gladys

found on Pinterest

Gladys was enraged and full of jealousy. She summoned her daughter and they went home. Straight away, Gladys sent Silva to her chamber and ran, tears streaming down her face, to see her husband. "Oh my king! I am in the worst of sorts! Please, please help me. End my suffering and heal me of my malady!" cried Gladys. "Of course, my love, anything! You only need to ask of it, and it shall be granted. Tell me what to do!" replied the king worriedly. The queen then told him of her dark desire. She told him that the only way to cure her and restore her happiness was to bring her the heart and liver of her daughter so that she may eat it and return to her former self. 

The king was stunned at such a request, and vowed to help her, but how could he prevent his daughter's death? The queen left, practically skipping with delight, and the king began contemplating his next move. Then it dawned on him, of course! The wealthy prince from two kingdoms over! He was searching for a bride. All the king had to do was marry his daughter off while his queen was away and all would be solved.

Silva on her Wedding Day

Found on OCWedding

And so it was done. The princess Silva married prince Doche and was whisked off to her new home. The queen had been on a trip to visit her sister, and when she returned home her husband provided her with a small chest. When she opened it up, a smile immediately lit up her face, because inside was a heart and liver which she assumed could only be that of her daughter Silva. She quickly cooked them up and ate them. For the rest of her days, she lived in happiness, not knowing that she had been fooled and the fairest of them all continued to live in grace and beauty in a neighboring kingdom. 

Author's Note:

This weeks' storytelling comes from the story of Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree, which was taken from Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892). I liked the original story and could see how it related to snow white. I didn't want to change much, just a few details and the overall ending. In the original, the queen tries to murder her daughter more than once (and is successful during one attempt, but the daughter is brought back) and ends up dead. However, I didn't want to write a super long story and felt like I would have had to in order to really tell the entire story, so I just ended it with the queen living in blissful ignorance.