Storytelling Week 14: Cinderella's Diary

Dear Diary,

Okay, so I know I'm pretty and all with my golden hair but is that any excuse for my father to want to marry me?! Ugh I'm appalled! How gross is that? Everyone knows it is gross too, but he is the king and can do anything he wants. I look just like my mother; that must be why he loves me as he loved her... I don't know what to do though! I cannot let my father marry me. It would be a disgrace for our kingdom and I cannot bring myself to marry my own dad anyways! No, first I will tell him that in order for me to marry him, he must give me a dress as gold as the sun, as silver as the moon, and bright as the stars. Surely he will not get any that look like that and then I won't have to marry him! Perfect!


Dear Diary,

My plan failed. He got the dresses, so I decided to run away. I took my dresses with me, and was living in the woods, but them some men found me! I was covered in dirt though, so I did not look like a King's daughter and they took me in as a servant. Hey, that's better than being married to my dad! They work me to death though, but it is an awfully good cover in case my father tries to find me. And I still have my dresses in case I ever need them.

Dear Diary,

So the King had a ball the other night. Let me tell ya, that King is fine. I snuck upstairs, cleaned myself off, changed into one of my pretty dresses, and snuck into the ball. It was so much fun! I couldn't be gone long, but oh my goodness, I danced with the King! He was so wonderful. He doesn't know I work for him though... I wonder what would happen if he found out?


Dear Diary,

The King figured it out! I have been sneaking into all the dancing balls and dancing with the King. I knew he had fallen in love with me, and that was okay because I loved him too! I wanted so badly to be with him, so I put pieces of beautiful jewelry in the food I would make for him. He called me up there several times to ask where I had gotten the jewelry and what I was doing working for the King. I just said I was a poor servant. He tricked me though, and snuck a ring on my finger at the ball! Then I was called up and he saw that the ring was on my finger, dumped a bucket of water on my head, and saw that I was the girl he'd fallen in love with at the royal ball! I'm practically his Cinderella. Anyways, we're getting married tomorrow! I love him and we are going to live happily ever after.

Cinderella and her Prince
Source: Inside Croydon

Author's Note: This story is a retelling of "Allerleirauh" from the Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, translated by Margaret Hunt (1884). The retelling is not much different from the original story, but I decided to put it in a more modern perspective. She dances with the King three separate times before he slips the ring on her finger, and he calls her up but she forgot to cover the finger with soot, so he figured out it was her he had been dancing with.

Storytelling Week 13: The King's Lion

Once upon a time, there was a lion. He lived in a the castle of Bloomington, and was the pet of the King. He was a good lion, and the King always took care of him, keeping his fur beautiful and shiny, and keeping his stomach full with wonderful food. The King would often turn to the lion for advice; they tended to have some very deep and intellectual conversations, for he was a smart lion. One day, twelve men showed up on the steps of the castle. They were a little smaller than regular men, with thinner arms and a more petite stature overall. They claimed to be huntsmen, and requested that the King take the huntsmen in for service. The King approved the request, and the King acquired 12 new huntsmen. However, something was a little off with the huntsmen, and the Lion could smell it...

Some days later, the King and the Lion were sitting on the balcony, caught up in conversation; the King stroking the Lion's mane as they spoke.
"My King, I must speak with you on a matter concerning the new huntsmen." requested the Lion.
"The huntsmen? Yes, they've served me well the past few days haven't they? Dedicated men, they are."
"That is what I want to speak with you about, though. I sense that these men are in fact women," stated the Lion.
The King perked, "Women? No, thats impossible."
"They are, sire. test them tomorrow by throwing peas down on the ground before their step. They will play in them as no man would."

The servant of the King overheard the plan, however, and reported it to the huntsmen. The huntsmen passed the test.

"They are not women, Lion! They stepped firmly onto the peas. Why would you try to fool me?" said the angry King.
"I swear by it, my King! They were informed by someone. Please, place spinning wheels in their sight tomorrow and it will show they are but girls dressed as huntsmen."

But the servant, again, forewarned the huntsmen so that when they saw the spinning wheels, the huntsmen looked right past them.

"Do you think me a fool, Lion! They looked right passed the spinning wheels just as men do!"
"My King, I know they are women, please..."
The King interrupted, "No! Leave me be, Lion, for they are not women."

A few days passed, and the King figure out the secret... the twelve huntsmen were women, and the leader was his former wife. The King rejoiced, and repaired relations with his Lion. The Lion was a good, dedicated Lion until the day of his death.

A pet lion
Source: Pixabay

Author's Note: This story originated from The Twelve Huntsmen from LibriVox Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm. The story is the same, only the background is that when the King was a prince, he fell in love and married a girl, but his father made him promise to marry another as he died. So the prince became King, had to leave his wife, and the wife got eleven other girls and took them to work for the King as huntsmen. The King eventually figured out it was her though, and they lived happily ever after.

Storytelling Week 12: How to Catch a Leprechaun

"And now may I present to you all your Class President, Michael Myers!" announced the school principal. 

The entire auditorium cheered, mainly due to the excitement of graduating, but also because Michael was the most inspiring Class President the Class of 1989 had had all four years. 

"Thank you, Principal Hawkins. Congratulations graduating Class of 1989!" 

The students nearly jumped out of their seats, screaming with excitement. 

"We've worked hard these past 4 years and now we've made it! So now, I'd like to tell you all a story. No one knows this about me, but I hope you all can take away from it a valuable lesson and apply it as we take the next big step into our futures."

The auditorium grew solemn and eerily quiet as the students and the audience anticipated the story. 

"As many of you know, my family is originally from Ireland, and I fly there every other summer to visit. When I went last summer, though, I experienced something that changed my life. My grandfather owns a lot of land up there, and I was playing with my littler cousins in the back yard. I was teaching them how to throw a football. One of them threw it, and boy did he have an arm! He threw it clear into the woods behind me. At about this time, the boys were called inside for dinner, so I went to get the ball as they ran inside. Then the most amazing thing happened... 

I went looking for the ball and hidden in the bushes was a little man. I'm not talking midget little, I mean he could not have been more than 6 inches tall!

Yes, now I realize you all think I'm crazy, but keep listening. 

He was wearing a little green hat and was shining shoes with... beer. Yes, beer. Then it hit me... He was a leprechaun!"

Students in the crowd began to snicker at how far fetched his story was sounding.

"I know, I thought they weren't real either, but I stared and stared and sure enough, it was a leprechaun! Being from Ireland, I know the tricks of those little devils, and one rule of thumb when you catch a leprechaun is to never take your eyes off them, or they will disappear. So I stared at him as I moved toward him, and yanked him up! We had a nice little conversation about shining shoes, but then I got to the real point of the conversation. I told him to show me where his gold was. I had a firm grip on him so he really had no choice! He told me the directions to a field and off we went. I had to keep my eye on him, though, or else he'd disappear, so I kept tripping and stumbling; sometimes I'd even smack into a tree or two."

A roar of giggles grew from the crowd. 

"But! I never took my eye off that little guy; I was determined. When we got to the field, there were poles stuck in the ground, a couple for each acre for about 40 acres. I had a red ribbon with me, and tied it around the pole where he told me the gold was hidden. Then I let him go so I could run home and get a shovel to dig up the gold. But when I returned, the little devil had tied a red ribbon (identical to the one I'd had) to every single one of those dang poles..."

The crowd burst into a fit of laughter. 

"With that said! I just want to say good luck to your futures, and if you ever find a leprechaun, never take your eyes off of it, and just try not to let it trick you." 

Learn How to Catch a Leprechaun!
Click HERE

Author's Note: This story originated from "The Field of Boliauns" from Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs (1892). The original story is told in 3rd person, mainly from the boy's perspective. I rewrote it in more modern times as a graduation speech from a Class President, who is supposed to be the little boy in the original story. I tried to build it up like he was going to make some big, important life lesson from the story, but make it ironically turn out to be just a plain old, ridiculous story about a leprechaun that all the audience think is fake.