Fairy Tale Assignment

I wrote this fairy tale in 1991 as fulfillment of an assignment in a Children's Literature class I was taking at Indiana State University.  I include it on my blog just to get it into the archives.

                                            GLORY AND THE PRINCE

     Once there was a carpenter and his wife who lived in a small village at the foot of Castle Mountain.  High above them, in all its majesty, rose the castle of the king and queen who lived with their young son, amid riches and finery.  But in the humble village below, the carpenter and his wife, who were good people, worked hard, side by side, so that they made a meager living but were most content.

     As it happened, both the carpenter and his wife were very homely.  The other people in the village believed that they belonged together because, in their ugliness, no one else would have them.

     When their only child was born, the carpenter and his wife were amazed to see, as were the people of the village, that the baby was not at all ugly like her parents.  She was a beautiful child.  The proud parents named her Glory and prayed that their daughter would grow up to be as glorious as her name and face proclaimed.

     Indeed, Glory grew prettier with each passing year.  Her smile illuminated every room, and it was thought that she was beautiful enough to be the future bride of the young prince up on Castle Mountain.  Her parents surrounded her with as many fine things as they could afford.  They worked and sacrificed to give Glory all that she wanted so that her lovely face should never show the worry and care of hard work and lean days.

     Glory became petted and spoiled, and when hard times fell upon the family (as hard times often do), she became angry and impatient with her parents' inability to provide her with the finer things. When Glory whined for a new dress, her father sold his favorite chair to buy the cloth.  When Glory envied a gilded mirror, her mother took in washing for a month to trade for the looking glass.  Once, when Glory insisted on a veritable feast to celebrate her 16th birthday, her parents ate only boiled potatoes so their beloved daughter could have her heart's desire.

     Alas, it was never enough.  As Glory wanted more and more, she smiled less and less.  A permanent, selfish scowl drew lines upon her face.  Her temper left indelible marks upon her beauty. Her parents, though bowed from years of hard work and worry, continued to love their Glory with all their hearts and grew strangely more patient as Glory grew less.  People in the village thought they were not as ugly as they had once been, nor was Glory quite a beautiful as before.

     Then, in the summer of Glory's eighteenth year, word came down from Castle Mountain that the king had died of a broken heart soon after the death of his queen.  The prince, it was said, would surely seek a bride in order to have an heir to the throne that was soon to be his.  The very next day, the prince arrived at the home of the carpenter to commission the building of a fine, mahogany coffin in which to bury his father.

     The carpenter and his wife took pity on the grieving prince.  The carpenter set to work immediately and with great skill to build a coffin worthy of the king, while the carpenter's wife made a mourning cloak for the prince and soothed him as with a mother's care.  The prince stayed for hours, never giving Glory the slightest glance.  When he returned the next day, he brought gifts for the homely carpenter and his homely wife who had been so kind to him.  There was no gift for Glory. He could see that she didn't need a thing.

     After the king's funeral, the prince visited the carpenter often.  Soon, Glory grew jealous of his attention to her parents.  Finally, she stamped her foot and declared angrily, "Why do you waste your time with worthless, homely people when you could be preparing to marry me?"

     The prince looked stricken.  "Have you no love for the parents who have given you so much of life? I'll not marry so ugly a woman as you!  It is sad that you could not have been born with your mother's inner beauty or your father's kindness!"  With that, he retired the old carpenter and his wife to Castle Mountain to live out the rest of their days as his adopted parents.  In time, he took a bride: the blacksmith's charming daughter.

     Glory soon became the wife of another village carpenter and had a beautiful child whose smile illuminated every room.  They named her Joy, and prayed that their young daughter would grow up to be as joyous as her name and face proclaimed....