This is one of my favorite stories.
You could say it's a fairytale, you could say it's an allegory. There's a prince, there's a princess, there's an evil curse and an even eviler (is that a word?) witch. There's tons of water. There's kissing too, if you consider such things necessary for a good story (I do, for instance). There's death and there's miracles. Yeah, I'd say it's a fairytale all right.
To me it's just the story of love and sacrifice and learning to live. That's all.
Also, it's pretty funny, which helps too ;)
I decided to post it here, as a gift to all of you, my wonderful readers, who have supported me and surround me with your love and stories for such a long time.
Some of you may have read it before, since it's a classic, but if you're anything like me, you won't mind reading it again...
THE LIGHT PRINCESS
by George MacDonald
1. What!
No Children?
Once upon a time, so long ago that I
have quite forgotten the date, there lived a king and queen who had no
children.
And the king said to himself,
"All the queens of my acquaintance have children, some three, some seven,
and some as many as twelve; and my queen has not one. I feel ill-used." So
he made up his mind to be cross with his wife about it. But she bore it all
like a good patient queen as she was. Then the king grew very cross indeed. But
the queen pretended to take it all as a joke, and a very good one too.
"Why don't you have any
daughters, at least?" said he. "I don't say sons; that might be too
much to expect."
"I am sure, dear king, I am very
sorry," said the queen.
"So you ought to be,"
retorted the king; "you are not going to make a virtue of that,
surely."
But he was not an ill-tempered king,
and in any matter of less moment would have let the queen have her own way with
all his heart. This, however, was an affair of state.
The queen smiled.
"You must have patience with a
lady, you know, dear king," said she.
She was, indeed, a very nice queen,
and heartily sorry that she could not oblige the king immediately.
(click *read more* to read the rest of the story after the break)