Fairy Tales and Why Shannon Hale Makes Good Brownies

Lately, I've been reading all of Shannon Hale's books over again. I was first drawn to her books because of my love for fairy tales. Hale has the enviable ability to take the essence of the Grimms' fairy tales and then weave them into beautiful and entertaining novels. She does this in books like Goose Girl and Book of a Thousand Days without losing any of the charm and mystery of the original story. (If you want to read fairy tales in their original form, SurLaLune Fairy Tales is one of the best resources on the internet).

"The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale

Later, I found out that Hale is also a local (Utah) writer and that she's L.D.S. It's always exciting to see a local author of my faith succeed. It's even better when you read her books and discover that she manages to keep all the dog poop out of her brownies (that last sentence won't make any sense if you didn't read my last blog post, "Keeping the Dog Poop Out of Our Brownies").

Reading Shannon Hale's books got me excited about fairy tales, and that got me excited to read more of the original Grimm fairy tales, and that got me excited to write some fairy tales of my own, and that got me excited to share one of them here on my blog. So I have posted part one of my story The Locket below. I'll post the next two or three parts over the next few days. Much like the last fairy tale I posted (Truenda), I wrote this in the traditional Grimm style, and it is not a Disney type fairy tale. Maybe don't read it to your four-year-old unless you want them to have nightmares.

The Locket (Part One)

There once was a little girl who was born with a golden locket around her neck. She wore it always and cherished it more than anything else in the world. Her mother disappeared when she was still a baby and so she lived a very lonely life with only her father. This might not have been so bad except that her father was very unkind and very strange. He forbade her from ever seeing him sleep and would lock his bedroom door at night. He was also prone to eating all sorts of strange things. Once she saw him eating silver coins one by one like strawberries and then lick his fingers when he was done. Another time she watched him slurp the last drops of broth from his bowl, eye it carefully, then shoved the whole bowl in his mouth spoon and all. Still another time, he spent an hour sharpening a pair of scissors. When he had honed their edge until it was razor sharp, he tipped his head back and dropped them in. This was one of the reasons she never took her locket off.

Her father knew that the little girl cherished the locket more than anything else in the world, and this made him hunger for it all the more. As the years passed, his desire for the locket grew and grew. One night, when he could bear his throbbing hunger no more, he snuck into her room while she slept and crept up to her bed. He paused to be sure she was asleep and then carefully unclasped the locket, slid it off, and swallowed it whole.

This is a page from my journal
where I wrote the first draft of "The Locket".
Notice that when I get stuck with my writing, I doodle.
This always gets the ideas flowing again.

When the little girl awoke the next morning, she was horrified to discover that the locket was gone. She searched the house sobbing all the while, and when at last she could not find the locket anywhere, she knew where it must be.

“Father,” she said, “have you seen my locket? I had it with me when I went to bed, but now it is gone.”

“You mean the tasty-looking one that you were born with?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“The one made of the mouth-watering gold?”

“Yes.”

“The most delicious and appetizing one that you cherished more than anything in the world, wore everywhere, and never took it off?”

“Yes.”

“I snuck into your room last night while you slept, crept up to your bed, carefully unclasped the locket, slid it off, and…” he licked his lips “swallowed it whole.”

The girl started crying and ran from the house out into the forest. Blinded by her tears, she did not look where she was going and soon became lost in the woods, far from any trails. Finally, when she was worn out from crying and running, she fell to the ground and slept. She awoke shivering and cold in the middle of the night. The rising moon fell upon her and cast a long shadow. When she thought of her locket and what her father had done, she once again began to cry.

“What’s wrong?” asked her shadow.

“My father snuck into my room while I slept and swallowed my locket that I cherished more than anything in the world.”

“Oh dear,” said her shadow, “that is bad. There’s only one thing that you can do. At the darkest part of this forest is a deep pond. At the center of the pond is an island on which grows a field of swaying red flowers. The seeds of these flowers will make your father fall into a deep sleep. Once he is asleep, you will have to crawl into his mouth and down his throat to retrieve your locket. But be careful. If he awakes before you can get out, you will surly perish.”

“Is this the only way to get my locket back?” the little girl asked.

“Yes,” said her shadow.

Shaking with fear, the little girl said, “I will do it.”


I'll post part two tomorrow.