There once was a beautiful maiden who lived deep in a forest.
She was often very lonely and would long for company.
One night while dusting her cabin, the young beautiful maiden could not help but sneeze.
"Ah..Ah..AHH Choo..!"
A goblin, who lived near by, heard the sneeze and went
to go investigate the loud noise in the quiet forest.
"Is anyone there?!" yelled the goblin. "Helloooo! I have not met or seen anyone for many moons in this forest."
The maiden became very afraid when she heard the harsh voice of what she knew must be a goblin. She had remembered the tales her father used to tell her as a child about goblins eating people up when sneezing and not saying, "God bless you."
The young, beautiful maiden did not want to be gobbled up by a goblin, so with no one around to bless her she said, "God bless me!"
The goblin heard this proclamation from the east of him so he headed that direction until he ran into a cabin he had never noticed before because it was so well hidden in the brush.
"Hellooo!" said the goblin again, hoping he had found the source of the noise.
The maiden, inside the cabin, was frozen still. She had not intended for the goblin to come closer to her after saying, "God bless me" but for him to go away!
Unsure of what to do, the maiden said, "Okay, Mr. Goblin, you have found me because of my sneeze but please do not eat me. I have said, "God bless me!"
"Silly girl. I'm not here to eat you! I am just a lonely goblin cast here to the forest because people in the town were too afraid of my appearance. I have not had a friend or even a traveler pass by in many moons and I am very lonely, ma'am. Please keep me company for a while."
Breaking her trance, the maiden finally moved toward a window to look out at the goblin.
He was indeed not very nice-looking but the maiden, longing for someone to talk to too, took a chance and invited the goblin in her cabin for tea.
"Okay, goblin. I will make some tea for us while we have a nice chat, but if you eat me up the Gods will not be very pleased with you because I have said God bless me as I am supposed to when one sneezes."
"I wish no harm on you ,fair maiden. Thank you for your kindness."
The goblin walked in the cabin and sat at the maiden's table while she prepared a pot of tea.
"Fair maiden, please if I may ask, what is a young, beautiful and kind maiden like yourself doing in such a dreary and lonely forest?"
"Well, sir, I was living with my stepmother and half-sister in town while my father was away at war. Every day when my stepmother, half-sister, and I would walk through the market the townspeople would sing their praises of my beauty and kind heart. My stepmother grew very jealous because she wanted her own daughter to be the most beautiful girl in town, so one day in a jealous fit she bade me off to the forest in hopes the townspeople would forget of me and my beauty."
For years after that day, the goblin would visit the beautiful, young maiden at her cabin and they would have wonderful conversations over tea.
One day, out of the blue, the maiden suggested to the goblin, "Let's get married!"
The goblin taken aback by what she said sputtered over his tea, "Wh.. wha.. What did you just say?! Ma'am, you do not want to marry an ugly ol' goblin like me. What would the townspeople think?"
"Oh, goblin. Who cares what the townspeople think? They have cast us aside and have forgotten about us by now for no one comes to visit. You are the kindest heart I know and I wish to marry you."
The goblin finally agreed to wed the beautiful maiden and on their wedding day, upon the first kiss, the goblin turned into a handsome young man.
They were both surprised at this revelation but continued to live happily in the cabin in the woods for a few years until one day they decided they had been cast aside from the townspeople for long enough. They packed up their most prized possessions and walked into town after a day and half journey.
Upon their entrance into town, the townspeople were stunned by their beauty and instantly remembered her as the beautiful young girl who stunned them when she was small.
The townspeople rejoiced she was back and the couple lived happily ever after in the town.
Author's Note: In my story this week I decided to combine multiple tales from old India into one story line along with a little hint of the American version of Cinderella. In the Indian tale, "The Goblin and the Sneeze" a goblin haunted a house just outside of the city and would gobble up anyone that would sneeze outside of the city unless someone else said, "God bless you" and the other person must answer back, "the same to you." The ending of this particular story probably had the happiest ending, in that the boy persuaded the goblin to turn vegetarian so he no longer ate people who sneezed. Most of the other Indian tales did not have such happy endings and someone typically ended up dying or being fooled. With the Walking Dead (spoiler alert! Do NOT click on the link unless you watched the latest episode or simply just do not care) being on this week and a lot of the other stories I have been reading I felt like it would be a nice break to have a happy ending for once. Since I wanted a happy ending, what better to turn to for inspiration than a Disney-fied princess story. That is where I got the inspiration for the beautiful maiden and her evil stepmother.
P.S. If you would like to listen to some music while reading I've embedded Hans Zimmer "Time" from the Inception sound track into my post for your listening pleasure. If you have never heard of him I suggest you look him up! I enjoy studying while listening to the Hans Zimmer radio station. No words to distract me but often soothing.
P.S. If you would like to listen to some music while reading I've embedded Hans Zimmer "Time" from the Inception sound track into my post for your listening pleasure. If you have never heard of him I suggest you look him up! I enjoy studying while listening to the Hans Zimmer radio station. No words to distract me but often soothing.
Bibliography: The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India. W. H. D. Rouse. Illustrated by W. Robinson. 1897.
This story actually put me in a great mood! I was reading it waiting for the goblin to say "just kidding" and attack her. Its sad that we are so accustomed to stories having sad endings! I love that the girl couldn't care less about the goblin's appearance but loved him for his kind heart! That idea just makes me so happy. He didn't have to turn into a beautiful prince charming type for him to win her love. Great story! Might have to save this in my back pocket for when I have kids one day, no joke.
ReplyDeleteHi, Candace! I really like what you did with the story. You successfully managed to combine Indian tales with American one’s which gave it a nice twist. I like how you made the moral of the story to be “looks aren’t everything”. In the society we live in today, we often times will forget the importance of what a person has to offer other than their looks. Thank you for creating such a beautiful story!
ReplyDeleteI like how this story promotes a "it's what's inside that counts" message! I wasn't sure that the ending would be happy, but I'm glad that it was. I love how your writing alludes that the Goblin had to think and consider her proposal for marriage. I don't know, something about that made me chuckle. I could see how you blended Cinderella into the tale. Very clever!
ReplyDeleteHello Candace. I really liked what you've done here with this story. The message you've clearly tried to tell here is very well done and carefully crafted into the piece in a way that still has a nice sense of subtlety to it. It doesn't just beat you over the head with it so well done and good luck with the rest of the semester and any and all revisions with this piece!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a good job of sewing these two tales together. Although the two original stories seem to have different tones, your own story flows very well together.
ReplyDeleteThere are only a few things that could be fixed or looked at. I'm not sure if you intended this, but the text of the story is centered. It should be left-aligned or justified. There's a part of a sentence in the story that says "the maiden, longing for someone to talk to too". This combination of "to" and "too" sounds a bit off. "Too" could probably be replaced with "also" and the sentence would sound better.
I really like how you told this story! I appreciate the happy ending that you gave the story...uggg I feel you on the whole Walking Dead thing, so sad:( This story that you told was very fun to read. It made me sad that the girl was afraid of the goblin, but I would have been too if I had been told that story! I'm glad though that she was able to see past his looks and fell in love with him! Awesome job!
ReplyDeleteThis was such a neat story. I am happy you clarified in your author's note that this is indeed a story with elements from Cinderella. I was almost certain that this was the case, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't going absolutely crazy. I loved the inclusion of the Walking Dead. The first episode broke my heart. This season sure is going to be crazy!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful ending. The story fit the fairytale template perfectly. There was a couple who found each other, and a problem that almost came in-between them that was solved. I love the dialogue included in the story. This really made the character’s personality shine through; goblin especially with his stuttering. When reading through her was great flow and transition that it was an easy read. I did not find any grammatical errors in the story. I also enjoyed reading the Author’s note since it explained the background of how you picked how to write the story. I just found one thing missing from your story, the caption for the image with the photo credits. I was not sure if this was a requirement. If not just ignore my comment. The hyperlink to the walking dead was cool, I really enjoyed reading the article. Keep up the good work, and the unique story telling.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely adore this story! I love how it felt like an old time fairy tail and how it did remind me of some of my favorite Disney stories! I also enjoy the fact that you used more than one story to create your new story. I did that in my last portfolio story and I felt like it really allowed me to do more with my creativity. I thought the ending you gave was super sweet too. It is a nice change to have happy ending every once in a while. I think all of the endings of my stories are good, but not necessarily happy like yours. I did notice a few typos throughout the story, some very small ones that just rereading through again will catch. Over all I really liked this story and I can't wait to read more of your stories, I will definitely be back!
ReplyDeleteI really like this story! I agree with Sage, it made me feel like I was reading an old time fairy tale. I am a huge Disney fan and this made me think of all of the stories that I have watched or read as a child! I also agree with Marisha, I wish that we got a little more background about how you came up with the idea of your story, but it is still great! Good job!
ReplyDeleteThis was such a cute story! I really liked the Cinderella vibe that you tried to channel and the music you linked was really nice too! You did a good job of explaining the background story too I thought. I hadn't heard of it before but I got the gist from your author's note! The only thing I thought was maybe you could have more about how the goblin became a handsome young man? Was he under a curse? What happened there? Also what happened to the girl's mean stepfamily? Did they just disappear? Besides those lingering questions, it was a very well done cute little fairy tale story!
ReplyDeleteI thought that this story was a very cute rendition. I agree with Joanne that there was a Cinderella type feel to the story which made it even more memorable. The only issue that I found is that the story jumped rather quickly and I did find myself lost at one point. I did, however, find out what was happening rather quickly. I also agree with Joanne on the Goblin. I felt like we didn't get enough time to fall in love with him. Maybe some more detail or information could help us out? Was he a born goblin? Did he love the maiden? Things along those lines. Other than these few suggestions, the story was fantastic! Great job!
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