Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty–until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose. And there is no way to save her.īut Agnieszka fears the wrong things. She knows-everyone knows-that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”Īgnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years.
They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. Whether directly inspired by tales of old or spinning a completely new story inspired by the eerie whimsy and sense of wonder that defines many a fairytale, these modern fairytales are sure to pull readers under their spell where happily ever after is never guaranteed. No longer are they being watered down to their simplest, most harmless selves for younger readers. Modern fairytales have seen a return to these darker, twisted roots. Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. Even in their original forms, many of the fairytales we’re familiar with are dark, twisted things that unsettle readers with their strange sense of whimsy and horror. Fairytales are meant to enchant, but they’re hardly the stuff of childhood fantasies. The tropes and archetypes have seeped into every facet of storytelling over the centuries, enriching modern stories in both subtle and obvious ways. Fairytales are at the heart of so many of the stories we read today.
0 kommentar(er)
