Friday 23 March 2012

She wears my ring - Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No. 34



Welcome to the Romantic Friday Writers' fortnightly writing challenge, started and hosted by , where participants share their own 300-400-word text - story or poem - on a given theme. This week's theme for Friday, 23rd of March, Challenge No. 34, is 'She wears my ring'. My text is written directly for this REW-challenge.



Here is my text :
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She wears my ring


Illustration by John Bauer (1882-1918)


Illustration by John Bauer (1882-1918)

Edvin Kloo* was a giant troll with long wavy hair, a bulbus nose, beady eyes and pointed ears with long, hanging ear lobes. While walking in the woods, he stumbled upon a tiny, faerie princess named Soft-Star, who had injured one of her wings and could not fly home. Edvin, who was delighted to find such a beautiful creature and wanted to help her, scooped her up in his enormous hands, that had claws instead of finger nails, and gently carried her home to his mother.

'Look what I found by the lake!' he said beaming as he handed Soft-Star to his mother. She could tell that he was smitten. Poor boy, she thought, taking the injured faerie princess and tucking her in a bed made out of a shoe box.

Soft-Star's wing hurt and she was so tired that she did not care about anything else but the opportunity to sleep and rest. But after a time her health improved and she wanted to try using her wings again. But before she was to leave, Soft-Star needed to satisfy her curiosity. So she asked Edvin, 'Has an evil witch cast a spell on you?' without thinking that she might be hurting his feelings.

'No, we are really trolls and shall remain so,' answered Edvin reluctantly, because he knew that he would be found out if he lied. But he wanted dearly to lie. He would have liked to have been a bewitched handsome faerie-prince who would regain his former self, if he were kissed by this beautiful fairy-princess.

'You are a very sweet troll', Edvin, comforted Soft-Star, 'Thank you for saving me.' And she threw faerie-dust on him as she disappeared into the dark woods.

Edvin kept thinking about Soft-Star, long after she had left.

'Oh mother, I keep dreaming about her every night. I see her dressed in white! I see it in my dreams! She wears my ring! Oh, if only she could be mine.'

'Yes dear', his wise mother replied, 'But your ring would be more like a bangle bracelet, a necklace or even a belt on her. You are just too big, or she is just too little for you. You will meet a nice troll-girl who will suit you better.'

'I suppose so', sighed Edvin, as a tear rolled down over his greenish-brown, scaley and bumpy cheek.

[Text copyright 2012 Christina Wigren All rights reserved.]



*'Klo' means 'claw' in Swedish. 'Kloo' is actually a name. I know a woman named 'Kloo'.

Word count according to WordCalc: 399; 'FCA'; Full Critique Acceptable.



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Best wishes,
Anna



P.S.
This is obviously a fictional text, inspired by faerie tales and two films that I have recently seen together with my seven year old daughter, Elisabet: Nanny McPhee and Beauty and the Beast.

Another and older source of inspiration for this gentle giant is actually a chapter of Mary Shelley's (1797
-1851) novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), where the monster stays hidden and observes, with envy, a family in a mountain village. He longs for their family life, and their 'normalness'. Read here.

I have been wanting to write a story about trolls since I've been going through a list of different kinds of creatures, faeries, gnomes, werewolves, witches, wizards, vampires, cats, etc. My idea of how trolls should look was shaped in my childhood by the Swedish artist, John Bauer (1882-1918) who illustrated trolls. (In English about John Bauer.)


Picture source

I am also inspired by N.R.William's RFW-text about the faeries, What-Not and Dip-and-Sway from last time, 'I love you because...' (Read it here). So, this one's for you, Nancy.




First Commenter:

Donna Hole



of Donna Hole

Or to read other texts for Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No. 34, with the theme 'She wears my ring', please visit this site, click on the image below or scroll down to the linky:








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