Sunday 3 November 2013

The Wedding Feast

Resurrection Reunion 2, 1945, Sir Stanley Spencer
Provided by Tess Kincaid.

Many years ago, I received an invitation to a very grand wedding; a beautiful young princess, with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony, was marrying the King’s son and all the people of the land were to come and join in the celebrations. You can imagine how delighted we were to attend the festivities and see the happy pair be joined in holy matrimony. After the ceremony, tables were carried in laden with all manner of glorious food; there were capons, geese, larks, chickens, beef, bacon, lamb, salmon, herring, eels and other fresh water fish; the dairy had contributed cheeses and butter and great mounds of eggs.  There were huge bowls of sweet and spicy mead, there was ale, cider and perry, while the courtiers themselves drank wine. In short it was a feast to make the heart sing.

When all had eaten and drunk their fill, a band of musicians entered the hall and a space was cleared for dancing.  Prince and Princess led the courtly dances with a Quadrille, but jigs and country dances soon took over and we ordinary folk joined the fray, kicking and hopping until our faces turned red and the sweat poured off the peasant’s brow.

It was then I saw her: a beautiful woman, no longer young but well preserved, dressed in courtly finery and glittering jewels, dancing in the centre of the throng. I had had to take a breather, my heart was pounding fit to burst and while I looked round to find a way out and maybe a stool to perch on for a minute, my eye was drawn to her. She danced wilder and faster than anyone else around; other dancers had opened up a circle around her and as they backed away, I saw horror on their faces. Curious, I edged nearer, the better to see her: her feet fairly flew across the ground. Her shoes! Oh, Lord have Mercy, her shoes! they were of iron, red-hot iron and no matter how hard she tried to shake them off, they were stuck to her feet.

And now I recognised her.

I had, of course, heard of her and her envious, malicious and murderous deeds. Not content with banishing Snow-white she had then thrice tried to kill her; first trying to lace her to death, then by combing her hair with a poisoned comb and lastly by making her choke on a poisoned apple. Three times her plan failed and Snow-white was resurrected, twice by the dwarves with whom she had found a home and lastly by the Prince, who fell in love with her instantly, the moment he saw her lying in her glass coffin.

The wicked stepmother’s machinations had finally failed and now she was paying the price. Condemned to dance herself to death there was to be no miraculous resurrection for her.




31 comments:

  1. Love this angle on Snow White, Friko - I always enjoy reading your stories.

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  2. ...and now we have heard the REST OF THE STORY!
    (Paul Harvey' radio broadcasts for many years dealt with "The REST of the story!")
    Always wondered what "Lived happily after" meant--grin!
    Nicely done, Frico!

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  3. yikes...i like to dance but to dance oneself to death...that would be pretty brutal....wonder what would wear out first....my feet or my hips....my luck it would be a really stupid dance i got stuck with as well...ha

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  4. A dark tale with a creative flair.

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  5. This was quite a creative take. I loved it.

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  6. It's true, you reap what you sow. A pleasing tale.

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  7. Oh, that's wonderfully creepy! And as women, we know there's just about nothing worse than uncomfortable shoes!

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  8. Ouch. And thank you for bringing the less charming side of fairy tales to the fore. Some of them are truly frightening. Vicious even.

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  9. Whoa! Now that's a happy ending in some bizarre kind of way! I used to have a fairy tale book that instead of ending happily ever after, they'd do that -- and then go on and on and all these terrible things would happen! I think you could have written those stories. Probably better! Wonderfully expressive writing!

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  10. Yes, yes, we know the Brothers Grimm..whose stories terrified me as a child...remember the ice moutain...the bloody sark.....

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  11. You have quite an imagination! Loved this tale.

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  12. Ah yes - fairy tales in the style of the Grimm Brothers! Brilliant.

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  13. You do know you are giving us wonderful entertainment - I have grown to love it when you tell a story and I have read some of your stories to my family. Thankyou for being you - just the way you are Friko. I am grateful to have found you in this wide world of Bloggers - Story Tellers.

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  14. What pictures in my mind! A fairy tale sequel. Well done.

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  15. Love your fairy tale, Friko! The badness must to be punished.

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  16. The picture of a resurrection reunion followed by the tale of no resurrection has me pondering where you are taking me with the new ending to that glorious old Grimm tale?

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  17. It's always fun to imagine what happened to the Wicked Stepmother. But oooh, what pain.

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  18. That was an interesting tale..a unique take on the prompt.

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  19. As a Stanley Spencer fan, I immediately was drawn to this post, and then realized that you'd done it again, dear Friko. Given your readers another wonderful example of your storytelling skill. The moment when I read the word "horror" I felt a shiver that did not leave my eager reader's mind until the story ended.

    Bravo. xo

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  20. So this shoes made of hot iron thing... Is that where the dance-step footprints on the floor came from? Just wondering.

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  21. I can relate ... not so much with red hot, but all the more with white hot ... shoes, uhm, winterboots, that is ...

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  22. A grotesque tale of retribution. Poor wicked stepmother. Dianne

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  23. I'm glad she received this punishment. She was very wicked indeed.

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  24. Wonderful! What a befitting death for one who never tired of the constant scheming.

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  25. My first husband and I got married in the "Stanley Spencer" church . I have fond memories of his mother !

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  26. It's interesting that beauty is always equated with goodness and a happy outcome for its possessor in fairytales. Had Snow White been horribly disfigured in an accident involving a runaway spinning wheel, I wonder if the Prince would have fallen instantly in love with her. And the Wicked Stepmother: How did she come to be wicked? Was she born that way and hence merely a victim of her genes or had circumstance made her so? I almost literally danced myself to death once. Dangerous business dancing.

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  27. Nice one, my friend! And I can't say I'm sorry that she finally got hers.

    ;)

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