The Tale of The Golden Princess

Once the golden princess of the Sun was abducted by her wicked Sister, Snow and Ice and Snow and Ice kept her a prisoner at the bottom of a deep pit with walls of slippery ice surrounded by a moat of ice cold water that was, in turn, surrounded by high walls built, like an igloo, from blocks of ice.

And because the Princess was locked away without any hope of escape, she became sad and because she was sad she started to weep.

And she wept and she wept for days and nights, without end.

But then, one day, looking down, the princess noticed that she was not standing at the bottom of the well any more but upon a tall mound of snow that rose up higher than the well.

It was so cold inside the prison, you see, that all of her tears had turned to snow.

Now, happily, realizing that she was free of the pit, she stepped out of it.

And, because she was happy now, the princess started to weep again, but this time she wept tears of joy, with a golden smile upon her face.

And when she did this, from her golden smile and her silver tears, came a bright rainbow of many  beautiful colours and the rainbow, because it wanted to help the princess of the sun, bent over the moat so that she could cross over it.

When she got to the other side of the moat however, she realized that she still had to climb over the icy walls but she was so happy to be almost free that she didn’t weep this time but smiled brightly and, when she did, a seed blown upon the wind that had fallen at the foot of the wall started to grow and it grew into a sunflower that was so tall that its bright yellow head was higher than the top of the wall.

“Climb up over me”, said the sunflower, eager to help the princess.

And so the princess climbed the stem of the tall sunflower, over the wall of ice and was at last free.

But she was still in the kingdom of the queen of snow and ice and it was a long way back to her own bright green kingdom of summer.

However, her heart was now full of hope and that made her golden smile shine brighter than ever and when it did this, birds passing over head flocked around her and, when she told them of her problems, they were so eager to help that, together, they picked her up and, flying, they carried her all the way home to her kingdom.

Now, back in her kingdom of Summer, wearing her crown of sunbeams and seated upon her throne high in the sapphire skies, the Golden princess had all her power back and she ordered all the armies of the summer; the flowers and the bees and all the birds and animals to march upon the fortress of snow and ice.

Of course, Snow and ice battled against them fiercely, raining down hail upon them and sending vast armies of snowmen against them armed with sharp icicle spears but, eventually, Snow and Ice could hold them back no longer and her whole fortress of ice melted away beneath her feet.

Desperate to escape, snow and ice shattered into a billion shimmering pieces and flew up to the sky hiding among the glittering stars in the night sky.

Even now, in the brightness and warmth of golden July, Snow and Ice plots her revenge but worry not, because the Golden Princess of the Sun will always vanquish her; with enough time; enough hope and friendship, the sun will always come shining through.