Forgotten Fairy Tales

The Green Knight

'The Green Knight' is a Danish fairy tale that appeared in 'The Olive Fairy Book' by Andrew Lang. This is my retelling. Art for this section is 'Lamia and the Soldier' by J. W. Waterhouse,  1905.

***

Sorina leaned out the window of her tower, waving as hard as she could until the retreating figures of her father and his horse passed over the hill across the lake and out of her view. The sun was setting, and silence descended on the now-empty room like a cloak. Every day while the sun shone, her father would come to visit her in the charming castle he had built for her, but at night he was compelled to return to his own court, to the duties of a king, and to the Queen - his wife.

Bitterly, Sorina remembered how desperately she had begged her father to marry the then-Countess after the death of her mother. The Countess and her daughter, Lisbet, had been the only ones who could console her in her sorrow, for they truly loved her and would do anything they could for her happiness. Or, so she had thought. Older now, and wiser, she could see how the canny Countess had preyed on her devastation and cultivated a close relationship with her - until the day she had told Sorina that she would have to leave her.

"Oh my dear," she had sighed, her eyes full of tears that shone with blatant falseness now in memory. "I fear that we cannot stay."

"Whyever not?" little Sorina cried.

"There is no place for us here," the Countess sniffed, dabbing at her eyes with a silk handkerchief worked with gold thread that Sorina had given her as a present. "It is not our home. Lisbet and I must leave, never to return, unless..."

"Unless what?" she begged. "Tell me, how can you stay with me?"

"Well," the Countess said doubtfully. "I suppose that if your father were to marry me, we could stay here always."

"But that is no barrier!" Sorina laughed. "I have but to ask him and it will be done. Father always gives me what I ask."

She had run off joyfully to ask her father at once. Now, much older, she could guess some of what her father had felt when his only child came to him, the tears not yet dry on her cheeks, and begged him to marry the only person in the world besides himself whom she loved. Now she understood his hesitation, and his refusal. She had wept for a week, sobbing, too miserable to eat. It would have been better if he had held out against her childish tears - for his acceptance had caused her to weep for years.

Scarcely had the king and the countess been wed than she began to change her treatment of the little princess. Where once she had always had time for Sorina, suddenly she was too busy. When before she had spoken to her with gentle, loving words, she began to grow short and cross with her. The new queen could not even bear to have Lisbet and Sorina play together, because it only reminded her that her own daughter would never be queen. The princess, who had thought that the wedding would secure forever her happiness, was utterly crushed. Day by day, the new queen's cruelty had increased, until in desperation, the king had built a little castle on an island in the middle of a nearby lake and sent Sorina to live there in peace.

It was a beautiful castle, just the right size for one princess and enough servants to keep her comfortable. She had many lovely and interesting things, with books to read and instruments to play. The windows looked out over the lake where her little white boat bobbed up and down. Sorina could row out on the lake whenever she liked, the island was covered in gardens to walk in, and, most importantly, her father promised to visit her every day.

At first, living there was lovely. Just the relief that came from escaping the queen's worsening torment would have made every day seem a delight, but there was so much to see and so many things to do that she really did forget her troubles for a long while in her little island castle. Soon, though, she realized that despite her father's faithful visits she was terribly lonely.