The Jewels of Jeweliana

Once a couple had a child; a little girl called Jeweliana and her mother, for her sixth birthday gave her a present of a beautiful golden necklace; a pretty pair of golden earrings and a golden ring with a blue sapphire in it as bright as the young girls eyes.

 

But then, sadly, Jeweliana’s mother died and her father remarried but Jewelianas stepmother was an evil woman who did not like her stepdaughter and treated her terribly.

 

Unfortunately, she was also an enchantress who had placed Jewelianas father under her spell and so, when she complained to her father of her treatment by her evil stepmother, her father never believed her.

 

And more than anything, Jewelianas stepmother hated Jewelianas pretty jewels,

 

“That jewellery is far too fine for an ugly girl like you, Jeweliana”, said her stepmother to her, one day, “Take them off and never let me see you wearing them again”.

 

But Jeweliana had refused to take them off,

 

“They were a gift from my mother”, she said, “I won’t take them off”.

 

And so her evil stepmother tried to remove them by force.

 

However, the Jewellery would not come off. When she tried to tear the necklace from round her neck, it stuck to her neck and refused to budge; when she tried to pull off the ring from the little girls finger, it too refused to come off and when she tried to tear off one of the girls earrings the earring became a little lions head and bit her finger.

 

Shrieking in pain and becoming angry, then her stepmother locked Jeweliana in a cupboard under her stairs with big black rats and said,

 

“I’ll only let you out, Jeweliana, when you’ve taken off that jewellery”.

 

And Jeweliana was scared at first, hearing all the rats squeaking and scurrying about, and started to cry but then, as she wiped away the tears with her hand some of them touched her ring and the sapphire upon her ring lit up with a blazing blue light that frightened the rats so much that they hid themselves away.

 

But Jeweliana was still sad and so the necklace around her neck became a ring of tiny dancing golden maidens that danced and skipped round and round to cheer her up.

 

And when her Stepmother came back to check upon her she was amazed to see that Jeweliana was not unhappy and, what’s more, still unwilling to give up her jewellery.

 

So then the evil stepmother dragged Jeweliana to a blacksmith to have him try and remove her jewellery but then he tried to cut off the necklace with large, red hot pincers, the pincers just broke

And the he tried to saw off the ring his saw just became blunted but did not leave a scratch upon the ring.

 

“Gah!”, said the Stepmother, infuriated, dragging the poor child away from the blacksmiths workshop, “Just you wait, Jeweliana. I’ll get that jewellery from you, if I have to cut off your head and hand to get it”

 

And, later that day, still determined to get hold of the jewellery, the Stepmother brought Jeweliana a drink of poisoned grape juice and told her to drink it all up.

 

But then, as she raised the cup to her lips, her ring fell off into the cup and turned the contents into milk that was safe for her to drink.

 

Then, he mother went away to wait for her poison to work and, as he did, Jewelianas left earring and right earring started to talk.

 

“You must run away Jeweliana. Your stepmother is trying to kill you”, they both pleaded.

 

Then the earrings started to squabble about which was the safest place to go, the left earring saying that the hills were safest because they were high up and the right earring saying that the forest was safest because it was large and dense and easy for someone to hide in.

 

So Jeweliana, taking the ring out of the cup asked it to decided and then, the sapphire upon the ring shining brightly, she saw within it a small cottage in the forest with a smoking chimney where a kind old woman lived.

 

“Go there, Jeweliana”, said the ring, “You will be safe there”.

 

And so Jeweliana crept out of her room and downstairs and, fortunately, when her stepmother heard the sound of Jewelianas necklace rattling and came out to see what the noise was, her magic ring made her invisible so that she was able to walk past her without being seen.

 

But then, when she had slipped out of the door to her house, the little girl ran as fast as she could towards the forest and, when she entered the forest, the blue light of her sapphire ring lit her way while, her necklace pointing the way, it guided her through a maze of trees to the old cottage where the kind old woman lived.

 

And, hearing the tale of how she had been treated by her stepmother and how her stepmother had tried to poison her, the old woman took pity upon her and said that she could stay with her.

 

But then, the evil stepmother, discovering that Jeweliana had gone, drank a potion that turned her into a large, hairy, black wolf and, sniffing the ground, followed the scent of Jeweliana to the cottage of the old woman.

 

But then , Jewelianas earrings, hearing the wolf approaching said to the little girl.

 

“Your stepmother is coming. She has turned herself into a wolf and she means to kill you”.

 

Jeweliana started to panic,

 

“What shall I do?”, she asked.

 

The necklace told her,

 

“Leave me outside the door of the house and beside me place some of the old woman’s cakes and I shall deal with the wolf”.

 

And so she opened the door of the house and, taking off the necklace, left it upon the ground and the old woman left some of her delicious baked cakes beside it, then both the little girl and the old woman went back inside the cottage and locked the door.

 

About ten minutes later, they both heard the sound of the wolf stepmother, scratching and sniffing around the house trying to find a way in and, saying to itself, “Oh when I get hold of that Jeweliana, I’m going to claw her to pieces and eat them all up”.

 

And hearing this, Jeweliana shivered with fear.

 

But then the wolf noticed the delicious cakes upon the ground and started to eat them and as it did, suddenly, it got itself caught in a snare; the snare that the necklace had turned itself into.

 

Whimpering it struggled to get free but the more it struggled, the tighter the snare became.

 

Now, hearing the creature whimpering, kind hearted Jeweliana started to feel sorry for it.

 

“Perhaps it has suffered enough. Perhaps we should let it go”.

 

But the earrings said to Jeweliana,

 

“Don’t listen to it Jeweliana. It is not a wolf. It is your evil stepmother and if you let her go she will kill you”.

 

But Jeweliana could not bear the sound of the wolfs whimpering and so, instead the necklace turned itself into a golden snake and when the wolf tried to enter the cottage the snake bit it upon the rear end and it was so painful that the wolf went away whimpering.

 

The stepmother had not given up however and, the next day, when the old woman was out; she turned herself into a likeness of Jewelianas dead mother in glowing robes and with angel wings and knocked upon the door of the cottage.

 

When she opened the cottage door, seeing what she thought to be her mother, the little girl was so happy and ran in to her arms.

 

“Mummy”, said Jeweliana, hugging the stepmother in disguise.

 

“Yes, Jeweliana”, said the stepmother, lying, “I’ve come back to take you with me to heaven. You’ll like it in heaven”.

 

“I’m sure I shall”, said Jeweliana, “If you are there with me”.

 

“Yes. But you must take off the Jewellery you are wearing. No one is allowed to enter heaven wearing jewellery. It is a sign of vanity and greed and those are deadly sins”, said the stepmother.

 

Hearing this, Jeweliana, happily started to remove the jewellery but when she did her earrings pleaded with her.

 

“Please don’t trust her Jeweliana. She is not your mother nor any angel but that devil, your stepmother in disguise”.

 

But Jeweliana wouldn’t listen, she longed so much to believe that she would be with her mother again and that longing filled up her ears and made her deaf to the warnings of her magic earrings.

 

Then, as the stepmother smiled with glee, she saw Jeweliana take off all of her Jewellery then her Stepmother told her to throw the jewellery into a nearby lake and she saw the jewellery sink below the water of the lake.

 

“Good”, said the stepmother, “Now come with me, my darling, and I’ll take you to heaven”.

 

Then, taking the little girl by the hand, the stepmother lead Jeweliana into the forest.

 

Not long afterwards, however, the old woman came home and, opening the door to her cottage was surprised to see Jeweliana was not there.

 

“Where can she have gone”, she wondered.

 

But then, suddenly, she noticed, floating upon the surface of the lake, something brightly  glimmering and, going to inspect it, she saw a golden axe floating upon the surface of the water.

 

“Please”, said the axe, “Jeweliana has been kidnapped by her evil stepmother; she took her into the forest. Please take me and rescue her”.

 

And so the old woman picked up the axe and ran as fast as she could into the forest until, hearing Jeweliana crying for help she saw the evil stepmother with a raised dagger about to kill the child and, before the stepmother could commit the foul deed, the old woman swung the golden axe and cut off the evil stepmothers head.

 

“Thank goodness your safe”, said the old woman, dropping the axe and taking hold of little Jeweliana in her arms, hugging her tightly.

 

Now, the axe, turning back into the necklace, earrings and ring, Jeweliana picked them up and she and the old woman went back to their cottage where, together, they both lived long and happy lives.