The Love Of The Fairy Prince

Once a fairy prince was given leave by his father to enter and spend seven days within the land of mortals.

 

“If you do not return in seven days, however, and before the stroke of midnight then, by fairy law you must turn to dust”, said the King.

 

The young prince agreed to this and, travelling with fairy wings, as swiftly as a moonbeam, he flew to the mortal realm where he spent happy days seeing all that there was to see.

 

On the fourth day, however, as the prince was riding through the forest he saw a young maiden kneeling and picking flowers and, instantly, the young prince’s heart was bewitched by love.

 

“Oh, I want to spend my whole life with this maiden”, he said, “I want to never leave her side”.

 

But he knew that that was not possible for he only had 3 more days left before he would have to return to fairyland.

 

And so, summoning his father to appear, and getting down upon his knees he begged him,

 

“Please father. Let me stay here in the land of the mortals forever for if I cannot live here then I would rather be dead and go and live in the underworld”.

 

At first his father was unshakeable but, eventually, his father agreed to his son’s request, on one condition.

 

“You may stay in the land of the mortals but only if you swear never again to use your fairy magic to solve any problem. You must live as mortals do without magic to help you”.

 

And so the prince made a vow to his father to never use magic and the king gave the son his blessing to stay and marry the woman he loved.

 

And shortly afterwards, after meeting and wooing the young maiden who found him very charming and attractive, the two were married in a humble village wedding conducted by a poor parish priest.

 

And for many years they lived happily together although there were often times when the prince was sorely tempted to break the vow he had made to his father.

 

They were both very poor you see and the prince often wished if only he could use magic he could make them both rich but he dared not risk losing his wife and so he simply endured their poverty and kept his spirits up by thinking about his beautiful wife and how blessed he was to be with her.

 

One day however, a band of robbers forced their way into his house and beat the prince badly and he was tempted to use his magic but, because the thought of losing his wife hurt more than the robbers blows, he just endured their beating.

 

But then, after tying he and his wife up, the robbers carried his wife off back to their lair and the prince thought to himself, “Now I have no choice. I have to use my magic to save my wife whether it means having to go back to fairyland forever or not”.

And so summoning a fairies magical strength the prince broke free of his bonds and then, growing fairy wings upon his back he flew as fast as a flash of light through the forest to where the chief of the Robber band was holding his wife captive and then, making himself grow as tall as a giant and bellowing like thunder, he scared away the band of thieves who went running off as fast as their legs could carry them.

 

However, when he had shrunk back to his normal size and released his wife from the ropes that bound her he told her,

 

“I am glad that you are safe from harm but now I will have to leave you forever”.

 

And then he told his wife about the sacrifice he had made. How he had sworn to his father never to use magic again and how the vow had been broken.

 

Just at that moment, however, the king of the fairies appeared.

 

“You have broken your vow, my son”, he said, gravely, “And so you must return to fairy land or else turn to dust”.

 

But then the wife, sinking to her knees pleaded with him,

 

“Please. If he cannot stay here then let me go with him”.

 

And so the king agreed to make the wife into a fairy and she went back with her husband to live as a fairy princess and together they lived happily ever after.