A Bedtime Full of Stories: 50 Folktales and Legends from Around the World by Angela McAllister

Author:Angela McAllister
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE MOON MAIDEN

In the hills below Mount Fuji lived an old bamboo cutter named Take Tori. Take Tori was honest and hardworking but he and his wife were poor and had no children.

One summer morning, Take Tori went up into the hills. The sun was hot and the path long and steep. When he reached a grove of fine bamboo, Take Tori stopped to rest.

“Oh, my poor bones!” he muttered. “If only we had a child to help us in our old age.” With a weary sigh he took up his knife and set to work.

As he cut through a thick stem of bamboo, Take Tori noticed a green light glowing inside. He pulled out a shining green jewel as big as a persimmon.

Take Tori held the glittering jewel in his hands and as he did so it cracked in two and out stepped a tiny young girl in a dress of green silk.

“Greetings, Take Tori,” she said.

Take Tori was speechless, for he knew she must be a fairy.

“May I live with you and your wife for a while?” asked the fairy.

He imagined how happy his wife would be. “But our cottage is only a humble dwelling,” he said.

The fairy told him to close the green jewel and then open it again and when he did so it was filled with gold coins.

Take Tori took the fairy home and his wife wept with joy to have such a beautiful child.

The old couple named the fairy The Lady Beaming Bright. She grew into a young woman who was as fair as the morning, as bright as noon, as sweet as evening, and as enchanting as the night.

Take Tori and his wife cherished their daughter and she loved them dearly. With the gold coins they built a splendid house and gave their daughter everything she could wish for.

News of Take Tori’s enchanting daughter soon spread across the land and many young men came to ask for her hand in marriage, but The Lady Beaming Bright turned each one away. “Take Tori and his wife are the ones I love,” she would say, “my home is with them.”

Three happy years passed until one day, the young Emperor himself came to visit.

“Sweet lady,” said the Emperor, “I bow before you and ask you to be my Empress.”

The Lady Beaming Bright gazed into the Emperor’s loving eyes and tears fell upon her soft cheeks.

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