Fairy Tales and Other Fanciful Short Stories by E.W. Farnsworth

Author:E.W. Farnsworth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: trolls, pixies, egyptian gods, giants, irish folklore, nordic legends, myths retold, leprechans, tales of lore
Publisher: Zimbell House Publishing

The Leprechaun’s Bride

Colleen Cuchulain was the shortest woman in her village. At just under three feet tall, she may have been the shortest in the entire land of Connaught if not the entirety of Ireland. She had a cruel dwarfish deformity that masked her genuine beauty. She had light red hair and freckles. Her eyes were the clearest blue. Still, all the village children made fun of her because of her diminutive size. So she spent a lot of time in solitude, often crying in frustration for something that was not her fault.

The girl could not believe she was always going to be short. Ever since she was eight years old, at every birthday she had asked her mother, “When am I going to grow up so I can be tall like all the other girls?”

Each time she said this, her mother smiled painfully and replied, “We’ll see what we’ll see.” Mary feared her husband was right when he said Colleen would remain a dwarf and probably never marry. Ian Cuchulain was a wealthy man, but all his money could not buy a single inch to add to his daughter’s stature.

There was, to be sure, a reason that the Cuchulains were the richest family in the region. In his youth, Ian had the luck of finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. He had the help of a leprechaun he had tricked into revealing the location of the gold. The leprechaun was enraged and held a grudge that the boy had stolen his gold hoard.

The leprechaun told Ian, “Your treachery will have a cost. One day, your first-born daughter will become the bride of a leprechaun.” Ian laughed at the leprechaun. He was young at the time and unmarried. He thought nothing of the curse, and afterward he forgot all about it. He only considered all the things his new-found gold could buy.

When Ian and Mary became man and wife, a wizened midget named Gadwall, who made the shoes for the wedding party, reminded Ian of the leprechaun’s curse: “Wee folk tell me your first daughter will marry a leprechaun.” The young man was so busy drinking and having fun with his friends, he ridiculed the little man and kicked him in the rump for having tried to spoil his wedding day.

Just in case, though, when his daughter Colleen was born, Ian painted green four-leaf clovers all over her white crib to keep leprechauns away. But the damage was already done. When Colleen reached the age of four, her parents knew the leprechaun’s curse was working. No magic spells or potions that they tried could reverse the leprechaun’s hold on the girl.

While her parents tried to assuage Colleen’s hurt feelings, they despaired about what would become of her. Ian decided his daughter should learn a trade to keep herself when she failed to win a husband. Though she had no idea why she did it, Mary made her daughter’s clothing, including a red coat with seven buttons, a cocked hat, and shoes with buckles that matched the buckle on her belt.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.