Janet was a very pretty and sweet girl who lived in the town of Little Town on the edge of an enchanted forest, which everyone from the town simply called “the Forest”.
Janet had no family, her parents gone long since and her only sister having left the town many years before, but she was bright and had many skills, and so could make her own way in trade quite well. She worked for a very nice, old woman in Little Town who wove rugs and ran a prosperous business.
But Janet also often dreamed about marrying. Her husband, she would imagine, would be a strong and handsome man, a prince, whom everybody admired and thought well of.
She would lose herself in daydreaming about her imaginary prince, sometimes so much so that she would make mistakes while weaving or wouldn’t get all her work done. And the old woman would scold her gently to keep her mind on her work or else how could Janet hope to take over the shop when she herself was too old to weave the rugs anymore.
“It’s no good daydreaming about a prince who does not exist,” the old woman would say, “It will be best for you to make yourself happy and stick to your work. You could lose your life in daydreams like that.”
Janet would, of course, shake herself and apologize and get back to her work. For she loved weaving carpets and she loved the old woman as she would a mother. And so she wanted very much to do well at her work. But the thoughts of her prince would always intrude and lead her to daydreaming again.
One day, the old woman interrupted Janet’s daydreaming to ask her to go out into the Forest to gather the plants that they used to dye the carpets. “But you need to keep your wits about you,” the old woman cautioned, “Stay on your path and come back straight away.”
Janet happily agreed to take on the task. She loved walking in the forest and knew exactly where to find the plants they needed. And so, Janet took up her cloak and her basket and went off into the forest, only half thinking about the plants she was to gather, for thoughts of her prince still floated through her head.
As she walked, Janet suddenly noticed that she had strayed into a part of the Forest that she had never been in before. She grumbled at herself for daydreaming so much that she had become lost in the Forest and began to look around her for the way back to the familiar path.
As she looked around, she noticed a set of stone steps leading up a hill through the trees. Thinking to herself that she might be able to get a better view from the top of the hill and find the path again, she left her cloak and basket lying on a rock and climbed the steps.
The steps went up and up, much further than she had expected. And at the top of the long climb Janet found herself at the gates of a large and beautiful castle, the walls shining white in the sun, colorful banners flying from the tower tops and a lovely garden growing all around.
Before she could decide whether to knock on the door and ask for directions, the castle door swung open and the most handsome man Janet had ever seen stepped out. He was tall and looked strong, and dressed in rich robes, fit for a prince.
Janet’s first thought was to flee, as she did not think that her simple dress was good enough to meet a prince in. But he called out to her before she could move and asked if he could help her in any way.
His words were so kind, so welcoming, that Janet found herself telling him that she had become lost in the forest looking for plants to use as dye, and would he be so good as to give her directions back to Little Town.
He replied that he would certainly give her directions, and he could help her to the plants she needed as well, there were many growing in his garden, “But,” he asked, “will you not join me for dinner first? My cook has prepared a very fine feast and it would be sad for me to eat it all alone.”
He was so charming, and so handsome, that she could not say no. Though she did worry a little that the old woman back in Little Town might become afraid for her, being gone so long in the forest.
When she told the prince of her worry he immediately offered to send a messenger to the old woman so that she would not fret. And Janet went with him into the castle to join him for his dinner.
The feast was very grand indeed. Every food that Janet most loved was on the table. From carrots soup to frosted cakes, nothing was wanting.
And the prince was so very friendly and lively. They talked and talked. In fact, they ate and talked so long that when Janet glanced out the window, she found that it was quite past dark.
She was distressed, for she would never be able to find her way back to Little Town in the dark. But the prince was quick to offer her a room for the night in his castle. “It is no trouble at all,” he said, “And I hope you will eat breakfast with me tomorrow before you go.”
Janet agreed, thinking that the old woman whom she worked for had certainly gotten the message about where she was and would not be worried.
Janet followed the prince up a grand staircase to the most beautiful room she had ever seen, with a big four poster bed and a large mirror and wardrobe.
The prince bid her goodnight and servants came to dress her in nightclothes from the wardrobe and turn down her bed.
When she awoke the next morning Janet found a beautiful gown laid out for her. As her own simple dress was nowhere to be seen, she allowed a chambermaid to help her into the gown. As she looked into the mirror she admired herself. The dress was absolutely beautiful. She felt as if she were a princess wearing it. And she was surprised to find that it fit her almost perfectly.
She came to the breakfast table to find the prince just as handsome and charming as she remembered from the night before, and as happy to see her as she could wish. He positively glowed with the joy of having her as a companion still.
They sat down to eat their fill of sweetbreads and strawberries and cream and every good breakfast food that Janet could imagine.
They talked and laughed and before the end of the meal the prince had expressed so much admiration for Janet and so much distress at the thought of her leaving him that she had agreed to stay another night.
For a week the prince persuaded Janet to stay just one more night. And every day she ate the best foods, was dressed in the most beautiful gowns, and enjoyed the prince’s company. And she forgot all about weaving carpets and the old woman she loved as a mother.
Some people came to visit the prince during the first week Janet stayed at the castle. Important people, or at least Janet thought they must be for they were all dressed in fine clothes. And these important people would sit down to dinner with Janet and the prince and admire the beauty of them both and tell Janet how lucky she was.
And Janet thought she was very lucky indeed. Her most cherished daydream, impossible as she had thought it was, seemed to be coming true.
By the end of the week the prince asked Janet to stay with him forever and be his wife.
Janet’s joy was so great that a smile overspread her face and she immediately agreed.
Janet and the prince were married the next day in the castle chapel with many well-dressed and important people watching on, though Janet did not know any of them.
All was happiness and fine food and love between her and the prince for another week. And Janet thought of herself as the luckiest young woman in the world.
But on the seventh day after their marriage Janet awoke to find her husband in a foul temper.
He would neither talk to her nor smile. A scowl overspread his face, and when they came down to the breakfast table he snapped at her because the eggs were not cooked to his liking.
Now Janet was truly taken aback. Firstly, she hadn’t cooked the eggs, which he well knew. Secondly, she could not think of anything at all that had happened to make her prince so angry with her.
She spoke to him with kind and soothing words, but he only grew grumpier until, before her very eyes, his skin turned green-brown, his eyes began to film over black, he shrunk a foot in his seat and spouted horns and his features changed into that of an ugly and twisted troll.
If Janet had not seen the transformation herself she would never have believed it to be her husband. She started back. But then recollecting that they were married and she loved him as his wife, she thought it better to use sweet words with him.
In time she was able to coax him to eat his breakfast. But a troll he remained. He stalked around the castle, surly and cross. He snapped at Janet for things the servants did and had not one kind word for her the whole day.
In the evening, some well-dressed ladies and gentlemen came to dine with them.
Janet was concerned that they would see her husband in such a state. But as they came down the great hall together to the dining room she watched in amazement as he grew in height, as his skin took on a normal human hue and his eyes and all reverted to his own. By the time they sat down to table Janet was relieved to see that he had transformed again into the prince she knew and loved, conversing easily with his guests.
“Surely,” thought Janet, “it was only a passing illness that had made him appear a troll.”
As they lay down to sleep that night he was her loving and kind prince and spoke living words to her. But when she awoke in the morning she found, to her horror, that he was a troll once more.
Janet did not know what to do. For weeks and weeks all continued the same. When they were alone he was a troll, mean and cross, and blaming her for wrongs she had not committed and faults that were not hers. When others were present he was again her sweet prince for a short time. But she could not give up the hope that he would once again turn into her loving prince and that they would indeed live happily ever after.
She tried everything she could think of. She brought him his favorite foods. She read to him and rubbed his feet at the end of the day. Nothing would work! He was invariably a troll, though only to her. The important people still continued to admire her husband and tell her how lucky she was, but they could not see how wrong they were.
Finally, Janet awoke one morning and could not take it any longer. Her head was full of the old woman in Little Town whom she cared for as a mother. And she realized that she had not woven a rug, a thing she loved to do, nor spoken to the old woman in many, many weeks. Or months even. Certainly, it could not be a year?
She looked at her husband prince in his troll form, snoring on his pillow, and decided that she would not stay with him any longer.
She rummaged through the wardrobe and found her old, simple dress stuffed far into the back. She dressed herself and walked quietly out of the room, down through the castle’s great hall and to the door that lead to the garden and the steps she had climbed what seemed like a lifetime ago.
As she paused to look back with a twinge of regret, her husband, a handsome prince once more, came running after her.
“Please, my love,” he pleaded, “please do not leave me. I will be so very unhappy without you.”
“Having me with you has not seemed to make you happy,” she replied.
“I am so sorry,” the prince replied, “Please stay, Janet. I can change. For you I can change.”
But Janet saw that these were only words, because though he looked a prince on the outside, and said all that she wished to hear, on the inside he was and always would be a troll. And her daydream, for which she had given up everything that she loved in her life in Little Town, was not real after all.
And she turned away and left the castle.
As she walked across the garden she could hear a bestial roar from inside the castle. And she looked back to see the walls turning a putrid gray-black. Around her and the garden rotted before her eyes and became a graveyard. And Janet ran to the steps and back down the long descent as quickly as she could.
When she came to the bottom she snatched up her cloak and basket, still where she had left them, and ran through the forest until she came upon a familiar path. She ran out of the forest and all the way back to the carpet weaver’s shop where she flung herself through the door panting.
“Whatever is the matter, my dear?” the old woman asked. “You look startled near to death.”
Janet tried to calm herself and apologized for having been gone so very long.
“But you’ve been gone no more than two hours,” the old woman said. And then a knowing look came over her face. “You met the prince in the Forest castle,” the old woman said firmly, “Thank goodness you escaped.”
Janet was amazed as the old woman related her own encounter and marriage to the very same prince.
“I escaped five years ago and found that when I came home no time had passed in Little Town since I left, but that I had grown very old in long years married to the Troll Prince,” the old woman confided, “The graveyard around the castle is full of his brides.”
The old woman hugged Janet closely and congratulated her on becoming wise so very quickly. “If I had not lost all my youth,” she said, “you might have recognized me as your sister.”
And Janet felt doubly glad to have escaped with her youth and to have found her sister once again.
Janet and the old woman who was her sister lived together and wove rugs and eventually, being very happy and prosperous on their own, and not thinking a thing about it, Janet met a good man. And, after many months of walking out together, during which time he proved himself to be exactly what he seemed, they married.
THE END
Janet had no family, her parents gone long since and her only sister having left the town many years before, but she was bright and had many skills, and so could make her own way in trade quite well. She worked for a very nice, old woman in Little Town who wove rugs and ran a prosperous business.
But Janet also often dreamed about marrying. Her husband, she would imagine, would be a strong and handsome man, a prince, whom everybody admired and thought well of.
She would lose herself in daydreaming about her imaginary prince, sometimes so much so that she would make mistakes while weaving or wouldn’t get all her work done. And the old woman would scold her gently to keep her mind on her work or else how could Janet hope to take over the shop when she herself was too old to weave the rugs anymore.
“It’s no good daydreaming about a prince who does not exist,” the old woman would say, “It will be best for you to make yourself happy and stick to your work. You could lose your life in daydreams like that.”
Janet would, of course, shake herself and apologize and get back to her work. For she loved weaving carpets and she loved the old woman as she would a mother. And so she wanted very much to do well at her work. But the thoughts of her prince would always intrude and lead her to daydreaming again.
One day, the old woman interrupted Janet’s daydreaming to ask her to go out into the Forest to gather the plants that they used to dye the carpets. “But you need to keep your wits about you,” the old woman cautioned, “Stay on your path and come back straight away.”
Janet happily agreed to take on the task. She loved walking in the forest and knew exactly where to find the plants they needed. And so, Janet took up her cloak and her basket and went off into the forest, only half thinking about the plants she was to gather, for thoughts of her prince still floated through her head.
As she walked, Janet suddenly noticed that she had strayed into a part of the Forest that she had never been in before. She grumbled at herself for daydreaming so much that she had become lost in the Forest and began to look around her for the way back to the familiar path.
As she looked around, she noticed a set of stone steps leading up a hill through the trees. Thinking to herself that she might be able to get a better view from the top of the hill and find the path again, she left her cloak and basket lying on a rock and climbed the steps.
The steps went up and up, much further than she had expected. And at the top of the long climb Janet found herself at the gates of a large and beautiful castle, the walls shining white in the sun, colorful banners flying from the tower tops and a lovely garden growing all around.
Before she could decide whether to knock on the door and ask for directions, the castle door swung open and the most handsome man Janet had ever seen stepped out. He was tall and looked strong, and dressed in rich robes, fit for a prince.
Janet’s first thought was to flee, as she did not think that her simple dress was good enough to meet a prince in. But he called out to her before she could move and asked if he could help her in any way.
His words were so kind, so welcoming, that Janet found herself telling him that she had become lost in the forest looking for plants to use as dye, and would he be so good as to give her directions back to Little Town.
He replied that he would certainly give her directions, and he could help her to the plants she needed as well, there were many growing in his garden, “But,” he asked, “will you not join me for dinner first? My cook has prepared a very fine feast and it would be sad for me to eat it all alone.”
He was so charming, and so handsome, that she could not say no. Though she did worry a little that the old woman back in Little Town might become afraid for her, being gone so long in the forest.
When she told the prince of her worry he immediately offered to send a messenger to the old woman so that she would not fret. And Janet went with him into the castle to join him for his dinner.
The feast was very grand indeed. Every food that Janet most loved was on the table. From carrots soup to frosted cakes, nothing was wanting.
And the prince was so very friendly and lively. They talked and talked. In fact, they ate and talked so long that when Janet glanced out the window, she found that it was quite past dark.
She was distressed, for she would never be able to find her way back to Little Town in the dark. But the prince was quick to offer her a room for the night in his castle. “It is no trouble at all,” he said, “And I hope you will eat breakfast with me tomorrow before you go.”
Janet agreed, thinking that the old woman whom she worked for had certainly gotten the message about where she was and would not be worried.
Janet followed the prince up a grand staircase to the most beautiful room she had ever seen, with a big four poster bed and a large mirror and wardrobe.
The prince bid her goodnight and servants came to dress her in nightclothes from the wardrobe and turn down her bed.
When she awoke the next morning Janet found a beautiful gown laid out for her. As her own simple dress was nowhere to be seen, she allowed a chambermaid to help her into the gown. As she looked into the mirror she admired herself. The dress was absolutely beautiful. She felt as if she were a princess wearing it. And she was surprised to find that it fit her almost perfectly.
She came to the breakfast table to find the prince just as handsome and charming as she remembered from the night before, and as happy to see her as she could wish. He positively glowed with the joy of having her as a companion still.
They sat down to eat their fill of sweetbreads and strawberries and cream and every good breakfast food that Janet could imagine.
They talked and laughed and before the end of the meal the prince had expressed so much admiration for Janet and so much distress at the thought of her leaving him that she had agreed to stay another night.
For a week the prince persuaded Janet to stay just one more night. And every day she ate the best foods, was dressed in the most beautiful gowns, and enjoyed the prince’s company. And she forgot all about weaving carpets and the old woman she loved as a mother.
Some people came to visit the prince during the first week Janet stayed at the castle. Important people, or at least Janet thought they must be for they were all dressed in fine clothes. And these important people would sit down to dinner with Janet and the prince and admire the beauty of them both and tell Janet how lucky she was.
And Janet thought she was very lucky indeed. Her most cherished daydream, impossible as she had thought it was, seemed to be coming true.
By the end of the week the prince asked Janet to stay with him forever and be his wife.
Janet’s joy was so great that a smile overspread her face and she immediately agreed.
Janet and the prince were married the next day in the castle chapel with many well-dressed and important people watching on, though Janet did not know any of them.
All was happiness and fine food and love between her and the prince for another week. And Janet thought of herself as the luckiest young woman in the world.
But on the seventh day after their marriage Janet awoke to find her husband in a foul temper.
He would neither talk to her nor smile. A scowl overspread his face, and when they came down to the breakfast table he snapped at her because the eggs were not cooked to his liking.
Now Janet was truly taken aback. Firstly, she hadn’t cooked the eggs, which he well knew. Secondly, she could not think of anything at all that had happened to make her prince so angry with her.
She spoke to him with kind and soothing words, but he only grew grumpier until, before her very eyes, his skin turned green-brown, his eyes began to film over black, he shrunk a foot in his seat and spouted horns and his features changed into that of an ugly and twisted troll.
If Janet had not seen the transformation herself she would never have believed it to be her husband. She started back. But then recollecting that they were married and she loved him as his wife, she thought it better to use sweet words with him.
In time she was able to coax him to eat his breakfast. But a troll he remained. He stalked around the castle, surly and cross. He snapped at Janet for things the servants did and had not one kind word for her the whole day.
In the evening, some well-dressed ladies and gentlemen came to dine with them.
Janet was concerned that they would see her husband in such a state. But as they came down the great hall together to the dining room she watched in amazement as he grew in height, as his skin took on a normal human hue and his eyes and all reverted to his own. By the time they sat down to table Janet was relieved to see that he had transformed again into the prince she knew and loved, conversing easily with his guests.
“Surely,” thought Janet, “it was only a passing illness that had made him appear a troll.”
As they lay down to sleep that night he was her loving and kind prince and spoke living words to her. But when she awoke in the morning she found, to her horror, that he was a troll once more.
Janet did not know what to do. For weeks and weeks all continued the same. When they were alone he was a troll, mean and cross, and blaming her for wrongs she had not committed and faults that were not hers. When others were present he was again her sweet prince for a short time. But she could not give up the hope that he would once again turn into her loving prince and that they would indeed live happily ever after.
She tried everything she could think of. She brought him his favorite foods. She read to him and rubbed his feet at the end of the day. Nothing would work! He was invariably a troll, though only to her. The important people still continued to admire her husband and tell her how lucky she was, but they could not see how wrong they were.
Finally, Janet awoke one morning and could not take it any longer. Her head was full of the old woman in Little Town whom she cared for as a mother. And she realized that she had not woven a rug, a thing she loved to do, nor spoken to the old woman in many, many weeks. Or months even. Certainly, it could not be a year?
She looked at her husband prince in his troll form, snoring on his pillow, and decided that she would not stay with him any longer.
She rummaged through the wardrobe and found her old, simple dress stuffed far into the back. She dressed herself and walked quietly out of the room, down through the castle’s great hall and to the door that lead to the garden and the steps she had climbed what seemed like a lifetime ago.
As she paused to look back with a twinge of regret, her husband, a handsome prince once more, came running after her.
“Please, my love,” he pleaded, “please do not leave me. I will be so very unhappy without you.”
“Having me with you has not seemed to make you happy,” she replied.
“I am so sorry,” the prince replied, “Please stay, Janet. I can change. For you I can change.”
But Janet saw that these were only words, because though he looked a prince on the outside, and said all that she wished to hear, on the inside he was and always would be a troll. And her daydream, for which she had given up everything that she loved in her life in Little Town, was not real after all.
And she turned away and left the castle.
As she walked across the garden she could hear a bestial roar from inside the castle. And she looked back to see the walls turning a putrid gray-black. Around her and the garden rotted before her eyes and became a graveyard. And Janet ran to the steps and back down the long descent as quickly as she could.
When she came to the bottom she snatched up her cloak and basket, still where she had left them, and ran through the forest until she came upon a familiar path. She ran out of the forest and all the way back to the carpet weaver’s shop where she flung herself through the door panting.
“Whatever is the matter, my dear?” the old woman asked. “You look startled near to death.”
Janet tried to calm herself and apologized for having been gone so very long.
“But you’ve been gone no more than two hours,” the old woman said. And then a knowing look came over her face. “You met the prince in the Forest castle,” the old woman said firmly, “Thank goodness you escaped.”
Janet was amazed as the old woman related her own encounter and marriage to the very same prince.
“I escaped five years ago and found that when I came home no time had passed in Little Town since I left, but that I had grown very old in long years married to the Troll Prince,” the old woman confided, “The graveyard around the castle is full of his brides.”
The old woman hugged Janet closely and congratulated her on becoming wise so very quickly. “If I had not lost all my youth,” she said, “you might have recognized me as your sister.”
And Janet felt doubly glad to have escaped with her youth and to have found her sister once again.
Janet and the old woman who was her sister lived together and wove rugs and eventually, being very happy and prosperous on their own, and not thinking a thing about it, Janet met a good man. And, after many months of walking out together, during which time he proved himself to be exactly what he seemed, they married.
THE END