The Princess, Troll and Leprechaun

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess that had left her castle to go outside to pick some fresh fruit. To get outside of the castle the princess had to cross a bridge, considering the castle was surrounded by a moat. Under each of these bridges lived a troll and they were known for taking away one's beauty...

The princess was crossing the bridge to her castle with her basket of fresh strawberries that she had picked from the forest outside of the kingdom. As she began to walk across the bridge she noticed it had been broken while she was out picking her fruit and a couple of the boards were missing. As soon as the princess began to notice this she hear a yelling coming from underneath the bridge.

"Help! Help! Please!" called the troll under the bridge to her castle.

The princess tried to ignore the troll because she was so frightened by him. She knew the troll was capable of taking away all of her beauty, but he continued to call after her for her help.

The princess replied, "Mr. Troll, I cannot help you, for you will take away my beauty and I do not want that."

"If you help me I promise to leave you as you are, I promise," insisted the troll.

The princess was reluctant and was unsure what to do with the current predicament, but she was known as a kind young woman who always helped others, so she could not turn the troll down. The troll was stuck under the bridge because a wooden board had come loose and collapsed on top of him.

"Okay, Mr. Troll, I will help you, but only because you have promised to let me keep my beauty."

"Indeed I will!" the troll assured her.

The princess walked towards the troll, who was lying under the bridge, and helped pick up the beams that lay on top of him and helped him fix the bridge he lived under by screwing back in the screw that came loose. Once the troll was free and the bridge was fixed he immediately began to laugh.

"You are such a foolish girl," chuckled the troll as he took her beauty away.

The princess began to sob as she looked at her reflection in the water. Her long blonde hair was now black and short, her face was covered in wrinkles and pimples, and she looked as though she had lost her youth.

Then, along came a young leprechaun who instantly noticed a young woman crying, not realizing she was the princess.

"What is going on here?" asked the leprechaun.

"I have been tricked and this awful troll took away my beauty!" the princess wept.

"I do not understand," said the leprechaun.

"I took away her beauty after she helped me repair my bridge," claimed the troll.

"I am still so confused, the bridge does not look broken to me," said the leprechaun.

"No no no!" said the troll as he began to become frustrated with the leprechaun.

"I do not understand, are you sure she used to be pretty?" questioned the leprechaun as he pointed toward the princess.

"Yes, she was very pretty," replied the troll.

"I am still just not understanding what happened... would you mind showing me what happened and what she used to look like?" asked the leprechaun.

"You idiot!!" replied the troll as he changed the princess back to her original look.

"Now I see, but I am not understanding how the bridge broke. Do you mind showing me how?"

Annoyed, the troll walked over to the bridge and pulled out the screw that had originally fallen out and all the boards of wood began to fall onto the troll.

The Princess yelped with glee and hugged the Leprechaun and thanked him for all of his help. The two left the troll under the planks of wood and became great friends after the Leprechaun helped save the Princess's beauty.

Author's note: I came to writing this story by reading the trickster story in the Mythology Anthology. I thoroughly enjoyed the trickster aspect of the story and it grabbed my attention so I thought I would create something sort of similar. Through this class I have found that reading trickster stories has become my favorite type of story. I love the suspense and wonder of who is going to trick who and how they are going to do it. In the "Tiger, Brahman and Jackal" story the Tiger tricks the Brahman into letting him out of the cage he had been trapped in. The Brahman knew there was a chance the Tiger could eat him, but the Tiger assured him that if he were to help him he would not. Lo and behold, as soon as the Brahman lets the Tiger out of the cage the Tiger tells the Brahman he is going to eat him. The Brahman comes across the Jackal who asks him what is wrong and the Brahman tells him the story. The Jackal asks lots of questions and acts as though he is confused. When the Jackal and Brahman approach the Tiger, the Jackal continues to act as though he does not understand what happened and tricks the Tiger into getting back into the cage. The Jackal helped save the Brahman's life by tricking the Tiger to get back into the locked cage. In my story I chose to use beauty instead of death as the thing that was being taken away from the princess. I used the same trickery method that the Jackal used, by the leprechaun acting confused he was able to trick the troll.

Bibliography: "Tiger, Brahman and Jackal" from Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs. Web Source

Picture information: The troll under the bridge. Source.