An odd mixture of good freebies, news, and to celebrate the 200th anniversy of
Grimm's Fairy Tales, a short selection from that work, "Snow-White and Rose-Red"
[Art by Jessie Willcox Smith for "Snow-White and Rose-Red"]
Fiction
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Weird Fiction Review: "
Poppies" by Megan Lee Beals.
"It’s been three years. Or five? No three. Gardner can’t remember much
from before the shift. She knows little things, sure. How to read,
what plants to eat, and how steel always kept its shape. Now, three
years after, it grows like barley. It may as well be a thousand years,
for all it matters."
• At
Weird Fiction Review: "
Portrait of a Chair" by Reggie Oliver.
"I don’t deal professionally in antiques any more – some years ago
I passed the business on to my son – but occasionally I dabble. I think
I do it to test my powers. I was known in my heyday to “have an eye”, as
they say, and out of curiosity I sometimes test out my eye to see if it is deteriorating in the same way that my body appears to be"
Flash Fiction
E-Books
At Amazon:
At
Free eBooks Daily:
At Smashwords:
Audio Fiction
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Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs:
Episode 12 - The Return of Tarzan
"Tarzan’s assignment in North Africa has come to an end, and he has been dispatched to Cape Town. Tarzan books passage on a steamer. At sea, he discovers a fellow passenger is Hazel Strong, the best friend of Jane Porter"
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19 Nocturne Boulevard: "
Afterlives 1.6 - Life Has Grave Consequences"
"Afterlives is a tale of what happens after death, or maybe afterlife.... and it isn't at all what you would expect."
Other Genres
• Flash Fiction at
Every Day Fiction: "
Orion" by Kate Hebert.
Science News
Movie News
Snow-White and Rose-Red
There was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage. In front of the
cottage was a garden wherein stood two rose-trees, one of which bore white
and the other red roses. She had two children who were like the two
rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white, and the other Rose-red. They
were as good and happy, as busy and cheerful as ever two children in the
world were, only Snow-white was more quiet and gentle than Rose-red.
Rose-red liked better to run about in the meadows and fields seeking
flowers and catching butterflies; but Snow-white sat at home with her
mother, and helped her with her housework, or read to her when there was
nothing to do.
The two children were so fond of one another that they always held each
other by the hand when they went out together, and when Snow-white said:
'We will not leave each other,' Rose-red answered: 'Never so long as we
live,' and their mother would add: 'What one has she must share with the
other.'
They often ran about the forest alone and gathered red berries, and no
beasts did them any harm, but came close to them trustfully. The little
hare would eat a cabbage-leaf out of their hands, the roe grazed by their
side, the stag leapt merrily by them, and the birds sat still upon the
boughs, and sang whatever they knew.
No mishap overtook them; if they had stayed too late in the forest, and
night came on, they laid themselves down near one another upon the moss,
and slept until morning came, and their mother knew this and did not worry
on their account.
Once when they had spent the night in the wood and the dawn had roused
them, they saw a beautiful child in a shining white dress sitting near
their bed. He got up and looked quite kindly at them, but said nothing and
went into the forest. And when they looked round they found that they had
been sleeping quite close to a precipice, and would certainly have fallen
into it in the darkness if they had gone only a few paces further. And
their mother told them that it must have been the angel who watches over
good children.
Snow-white and Rose-red kept their mother's little cottage so neat that it
was a pleasure to look inside it. In the summer Rose-red took care of the
house, and every morning laid a wreath of flowers by her mother's bed
before she awoke, in which was a rose from each tree. In the winter
Snow-white lit the fire and hung the kettle on the hob. The kettle was of
brass and shone like gold, so brightly was it polished. In the evening,
when the snowflakes fell, the mother said: 'Go, Snow-white, and bolt the
door,' and then they sat round the hearth, and the mother took her
spectacles and read aloud out of a large book, and the two girls listened
as they sat and spun. And close by them lay a lamb upon the floor, and
behind them upon a perch sat a white dove with its head hidden beneath its
wings.
One evening, as they were thus sitting comfortably together, someone
knocked at the door as if he wished to be let in. The mother said: 'Quick,
Rose-red, open the door, it must be a traveller who is seeking shelter.'
Rose-red went and pushed back the bolt, thinking that it was a poor man,
but it was not; it was a bear that stretched his broad, black head within
the door.
Rose-red screamed and sprang back, the lamb bleated, the dove fluttered,
and Snow-white hid herself behind her mother's bed. But the bear began to
speak and said: 'Do not be afraid, I will do you no harm! I am
half-frozen, and only want to warm myself a little beside you.'
'Poor bear,' said the mother, 'lie down by the fire, only take care that
you do not burn your coat.' Then she cried: 'Snow-white, Rose-red, come
out, the bear will do you no harm, he means well.' So they both came out,
and by-and-by the lamb and dove came nearer, and were not afraid of him.
The bear said: 'Here, children, knock the snow out of my coat a little';
so they brought the broom and swept the bear's hide clean; and he
stretched himself by the fire and growled contentedly and comfortably. It
was not long before they grew quite at home, and played tricks with their
clumsy guest. They tugged his hair with their hands, put their feet upon
his back and rolled him about, or they took a hazel-switch and beat him,
and when he growled they laughed. But the bear took it all in good part,
only when they were too rough he called out: 'Leave me
alive, children,
'Snow-white, Rose-red,
Will you beat your wooer dead?'
When it was bed-time, and the others went to bed, the mother said to the
bear: 'You can lie there by the hearth, and then you will be safe from the
cold and the bad weather.' As soon as day dawned the two children let him
out, and he trotted across the snow into the forest.
Henceforth the bear came every evening at the same time, laid himself down
by the hearth, and let the children amuse themselves with him as much as
they liked; and they got so used to him that the doors were never fastened
until their black friend had arrived.
When spring had come and all outside was green, the bear said one morning
to Snow-white: 'Now I must go away, and cannot come back for the whole
summer.' 'Where are you going, then, dear bear?' asked Snow-white. 'I must
go into the forest and guard my treasures from the wicked dwarfs. In the
winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they are obliged to stay below and
cannot work their way through; but now, when the sun has thawed and warmed
the earth, they break through it, and come out to pry and steal; and what
once gets into their hands, and in their caves, does not easily see
daylight again.'
Snow-white was quite sorry at his departure, and as she unbolted the door
for him, and the bear was hurrying out, he caught against the bolt and a
piece of his hairy coat was torn off, and it seemed to Snow-white as if
she had seen gold shining through it, but she was not sure about it. The
bear ran away quickly, and was soon out of sight behind the trees.
A short time afterwards the mother sent her children into the forest to
get firewood. There they found a big tree which lay felled on the ground,
and close by the trunk something was jumping backwards and forwards in the
grass, but they could not make out what it was. When they came nearer they
saw a dwarf with an old withered face and a snow-white beard a yard long.
The end of the beard was caught in a crevice of the tree, and the little
fellow was jumping about like a dog tied to a rope, and did not know what
to do.
He glared at the girls with his fiery red eyes and cried: 'Why do you
stand there? Can you not come here and help me?' 'What are you up to,
little man?' asked Rose-red. 'You stupid, prying goose!' answered the
dwarf: 'I was going to split the tree to get a little wood for cooking.
The little bit of food that we people get is immediately burnt up with
heavy logs; we do not swallow so much as you coarse, greedy folk. I had
just driven the wedge safely in, and everything was going as I wished; but
the cursed wedge was too smooth and suddenly sprang out, and the tree
closed so quickly that I could not pull out my beautiful white beard; so
now it is tight and I cannot get away, and the silly, sleek, milk-faced
things laugh! Ugh! how odious you are!'
The children tried very hard, but they could not pull the beard out, it
was caught too fast. 'I will run and fetch someone,' said Rose-red. 'You
senseless goose!' snarled the dwarf; 'why should you fetch someone? You
are already two too many for me; can you not think of something better?'
'Don't be impatient,' said Snow-white, 'I will help you,' and she pulled
her scissors out of her pocket, and cut off the end of the beard.
As soon as the dwarf felt himself free he laid hold of a bag which lay
amongst the roots of the tree, and which was full of gold, and lifted it
up, grumbling to himself: 'Uncouth people, to cut off a piece of my fine
beard. Bad luck to you!' and then he swung the bag upon his back, and went
off without even once looking at the children.
Some time afterwards Snow-white and Rose-red went to catch a dish of fish.
As they came near the brook they saw something like a large grasshopper
jumping towards the water, as if it were going to leap in. They ran to it
and found it was the dwarf. 'Where are you going?' said Rose-red; 'you
surely don't want to go into the water?' 'I am not such a fool!' cried the
dwarf; 'don't you see that the accursed fish wants to pull me in?' The
little man had been sitting there fishing, and unluckily the wind had
tangled up his beard with the fishing-line; a moment later a big fish made
a bite and the feeble creature had not strength to pull it out; the fish
kept the upper hand and pulled the dwarf towards him. He held on to all
the reeds and rushes, but it was of little good, for he was forced to
follow the movements of the fish, and was in urgent danger of being
dragged into the water.
The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free his
beard from the line, but all in vain, beard and line were entangled fast
together. There was nothing to do but to bring out the scissors and cut
the beard, whereby a small part of it was lost. When the dwarf saw that he
screamed out: 'Is that civil, you toadstool, to disfigure a man's face?
Was it not enough to clip off the end of my beard? Now you have cut off
the best part of it. I cannot let myself be seen by my people. I wish you
had been made to run the soles off your shoes!' Then he took out a sack of
pearls which lay in the rushes, and without another word he dragged it
away and disappeared behind a stone.
It happened that soon afterwards the mother sent the two children to the
town to buy needles and thread, and laces and ribbons. The road led them
across a heath upon which huge pieces of rock lay strewn about. There they
noticed a large bird hovering in the air, flying slowly round and round
above them; it sank lower and lower, and at last settled near a rock not
far away. Immediately they heard a loud, piteous cry. They ran up and saw
with horror that the eagle had seized their old acquaintance the dwarf,
and was going to carry him off.
The children, full of pity, at once took tight hold of the little man, and
pulled against the eagle so long that at last he let his booty go. As soon
as the dwarf had recovered from his first fright he cried with his shrill
voice: 'Could you not have done it more carefully! You dragged at my brown
coat so that it is all torn and full of holes, you clumsy creatures!' Then
he took up a sack full of precious stones, and slipped away again under
the rock into his hole. The girls, who by this time were used to his
ingratitude, went on their way and did their business in town.
As they crossed the heath again on their way home they surprised the
dwarf, who had emptied out his bag of precious stones in a clean spot, and
had not thought that anyone would come there so late. The evening sun
shone upon the brilliant stones; they glittered and sparkled with all
colours so beautifully that the children stood still and stared at them.
'Why do you stand gaping there?' cried the dwarf, and his ashen-grey face
became copper-red with rage. He was still cursing when a loud growling was
heard, and a black bear came trotting towards them out of the forest. The
dwarf sprang up in a fright, but he could not reach his cave, for the bear
was already close. Then in the dread of his heart he cried: 'Dear Mr Bear,
spare me, I will give you all my treasures; look, the beautiful jewels
lying there! Grant me my life; what do you want with such a slender little
fellow as I? you would not feel me between your teeth. Come, take these
two wicked girls, they are tender morsels for you, fat as young quails;
for mercy's sake eat them!' The bear took no heed of his words, but gave
the wicked creature a single blow with his paw, and he did not move again.
The girls had run away, but the bear called to them: 'Snow-white and
Rose-red, do not be afraid; wait, I will come with you.' Then they
recognized his voice and waited, and when he came up to them suddenly his
bearskin fell off, and he stood there a handsome man, clothed all in gold.
'I am a king's son,' he said, 'and I was bewitched by that wicked dwarf,
who had stolen my treasures; I have had to run about the forest as a
savage bear until I was freed by his death. Now he has got his
well-deserved punishment.
Snow-white was married to him, and Rose-red to his brother, and they
divided between them the great treasure which the dwarf had gathered
together in his cave. The old mother lived peacefully and happily with her
children for many years. She took the two rose-trees with her, and they
stood before her window, and every year bore the most beautiful roses,
white and red.
