This is one of the famous fairy tales. Once upon a time, long ago in a far away land lived a king and queen. The king and queen always had loved children but unfortunately, they could not have one. Because of this, the queen became extremely sad, so the king devised a plan.
As a result, their nieces and nephews started visiting the castle and they played around in the garden. The queen too enjoyed their company. Then, one day the queen catches a child. “Who are you?” the queen asks. “They asked me to play with them,” the girl replies pointing at the queen’s nieces and nephews. Also, read The Wise Little Girl.
Image Source–> www.pinterest.com. As it turns out, the little girl’s mother happened to be a witch. And so, she was summoned to the castle to have a dinner with the queen. “If you want to have children, then do as I say and you shall have what you so desire.” And then, the queen did exactly as she had been instructed.
“Bathe with two pails of water, throw the water under the bed and eat the flowers that blossom there overnight, is what she said,” the queen reminds herself. Indeed, the spell worked its magic. And so, queen becomes the mother of a pair of twins. You may also like to read, The Three Wishes Story.
Once, the twins were born, they ran from corridor to corridor creating loud noises and spreading happiness all over. Now, these twins were absolute opposites of each other. But they were close as sisters are. One of them was rugged and strong. She preferred riding a goat with a wooden spoon. Soon, everyone in the kingdom came to know her as Tatterhood. Whereas, the other one was fair, poised and sweet.
Then, one night their castle gets attacked by a pack of goblins. These goblins were extremely notorious. Since the attack was sudden, Tatterhood pushes her mother aside and goes to fight off the goblins. When Tatterhood does not return, the other sister too pushes her mother aside and goes to help her sister. Also, read Heidi.
But, before she could do something, the goblins play a cruel trick on the girl. The goblins take away her pretty head away after replacing it with a head of a horse. Now, the poor little princess cried her eyes out. As a result, Tatterhood decides to find her sister’s head.
So, she commissions one of her father’s ships. She takes her sister and some soldiers along with her. Soon enough, they come to the island where the goblins hid. The ship halts nearby, and Tatterhood is advised to take things slowly and carefully. But Tatterhood had other plans.
So, that night, she sneaks out of her ship along with her goat and her wooden spoon. Unnoticed, she enters the goblin’s cave. She soon spots her sister’s head. Without wasting a single minute, she runs and takes away her sister’s head. The goblin’s see Tatterhood running away with the precious head of her sister. They pursue her, but they were no match to Tatterhood and she gets away.
And just like that, Tatterhood brings her sister’s head back and her sister becomes happy as she could finally discard the horse’s head. “I won’t have to neigh anymore all thanks to you, sister,” the sister replies once she has her head back. You may also like to read, The Tinderbox.
“Sister,” she says to Tatterhood, “while we are away, why don’t we see the world?” Tatterhood agrees and they set sail towards the cities they had never visited. One night, they stopped at a beautiful port, “We’ll stay the night here and set sail again tomorrow,” Tatterhood informs her sister.
The port city was ruled by a king who had two sons. When the princes came to know that two princesses were visiting, they sent an invitation for them. Tatterhood declined the offer humbly, saying, “If they want to meet us, they will have to come here.”
And so, the princes came to see Tatterhood and her sister. Tatterhood’s sister fell in love with the older prince at once and managed to persuade Tatterhood to go the prince’s palace. Also read, Princess Merida.
Tatterhood loved her sister, so she agrees. As they rode back on their horses and Tatterhood on her goat, the older prince and her sister rode ahead leaving Tatterhood and the younger prince alone. Now, the younger prince becomes curious and asks, “Why do you ride a goat?”
Tatterhood smiles and says, “I can ride a horse if I choose to.” The moment Tatterhood says that her goat magically changes into a magnificent horse. Then again, the prince asks, “Why do you wear torn and ragged clothes?” Again Tatterhood smiles and replies, “I can wear a gown if I want to.” And then, Tatterhood’s clothes turn into a deep green gown with a beautiful cloak, befitting a queen. The young prince becomes so amazed at all this, that he becomes speechless.
“Why now, won’t you ask why my face is dirty?” this time Tatterhood asks the prince. “That too shall be as you choose,” the prince smiles. Whether Tatterhood was beautiful or plain the prince did not know, nor did he care. He accepted Tatterhood as exactly who she chose to be. Soon, the two sisters decide to marry the two princes, only because they chose to and live happily ever after.
