
In a realm where fairy folk still flit among the ferns and elves slip through garden gates, a king and queen find their palace bright but empty. Their love is deep, yet the throne lacks an heir, and the queen whispers wishes for even the tiniest child. One weary afternoon, while the king paces his gardens, a mischievous dwarf in a red cap appears, offering a promise that could fill the royal void—if only the monarch will give him something called “niente.”
The king, baffled but desperate, agrees, and the dwarf vanishes on his green‑spurred frog, leaving the court buzzing with curiosity. Soon after, the kingdom is drawn into a strange war between ghosts and giants, pulling the king away for a long campaign. When he finally returns, the palace bells ring with news that the queen has indeed given birth—a baby princess, delicate and unexpected, who will grow up under the watchful eyes of both mortal and magical realms.
Language
en
Duration
~31 minutes (30K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by David Edwards, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Books project and by scans courtesy of the Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison.)
Release date
2016-07-10
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1844–1912
Best known for the beloved Fairy Books, this Scottish writer brought folk tales, myths, and legends to generations of readers. He was also a remarkably wide-ranging man of letters whose work stretched across poetry, fiction, history, and anthropology.
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