Day Forty-Four : Rapunzel, Open Up Your Ear

Tuesday 7th January 2020

Today, we were given the task to rework a classic fairytale. Here is mine, titled Queen Respella:

Queen Respella was seen as a clever Queen. Even though she was very rich she always craved for equality and fairness.

One day, she called her court magician and commanded, “Find me a spell that can help me help more people than I already have.” The magician said, “Your majesty, I can give you a power that no one else in this world has. Anyone that you touch will turn into a nice person that way, they can help others which would be like you helped them.

However, she did not want that. She wanted people to know it was her that helped them, so she refused. She hated what fortune she had. “How can I help people and let them know it was me?”

That night, she spent hours pondering on her throne, wondering what she could do. Then she had an idea! At dawn, she called out all 2000 of her servants and ordered them to count up all her money and divide it up equally amongst all the households in her queendom. Then they should look at all her luxury belongings and sell them to lands far away.

By the time they had finished three months had passed and the queendom was in chaos. People became greedy and nobody wanted to do the menial jobs anymore. People who had already used up their money came knocking on her door for more after their neighbours had refused. The Queen didn’t know what to do, especially after she had already dismissed all her servants. So, as a last resort she called on her magician, Tonald Tuka Huje Domp.

She begged him to help her but he said he would only undo it if she would tell him the reason why she refused his offer. She reluctantly started to speak, “I want to help people, really I do but I am afraid that I would be forgotten and then after everyone I know becomes nice, they would leave me all alone. My mother and father were too kind and they left me. I don’t want to be forgotten.”

Tonald Domp understood. He reversed everything that had happened after their last meeting. They worked together to find a better solution. You see, the Queen Respella wasn’t actually as clever as she had been perceived to be. Who would want a ruler that was a bit foolish, but with a little help Respella could rise to greatness.