Week 12 Story: The Faerie Queene

Princess Britomart dressed as a knight and Sir Artegall

(Image from story) 

Princess Britomart was always an ambitious little girl. She didn’t enjoy the regular princess activities. Her mother, the queen could never sit her down for a tea, but her grandmother always found it amusing. The queen would try her hardest to prepare Princess Britomart for adulthood and to become queen herself, but the princess was interested in other things. She spent a lot of time with her father, The king, learning how to fight. She always came home dirty and would stress her mother out.

“She’s just a child!” Her grandmother would say as she laughed.

“She won’t be a child forever. She needs to grow up.” The queen argued.

Years passed and Princess Britomart was being prepared to get engaged. Many suitors of different countries came to see her, but she found them all boring.

“What about Prince Arthur?” Her mother asked.

“Eh. His hair was too blonde.”

“What about Prince Kenan?”

“Didn’t have enough hair.” The princess joked.

Her and her grandmother laughed. The queen was not amused.

Later that evening, the princess went out on her own to go hunting. She wandered into the woods that she was all too familiar with. She heard a noise. She saw something rustling in the bushes and followed it. She shot her arrow and a tiny orange light flew out.

She looked at it as if she were in a trance. It flew around in front of her and taunted her. She wanted to catch it. It flew deeper into the forest and she followed. Finally, it slowed down and flew into the glass of a beat up mirror. She looked at it as if it were the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. She wiped the dust off of it and it lit up.

“Ask me anything.” Said the mirror.

“Is there someone out there for me?”

She mirror revealed a handsome man in battle. A knight. He was tall with brown wavy hair to his shoulders. He fought ruthlessly and passionately. As he took on the last of the men he declared, “I am Sir Artegall!” Just as he was about to throw his sword in the air he was swept up by some creature.

And the mirror returned back to being a mirror.

“No!” She shook the mirror.

She ran home to tell her grand mother her findings. She told her that she has to save him from the creature that captured him. She described the beast to her grandmother and her grandmother knew exactly who she was talking about. She said it was the enchanter. No one knew his true form because always disguised himself as hideous monsters. She told her granddaughter just where to find them.

Her grandmother told her the only way she would survive this journey was to disguise herself as a knight. The princess wasn’t worried about fighting, she had ben taught by her father. She was more afraid of what would happen if they found out she was a woman.

Just before sunrise, while the king and queen slept, the princess’ grandmother helped load her horse so she could begin her journey. She road off and looked back at her grandmother, who stood waving.

Days had past as she wandered, she finally came to the spot her grandmother told her about. She followed her grandmother’s direction perfectly, but didn’t know if she was in the correct place. She stopped to rest and was going to wait until the sun rose before she tried to look. Night fell dark and she fell asleep. The fire let out. She woke up abruptly to the sound of a scream. She ran around searching for its source with only the moonlight to guide her. Then she heard it behind a shrub. She pushed passed the leaves and found an opening to a cave. She entered without hesitation.

She walked down the dark path, she saw a light at the end. The screaming did not stop. She heard an evil laugh, but she could not understand what was being said. She approached the opening and saw Sir Artegall strapped by his wrists, hanging from the ceiling. The enchanter was there as well. He was in his human-looking form mixing potions. Sir Artegall screamed for help.

“You can scream all you want, but no one is going to hear you.” The enchanter said.

He was so wrapped up in his potion he didn’t even see the princess slip by. Sir Artegall looked at her confused and she took her enchanted sword and chopped the rope that was holding him. He landed on the ground loudly. The enchanter turned around and caught the both of them.

“How did you get in here?”

Without answering, the princess ran straight towards the enchanter and threw him to the ground. He turned into a dragon and lit the room with fire. She saw a small vile with a cricket on it and she took the potion. The dragon charged straight towards her and she threw what was in the vile on the dragon. It turned into a cricket. She stepped on the cricket killing the enchanter.

“You saved me. Oh knight. I did nothing to deserve this. You are forever in my debt.”

He stuck his hand out to shake the knight’s hand but she took her helmet off.

“Princess.” He bowed down.

“Marry me and we’ll call it even.” She smiled.

He looked up at her and smiled.

The two returned to her town and they were married. The lived long and happily for the rest of their lives.

Author's note: The original story was hard to follow because they would introduce new characters and never talk about them again and then randomly bring them up again. But basically it's about a princess who disguises herself as a knight after she sees Sir Artegall and she immediately falls in love with him. She meets people, gets into fights, and saves lives on her journey to meet him. When they meet, they get together, but he has a journey himself to finish to so after a while they end their relationship and the princess goes and joins and old friend to help him save his lover, who is also her best friend. I simplified it and went for a more "Ella Enchanted" type of tone. So the story is set back in the day, but the characters speak in modern tongue. I hope you enjoyed it! (:


Bibliography. Mary Macleod. Faerie Queen. Web Source.