Eirwen (Snow White) 1/?
Jan. 28th, 2011 08:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meridian_roseTitle: Eirwen (Snow White)
Fandom: Original Fic based on the Snow White fairytale
Rating: PG-13 (at least for now)
Word Count: 1052
Summary: Everyone knows the story of Snow White - but maybe they're wrong. Snow White wasn't the innocent victim but the villain of the piece.
Notes: I never usually post works in progress, because of my poor track record in finishing fic, especially multi-chaptered fic. But this is something I'm writing to kickstart my muse - an odd idea, perhaps, but hopefully an interesting one - and part of the 'deal' is that I post as I go along. Concrit and discussion welcomed.
Eirwen is Welsh for Snow White.
part one part two part three part four part five
Her name was Eirwen. Her mother had been desperate for a child, to give her husband an heir, for her mother was a queen. And her mother had stood at her window one winter's morn, clutching her embroidery, and thinking about her shame in not being able to bear a child. And the needle had found her finger and a drop of blood had fallen onto the windowsill and spread out into the snow. And the queen had wished for a child with hair as dark as the ebony of the windowsill, and skin as fair as the newly fallen snow, and lips as red as the blood she had spilt.
Sometimes, when someone in such desperate straits wishes hard enough, they get their wish.
This is doubly true when blood is spilt to feed the magick.
The part they forget is to give some specifics.
For instance, money is a concept alien to the forces of the world, a man made construct. To move amounts of it around is not that difficult. If a man wishes for wealth he may get it without any sacrifice – though it is always best to take precautions, as we will see.
However Life thrives on Life. Plants eat sunlight. Herbivores eat plants. Carnivores eat herbivores. To give life, something must be given be it nourishing soil and water, or flesh and blood.
The queen was not destined to have a child, for her body could not provide the necessary life force. And yet she wished. And she did not utter the immortal words "though it harm none", nor even, as even the most scatter brained witch might have said in this situation, "though it cause me no ill".
And so the queen got her wish and yet she died birthing the child.
She'd forgotten two other really important things too.
She'd forgotten to impress upon the magickal void that the child ought to be male and a suitable heir, and instead birthed a daughter.
And in her obsession with what the child might look like, she'd forgotten to insist that the child had a decent character.
All things considered, it might have been better she never lived to see the result of her desire.
When the girl reached two years old her father named her. He had grieved for his wife and for the lost chance at a son, and he had now turned to nurturing his daughter. She'd borne her grandmother's name during this time as a nickname, but now her father chose a name that most suited her and his ideals for her.
With her pale skin and dark hair and ruby lips, her father too focussed on her beauty above all else. He named her Eirwen, which meant, in the Old Tongue, Snow White.
As she grew up, some of the braver servants would mutter, "Snow by name and snow by nature," though never when they might be overheard by the King, who doted on the wretched child. For Eirwen had not a kind bone in her body. She had the manners of a queen in public, and could feign sweetness, but she was a cruel mistress.
No maid assigned to Eirwen lasted more than a year. Either she contrived to have them removed from her service over some small or even imagined slight, or they left in despair.
The King couldn't see through his daughter's façade however. He was blinded by love for his daughter, lavishing on her all the love he'd had for her mother as well as that he had for his child.
When Eirwen was fourteen a young man of noble standing from a neighbouring kingdom came to call upon her. His name was Tristan and he was immediately enamoured of her.
"It is true," he said, upon meeting her. "Hair as black as ebony and skin as white as snow and lips as red as blood and eyes like diamonds."
In this last part he was perhaps being rather generous because her eyes did not sparkle. "Snow white of skin, with eyes like ice," the people said of her, but never too loudly. For Eirwen's eyes were not the sapphire blue of her mother's or the emerald green of her father's, but so pale as to be almost grey, with pale flecks of ice blue.
For her part, Eirwen took an immediate dislike to Tristan, for his fortune was not as substantial as hers, and he was taken to outdoor pursuits like walking and riding (for fun!), and tiresomely took an interest in the commoners he was responsible for. He wore his soft brown hair long and tied back, his brown eyes sparkled with mirth, and his skin was tanned from the wind and the sun.
"He is most unbecoming," Eirwen whined to her father, though many a maid (and a few young men besides) would have disagreed.
"Do give him a chance, beloved," the King said.
"Of course, father," Eirwen said. She smiled sweetly but when she turned away she scowled. The guards at the door to the throne room blanched and one said a prayer for the young Tristan.
Perhaps it was this prayer saved Tristan from death, who can tell?
For Eirwen let Tristan take her hunting in the woods. She deliberately led him away from their escorts and jumped from her horse, tearing at her dress and rolling in the leaves like a hound on a scent trail.
"Eirwen," Tristan cried, leaping from his own horse. "Whatever is wrong?"
Eirwen screamed over and over until the guards caught up with them. "He tried to force himself upon me," she wept, tears streaking the porcelain cheeks.
The guards beat the protesting Tristan half to death with their riding crops. Tristan's two men found them and fought back to protect their charge.
And whether it was indeed the prayer that made the difference, or the fact that killing a noble's son was an act of war, or just that his men were a bit stronger than the King's men, Tristan was spared, though banished from the kingdom in disgrace.
Eirwen stood at the window, where once her mother had stood with her embroidery, and watched the battered man leave, slumped over his horse. And she smiled, her white teeth gleaming against her soft red lips.
Fandom: Original Fic based on the Snow White fairytale
Rating: PG-13 (at least for now)
Word Count: 1052
Summary: Everyone knows the story of Snow White - but maybe they're wrong. Snow White wasn't the innocent victim but the villain of the piece.
Notes: I never usually post works in progress, because of my poor track record in finishing fic, especially multi-chaptered fic. But this is something I'm writing to kickstart my muse - an odd idea, perhaps, but hopefully an interesting one - and part of the 'deal' is that I post as I go along. Concrit and discussion welcomed.
Eirwen is Welsh for Snow White.
part one part two part three part four part five
Her name was Eirwen. Her mother had been desperate for a child, to give her husband an heir, for her mother was a queen. And her mother had stood at her window one winter's morn, clutching her embroidery, and thinking about her shame in not being able to bear a child. And the needle had found her finger and a drop of blood had fallen onto the windowsill and spread out into the snow. And the queen had wished for a child with hair as dark as the ebony of the windowsill, and skin as fair as the newly fallen snow, and lips as red as the blood she had spilt.
Sometimes, when someone in such desperate straits wishes hard enough, they get their wish.
This is doubly true when blood is spilt to feed the magick.
The part they forget is to give some specifics.
For instance, money is a concept alien to the forces of the world, a man made construct. To move amounts of it around is not that difficult. If a man wishes for wealth he may get it without any sacrifice – though it is always best to take precautions, as we will see.
However Life thrives on Life. Plants eat sunlight. Herbivores eat plants. Carnivores eat herbivores. To give life, something must be given be it nourishing soil and water, or flesh and blood.
The queen was not destined to have a child, for her body could not provide the necessary life force. And yet she wished. And she did not utter the immortal words "though it harm none", nor even, as even the most scatter brained witch might have said in this situation, "though it cause me no ill".
And so the queen got her wish and yet she died birthing the child.
She'd forgotten two other really important things too.
She'd forgotten to impress upon the magickal void that the child ought to be male and a suitable heir, and instead birthed a daughter.
And in her obsession with what the child might look like, she'd forgotten to insist that the child had a decent character.
All things considered, it might have been better she never lived to see the result of her desire.
When the girl reached two years old her father named her. He had grieved for his wife and for the lost chance at a son, and he had now turned to nurturing his daughter. She'd borne her grandmother's name during this time as a nickname, but now her father chose a name that most suited her and his ideals for her.
With her pale skin and dark hair and ruby lips, her father too focussed on her beauty above all else. He named her Eirwen, which meant, in the Old Tongue, Snow White.
As she grew up, some of the braver servants would mutter, "Snow by name and snow by nature," though never when they might be overheard by the King, who doted on the wretched child. For Eirwen had not a kind bone in her body. She had the manners of a queen in public, and could feign sweetness, but she was a cruel mistress.
No maid assigned to Eirwen lasted more than a year. Either she contrived to have them removed from her service over some small or even imagined slight, or they left in despair.
The King couldn't see through his daughter's façade however. He was blinded by love for his daughter, lavishing on her all the love he'd had for her mother as well as that he had for his child.
When Eirwen was fourteen a young man of noble standing from a neighbouring kingdom came to call upon her. His name was Tristan and he was immediately enamoured of her.
"It is true," he said, upon meeting her. "Hair as black as ebony and skin as white as snow and lips as red as blood and eyes like diamonds."
In this last part he was perhaps being rather generous because her eyes did not sparkle. "Snow white of skin, with eyes like ice," the people said of her, but never too loudly. For Eirwen's eyes were not the sapphire blue of her mother's or the emerald green of her father's, but so pale as to be almost grey, with pale flecks of ice blue.
For her part, Eirwen took an immediate dislike to Tristan, for his fortune was not as substantial as hers, and he was taken to outdoor pursuits like walking and riding (for fun!), and tiresomely took an interest in the commoners he was responsible for. He wore his soft brown hair long and tied back, his brown eyes sparkled with mirth, and his skin was tanned from the wind and the sun.
"He is most unbecoming," Eirwen whined to her father, though many a maid (and a few young men besides) would have disagreed.
"Do give him a chance, beloved," the King said.
"Of course, father," Eirwen said. She smiled sweetly but when she turned away she scowled. The guards at the door to the throne room blanched and one said a prayer for the young Tristan.
Perhaps it was this prayer saved Tristan from death, who can tell?
For Eirwen let Tristan take her hunting in the woods. She deliberately led him away from their escorts and jumped from her horse, tearing at her dress and rolling in the leaves like a hound on a scent trail.
"Eirwen," Tristan cried, leaping from his own horse. "Whatever is wrong?"
Eirwen screamed over and over until the guards caught up with them. "He tried to force himself upon me," she wept, tears streaking the porcelain cheeks.
The guards beat the protesting Tristan half to death with their riding crops. Tristan's two men found them and fought back to protect their charge.
And whether it was indeed the prayer that made the difference, or the fact that killing a noble's son was an act of war, or just that his men were a bit stronger than the King's men, Tristan was spared, though banished from the kingdom in disgrace.
Eirwen stood at the window, where once her mother had stood with her embroidery, and watched the battered man leave, slumped over his horse. And she smiled, her white teeth gleaming against her soft red lips.
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Date: 2011-02-02 09:50 pm (UTC)Great beginning!
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