The Frost Giants and Sunbeam Fairies

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If you listen on Spotify , your support and donations go toward things like music licensing and equipment and software and , of course , paying my beautiful , wonderful , amazing editor , Katie , For this episode . I will be reading a lovely Swiss fairy tale that tells of an ancient battle of frost and fire . This is the Frost Giants and the Sunbeam Fairies .

So snuggle up in your blankets and have sweet dreams .

There were no animals , men , women or children , no flowers , no birds , no fish , no farms , no vineyards . No farms , no vineyards , only dreadful cold All year round , and for millions of years . Then the frost giants ruled a land forever white , with snow that never melted , and their king sat on the top of a solid mountain of ice .

These frost giants would not allow anything alive to come near them . They made it law that whatever had eyes or nose , feet or hands , paws or wings should be instantly frozen to death and their solid carcasses packed away in a refrigerator .

A million years old , the queen of the fairies that lived down in the warm meadows felt sorry that so fine a place should have nothing in it that was alive or had any color red , pink , blue or yellow , violet or green . She believed that the land could be conquered from the frost giants and made a country in which boys and girls could play and pick flowers .

It might indeed take several millions of years to melt the ice and cover the ground with flowery meadows . But what was that ? Because fairies never care anything about days , months or years . They never grow old and do not use almanacs .

Because , not dwelling in bodies like ours and never having lived like us mortals , they are not dwelling in bodies like ours and , never having lived like us mortals , they do not get sick or have any funerals or cemeteries . They are saved all expenses of being buried , for they do not have any graves .

There are no doctors or undertakers in fairyland , even though the immortal flowers bloom everywhere . It seems that because some are wiser than others , that they may be called old or mothers , aunts or grandmothers . To carry out her purpose , the fairy queen made a friend of the sun and asked his help .

This Old Sol , as the fairies called him , was very glad to give , because he had rescued other parts of the world from the ice kings and made many lands bright and beautiful . He thought that the monarch of the frost world and his white giants had reigned long enough in Switzerland . Besides , old Sol wanted to show that he had not yet done his best work .

It is true that he had made other lands look lovely , changing them from barren rocks and sand to fruitful fields , groves and gardens rich in wheat and corn , fruit trees and berry bushes , besides peaches and apples and pears , roses and lilies .

Old Sol declared that with the aid of the fairies , he would make Switzerland the most beautiful of all countries , so that many people from foreign lands would come see it . He would scoop out lakes , channel out rivers , smooth the face of the country and make it lovely with pastures .

Channel out rivers , smooth the face of the country and make it lovely with pastures . Yes , if the fairies would promise to put enough clothes on their favorites and wrap them up in downy garments with lots of fur and wool for overcoats . He would help the prettiest flowers to climb up to the high mountains .

Then he would promise to furnish heat enough so they could keep them warm and alive . He would make it so pleasant for them that they would never get homesick .

In spite of the frost giants , the storms and winds , the tempest and the icy breath of the giants , these flowers would bloom and nod and laugh and defy all enemies when the fairies were called together and told by their queen that the sun would be their friend and help them every day and never tire of his good work .

You ought to have seen how happy they were . They all clapped their hands , and every one big , and wanted to be brave and go out to fight the frost giants . It was wonderful how the pretty fairies were perfectly willing to be changed into humble-looking plants that never could grow very tall but lie quite flat on the ground and have deep roots and crannies .

They would have to live without much society or excitement and spend their lives in clefts and hollows . What was hardest to bear was that most of them would have to live like nuns , for in the case of many of them their beauty would never be appreciated or even seen . Some were even glad to become plain metal grasses .

When one plump fairy was told she would become an alpine poet and must carry her babies on her back , she gladly consented . And must carry her babies on her back . She gladly consented . Some of the big fairies asked to be changed into trees , oak , maple , spruce , pine or birch . This was hard for those who had been regular .

Chatterboxes would now be only able to sound the breeze or whisper in the winds , and they could only roar in a gale or tempest , some even begged , to be allowed to take on the form of the old-fashioned aurora , the most ancient of all the Swiss trees , of all the Swiss trees .

It was astonishing to note how ready these pretty fairies were to put off their lovely gossamer-like robes , lay aside their wings and wear such plain clothes as some of them must who volunteer to be meadow and rock plants . But then the idea of fighting the frost giants and rescuing the land from ice and snow had filled them all with enthusiasm .

It was like patriotism among mortals . So the queen of the fairies and her wise counselors enrolled and equipped an army of her fairies would agree to be turned into plants for the long war against the frost giants . Of all these , old Sol was to be general . Heaps of fur and flannel , wool and velvet . Of all these old soul was to be general .

Heaps of fur and flannel , wool and velvet and hair and down were stored up to make thick underclothes and stamped overcoats to keep warm and all sorts of wiry stuff for toes to grip tight and keep hold of the rocks .

Then , with plenty of rich paints and dyes to color their cheeks , the fairy queen summoned the volunteers to come forth , as each name was called , and a fairy stepped out . The queen waved her wand . First she pointed it upward to where the stars were playing hide-and-seek among the snowy peaks .

Then , touching each kneeling fairy , she tapped with her star-tipped wand upon the neck , eyes , nose , ears , lovely yellow or raven , black or shining auburn hair , limbs , hands and feet and wings disappeared in a golden mist . When one looked again , there was where each fairy had kneeled down a flower .

Never was the like seen before in all the wonderful floral world , either as to the kind or blossom or the shape of the stalk , leaves or petals of the plants . Some hardly looked like flowers at all , while others were recognized at once as cousins or sisters of old friends , but so dressed up as if for an arctic journey as scarcely to be recognized .

Here was one creature dazzlingly splendid in colors , while alongside of her was a little lady robed entirely in colors , while alongside of her was a little lady robed entirely in white , as if she were to be the bride of Jack Frost and marry him in a country where the tint of ermine and ptarmigan bird was the only one in fashion .

The lowliness of some of these newborn flowers was perhaps the most astonishing thing about them , even when in bloom they were not over an inch in height , while their neighbors down in the valley were all nearly as tall as yardsticks .

Although when the fairies were turned into trees and were at first hardly higher than a needle and not one of them had a body as thick as a thimble they at once began whispering , for it was hard to give up the old habit of talking every minute Of one pretty creature shaped like a bluebell with scalloped edges .

It was noticed that she shut up her mouth and did not say a word At this . One wise old fairy looked up at the sky and said One wise old fairy looked up at the sky and said it is certainly going to rain Thereupon , since flowers were so cheap .

This one they called the poor man's weatherglass , another but had a curiously shaped blossom they named Lady Slipper .

While these thus far mentioned were mostly valley or pasture flowers and not expected to live very far up the mountain slopes , several others volunteered to lead what some called the Forlorn Hope , but they were too full of pep for that and took the name of the Advanced Guard . These were specially equipped for fighting the cold .

These were the Edelweiss , the Alpine Rose and the Octopatella and the octopatella .

They were made so frost-proof by fur and thick clothes that they can laugh in the very faces of the frost giants and dare them to do their worst in trying their best to freeze them out Of the one that seemed done up entirely in white flannel and that kept its blooms in a bunch like a rosette Everybody knows , for it was the Edelweiss , proud of her name ,

Millions of fairies gathered together on the hillslopes to see the procession start and did not mind waiting a thousand years or so .

They hung on bushes , sat on top of rocks and boulders and on the tree branches or stood hovered wherever they could get either a peep or a good view of the fairy flower army wherever they could get either a peep or a good view of the fairy flower army and was to march up to the heights and wrestle with the giants .

Some wondered how the battle would go and if the war would ever end . Could they possibly march up the mountain sides and hold their own Amid the blasts of winter winter and amid the eternal snow and ice ? And when the land now covered up , not a sign of field or pasture or road or any space clear of snow was then visible .

There was nothing but ice , many miles thick and looming so far up in the air as to seem , at night , to touch the stars , the jagged rocks splintered by the lightning and the mountainsides clothed with glaciers like armor and which were billions of tons in weight , seemed very forbidding .

Just give us a few million years and we'll surely win , cried the fairy queen who was proud of her beautiful army , cried the fairy queen who was proud of her beautiful army and who , with them all , knew or cared nothing for what we call time .

Fairies never cry , but some felt as if they might weep to see so many pretty flowers killed , as they feared they would be . Even the idea of the chills and shivers they would have to suffer , as some of the timid ones feel creepy , even . Suppose they could survive ice and frost and the cold breath of the strong winds that might uproot them .

How could they resist the avalanches that might overwhelm and crush them If whole forests of giant trees were often leveled like eggshells and flattened like flounders ? Why these rolling terrors are torn up by landslides , or ground gravel by falling rocks ? Torn up by landslides or ground gravel by falling rocks , how could tiny and tender flowers hope to escape ?

But the fairy queen knew the power of her friend , the sun , and the tenacity and perseverance of her flower children . So , laughing at such forebodingsings , she bathed the lovely flowers and little trees began their march . Their orders to advance were steadily forward and upward . They were to hold the ground gained inch by inch .

They must even try again and again to split the rocks and be willing to suffer cold , wet wind and not be out of sorts or show bad temper when it rained too much or the clouds hid the sun .

They must take advantage of every nook crevice , crack and cranny , of every nook crevice , crack and cranny when , after their first victories , the cows and goats should come and the birds make their nests and men and women arrive and the boys and girls play .

These fairies , thus changed into flowers , were not to object to have their stalks eaten up by the cattle , or their seeds to be swallowed by the birds or their blossoms to be plucked by the children , even when they should come to their best bloom and seem too pretty to be touched . They were to welcome the cows and goats To all these directions .

The new plants , trees and flowers nodded their heads and the war began . The older fairies went back to the vineyards , groves , forests , dales and meadows in the lower lands of sunshine , of mild climate and of fair weather . And the battle was on .

Several millions of years slipped away and some of the fairies in the warm countries had almost forgot their cousins in the high alps . Then it happened that some thousands of them made up a party to go and visit what they had once left long ago as a polar region of thick ice where no land was visible . What a change and how lovely .

When they reached Switzerland and looked over the landscape , they could not at first believe their own eyes .

True , it was midsummer when they arrived , but as far as the eye could reach they beheld valleys and meadows spangled with flowers , from which floated the sound or echoes of tinkling bells , where contented cows and goats were browsing on the sweet , perfumed air . Where wafted the aromatic odors of the delicious herbage freshly cropped by the cattle .

Pretty houses on the flat spaces were perched on the hill . Slopes told of happy homes . Children were playing games or picking flowers . Church spires pointed towards heaven . In one village , a great long parade of sleek cows , their well-groomed coats shining in the sun , and one with a milking stool between her horns was moving up where the grass was most luscious .

Donkeys and horses laden with cheese and garden produce were moving in lengthened lines to the markets . Here and there , castles , chalets , bridges , church spires and thickly clustered houses told of villages , towns and cities . For man was now in possession and all the world rejoiced .

It was like an heiress receiving her fortune for human beings , thus to enter into the enjoyment of the lovely landscape no-transcript .