Once upon a time there was a little servant girl who was as beautiful as she was clever. She worked at the palace of the fairy king with all the other servants, mopping the many gold-paved floors, darning the fairy king’s royal socks, and shining the fairy queen’s crown jewels. To most, palace work was a great honour, and a profession to be proud of. But the servant girl was more ambitious.
‘Some day soon I shall marry the fairy prince,’ she would tell her fellow servants, and how they would laugh at her. ‘You are a servant girl. What sort of prince would ever look twice at you?’
And one fateful afternoon in the princely wing of the palace, after an especially heated confrontation with one of the new scullery maids, the servant girl was mopping the gold-paved hallway as usual when she noticed something different. Until today, the door at the end of the hallway which led to the fairy prince’s quarters had always been shut – but now, it was slightly ajar.
‘That’s His highness’s room!’ the servant girl thought to herselfc, and already a scheme was brewing in her mind. ‘I must be fast – I may not get another chance!’
The servant girl kept on mopping, faster and faster, edging deliberately ever closer to the end of the hallway. To anyone who might have been watching, it would have appeared that she was so caught up in all her mopping that she did not even notice herself heading straight through the open doorway to enter the bedroom of the fairy prince.
Relaxing on his many-pillowed bed, the fairy prince leapt up at once when he saw that a servant had entered his room uninvited. ‘Treachery!’ he cried, and reached for his magic wand. But when he saw the face of the beautiful servant girl smiling at him, he felt his heart skip a beat. It was true love at first sight. The wedding was planned for the coming spring, and all the court rejoiced in the young lovers’ fortune – all but the other servants, of course, but even they had to hand it to the clever servant girl.
When the eve of the wedding day came, the servant girl felt uneasy. She knew that life as a princess would bring not only wealth and riches, but responsibility too. She had never known power before. To ease her mind, the servant girl decided to go for an evening walk in the wild woods beyond the palace – her last adventure as a lowly servant. Deep into the forest she went, walking and thinking, and passed by many creatures she had never seen before in any books.
Soon the servant girl came across the entrance to a cave, where outside, someone was bringing in their washing from a line. The stranger turned around to face the servant girl, and when he did, the two recognised each other right away. It was Grandfather Death.
‘Good evening,’ said the servant girl.
‘It certainly is,’ Death replied. ‘But sunset’s fast approaching, and these woods at night are no place for a little servant girl. If I were you, I’d turn back.’
The servant girl agreed with Death, as all wise people do, and they bid each other goodbye for now. But as she started back towards the palace, she began to laugh. For Death was wrong about one thing: she was not a little servant girl any longer.
Yet the servant girl returned to a tragic scene. While she had been away, her beloved fairy prince had fallen gravely ill. The King and Queen called upon the finest doctors in the kingdom, and though each tried their very best, there was no magic nor medicine that could help their son. It was certain: before the next sunrise, the fairy prince’s life would surely end.
When she found out, the servant girl was so distraught, there was only one thing she could think of: she would pay another visit to Grandfather Death, to bargain for the life of her beloved fairy prince.
Again the servant girl went deep into the forest, running till her feet ached in their boots, past the many creatures which hid and watched her in the dark, until at last she came upon the same cave as before. When she knocked on the door, it was Grandfather Death that opened it, and smiled, for she was as much his granddaughter as any girl was.
With a bony finger on his chin, Death listened patiently to all the servant girl had to say, and when she had finished, a great sigh rattled from within his skull. ‘Come with me,’ he said.
The home of Grandfather Death was vast, an enormous cavern filled with candles of many different sizes. As the servant girl explored, she saw that each time one candle’s flame went out, another one would come alight, so that the whole cave seemed to sparkle with brilliant, changing patterns, shining like the stars in the night sky.
‘Every candle is a life,’ said Death. ‘When one burns out, I am bound to appear before its owner’s feet. And all whose feet I appear before must die.’
Death took the servant girl to see the fairy prince’s candle. It was very small, and its flame was the weakest flickering spark. Weeping, the servant girl begged Death to light a new candle for the prince, promising that in return, she would swear to do anything he asked.
But again Death only sighed. ‘When one flame burns out, another lights itself. And when one life is spent, another takes its place. This is the way of the world. I shall appear before your prince’s feet at midnight. Go to him. Be with him while you still can.’
As the servant girl hurried home through the dark forest, her sorrow turned soon to rage. She decided that if Death would not help her prince, then it was up to her alone. The servant girl went into the fairy prince’s room to lie at his bedside while he slept, and tried and tried to think of what to do. And after a while, the clever servant girl had an idea. But she would need to be fast – soon it would be midnight, when Grandfather Death would come to stand before the fairy prince’s feet!
As quickly as she could, and careful not to wake the poor sleeping prince, the servant girl set about her plan. First, she rearranged the many pillows and blankets on the bed so that they covered the prince from head to toe. Then, the servant girl took off her own boots and gently placed them on the pillow that was over the fairy prince’s head, so that they looked like two feet poking out from under the covers. And just as the clock chimed midnight, she ducked away behind a curtain to watch and hide.
Sure enough, when Grandfather Death appeared, it was not at the true foot of the bed, but at the head, where the servant girl had placed her boots so cleverly. ‘He’s fallen for my trick!’ she thought to herself.
‘Fairy prince, your candle has gone out,’ Death announced. ‘Now I stand before your feet. And all whose feet I stand before must die.’
At the sound of Death’s voice, the fairy prince stirred in his bed, lifting his head from under the covers, and the servant girl’s boots fell away beside his face. Death looked down as if surprised.
Now the servant girl revealed herself, cheering and whooping at her success. ‘But you’re not standing before his feet!’ she laughed. ‘You’re standing before his head! Now you must light a new candle for him!’
And though it displeased him to be thus fooled, Death could not help but smile. ‘I see,’ he said. ‘Then I am bound to light the fairy prince a new candle after all.’
The servant girl was overjoyed. She was so excited at her success, she forgot she had taken off her boots – and as she ran to the prince’s bedside, her bare feet slipped on the freshly mopped gold paved floor, where she landed on her head with a heavy THUMP!
‘When one flame goes out, another must be lit,’ said Death. ‘And when one is lit, another must go out.’
The servant girl looked up. Death was standing at her feet.
