The History Of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales often stem from real life. Jack and his bean stalk, for instance, has its roots in the battle between Prince Savipattugak and his brother, Giantanaparan. ‘Gak’ raised an army to defeat Giantanaparan’s forces but the cost was borne by the rice farmers. Gak hid his forces in the enormous Periteri forest, planning to surprise Giantanaparan from above. But the disgruntled farmers gave away the strategy. Giantanaparan had his men threaten to axe each hiding place until surrender. However, Gak refused to descend calling on Giantanaparan to climb and fight. He accepted the challenge but they both fell to their deaths.

One enormous Periteri came to represent both courage and sibling folly. Many adherents visited; vendors, pandering to the trade built shops and lodges around its base. Nowadays the buildings are ruins; no one visits and instead we remember Gak and Giant and their tale of greed and hubris.

This story is written in response to a prompt from Di at Pensivity101. She is a voracious writer of poems and prose and you really should visit if you don’t already. The prompt uses this image and these rules

The challenge is to write a piece of historical fiction about it. There’s a

• 150 word limit

• Try not to use the words tree & green

There is also this request to tag others. You know who you are without me saying…

About TanGental

My name is Geoff Le Pard. Once I was a lawyer; now I am a writer. I've published several books: a four book series following Harry Spittle as he grows from hapless student to hapless partner in a London law firm; four others in different genres; a book of poetry; four anthologies of short fiction; and a memoir of my mother. I have several more in the pipeline. I have been blogging regularly since 2014, on topic as diverse as: poetry based on famous poems; memories from my life; my garden; my dog; a whole variety of short fiction; my attempts at baking and food; travel and the consequent disasters; theatre, film and book reviews; and the occasional thought piece. Mostly it is whatever takes my fancy. I avoid politics, mostly, and religion, always. I don't mean to upset anyone but if I do, well, sorry and I suggest you go elsewhere. These are my thoughts and no one else is to blame. If you want to nab anything I post, please acknowledge where it came from.

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