Belgian Fairy Tales

by William Elliot Griffis

In fact, life among the fairies had got to be very dull. Nothing happened, and some wanted to change their people and their scenery.

But one old fairy said “No! the earth is as yet too bare and rough. Who wants to live here, unless they are fairies, that do not eat, or like candy, or that require no clothes, or food, or houses, or carriages or pets?”

“Yes,” said another. “I agree with you. We must furnish this earth of ours with pretty things, like flowers, and fruit trees, and birds, and horses, and useful animals, and cats and dogs, and squirrels and rabbits. How can we go about it?” [[151]]

During this debate among the wisest ones, there were two fairies that sat apart. It was noticed that they had put their heads together, talking every moment and sometimes both at once. They winked occasionally at each other, and often nodded knowingly, as if they understood things even better than those who talked most. Meanwhile, they seemed very happy. At last, with beaming smiles, they both spoke together to the assembled company.

We must not forget that while the fairies thus talked together, the giants of the frost kept on, busily cutting away the mountain sides, making the glacier a river of ice, that carried the rocks and gravel away and far down into the valleys and on the plains. In this way, the hard stone was ground into gravel, sand, clay, and dust, and scattered over the face of the earth. The glacier scratched, and chiseled, and grooved out the bed rocks, and then rolled the big stones over and over, and all together, until they were as round as oranges or marbles.

Usually this grinding was like that of a mill, which crushes the grain and makes meal, from which the miller blows away the bran, to get the white flour. So, at first, the rocks, thus broken and powdered, were mixed all together and tumbled about.

Yet many times the frost giants, the spirits [[152]]of the storm, the wind, the sun, and the glacier worked together, and all with one purpose. Often they laid the different materials very neatly in separate beds, some in this place and some in that. By this process, the clay, the sand, the stones, and the gravel were separated one from the other. It seemed as if they expected human beings to come and live on the earth. These mighty forces, of heat and cold, were working for the fairies, so as to have everything in order and ready when men should come, so that they could plow and coax flowers out of the ground.

So when the fairies were all waiting, to hear what could be done, one of the two that had whispered together spoke out in meeting. She was a silvery looking creature, reminding one of moonlight. Her dress, which was gauzy and shining, seemed to be made of aluminum threads woven together. Her helmet, of this metal, was very light and polished until it reflected the light, like a mirror.

“I have a daughter,” said she, “named Klei. She is ready to be a bride, and, if she is married to the right one, I am sure her children will make the earth beautiful.”

“And I,” said the other, who seemed to be dressed entirely in crystal, and had on a helmet carved out of quartz, “have a son named Zand. [[153]]He is tough and strong, and sometimes, when the wind vexes him, he fusses about and stings and bites. Yet neither the sea shore, nor the dunes, nor the desert, nor the wilderness could get along without him. When the tempest blows him about, it irritates him and he behaves roughly and raises a terrible storm. But, if my son, Mr. Zand, is married to your daughter, Miss Klei, I predict that wherever the two live together, or their children dwell, there the sandpipers will trip along the shore and sing their notes, the cows and sheep will graze, the flowers bloom, and the human beings will build houses and barns. In any event, if they two marry, they will make the earth beautiful.”