Elidore
This story is about a boy that was supposed to become a cleric one day. He was a lazy child that didn't want to learn. After remembering the Bible verse "Spare the rod and spoil the child," the rod was used whenever he forgot his letters. The more he was hit, the less he learned. At some point, he couldn't take it anymore and wandered around until he found the mouth of a cave. Pigmies (elves or fairies) show up and take him to their land where he can play forever. The King appoints him to take care of his son. He started missing his mother, so he asked if he could visit her. He went back and forth for some time. His mother thought that the balls they played with in the other world were gold, so the boy brought one to his mother. But, before he could show her, he tripped and the elves grabbed the ball and ran off. When it came time for him to go back with the elves, he could not find the entrance to their world.
The Ridere of Riddles
A king had two sons by two different women. When the current wife realized that her son was not first in line to be king, she decided to poison the king's first son. The queen's own son heard what she was trying to do and warned his half brother. The oldest put some of the poison in a bottle and he and his younger brother left. They wondered about the poison, so they ended up giving it to their two horses. Both fell dead. The ravens were picking from the carcass' and they ended up dying also. They took the ravens to the next town and had them made into pies. Not long after that, robbers stole their pies and then they died also. They stole all the gold from the robbers and went to see the Knight of Riddles. If you could pose a riddle that he could not solve, you were able to wed his daughters. The story takes a weird turn and has giants and people getting married...it was a really good story until that point...
Drawing by John Bauer. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
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