(The first installment of the Queen's Journal can be read in the Winter 09 issue of Faezine)

At last I have some time on my own. All the preparations for the Snow Drop Ball have started and the castle is teeming with bustling apple fairies creating costumes, food and entertainments. I have been measured from top to toe by Gry so that my gown can be ordered from Elodie's Fashion, and two redheaded fairies have been messing with my hair for three days to come up with a new hairstyle for the ball. All the preparations are so exhausting because it means that I have to be extra careful not to reveal my disguise.

I was chosen to go to Apple Hold Castle and marry King Apple Strong because I was the only fairy at the Alfenheim court that had the natural ability to shape shift. The king of Alfenheim decided to send me to the Fern People living in the East Forest at the Sea High Land between Alfenheim and the Mist. The King wanted to improve my abilities up to a higher level. My father told me that humans believe that shape shifting is some kind of witchcraft, but actually some animals, like the mimic octopus, use this ability as a defense mechanism. It can combine its highly flexible body with its color changing ability like other more dangerous animals such as sea snakes. My shape shifting ability works in the same way, but it took me many turns of the moon to be able to control my shape shifting, and to be able to keep it up for more than a few heartbeats.

My time at the Fern People was an enjoyable one; they are really masters in disguise. Most of them work as tree spirits, which means they will take residence in a tree and make sure it won't catch any diseases. For a start I learnt how to stand up against a tree and take on the colour of the trunk. Later I learnt how to let myself blend in with the shape of the tree branches and foliage, to become one with the tree. When my apprenticeship as a shape shifter was over, I returned to King Frey The Golden's court, and my happy noncommittal life was over. King Frey's ceremonial mage Eybjörn requested that I meet him secretly under the old elder tree at the gate of Alfenheim. The time had come when I was going to repay the favour King Frey had granted my father by giving him a job on his ship, so I prepared myself the best I could. I knew that most of the members of the King's court are sent to Midgaard to serve Alfenheim's interests, but I had no idea how difficult my task was going to be, and you can probably understand how disappointed I was to hear what the King had in mind for me. The king's mage informed me that I was going to take princess Agrafina's place at her wedding in Apple Hold Castle. I knew it had been decided that the princess should marry King Apple Strong when she was a child. That was how it had always been! The King of the Apple Fairies would take an Alfenheim princess as his queen to protect the peace treaty created after the great battle between Apple Hold Castle and Alfenheim, to keep the good relationship between the two kingdoms. When you receive an order from the King's mage you don't ask curious questions, it isn't wise to poke your nose into the king's affairs, so you just do as you are told and keep your mouth shut if you value your life.

If the people of Leafenheim think I am a terrible queen they should try to live under the same roof as princess Agrafina! She is probably the most hysterical spoilt child I have ever seen. The hysterical behaviour I pretend to have is nothing in comparison to the real princess Agrafina's, and nobody in their right mind would marry her and make her queen. When I received the order I knew why I was chosen, and that not only would I have to perform my shape shifting every day, but I would also have to pretend to be her, in a way that people would find convincing. I only had a very short time to prepare myself, but I wanted to know why King Frey had decided not to let his daughter marry King Apple Strong. After all, he was breaking the peace treaty, and it could start a war if the King of the Apple Fairies found out he had been cheated. On the day of my departure, a whispering leaf was sent to my room from Eybjörn. The leaf told how princess Agrafina abandoned Alfenheim and her father to marry a monster living in the White Grave.

It was a horrifying story, explaining how a witch had lured King Frey's young wife Queen Lefaie away from Alfenheim. King Frey had sent out his men to find her. They had searched for many days and nights, when a gnome asked permission to talk to the King. He had seen the queen trapped in a spider web in the White Grave in the Mist. When the King's men found her she was lifeless, but the King's Shaman saved her life. Shortly after, the Queen had a child who was very pretty, but she had the mark of a green spider on her back. The King and Queen had never seen that kind of mark before. The King spoiled the princess, and she got more and more greedy. The Queen felt left out and languished until she was only a shadow of herself.

The King only had eyes for the princess, until the day he found her in the arms of a horrible creature, half fairy and half spider. The man claimed that princess Agrafina was his bride because she had his mark on her back. King Frey begged his daughter not to see the monster again, but she had decided that she wanted to become his wife. She had one of her hysterical outbursts, and the King gave up and decided to let her go.

When the princess had left the castle the King turned to the Queen for consolation, but she had lost all her strength. The King was so devastated that he had neglected his wife for so long, that he decided to try to keep the peace treaty with Apple Hold, and avoid a war by sending a bride to replace his lost daughter. The King knew that he might be able to deceive the people of Leafenheim with a false bride, but it would be impossible to deceive the Queen Mother Adea and King Apple Strong for the long term. So he decided to send Eybjörn to the Queen Mother's court to explain what had happened, and get to some kind of agreement. The Queen Mother was sad to hear the news about her son's future bride, but she wanted him to be happy and keep the peace treaty. The Apple fairies already had enough problems with the Dragonians, and a war with Alfenheim wouldn't be wise, so she agreed to accept me as a deputy for princess Agrafina.

The Queen mother had a lot of power, but she was afraid that the young king wouldn't agree to marry a common fairy maiden from Alfenheim. Knowing also that he was in love with a rather inappropriate fairy maiden in Lower Branch Road called Apple Bell, it was decided that I should go to the Snow Drop Ball in disguise as the beautiful princess Agrafina in the hope that the King would fall in love with the princess and take her as his wife, as planned. Perhaps it was a good plan for the safety of the two kingdoms, but it was suddenly a very risky affair for me, and I had no idea how I would manage not to reveal myself to the king, especially if we got married. I had to swear by King Frey's wand that I wouldn't tell a soul about this plot against King Apple Strong.

It was a small solace that King Frey had asked my father to take me aboard Skidbladnir and accompany me on my way to Apple Hold Castle. I was happily surprised that my dear mother and my two brothers Agi and Ari had come to say farewell. We spend a lovely night aboard Skidbladnir, my father read our favourite fairytale about the God Thor and the World Serpent from one of his old books. Agi played his violin, and we danced on the deck until we had Leafenheim in sight. It had been the best night I had had for a long time, and I knew my family and I would be separated from the moment I set foot on Apple Hold Castle.

King Apple Strong had seen paintings of the heavenly beautiful princess Agrafina, so my first day in Leafenheim was very hectic because the Queen mother had made all sorts of arrangements for me to ensure the King wouldn't discover that I wasn't the real princesses when I was introduced to him at the ball. I had never tried on so many gowns, shoes and jewellery as I did that day, and when I entered the Throne Hall of Apple Hold Castle at the ball, I was so exhausted from keeping up appearances that I only vaguely remember the ball and my first meeting with the King.

Now I am attending my second Snow Drop Ball and this time as queen, and I am deeply worried about a rumour in the castle that says one of the king's advisors has come across an article with the title: "Who is Our Mystery Queen", by the reporter Plotka Hildur from the Nidlongdir Post? Somehow she had found some information about me at the Whispering Library. I will have to find and read this article myself to figure out how much she actually knows. As far as I understand, this article was written for a human magazine, and not published in The Nidlongdir Post, and this is a great relief for me to know!
I knew it was important for me to read the article by Plotka myself, and therefore I contacted my brother Agi to ask him to find the article at the Whispering Library. Agi couldn't find the article at the Library, perhaps because it wasn't recorded on a whispering leaf.

I had given up on finding the article, when someone slipped it under my door. Was someone trying to warn me? I read through the article several times, and it struck me that Plotka didn't seem to know that I am not the real princess Agrafina. She simply linked Agrafina to my real family. My guess is that someone leaked this story to her in the hope that she would publish it.

The only person that I know who is capable of coming up with this story, and who would have an interest in leaking it, is the Queen Mother herself. She is very unhappy because we don't have any children yet, and I keep pretending I am not in love with the king. Perhaps the article was meant to be read by her son to open his eyes? The Queen Mother has asked me to show more affection to her son on several occasions, but if I am to get any closer to him, I am afraid that he will discover that I am an imposter. My guess is that Plotka has no idea that the information in her article is incorrect.

By Marianne Mathiasen

Nidlongdir Whisperings

“Germinating seeds of imagination in your mind, and allowing them to bloom, will provide you with the greatest magic power in the world!

The only person in my family who truly believed in fairies was my grandmother. As a child, she asked me to bring stew and beer to the gnome living in the stable, otherwise the pigs would become ill and die. My grandfather was a painter, and he was the one who taught me about the magic of colours and how to mix them. I started to draw and paint as a child, so art has always been a part of my life.

My fairy name is Ranunkel and I was born in Denmark and still live on an island called Als in the south. I am a botanical illustrator and skilled cartoon animator, have worked as an art director and designed a computer game called Rosa and the Magic Fairy.

I find the inspiration for my art in nature, and strongly believe in recycling to save our planet.

May the fairies watch over you!”

 

Introduction to Nidlongdir and our Faezine Reporter Plotka Hildur

I would like to invite you to Nidlongdir, a fairy realm I discovered in my garden. The word Nidlongdir is the fairy's word for world, so they all live in Nidlongdir. There are two fractions of fairies. The Apple Fairies are ruled from Apple Hold Castle by a king and queen. Most of The Apple Fairies live in Leafenheim City. The other fairies are the Dragonians. The Dragonians live in Dragonia in underground caves and are also known as the black nosed fairies. The Dragonian fairies have a parliament called The Gathering where the elder elected advisors rule.

It all started late in the summer of 2008 when I was doing some botanical illustrations of apples in my garden. During the summer I spend many hours under the three old apple trees in the back of my garden, and sometimes I had a feeling that I was being watched. I also found things in the garden that indicated to me that there were fairies in the neighbourhood. My first encounter with the fairies was one morning when I saw two fairies resting in the morning sun in the apple tree. It turned out to be the fairy queen Agrafina and her king Applestrong.

Later in the fall my daughter found a pair of fairy baby twins in an apple from one of our trees. As she was a student she didn't have time for two small babies, so I decided to take care of them myself. I named the twins Selene and Ebbe. I soon discovered that there were many problems taking care of the twins, but one morning a fairy had left a gift for me, it was a fairy communicator that makes it possible for me to understand what the fairies are saying!

During the winter of 2008-2009 I have been travelling into Nidlongdir with the help of some of the fairies I got in contact with in my garden. I was appointed as ambassador of Dragonia, and my task is to tell the human world about Nidlongdir.

There are some ongoing conflicts between the two fairy fractions. They are fighting about the apple trees. The Apple Fairies live in the tops of the trees, and produce apple juice. The Dragonian fairies are living in caves underneath, and they produce tree juice from the roots of the trees. The Apple Fairies want the tree juice production to stop because they think they get fewer apples when the Dragonians take the juice out of the trees.

The Queen is very selfish and her guards are hunting down a jewellery crafter called Danagonia, because she has refused to send her spring collection of jewellery to the queen. I am appointed as ambassador of Dragonia and I had the task is to put an end to the conflicts. At the Snow Drop Ball I was to get an appointment with the Queen to find a way to stop the guards from hunting Danagonia. The queen is spoiled and has too much power, and the King is powerless to her plots.

You can read all my old blogs if you go to The Whispering Library. The fairies of Nidlongdir don't use paper to write on, they use whispering leaves! I am constantly adding new content to this site when I travel into Nidlongdir, and drawing/updating maps so that it will be easy for new visitors to get around. It is my hope that you should be able to go into every building when it has all been finished! For more information on travelling into Nidlongdir please visit the Nidlongdir.com travelling guide.

You can also follow the story through my Enchanted Folk site.

Faezine has hired a Nidlongdir reporter called Plotka Hildur so that you will be able read the latest news from this magic world. Plotka and I work together and have become very good friends. (You can read all about her in the interview I did in the first issue of Faezine Spring 09)  As of Summer 09, Plotka has her own column in Faezine.

Stay living in the magic!

Marianne - Ambassador of Dragonia

Marianne has been a member of Enchanted Folk since June 2008

members.enchantedfolk.com/mariannemathiasen

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