The Crystal Palace and Other Legends

These are the stories that used to gather children around the fire, legends passed down through generations and dressed in new clothes for a new century. Marie Harriette Frary collected tales from the Rhine and the Low Countries, from Germany and beyond, and retold them with a tenderness that honors their ancient roots while making them intimate enough for a child's bedside. Here you'll find Margot, the old nurse drawn down by Father Rhine to a palace of crystal and light. You'll meet the brave page who fights for his master and then vanishes like morning dew, revealed at last as something more than human. The maiden of Stavoren learns what happens when pride grows so large it swallows everything. And Lohengrin, the Swan Knight, arrives on still waters to champion a princess who cannot ask the one question that would save them both. These aren't cautionary tales dressed in sugar. They're darker than that, stranger. They understand that the world has teeth, that kindness is sometimes rewarded with magic, that the unasked question carries its own terrible weight. Frary tells them with simplicity and grace, letting the stories speak for themselves. For the child who wants to believe that rivers have voices, that swans can be knights, that even the proudest heart can learn mercy.