Louisa Freya, Dragon Slayer

Amy Scott Robinson

Description

A collection of 12 folk tales from all over the world about courageous girls.

Folk tales are stories full of adventure, courage, daring, fighting dragons, trolls, and giants, and overcoming challenges. How many of them have girls as the main heroic characters though?

These twelve folk tales from all over the world have been specially selected as they feature strong, adventurous heroines. Some are funny, some make you think, and some – like the story of Fearless Mary – keep you on the edge of your seat with scares and surprises. Meet Louisa Freya, the brave dragon slayer, funny and clever Sigrun, and honest and humble Scarface as well as other heroines from Serbia, Norway, China, Japan, South Africa, and Indonesia. Amy Scott Robinson's distinctive voice, expertise and experience as a performance storyteller makes this a unique and fascinating collection, aimed at readers aged 7-9 years. At the end of each story, Amy shares a bit about where the story comes from, how she has retold it, and what the tale makes her think about when she is hearing or telling it, including Bible verses. These folk tales deserve to be told as often as the more famous and well-known ones. After all, why should boys defeat all the dragons? Enjoy the adventure!

Sujets

• Mythes et fables
• Fairy Tales
• Myths
• Anthologies
• Juvenilee Fiction
• Fables
• Legends
• Anthology
• General officer
• Mythology
• Fable
• General
• Anthologie
• Folklore
• Contes

Informations

• Publié par: Lion Hudson
• Date de parution: 20 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780745979489
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

“Brave Girls. Clever Girls. Faithful Girls. This book is a celebration of folk stories about many kinds of girls from many parts of the world. But my favourite is Mary, the Fearless Girl, who well deserves the two stories she gets, instead of one!”
Bob Hartman, storyteller and award-winning author


For my goddaughters, Sophie and Rachel



Text copyright © 2022 Amy Robinson This edition copyright © 2022 Lion Hudson IP Limited
Illustrations by Evelt Yanait, Advocate Art Ltd
The right of Amy Robinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
All the characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Published by Lion Children’s Books www.lionhudson.com
Part of the SPCK Group, SPCK, 36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4ST
ISBN 978 0 7459 7947 2 e-ISBN 978 0 7459 7948 9
First edition 2022
Acknowledgements
Unless otherwise stated Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright © 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a division of Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked GNB are from the Good News Bible © 1994 published by the Bible Societies/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd UK, Good News Bible © American Bible Society 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992. Used with permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Produced on paper from sustainable sources
Printed and bound in the UK, January 2022, LH26


Contents
Louisa Freya, Dragon Slayer
Clever Sigrun
Clumsy Scarface
TuTuMu
Zacharenia
Fearless Mary: Part One
Fearless Mary: Part Two
Xun Guan
Thakane
Sir Ashwyn
Sonja
Tilda and the Troll
The Empress Jokwa
Source List


To the reader
Do you like fairy tales? Which ones do you know? Do you have any favourites? And when they are stories of adventure, courage, daring, and fighting dragons, how many of them have girls as the main characters?
In this book, I have collected real folk tales from all over the world about adventuring girls. I only chose a story if the girl in it made her own decisions and made things in the story happen by herself. Some of them didn’t have names in the original stories and were just called “the girl” or “the princess”, which is how people used to tell stories. I had fun choosing names to suit them and their personality.
At the end of each story, I’ve told you a bit about where I found it, how I retold it, and what I think about when I’m hearing or telling it.
I think that these stories deserve to be told as often as the more famous ones, and I hope that you will enjoy reading them. After all, why should boys get all the dragons?
Enjoy the adventure!
Amy Scott Robinson




Louisa F reya, Dragon Slayer
There was once a sleepy little town on the edge of nowhere in particular, where everybody enjoyed a quiet life. The mayor of the town was very proud of his record for keeping the peace: there were never any riots or fights or ugly scenes. The mayor had one daughter, whose name was Louisa Freya, and whenever she was stubborn or argumentative (which was too often for his liking) he would say to her, “Peace, Louisa Freya! Peace and calm and keeping everybody happy, those are the important things!”
Unfortunately, one day the peace of the little town was interrupted by the arrival of a huge seven-headed dragon, which moved into the swampy marshland just outside the town gates and started tucking into the residents. The mayor, as you can imagine, was rattled by this, but not for very long. After a brief exchange of messages, he came to an agreement with the dragon: so long as they sent one person from the town to be gobbled up every month, the dragon would not come in and help himself to the rest of them.
Louisa Freya was horrified. She stamped her foot at her father.
“You can’t just feed people to the dragon!” she said. “We should go out there and fight it!”
But her father shook his head.
“No, my girl, it’s far too strong for our tiny army. Better to let a few people be eaten than allow the whole town to be destroyed. There will still be peace and calm this way, and those are the important things.”
“Nonsense!” was all Louisa Freya could think of to say, for which she was sent to her room.
The mayor put the names of all the town’s citizens into a basket, then drew one name out every month. The first month it was Timmy, the blacksmith’s apprentice, who was sent off to the dragon. Louisa Freya went to her father in tears.
“You can’t just let Timmy be eaten!” she sobbed. “We have to fight the dragon!”
“Better to let a few people be eaten than allow the whole town to be destroyed,” replied the mayor. “You’ll understand when you’re older.”
“Nonsense!” said Louisa Freya.
The second month, Anna from the dairy farm had her name pulled out of the basket and was sent out to the dragon. Louisa Freya pleaded with her father.
“Anna sits next to me at school! She’s one of my best friends! Please don’t let her be eaten. Please let’s fight the dragon!” she begged.
“Better to let a few people be eaten than allow the whole town to be destroyed,” came the reply. “Peace, Louisa Freya, peace and calm!”
“Nonsense!” said Louisa Freya.
In the third month, the mayor put his hand into the basket and pulled out a name. When he read it his face turned the colour of a pale winter dusk for the paper said, “Louisa Freya, daughter of the mayor”.
“Of course Louisa Freya doesn’t have to go to the dragon!” said the mayor. “She’s my only daughter. I need her here. I’ll pick again.”
“NONSENSE!” shouted Louisa Freya and stamped both her feet. “Do you think that Timmy’s father didn’t need him, or that Anna’s father didn’t miss her? That paper says Louisa Freya on it, and I will go to the dragon!”
Louisa Freya hurried into her kitchen and took the longest, sharpest knife she could find. She strapped it on with her belt, put her coat on over the top, and set out toward the dragon’s swamp.
When she arrived, the dragon couldn’t be bothered to lift more than two of its seven heads to take a look.
“You’re just a slip of a girl,” it complained. “The last one they sent was a similar size. I was hoping you’d have more meat on you.”
“Sorry about that,” said Louisa Freya. “and about this…” and she stepped forward as she spoke, pulled the knife from her belt, and sliced off the nearest head. It fell to the floor and started to laugh.
“That’s odd,” said Louisa Freya. “I never knew being beheaded was so funny.”
“It’s you I’m laughing at, silly girl!” said the head on the floor. “Did you really think you’d be able to come here and defeat me? A weak little girl-child like you? Not even the strongest knights can manage it!”
With that, the neck bent down to the head and picked it up and, just like that, it was attached again, still laughing.
“Interesting,” said Louisa Freya, and she took a swipe at the second head, which had joined in with the joke.
“Stupid! Weakling! Fool!” it jeered as it fell, but the neck caught it on the way down and straight away it was attached again.
“That’s enough playtime,” said the dragon, licking all seven sets of its lips. “Lunchtime now.”
“Nonsense!” said Louisa Freya, and she lopped off both of the heads that were coming her way with their mouths open.
“She still thinks she can fight us!” said one as it bounced off the ground.
“It’s almost cute,” said the other.
“She’s not very clever, is she?” remarked the first. “Doesn’t learn from experience.”
“Oh, be quiet!” snapped Louisa Freya, and she picked up the head and cut out its tongue.
“There,” she said. “Now at least you can’t insult me while I’m trying to kill you.”
The head lay silent and still on the ground. “Ah, ha!” said Louisa Freya.
“You may have discovered our secret,” sneered the second head, “but we will eat you long before you manage to defeat us.”
“You’ll have to catch me first,” Louisa Freya replied, and she darted off to the side, leaving the lunging head to smash its face on the rock where she’d been standing.
If you had been watching, all you would have seen from then on was a blur. Louisa Freya raced this way and that as the heads chased her. She scrambled over necks and ducked under them; she flew from left to right and from right back to left again with teeth catching at her coat. When at last she stopped, the necks were woven into a tight plait with all six angry heads snapping in a bunch on the end.
“Now, then,” said Louisa Freya, “hold still.” And she hacked through the thick rope of woven necks, taking care to pick up each head as it fell and cut out the tongue. With the last head gone, the knotted dragon slumped to the ground.
Louisa Freya gathered together all seven tongues and put them in her coat pocket. She wiped the knife and stuck it back in her belt. Then she set off for home.
Meanwhile, in the town, the mayor had been putting up posters to advertise for dragon fighters, offering a thousand pound reward and his daughter’s hand in marriage for anyone who could return Louisa Freya alive.
A knight riding through the town caught sight of one of the posters, and as he was short of cash and didn’t have a wife, he set off to find the dragon. He was a bit dismayed to find that it was already dead and that Louisa Freya was no longer on the scene, but seeing the seven heads on