Snow Queen

There is a legend that, once upon a time, a beautiful fairy, the Snow Queen, lived on the highest, most solitary peaks of the Alps. The mountain folk and shepherds climbed to the summits to admire her, and everyone fell head over heels in love with her.

Every man would have given anything, including his life, to marry her. Indeed, their lives are just what they did give, for Fate had decided that no mortal would every marry the Snow Queen. But in spite of that, many brave souls did their best to approach her, hoping always to persuade her.

Each suitor was allowed to enter the great ice palace with the crystal roof, where the Queen's throne stood. But the second he declared his love and asked for her hand, thousands of goblins appeared to grasp him and push him over the rocks, down into bottomless abysses.

Without the slightest emotion, the Queen would watch the scene, her heart of ice unable to feel anything at all. The legend of the crystal palace and the beautiful heartless Queen spread as far as the most distant alpine valley, the home of a fearless chamois hunter. Fascinated by the tale, he decided to set out and try his luck. Leaving his valley, he journeyed for days on end, climbing the snowclad mountain faces, scaling icebound peaks and defying the bitterly cold wind that swept through the alpine gullies.

More than once he felt all was lost, but the thought of the lovely Snow Queen gave him new strength and kept him moving onwards. At last, after many days climbing, he saw glinting in the sunshine before him, the tall transparent spires of the ice palace.

Summoning all his courage, the young man entered the Throne Room. But he was so struck by the Snow Queen's beauty that he could not utter a word. Shy and timid, he did not dare speak. So he knelt in admiration before the Queen for hours on end, without opening his mouth. The Queen looked at him silently, thinking all the while that, provided he did not ask her hand in marriage, there was no need to call the goblins.

Then, to her great surprise, she discovered that his behaviour touched her heart. She realised she was becoming quite fond of this hunter, much younger and more handsome than her other suitors. Time passed and the Snow Queen dared not admit, not even to herself, that she would actually like to marry the young man.

In the meantime, the goblins kept watch over their mistress; first they were astonished, then they became more and more upset. For they rightly feared that their Queen might be on the point of breaking the Law and bringing down on the heads of all the Mountain People the fury of Fate.

Seeing that the Queen was slow to give the order to get rid of her suitor, the goblins decided to take matters into their own hands. One night, as dusk fell, they slipped out of the cracks in the rock and clustered round the young chamois hunter. Then they hurled him into the abyss. The Snow Queen watched the whole scene from the window, but there was nothing she could do to stop them. However, her icy heart melted, and the beautiful cruel fairy suddenly became a woman.

A tear dropped from her eye, the first she had ever shed. And the Snow Queen's tear fell on to a stone where it turned into a little silvery star.

This was the first edelweiss ... the flower that grows only on the highest, most inaccessible peaks in the Alps, on the edge of the abyss and precipice . . .

Martin Driscoll's Paintings

Paintings of Irish Life - I love it like anything



                         Farmer and Dog

click the link below u will be into paintings world...............

http://www.martindriscoll.com/

Stonecutter

Once upon a time there lived a stone cutter ,in a small village. All day long he worked hard, cutting the hard stones and making the shape which were needed by his customers. His hands were hard and his clothes were dirty.

One day he went out to work on a big stone. It was very hard to work and the sun was very hot. After spending several hours cutting the stone, he sat down in the shade and soon fell asleep.
After sometime, he heard sound of somebody coming. Walking up he saw a long procession of people. There were many soldiers and attendants and in the middle, in a palanquin, carried by strong people at the king .

How wonderful it must be to be the great king thought the stone cutter . How happy I would be if i were the king instead of a poor stone cutter.

As he said these words, a strange thing happened. The stone cutter found himself dressed in silk clothes and shining jewels. His hands were soft and he was sitting in a comfortable palanquin.
He looked through the curtains and thought, How easy it is to be a king, these people are here to serve me.

The procession moved on and the sun grew hot. The stone cutter ,now the king ,became too warm for comfort. He asked the procession to stop so that he could rest for some time .
At once the chief of the soldiers bent before the king and said Your Majesty, only this morning you swore to have me hanged to death if we did not reach the palace before the sun set.

The stone cutter felt sorry for him and ordered the procession to go on its way again.As the afternoon wore on, the sun grew hotter, and the king became more and more uncomfortable.I am powerful, it is true, but how more powerful the sun is, he thought I would rather be the sun than a king .

At once, he became the sun ,shining down on the earth.
His new power was hard to control.
He shone too strongly, he burned up the fields with his rays and turned the ocean into vapour and formed a great cloud which covered the land.But no matter how hard he shone, he could not see through the clouds.It is obvious that the clouds are even stronger and more powerful than sun said the stone cutter, now the sun, I would rather be a cloud.

Suddenly he found himself turned into a huge dark cloud.
He started using his new power. He poured rain down on the fields and caused floods. All the trees and houses were swept away but a boulder, which once he had been cutting when he was a stone cutter was unmoved and unchanged.
However much he poured down on the stone it did not move.
Why that rock is more powerful than I am said the stone cutter now a cloud. Only a stone cutter could change the rock by his skill. How I wish I were a stonecutter.No sooner he said the words that he found himself sitting on a stone with hard and rough hands.
He picked up his tools and set to work on a boulder, happily.

Love and Time

Once upon a time, in an island there lived all the feelings and emotions : Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love. One day it was announced to them that the island would sink! So all constructed boats and left. Except for Love.

Love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment.

When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.

Richness was passing by Love in a boat. Love said,
"Richness, can you take me with you?"
Richness answered, "Sorry Love, I can't. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat and so there is no place here for you."

Love next asked Vanity who was also sailing by. Vanity was also ready with the same answer.
"I can't help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat," Vanity answered.

Sadness was close by so Love asked, "Sadness, take me along with you."
"Oh . . . Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!", sadness said in a sullen voice.

Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so preoccupied with her happiness that she did not even hear when Love called her.

Suddenly, there was a voice, "Come, Love, I will take you." It was an elder. An overjoyed Love jumped up into the boat and in the process forgot to ask where they were going. When they arrived at a dry land, the elder went her own way.

Realizing how much was owed to the elder, Love asked Knowledge another elder, "Who Helped me?"
"It was Time," Knowledge answered.
"Time?" thought Love. Then, as if reading the face of Love, Knowledge smiled and answered, "Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is."

Cater and Pillar

Once upon a time there were two caterpillars, a brother and a sister, who lived together way up on the top of a big oak tree. The two caterpillars loved each other very much. They played together, ate together, and watched out for each other.

            





 One day, while they were     munching on a nice delicious green leaf, a strong breeze blew them off the tree and they both landed on the ground. They looked up and saw how far their little home was, all the way up in the top of the tree.

"Oh, no" said Cater "it will take us forever to make it back home." Pillar sighed and then she said "You're right, but we will just have to keep going until we make it, otherwise we will never get home." So they started climbing the tree. They were a bit surprised because the part they were climbing was smooth and gray, not at all like the rough brown part up at the top of the tree where their home was. But since they had never been to the bottom of the tree they thought that this was just how it was. They had only climbed a few inches however, when the tree started to move! "Wow, the tree is moving now" said Pillar sounding a bit worried. "Look!" Cater said pointing up "This isn't the tree that we're climbing. It's the foot of Elephant!" When Pillar looked up she saw two giant elephant eyes looking straight at her.

The elephant said "Why are you tickling my leg you little caterpillars?" By now Cater and Pillar were very afraid, but they explained to the elephant how the big wind had blown them out of the tree and they had thought his leg was the bottom of the tree where their home was.

The elephant was very kind even though he looked very frightening to the little caterpillars and he felt very sorry for them being stuck on the ground so he decided to help them. He put his long trunk down next to them and told them to climb on. Then he carried them up to the top of the tree by stretching his long trunk way up high. The caterpillars were thrilled to be home again and they both shouted at exactly the same time "Thank you Elephant! You saved us a lot of work climbing back up this big tree." The kind elephant waived his long trunk at the two caterpillars and went happily on his way.

The two caterpillars continued to live in the top of the tree and to take care of each other, but soon it was time for them to make their cocoons and turn into beautiful butterflies. Cater and Pillar said goodbye to each other and promised that who ever came out first would stay and wait for the other one. Then they spun their cocoons and sealed themselves inside.

While they were in their cocoons, another big storm came and blew them off their branch and far away. But this time they did not land next to each other. Cater landed near the river and Pillar landed near the field.

When they came out of their cocoons the caterpillars could not find each other. They looked this way and that but they couldn't even see their home. Each caterpillar, now a beautiful butterfly, was alone in the middle of the great big world. "Where is Cater?" Pillar said when she came out. "Where is Pillar?" Cater thought when he came out. So the two butterflies decided to look for each other.

But Cater knew that he had to find her somehow, so he flew up into the air and began to look around for his sister. Each time he saw another butterfly he would rush over and ask, "Are you Pillar?" But each time the answer was "No" so he kept looking. He must have asked one hundred butterflies this question, but none of them were his sister. Everyone wanted to help and they all asked what she looked like but Cater could not tell them because he didn't know. All he knew was that her name was Pillar and that she was his sweet sister.

By now Pillar was just as worried. She had also realized that since she had turned into a butterfly with purple and red wings and blue spots, her brother must look different too. She knew that he must have changed just as much and she would never be able to recognize him. How was she going to find him? How? How? How?

Pillar also began to look for Cater by flying around and calling his name as loudly as she could. Suddenly she had a great idea and she started to ask all of the other insects she saw to help her find her brother by calling his name too. Before she knew it there were hundreds of insects flying around calling her brother's name. The air was full of bugs saying ''Cater".

Before long Cater heard someone calling his name and rushed see who it might be. He followed the sound of his name until he reached a big fat green praying mantis. Cater was very disappointed to see that it was not his sister, and he asked the praying mantis why he was calling his name. The praying mantis told him that a beautiful purple butterfly with blue spots was looking for her brother and had asked him to help.

Cater was so happy! He was close to finding his sister again and he could hardly believe that he would see her again. Once Cater had calmed down he asked a praying mantis which direction his sister had gone. The helpful praying mantis pointed him in the right direction and Cater flew off as fast as his wings could carry him. Every time Cater passed an insect calling his name he would happily shout "That's me!" He was getting happier by the moment because he knew that he was going in the right direction and soon he would see Pillar again. Then, far away, he saw his sister. He started calling her name and flying to her as fast as he could. Pillar heard her brother's voice and turned to see a beautiful butterfly with black and yellow spots heading towards her. In no time the two butterflies were back together again and they were laughing and playing as they flew off across the fields to search for their lovely home.