Camera, Banjo, Fiddle-The Troll & The Maidens

From the Camera, Banjo, Fiddle photo series.

Once upon a time, two brown haired maidens set out from their home at the edge of the meadow to explore the woods beyond, ignoring warnings from the townfolk to beware the evil troll who dwelleth there...

The girls were young and adventuresome and, in fact, the stone bridge they had been told to avoid was their very destination, for underneath it flowed sacred water believed to ensure goodness of heart, vitality, and everlasting life to all who called upon it. And they wanted these things.

And so the girls gazed intently into the distance and began to concentrate on conjuring the qualities the water was purported to impart, for they knew that they must work to cultivate those things in themselves before they could ask the water to bless them.

But suddenly the air shifted, and the girls realized that something was wrong.

Where once there had been only the serene sound of the magical water flowing beneath the stone there now grew a terrible rumbling, and the girls looked down and realized in an instant that the legends were true- and that the troll had come to undo the very magic they were trying so earnestly and faithfully to do.

He tried to break their concentration and ruin their lovely afternoon, the scoundrel!

There was a moment in which the maidens thought that all was lost, and that their attempts at immortality had backfired so severely that they were sure to lose their lives that very day.

But they kept their wits about them, kicked that old troll in the face, and ran off through the woods to take photographs of one another instead, knowing that the water had heard their calls after all and that they were free to live the rest of their everlasting lives romping around the woods in their favorite vintage nighties.

And they felt the gaze of the Faery Queen looking down at them from her tower, and knew that many good things and beautiful frocks would come their way as they explored the forest and the wide world for all of eternity.

And mostly they felt no fear, until they came upon a little house dug into the hillside which they knew must belong to the old troll himself.

They took precautions to ensure that the troll, if he had been able to drag his wounded and bleeding self from beneath the bridge and make it home, did not detect their presence.

And, in fact, once they remembered that they were now endowed with immortality they quickly lost all fear and began to relax...

And have fun!

And when the troll emerged from his home (with an actually quite handsome face, which had healed astonishingly fast!) to apologize for frightening the girls so, they knew they had made a friend and forest ally for life...

and were much pleased...

especially when he offered to play his banjo and carry their clothes back to their home at the edge of the meadow for them.

Photography by Artemas Rex, troll embodied by John Lee Simpson, vintage nighties frolicked in by Ariella Daly & myself.