Tale of the Water Boatman

Author: Naomi Mott
Illustrator: Margaret Webb

	"I would not have thought a fairy would have anything to cry about" the little girl said in puzzlement. "They haven't" said the boatman "so thair tears are hard and empty and perfect for my needs."

A bitter sweet folktale in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm.

Suitable for 8-12yr olds.

The story is based on an old German folktale, which can be found in: The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and Other Little People, by Thomas Keightley. First published in 1880 but reprinted many times since. The original tells the tale of the King of the Water Sprites, a gnomic figure who resides in a house on the bottom of a lake. One day he is visited by a princess who is horrified to discover that he traps human souls under pots. She sets them free before returning to the surface. I have to admit that when I read the original, I thought it rather rotten that the princess should be allowed get away with such vandalism without any form of redress.

In my version, the princess becomes a pretty little village girl (in the style of Little Red Riding Hood) who forgets her mother's warning not to cross the wide and shallow river on her way to visit her grandmother. She falls into a strange, underground room – the home of a water sprite. But this sprite is not the friendly gnome-like figure of Norse folklore, but an alien, insect-like, creature. Above ground he takes the form of a water boatman beetle, while collecting the souls of the drowned. Can the little girl escape from this prison before he takes her soul too?

Illustrated by Hampsire artist Margaret Webb, Kennet Valley Artists.

ISBN 10: 0955336902
ISBN 13: 9780955336904

Published August 2006