The Stubborn Husband

A Swiss Folktale

By: Bill Gordh

Narrated by: Bill Gordh

Length: 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Award-winning storyteller Bill Gordh (Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence winner, National Association of Parenting Periodicals Gold Award winner) presents this folktale live with no script, accompanied only by his own dynamic banjo playing.

A farmer met a fairy and asked her to marry. She finally agreed but said he must never get angry or call her a bad fairy. He said of course, he would not do that. They married, and everything went wonderfully. They had three children. One day he was in the upper pastures and saw a storm approaching. The fairy wife knew it was coming and so gathered her fairy clan, and they cut the green wheat and put it in the barn with an alder tree branch between each sheaf. A hailstorm followed and wrecked the crops of all the farms around. His crops were in the barn, but still the farmer was angry because he knew that green wheat was useless and would just rot; had she left it in the field at least some would have survived. He yelled at her and called her a bad fairy.

He heard a hiss, and something slithered away. He went down to the barn and found the crop. It was golden and beautiful. It had matured in the barn as a result of the magic and care of the fairy. The farmer was the lucky one, but the fairy wife was gone. Still she continued to feed and dress the children and through them told him if he apologized she would return. But he was stubborn. He would not say he was sorry for yelling at her. The house became a mess. He changed his mind and told his children to tell the fairy wife he would apologize.

He was told he must kiss what he found behind the door. He looked behind the door and saw a snake that slithered up his body and came face to face with the farmer - ready to kiss. He screamed and threw it in disgust to the ground. The fairy wife rose from the ground and told him his love lacked the courage to put aside his disgust, and now she would never return. And that was that. His farm did not flourish. He and his children wound up begging for meals from neighbors and strangers alike.

©2013 Bill Gordh (P)2014 Audible Inc.