A Spanish Fairy Tale

This month's digital wallpaper is inspired by a tale called Princess Honeysuckle and the Bird of a Hundred Feathers, selected from a book I picked up recently called Spanish Fairy Tales, published by Hamlyn in 1973.

The book is beautifully illustrated by Michael Romberg and translated by Czech-British writer, Vera Gissing. That is all the information provided - the provenance of the tales is zero.

So far I have read and enjoyed:

Princess Honeysuckle and the Bird of a Hundred Feathers, The Princess and Prince Rabbit, the Prince with Donkey's ears & The Princess who went to the end of the Earth.

Key points to Princess Honeysuckle and the Bird of a Hundred Feathers:

✩Princess Honeysuckle is unwell.

✩The cure is to see the bird of one hundred feathers - each one a different color.

✩There is a quest for the bird and it is brought back to the kingdom.

✩Honeysuckle is healed but the price for becoming well is to give herself to the Frog King.

✩True to the promise Honeysuckle travels to the castle of the Frog King who is in charge of the bird of one hundred feathers.

✩Honeysuckle gets out of marrying the Frog King (who is enchanted but arrogant) through cleverness and trickery aided by a magic pebble given to her by a fairy called Estara.

✩Honeysuckle breaks the enchantment on the bird by kissing it's beak and the golden-haired youth is so chuffed to be in human form again he proposes to Honeysuckle.