In a world where all women are expected to spin to make clothes, Kelsa finds it so boring she outright refuses to learn to do it. This exasperates her mother to no end, and they argue about it every morning by their open door.
And so when the Queen shows up looking for an industrious young woman to wed the Prince, and half-overhears the two women arguing about spinning, she pokes her nose into the kitchen and asks what the woman’s lovely daughter has done. Shocked, Kelsa’s mother lies, and tells the Queen it’s just that her daughter won’t quit spinning, she loves it so.
The royal carriage rolls quickly to the castle and the Queen leads Kelsa into a dungeon where, from floor to ceiling, bales of unspun flax surround a lonely spinning wheel. “Here we are! Paradise! Now, if in three days you can spin all this into linen thread, then you may marry my son!” says the Queen cheerfully. “But, if you fail, well, we’ll just have to chop off your head.” She smiles sweetly. “Bye bye!”
How Kelsa survives all this and ends up the Princess without spinning a single inch of thread is the substance of this hilarious Grimm’s fairy tale.
See and hear Odds Bodkin tell it live on Zoom this coming Sunday, March 7 at 5 pm EST. Join the crowd that’s gathering. Got a question for the artist? There’s a live Q&A afterwards!
Music on two 12-string guitars and Celtic harp.