THE FAIRY RING - An Old Greek Fairy tale

Book excerpt: ISSN: 2397-9607 Issue 271 In this 271st ÿissue of the Baba Indaba?s Children's Stories series, Baba Indaba narrates the Greek fairy tale of ?THE FAIRY RING.? ONCE upon a time, long, long ago in far, far away Greece, the name PETROS GOURAS rang through all the Peloponnesus, and every tongue that spoke it spoke in praise and every ear that heard it listened in admiration. Petros came of a noble family of warriors, rich and powerful, with lands, herds, gold, and rare beauty of form and feature, as his heritage. Three days after the birth of Petros, his fairy grandmother, Selena, came to offer blessings and gifts. She brought her grandson a bag of incense and hung it about his neck to protect him from evil. Three kisses she gave him for the Holy Trinity and then from her leather bag she drew a ring. It was a ring such as no one in all that country had ever seen. The gold band was delicately fashioned and engraved with strange figures, and the jewel caught the light in its crimson heart and flashed it out again with dazzling radiance. "This is my gift to my grandson," said Selena as she kissed the ring three times. "He shall not put it on his finger until the day he is twenty-one years old, for only then will he be strong enough and wise enough to wear it." She made the sign of the cross upon the head of the child. ÿShe didn?t say what would happen to Petros should he dare to wear the ring before he turned twenty-one. However, our story starts further back in time with Grandmother Selena, a fairy Princess, first meeting Pan gos Gouras one day on the Eagle's Hill. Her heart was forever won by this mortal and she renounced her throne and her home to marry Pan gos and live in the realms of humans. What consequences would this breaking the sacred boundary between the realm of the fairies and that of mortals have on the families of both? You?ll have to download and read the story to find out how this all worked out in the end. BUY ANY 4 BABA INDABA CHILDREN?S STORIES FOR ONLY $1 33% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities. INCLUDES LINKS TO DOWNLOAD 8 FREE STORIES Each issue also has a "WHERE IN THE WORLD - LOOK IT UP" section, where young readers are challenged to look up a place on a map somewhere in the world. The place, town or city is relevant to the story. HINT - use Google maps. Baba Indaba is a fictitious Zulu storyteller who narrates children's stories from around the world. Baba Indaba translates as "Father of Stories".