Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Gudgekin the Thistle Girl: And Other Tales
    Gudgekin the Thistle Girl: And Other Tales
    Gudgekin the Thistle Girl: And Other Tales
    Ebook55 pages24 minutes

    Gudgekin the Thistle Girl: And Other Tales

    By John Gardner

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    John Gardner’s classic fairy-tale collection depicts a world where anything can happen—and often does

    A humble thistle girl, a wise old philosopher, a hapless woodchopper, and an unscrupulous king—these are the vivid protagonists of Gardner’s masterful book for children. Richly and humorously drawn, they face challenges at every turn. And in a realm where any one of these unconventional heroes might triumph, the reader will delight in expecting the unexpected!   Inventive and illustrative, entertaining and edifying, these four stories demonstrate the quirky challenges of distinguishing between good and evil and living happily ever after.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateNov 2, 2010
    ISBN9781453203224
    Gudgekin the Thistle Girl: And Other Tales
    Author

    John Gardner

    John Gardner (1933–1982) was born in Batavia, New York. His critically acclaimed books include the novels Grendel, The Sunlight Dialogues, and October Light, for which he received the National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as several works of nonfiction and criticism such as On Becoming a Novelist. He was also a professor of medieval literature and a pioneering creative writing teacher whose students included Raymond Carver and Charles Johnson.

    Read more from John Gardner

    Related to Gudgekin the Thistle Girl

    Related ebooks

    Children's Fairy Tales & Folklore For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Flatwoods Monster!

      Mar 24, 2022

      The Flatwoods Monster!
      1 min read

    • Article

      Forest Gods

      Mar 11, 2021

      1. Jack in the Green, or the Green Man, can be found grinning out of ceiling bosses and stone carvings in churches all over Britain. A vegetation god, he is linked to the woodwose: Middle English for ‘wild man of the woods’. 2. Gwyn ap Nudd is an an

      1 min read

    • Article

      We Should All Be Reading Ancient Poetry Right Now

      Aug 2, 2018

      In 1942, the classicist Edith Hamilton acknowledged the “dark spots” which encroach upon the worlds of Greek myth. Reading ancient poetry today makes you realize how those dark spots have grown. They may be sinister, but like black holes, they suck y

      3 min read

    • Article

      Giants Of The Deep

      Jul 31, 2018

      Giants Of The Deep
      7 min read

    • Article

      Postcards from Fairyland

      Jun 15, 2023

      Postcards from Fairyland
      10 min read

    • Article

      When Rape Is a Plot Twist

      Oct 31, 2017

      When Rape Is a Plot Twist
      5 min read

    • Article

      Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

      Mar 13, 2020

      When The Times reviewed Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland only one line was needed to dismiss it completely: ‘(it) may best be described as an excellent piece of nonsense.’ On the other hand, the reviewer had only praise for John Tenni

      2 min read

    • Article

      Sir Lancelot's Quest

      Mar 4, 2020

      Sir Lancelot's Quest
      4 min read

    • Article

      67 Ways To Celebrate Birds

      Apr 30, 2020

      67 Ways To Celebrate Birds
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Good Little Mouse

      Oct 6, 2021

      The Good Little Mouse
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Crystal Ball

      Nov 1, 2023

      The Crystal Ball
      5 min read

    • Article

      Snow Maiden

      Jan 1, 2024

      Snow Maiden
      8 min read

    • Article

      Yellow Lily

      Aug 4, 2021

      Yellow Lily
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Dullard

      Jun 5, 2019

      The villagers of Yockenthwaite knew him as ‘Jack Dull’, ‘Jack Dolt,’ or sometimes just ‘The Dullard’. His real name was John Dullard, last in a long, illustrious line of Dullards, and a man – so they said – of quite miraculous stupidity. The kind of

      7 min read

    • Article

      Save a Kingdom

      Nov 1, 2023

      Save a Kingdom
      7 min read

    • Article

      Snowdrop

      Jan 5, 2023

      Snowdrop
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Postmenopausal Fairy Tale

      Feb 4, 2019

      The Postmenopausal Fairy Tale
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Wolf Prince

      Jan 6, 2021

      The Wolf Prince
      5 min read

    • Article

      Pond Water

      Feb 1, 2019

      Pond Water
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Wind-tossed Spell

      Jan 1, 2019

      A Wind-tossed Spell
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Incredible Crow

      Mar 4, 2020

      The Incredible Crow
      4 min read

    • Article

      Our Girl gang

      Aug 31, 2023

      Our Girl gang
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Gudgekin the Thistle Girl

    4/5

    15 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Not something I'd ordinarily read, but Gardner's writing is terrific.
    • 4/5
      This is a collection of four darkly humorous fairy tales, illustrated with witty black-and-white drawings by Michael Sporn. I have enjoyed these stories since I was a child because they are both more sophisticated and more unexpected than your usual fairy tales. Also, they are very funny and stick with you long after reading them.
    • 4/5
      I read this book many years ago as a child. Unfortunately, it has long been out of print, but thanks to the internet this is not the barrier it once was. Interestingly, apparently this is the same John Gardner who wrote "The Art of Fiction," which I'm slowly working my way through.Anyway, this book has four short fairy-tale-like stories, and there's usually a twist to them. It's a little bit dark, especially The Shapeshifters of Shorm, but I don't remember being bothered by that as a child.

    Book preview

    Gudgekin the Thistle Girl - John Gardner

    signup

    Gudgekin the Thistle Girl and Other Tales

    John Gardner

    Illustrations by Michael Sporn

    Contents

    Gudgekin the Thistle Girl

    The Griffin and the Wise Old Philosopher

    The Shape-Shifters of Shorm

    The Sea Gulls

    Gudgekin

    the Thistle Girl

    In a certain kingdom there lived a poor little thistle girl. What thistle girls did for a living—that is, what people did with thistles—is no longer known, but whatever the reason that people gathered thistles, she was one of those who did it. All day long, from well before sunrise until long after sunset, she wandered the countryside gathering thistles, pricking her fingers to the bone, piling the thistles into her enormous thistle sack and carrying them back to her stepmother. It was a bitter life, but she always made the best of it and never felt the least bit sorry for herself, only for the miseries of others. The girl’s name was Gudgekin.

    Alas! The stepmother was never satisfied. She was arrogant and fiercely competitive, and when she laid out her thistles in her market stall, she would rather be dead than suffer the humiliation of seeing that some other stall had more thistles than she had. No one ever did, but the fear preyed on her, and no matter how many sacks of thistles poor Gudgekin gathered, there were never enough to give the stepmother comfort. You don’t earn your keep, the stepmother would say, crossing her arms and closing them together like scissors. If you don’t bring more thistles tomorrow, it’s away you must go to the Children’s Home and good riddance!

    Poor Gudgekin. Every day she brought more than yesterday, but every night the same. If you don’t bring more thistles tomorrow, it’s away to the Home with you. She worked feverishly, frantically, smiling through her tears, seizing the thistles by whichever end came first, but never to her stepmother’s satisfaction. Thus she lived out her miserable childhood, blinded by burning tears and pink with thistle pricks, but viewing her existence in the best light possible. As she grew older she grew more and more beautiful, partly because she was always smiling and refused to pout, whatever the provocation; and soon she was as lovely as any princess.

    One day her bad luck changed to good. As she was jerking a thistle from between two rocks, a small voice cried, Stop! You’re murdering my children!

    I beg your pardon? said the thistle girl. When she bent down she saw a beautiful little fairy in a long white and silver dress, hastily removing her children from their cradle, which was resting in the very thistle that Gudgekin had been pulling.

    Oh, said Gudgekin in great distress.

    The

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1