Today is part two of two where we are talking to Ellie Holland about her novels. After today you will have heard about her journey finding puzzle pieces for 20 years to develop her story, listening to reader feedback to know if there’s a problem, picking an editor, creating in darkness, publishing your books at the right time of year, her advice to new authors on when to publish your book, and learn the ropes before jumping in.

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I’m a portal fantasy author who is obsessed with Pokemon Go, Netflix, and reading any books with dragons.

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Welcome to Freya's Fairy Tales, where we believe fairy tales are both stories we enjoyed as children and something that we can achieve ourselves.

Each week, we will talk to authors about their favorite fairy tales when they were kids and their adventure to holding their very own fairy tale in their hands.

At the end of each episode, we will finish off with the fairy tale or short story read as close to the original author's version as possible.

I am your host.

Freya victoria I'm an audiobook narrator that loves reading fairy tales, novels, and bringing stories to life through narration.

I'm also fascinated by talking to authors and learning about their why and how for creating their stories.

We have included all of the links for today's author and our show in the show notes, today is part two of two, where we are talking to Ellie Holland about her novels.

After today, you will have heard about her journey, how she found puzzle pieces for 20 years to develop her story, listening to reader feedback to know if there's a problem picking an editor, creating in darkness, publishing your books at the right time of year, her advice to new authors on when to publish your book and learning the ropes before jumping in.

The portal.

Guardians.

An epic fantasy adventure.

An elf, a dragon, a shifter, a dwarf, three humans and a cat.

What could go wrong?

In a magical library, a young elf studies brahen, had one dream to learn everything he could about magic.

To become a powerful capare mage, he wanted to travel the world.

Right now, though, he must go pick up some ingredients for erastos.

The old dragon always needed something.

It shouldn't have been hard.

When the mysterious pattern of holes appeared on the ground, bran didn't mean to step into one.

Then, before he knew it, he tumbled through a giant hole and into another world.

On the night shift at the Natural History Museum, nothing interesting ever happened.

Moyra tried to find good in her awful situation.

The reason she was a security guard and not in the NYPD seemed like a cruel cosmic joke.

She wasn't just a strong black woman.

She was stronger than any person alive, and it ruined her life.

Now she had this guy in some sort of elf costume bleeding all over the clean floors.

If word gets out that someone snuck into the museum, she might lose her job.

And that's when they were chosen.

Will they find the others?

And should they trust the cat?

Join this diverse cast of characters on their quest to find the answers they seek in the first book of the Amalgam Chronicles series.

Because long ago, the portals were the key to everything.

Find out why they're back.

So you are, I assume, working on book two at this point.

I am working on oh, my God.

Very neurodivergent.

I'm a panther and a plotter, and I can't work on one project at a time.

So I'm literally working on, like, 60 different books right now.

Oh, gosh.

But, like, hardcore just actually really writing.

I'm writing on book two and then a prequel to the first book.

Okay.

But I have random ideas that will go in, like, a little folder of another book, like a year down the line or something that I keep track of.

So, yeah, right now I'm trying to get out my prequel, which is about these villains from my book.

And everyone seems to love him because basically he's an American who turned into a samurai mage in my fantasy world, and he's obsessed with French fries.

So I have a cover of him wearing, like, a traditional samurai, like kamishimo is what it's called.

I have a lot of Japanese mythology and Japanese culture in my books.

He's wearing not the armor, but what they would wear casually, basically samurai men, what he would wear.

And then he's holding up French fries.

And my cover designer is like, this is amazing.

I love this.

And it's really funny working with him on it.

That almost goes to, like you almost think, like, comic book type with that kind of cover.

You almost think you see it on, like, a comic book.

Yeah.

One of my Arc readers actually told me that my books in general are just the one I have out is like, a mix of, like, a DND campaign with Terry Pratchett level humor.

I didn't know who Terry Pratchett was, and I had to look him up.

Apparently he's like the most famous UK fantasy writer on the planet or something.

And I'm like, what?

Not on the planet, but from the UK.

I guess.

He sold almost more books than almost any other author in England or something super popular.

And he writes, like, really funny, just quirky stuff.

And his humor is really strange and weird and like, oh, okay.

So I took that as a compliment.

I mean, if it's a big name author, by all means take his goal.

It is.

Everyone knows who he is, apparently, I didn't, and I used to read tons of books.

And then after high school, I don't know, social media and watching Netflix took over for years.

But then Booktop actually got me into reading more books again, so I'm getting back into that.

I've had people like, how did you get into Narrating?

And like, why do you spend because my day job.

I work from home, but it's like answer the phone calls as they come in kind of job.

So I would spend a lot of time sitting on my couch with my laptop, just waiting for calls to come in.

And so I would read and I would binge watch Netflix and I would Google how to make money reading books or watching Netflix, because if I'm doing it anyways, might as well get paid for it.

Yeah.

And I started Tick Tock in late last year sometime like November, maybe.

November, December.

I was like flipping through and come across a very clickbaity video of like, earn $1,000 an hour narrating audiobooks.

And I'm like, okay, well, that's clearly clickbait.

But there's got to be people that actually do that.

How do you get into that?

Yeah.

And now I'm up to let's see.

My 50th audiobook just got approved.

Yes.

That's awesome.

Since September of last year.

So 50 audiobooks.

It was my third podcast, but I just canceled one.

So now it's my second podcast.

One of them is a daily fiction one.

So I've done nine other books for the daily fiction podcast.

I'm like, I just keep going.

That's from September of last year to today.

And so it's a ground running and just keeps going.

There you go.

My big thing is.

Ruthie Anne books.

Yeah, her and there's a couple of other ones.

There's a lot of narrators on big claim to fame.

What is her name?

Andy Arnt, who's like audiobook royalty.

She's like on Amazon or on Audibles?

Like, here's our top narrators of all time kind of things.

She's like newer to TikTok and followed me like almost I saw her follow her.

She followed me back.

And I'm like, oh my god, that's awesome.

Audiobook royalty just followed me.

And my husband's, of course, looking at me like I'm insane.

But I'm like, but she's a big todo.

I'm trying to find the name of this Asian American narrator.

Natalie Naudis.

Yes.

We really got that fast.

She charges like four grand a book.

And she just like, lives somewhere where she like that's all she does in her family.

Like, no one else works.

And she makes like six, seven figures a year doing it.

She's amazing.

I was actually thinking about having her narrow write my books.

I'm like, d***, I don't know if I could afford $4,000.

There was one author on here that was talking about their friend had gotten this quote for this audiobook.

And things that they failed to mention is like, how many and it was like some ridiculous not ridiculous ridiculous, but she had a five book series that they had been quoted, like five or $10,000 to narrate these books.

But things that weren't mentioned was how many words each book was.

Which will make a difference for how long the book will be and then what narrator she reached out to because I'm like.

If you're reaching out to someone like top tier like Natalie Nadis or Andy Aren't or like Jim Dale.

Who does the Harry Potter books.

Like.

You're going to be paying a lot more money for those guys.

I do a lot of newer authors like Royalty Share or a little bit upfront with Royalty Share.

I have a few that do pay me up front.

But I'm like I do.

This is not my main gig.

So I'm like, I'm okay over here.

I'll just do a good job on the books that can't afford the big guys.

Yeah.

It'S fun.

I've seen her.

She was one of the ones when I came across the Clickbait video and searched for narrators actually doing it.

She was one of the video.

There's her, and then there's a guy, Tom voiceover, I think is his ticktock name, who also walked through, like, here's how to get started and whatever.

Both of them had, like, here's how to get into it.

And then once you're ready to get coaching, here's what you do and blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, it's crazy.

The voiceover and narrator community is the same as the book talk community.

It's very supportive.

I've had books that I've auditioned for that other narrators have gotten that I'm like, man, I really wanted that book.

But they're doing a really good job because you get to see them narrating and stuff.

I've seen a couple of lives with authors writing their books on the lives.

Those always happen while I'm in the middle of editing or something.

Yeah, I need to do more of those.

I think that would really what do.

You do on just like, sit there talking and typing?

Basically what we're doing right now.

Okay.

Hang out.

And you just do whatever?

Yes.

I don't subscribe to, like, typical interviews.

I'm going to ask you a question and you're going to answer.

And then that's going to be the whole thing.

Yeah.

I like the more conversational.

It feels less awkward.

Yeah, I think that's better.

All right.

So you are working on way too many books.

And when do you plan on having the prequel?

Do you have a set date?

You plan on releasing that or somewhat, somewhat planned date?

Well, it's going to be out by November no matter what, because I'm going to Vegas for an indie author convention, and I do not want to I published my book last year during Christmas season, and that was horrible.

So never doing that again.

I'm never publishing a book from Thanksgiving to New Year's ever again.

What's wrong with it?

It's just too crazy.

And people are looking more for, like, Christmas evils.

And mine is like portal fantasy.

Yeah.

And that seemed well.

Yeah.

And it just didn't work out very well.

So you've got ten other months of the year that are good for every other theme of books.

Basically not.

Halloween is a good one, too.

Halloween is a really good magic time.

Yeah.

Like magic themes and stuff.

But I'm going to have it done by the time the second week of November for sure.

I'm trying to have it out before then because I want our creators to get a hold of it.

And then people are waiting.

I feel so bad because they're like, when is it coming out?

Hurry up.

Like, I'm trying.

Somewhere.

They said it doesn't necessarily matter how often you publish, but stick to your so you at this point, if you get it published, by November.

That's like once every year you're publishing a book and just like stick to your schedule or whatever.

Yes.

They said don't go faster than you can handle long term right now.

Yeah, it's one book a year, but when my kids go to school next fall, I'm going to be writing I'm to going be a full time author and I'm hoping the plan is we'll see if I can do it to publish four books a year.

Three or four, but at least like one to four somewhere in that range is all I can do because it's portal fantasy and my first book was 110,000 words and my next one is going to be like 130,000.

Oh gosh, yes.

Well, book two is my prequel.

It started out being 25,000 words ish and now it's like $65,000.

That's a big jump.

Yeah, because my villain was like, hey, I got more to my story that you're going to tell whether you like it or not.

I'm like, okay.

So 40,000 more words.

Yes.

I was originally just going to do like a really short reader malla.

It's not anymore.

It's like a full length novel now.

What is the cut off for novella?

Like 40,000.

Okay.

But it was supposed to be reader magnet that I was going to give away for free with my new I.

Wouldn'T give 60,000 away.

Yeah, I think I'm still going to.

Do it, but for a limited time.

But I make hardly anything off ebooks.

Maybe like $20 a month on ebooks.

I make the majority of my money from paperbacks, so I'm going to sell the paperback on Amazon.

So I think it's going to be fine.

But people who can't afford a book like, hey, this is a free book.

You just subscribe to my newsletter and you get it downloaded to your phone or whatever.

And I kind of been promising everyone that anyway, so I don't want to take it back.

So my ebook is going to be free.

I got the idea from a K Malford, actually.

She writes like a full length novel.

Like she wrote High Mountain Court and then she wrote like a character backstory a little novella and gave it away for free with a newsletter but still sells the physical copies with a pretty cover and everything.

And then she goes back to writing a full length novel like book two, Witches Blade, I think it was their second one.

So she rotates and I'm like that is actually awesome because then you're kind of working on different projects and if you have ADHD, which she does and I do, then you don't get bored with something and can't finish it.

You kind of like go back and forth instead of just writing the series one book after another.

Right.

And she's like clearly killing it because she's got a seven figure deal from Harper Voyager, which is like a smaller.

Is it part of Harper Collins.

I'm guessing.

Yes.

What do they call it?

Imprint.

Okay.

Yeah, there's something for the smaller underneath the umbrella company.

Yes.

So basically she got that big deal from one of the top six publishing companies.

Like, d***, I want to be her one day.

We're like the same age.

I fully intend to self publish, but I wouldn't turn down a big book deal.

But I don't intend to.

Like, I don't want to go through the query process.

I'm too busy for all that junk.

Like, if someone comes to me, cool.

And I'm the same with podcast.

If like a podcast group.

Business people.

Well, there's like groups of podcasts.

I can't think of what they call them.

Network.

If a podcast network were to come to me, I'm like, that'd be cool.

But I would have to maintain all of my creative rights because I'm not okay with someone telling me what I can and can't do.

Yeah, neither am I.

My books are like way too weird and diverse and just very different.

Very different than a lot of books out there.

So traditional publishers are not going to want it anyway because I've heard a lot of stories about traditional publishers, like wanting whitewashed fantasy.

And I have a lot of different diverse characters.

And like, I'm not going to do that.

They wouldn't want me anyway.

But I do have this, like, little dream.

My husband and I have this little dream of my series becoming like a Netflix series.

Eventually.

Every author I've narrated for a couple of authors.

So one of them was like, I would do anything to get my books into like, a TV show or a movie.

And then I have another one.

Literally, I narrate her book.

I'm talking to her on the podcast, and we're in the last five minutes of the interview and she's like, oh, hey, BT Dubs.

So we have a family friend that literally used to scout books for TV shows, and she loves my book.

And when the trilogy is done, she's going to pitch it to her old boss.

And I'm like, way to bury the lead, dude.

That's awesome.

So potentially I may at some point have narrated TV show books.

That's awesome.

Your name will get widespread there.

This is why I don't use my legal name to do any of this.

Yeah, I don't either.

Ellie Holland is my pet's name.

I don't want that because you said.

When you filled out the release form, you were like, this is my legal name.

Yeah.

I just don't like my real name and I don't want it connected to my husband's family as his last name.

And my pen name last name is a tribute to my author grandmother who's still here.

She's 100 years old this year.

My husband's family is Norwegian, and so Freya is Norwegian goddess of love.

So when I started narrating, I got only non fiction books.

And so I had like a name that I used for nonfiction, and it was like, fairly clean, and I told my family about that one.

And then I started getting, like, spicy books, and my family would not appreciate that.

Like, my mom and my sister know and then like, nobody else does, but yeah.

So I'm like, okay, so we're doing these spicy books now, so we need to come up with a name that fits that.

So freya, the Goddess of Love.

And then Victoria, my sister, actually came up with that one because I couldn't figure out a last name to go with it.

So she's like, what about this?

I'm like, that works.

Let's go.

Pretty.

I like it.

Remind me of Freya, the dragon humanoid character from Final Fantasy IX.

I've actually not played any of those.

I've only played seven, eight, nine, and ten.

Well, my husband is all into, like, Norse mythology and all that, so he's like, yeah, that's the goddess from that.

I'm like, oh, okay.

Yeah.

And as I'm now doing all this mythology research, now I'm reading about all of that.

So.

It'S been a journey, but I do what you can.

But I occasionally have, like, background checks run for my real job, real job, my not as fun job.

I don't know, whatever you want to call the thing that pays for you.

So I'm like, yeah, we maybe need them not to just Google my name and find all these books that I've narrated.

Yeah, be like, but what are you doing in your spare time?

Because my actual name is unique enough, they would only pull me up, and they're not going to pull up another me.

Yeah, mine is too.

I love those unique last names.

Gosh.

So what is the best piece of advice you can give to someone who is getting started?

What is the piece of advice you wish you had known when you got started?

Don't publish your book before it's ready.

Don't rush it.

Just because you see authors that are publishing one book every week or something crazy doesn't mean you have to do that.

You need to work at your own pace and definitely learn the ropes of publishing before you actually publish, because you might want to wait till you write seven books before you publish or whatever.

Basically everything that I didn't do that.

So what is the best way, do you think?

What would have been the best way to figure out if your book was ready or not?

Get opinions from other people who read your genre, for sure.

People who like, I was looking for fantasy readers and post on social media.

Definitely promote your book even before it's out.

One of my best author buddies, CNN McCabe, she has like, 12,000 followers.

Her book is not even out yet, so she's going to be amazing when it finally comes out here in a couple of months.

Just constantly talk about your books, but also have fun, basically.

Because if you're not having fun, then you're just like, Here, buy my book.

What's the point?

Yeah, then people are going to be like, oh, I don't like her.

Right?

Have fun and do your research.

Don't just go for the first editor or formatter or wine editor or cover designer you see, like, take some time to get the right ones.

That's something that I tell authors.

Most of my books come to me because I auditioned for them, and then they liked my voice the best, so they picked me to narrate their book.

Occasionally, I will come across authors on TikTok or whatever that I'm like, oh, I'd really like to make their book, or whatever.

And I had one, I think, last week or this week.

She commented on my video.

Then I talked to her about doing her book.

She listed up for audition, and then I'm like she's like, okay, let's get this done.

And I'm like, you don't have to go with me just because I'm the first person that talk to you.

Like, you can let other people audition and, like, see if there's someone else you like better.

Like, I'm cool either way.

Don't feel like I'm pressuring you to do your book.

But then the whole time she was, like, talking to me, she's like, It's between you and this other person.

We've been messaging back and forth at this point, so it's like, you know, do you have as good of a flow with the other person?

Is that okay with you if they stay disconnected the whole time while they're doing your book?

Here's things to think through and same for you as you're thinking about having someone do your book.

Do you want a narrator that will talk to you through the whole process, or do you want one that just says, leave me alone and let me do my thing?

Yeah, I was originally thinking about having my husband do it because he was, like, a theater student, and he can do all the accents I have.

Like I said, I have a very, very diverse cast.

I have a Scottish accent.

I have a Japanese like American accent.

I have an English accent, and I have a cat pocket the cat, but still speak English.

Who am I missing?

And then I have a Hispanic kid in my book.

It's very diverse, and I knew whoever my characters were, like, ten years ago.

They're there now.

They're not getting changed.

But yes, the book community basically told me I need to have a nonwhite person do my books.

And I'm like, that is fair because I have a very diverse cast.

So I was actually thinking about Ruthie, having her do it.

I have a couple of friends who are like, you need to get your audiobook out, because I do not read any other books unless they're audiobooks.

I can't concentrate.

For me, I'm like, I am not good at accents, and I'd stay busy enough that I'm like, I don't have time to learn accents.

I would never do an accent halfway.

Like, it's either got to be perfect or I'm not going to do it at all because no, I'm not going to butcher some accent.

So I'm like, I always give the option because I get these off the wall.

I just got a five book Epic Fantasy last weekend, and he's got, like, French and Russian and Spanish and something else in there.

And I'm like, you have two options.

Three, you can use a narrator that can do all of those accents.

I can do them, but they will be bad.

Or I can just not do them.

I can watch a lot of videos and take on the personality that people from that culture have in my voice.

But like, yeah, I would just rather I'm from Texas and I can't even do a good Southern accent, for goodness sakes.

It's bad.

Yes.

It's going to be a mess trying to find someone that can do, like.

All of my what Ruthie?

I think I've seen her do accents and stuff.

Page voice on Tik Tok also, I know, does a bunch of accents, her and her I think she always calls him her partner, PJ do a bunch of accents.

But she is white.

I don't think I've ever seen him on anything.

At the end of the day, you just got to find the one that you click with and go that way.

For me, it's going to be who can do all of these accents because of, like, a unicorn area.

Well, if you do list it, there are auditions that they put up, and they may say, I want a general American accent, but then they'll list like, these are the accents in my book.

You need to be able to do them.

I avoid those because I can't.

But there are people that can do all the accents and do them very well.

I am just not one of them.

And I will admit that upfront to anybody because I'm like, I don't want you to think you're going to get all this and then be very disappointed.

Yeah, I really want Natalienas because, like I said, my book is heavily inspired by Japanese culture, and she's Japanese American, so I know she can get that down because I have some Japanese words in my books and magic.

My Elven Mage does, like, a couple of spells in Japanese and stuff, and it's not like, so much that it's overwhelming for someone who only speaks English only here and there.

I listened through she did the SkyHunter series.

I listen.

Yeah, she's so good.

And then I listened to her other stuff.

So when I started narrating, I would, like, edit out my breathing.

Like, I would stop recording and then take a breath and then keep recording, which one makes it take a lot longer to stop all the time.

And two.

It doesn't sound natural because the breathing is all gone.

Yeah.

So I'm, like, listening to her stuff, like, how does she do her breaths?

Because she's not getting comments.

Like, oh, God, this person sounds like they're dying.

Oh, jeez.

But then I listen to other people, too, and some people just breathe.

I don't know how they do it so quietly.

It's like you can hear it, but it's so quiet.

That is not me.

Weird things.

I mean, same with writing.

There's like, weird things that you learn that you wouldn't have thought it was something you needed to learn to write.

We're learning, like, the formatting for writing our own books.

Like, you wouldn't think, like, page breaks and lines and like, all that junk.

But it helps so much down the road to have all the headings already set and all of that as you're going instead of having to go back through 3000 words or whatever.

Yes.

I'm basically going to use this file.

My format are designed for me.

I'm just going to go in and input my books into the same file that works it's in design, which just like an Adobe graphic design program and stuff.

And I'm just like I'm running low on funds, so I have to do what I can.

And if it doesn't work out, it looks like crap.

I'm just going to have to pay her because I am not going through this again.

I am not publishing books.

Ready?

And the one big thing that I did right from the start was I hired the perfect cover designer because I honestly feel like, well, good enough for.

Someone to copy it.

Yeah.

And he actually made a video about it.

He was laughing about it.

He's like, this is really interesting.

And he showed both of them next to each other.

His name is Jeff Brown.

You can look him up.

He is hand drawn, like, cities for Sarah J.

Mast's books.

Oh, gosh.

Like, modeled them in hand painted them on the computer for Sarah J.

Max.

So he's like a huge he's a big to do.

Yeah.

I paid $2,000 for each of my covers for him.

Oh, gosh.

Yeah.

I plan on attempting it myself, but I have absolutely no graphic design background.

But for my day job, I do occasionally have to do design things.

And then obviously I make, like, podcast covers and stuff myself.

Yeah, I'm not very good at the, like, fun.

There are absolutely no trending sounds in any of my TikTok videos because I just haven't figured that out yet.

It's all like I did one on a different account that I was like, Pentatonix was doing, like, dueto kind of thing, and so I did like, one video like that, but the rest of my stuff is all just me talking or whatever.

Oh, yeah, I'm too old to figure this out.

I'm older than you.

You just go find a video that has.

A fun sound.

And you go to the bottom and tap on the sound and you say, Use the sound and then record the video over the sound.

The issue is I find it, but not when I'm at a point where I can record the video.

Oh, that's easy.

You just record you just doing nothing for 5 seconds and you put it in your draft and then you go back later and you redo it.

Yeah, I used to have like 150.

Drafts, but I got small my drafts right now.

I do these behind the scenes of narrating where I'll record like the first record my face with the microphone for the first couple of minutes of narrating a book.

And so I have all these behind the narration, like me just talking or reading these books.

That's all my drops right now is like, books that haven't released on Audible yet.

So I'm just, like, waiting for them to release.

Here you go.

Well, do you have any parting words for any aspiring writers or anybody?

Don't give up.

Even if you only sell like, one book in a year, just get some more books out before you give up because you can't really see your true potential unless you have a few books out is what I think.

And that's what a lot of indie authors have proven to basically that you need to keep going.

Don't give up and keep going.

If you have 50 books out and you're not selling any, then there's a problem.

Yeah, I might want to rethink your.

You should probably go look at your reviews and see if there's any consistency in and if you get 50 books in and haven't done that.

Yeah, I don't know how I really honestly believe it's my cover first that is getting me.

I've sold like 200 books in six months, and it's like, shocking that I don't know.

And I sell signed copies and TikTok loves those.

So 60% of those are from signed copies.

Oh, gosh.

Like 60% of the income total.

My total income so far is from signed copies, so yeah.

Got to love TikTok.

Love their physical copies.

And you get more royalties from physical copies.

So that's another reason why TikTok is amazing for that too.

Yeah.

Because I'm near the multi, the writing and the narrating.

So I set up my narrator site, but I've also got work in progress coming soon section, like there, but it doesn't have anything.

It's like my books, books I've narrated and then I don't remember what the third thing is.

The podcast, maybe?

I don't know.

I have like three things across the top banner.

There you go.

On my website, the my books is like, nothing's there yet.

It's like coming soon or something.

Coming hopefully this year.

I don't know how I actually started writing it yet.

My website is a little sad.

I need to go fix, like, updated.

Yes, I fully intend to do signed and I worked on.

I got my author signature with my not my name already down, so that's already picked out.

Yeah, I need to actually have a book to do things with.

Yeah, it's good to have a book.

Thank you so much for talking to me today.

I will see you around TikTok and you have a good rest of your Saturday.

Thank you.

It's been fun.

Thank you.

Bye bye.

Ellie liked Sleeping Beauty.

As she got older, she thought the instant love was a little crazy.

Sleeping Beauty, or Little Briar Rose, also titled in English as the Sleeping Beauty in the woods, is a classic fairy tale about a princess who has cursed to sleep for 100 years by an evil fairy to be awakened by a handsome prince.

At the end of them, the good fairy, realizing that the princess would be frightened if alone when she awakens, uses her want to put every living person and animal in the palace asleep to awaken when the princess does.

The earliest known version of the story is found in the narrative Purse Forest.

Composed between 1330 and 1344.

The tale was first published by Gian Batista Basil in his collection of tales titled The Pentagon.

Basil's version was later adapted and published by Charles Perrault in historius O clintes du Tempest passe in 1697.

The version that was later collected and printed by the Brothers Grimm was an orally transmitted version of the literary tale published by Perrault.

The ARN Thompson Classification System for Folk Tales classifies Sleeping Beauty as being a 410 tail type, meaning it includes a princess who is forced into an enchanted sleep and is later awakened reversing the magic placed upon her.

The story has been adapted many times throughout history and has continued to be retold by modern storytellers throughout various media.

Today we will be reading the Grim Brothers version.

Briar Rose.

Don't forget we're covering LeMorte de Arthur, the story of King Arthur and of his noble knights of the Round Table on our patreon.

Briar Rose a king and queen once upon a time reigned in a country a great way off, where there were in those days, ferries.

Now, this king and queen had plenty of money and plenty of fine clothes to wear and plenty of good things to eat and drink and a coach to ride out in every day.

But though they had been married many years, they had no children and this grieved them very much indeed.

But one day, as the Queen was walking by the side of the river at the bottom of the garden, she saw a poor little fish that had thrown itself out of the water and lay gasping and nearly dead on the bank.

Then the Queen took pity on the little fish and threw it back again into the river.

And before it swam away, it lifted its head out of the water and said, I know what your wish is.

And it shall be fulfilled.

In return for your kindness to me, you will soon have a daughter.

What the little fish had foretold soon came to pass, and the queen had a little girl so very beautiful that the king could not cease looking on it for joy and said he would hold a great feast and make merry and show the child to all the land.

So he asked his kinsmen and nobles and friends and neighbors.

But the queen said, I will have the fairies also, that they might be kind and good to our little daughter.

Now, there were 13 fairies in the kingdom, but as the king and queen had only twelve golden dishes for them to eat out of, they were forced to leave one of the fairies without asking her.

So twelve fairies came, each with a high red cap on her head and red shoes with high heels on her feet and a long white wand in her hand.

And after the feast was over, they gathered round in a ring and gave all their best gifts to the little princess.

One gave her goodness, another beauty, another riches, and so on, till she had all that was good in the world, just as eleven of them had done blessing her.

A great noise was heard in the courtyard, and word was brought that the 13th fairy was come with a black cap on her head and black shoes on her feet and a broomstick in her hand.

And presently up she came into the dining hall.

Now, as she had not been asked to the feast, she was very angry and scolded the king and queen very much and set to work to take her revenge.

So she cried out, the king's daughter shall in her 15th year be wounded by a spindle and fall down dead.

Then the twelve of the friendly fairies, who had not yet given her gift, came forward and said that the evil wish must be fulfilled, but that she could soften its mischief.

So her gift was that the king's daughter, when the spindle wounded her, should not really die, but should only fall asleep.

For 100 years, however, the king hoped still to save his dear child altogether from the threatened evil.

So he ordered that all the spindles in the kingdom should be bought up and burnt.

But all the gifts of the first eleven fairies were in the meantime fulfilled.

For the princess was so beautiful and well behaved and good and wise that everyone who knew her loved her.

It happened that on the very day she was 15 years old, the king and queen were not at home, and she was left alone in the palace.

So she robed about by herself and looked at all the rooms and chambers, till at last she came to an old tower to which there was a narrow staircase, ending with a little door.

In the door there was a golden key, and when she turned it, the door sprang open, and there sat an old lady spinning away very busily.

Why, how now, good mother, said the princess.

What are you doing there?

Spinning, said the old lady, and nodded her head, humming a tune while buzz went the wheel.

How brittle that little thing turns around, said the princess, and took the spindle and began to try and spin.

But scarcely had she touched it before the fairy's prophecy was fulfilled.

The spindle wounded her, and she fell down lifeless on the ground.

However, she was not dead, but had only fallen into a deep sleep.

And the king and the queen, who had just come home and all their court fell asleep, too.

And the horses slept in the stables and the dogs in the court the pigeons on the house top and the very flies slept upon the walls.

Even the fire on the hearth left off blazing and went to sleep.

The jack stopped, and the spit that was turning about with a goose upon it for the king's dinner stood still.

And the cook, who was at that moment pulling the kitchen boy by the hair to give him a box on the ear for something he had done amiss, let him go, and both fell asleep.

The butler, who was slightly tasting the ale, fell asleep with the jug at his lips.

And thus everything stood still and slept soundly.

A large hedge of thorn soon grew round the palace, and every year it became higher and thicker, till at last the old palace was surrounded and hidden so that not even the roof or the chimneys could be seen.

But there went a report through all the land of the beautiful, sleeping Briar Rose.

For so the king's daughter was called.

So that from time to time several kings sons came and tried to break through the thicket into the palace.

This, however, none of them could ever do, for the thorns and bushes laid hold of them, as it were, with hands.

And there they stuck fast and died wretchedly.

After many, many years there came a king's son into that land, and an old man told him the story of the thicket of thorns and how a beautiful palace stood behind it and how a wonderful princess called Briar Rose lay in it, asleep with all her court.

He told too how he had heard from his grandfather that many, many princes had come and had tried to break through the thicket, but that they had all stuck fast in it and died.

Then the young prince said, oh, this shall not frighten me.

I will go and see this Briar Rose.

The old man tried to hinder him, but he was bent upon going now.

That very day, 100 years were ended.

And as the prince came to the thicket he saw nothing but beautiful flowering shrubs through which he went with ease.

And they shut in after him as thick as ever then he came at last to the palace.

And there in the court lay the dogs asleep.

And the horses were standing in the stables and on the roof sat the pigeons fast asleep with their heads under their wings.

And when he came into the palace, the flies were sleeping on the walls, the spit was standing still.

The butler had the jug of ale at his lips going to drink a draught.

The maid sat with a fowl in her lap, ready to be plugged.

And the cook in the kitchen was still holding up her hand as if she was going to beat the boy.

Then he went on still further and all was so still that he could hear every breath he drew.

Till at last he came to the old tower and opened the door of the little room in which Briar Rose was.

And there she lay, fast asleep on a couch by the window.

She looked so beautiful that he could not take his eyes off her.

So he stooped down and gave her a kiss.

But the moment he kissed her, she opened her eyes and awoke and smiled upon him.

And they went out together.

And soon the king and queen also awoke.

And all the court gazed on each other with great wonder.

And the horses shook themselves and the dogs jumped up and barked.

The pigeons took their heads from under their wings and looked about and flew into the fields.

The flies on the walls buzzed again.

The fire in the kitchen blazed up.

Round went the jack and round went the spit with the goose for the king's dinner.

Upon it the butler finished his draught of ale.

The maid went on plucking the fowl and the cook gave the boy the box on his ear.

And then the prince and Briar Rose were married and the wedding feast was given.

And they lived happily together all their lives long.

Thank you for joining Freya's fairy tales.