I read (maybe - I’ll explain) a story many years ago that has stuck with me, and for the life of me I’ve never been able to find it again. I want to, not necessarily even to read it again, but just to know where I remember it from.
I’d like to explain that there’s been some periods of screwy memory in my life, and I’m not entirely sure whether I a) read the story (probably in an anthology of some sort); b) saw it on TV (like in some sort of Muppet thing, though I’ve looked at those); or c) dreamed it. I know that the images I have of it seem very vivid, like I saw it somewhere, but I’m not sure.
It’s a simple fantasy story. The premise is that there is a kingdom, ruled by…well, who knows, but there’s a witch. And she’s got servants. And the servants steal children, but only by calling them by their names. (The servants may have been crows, I’m not sure.) And she only steals the most beautiful children. So the parents of beautiful children try to name them the most complicated possible names, to keep the witch from stealing them.
So, there are two children born at approximately the same time, to different parents. The girl is a beauty and her parents give her some incredibly long name. The boy is not beautiful; his name was (I think) Dan.
And finally the witch gets hold of the girl and Dan goes to rescue her. There’s a drawbridge, and a moat, and a horse (in my mind) and there was some sort of trickery involved, using the ugliness of the boy.
I’ve tried to ask other people before, but I know this board has a huge readership, so I figured I’d try again.