Here at Manchester Art Gallery we’re celebrating National Storytelling Week with a fairy tale inspired by, and illustrated with, works from our collection.
National Storytelling Week has been running for twenty four years, promoting folk tales, fairy lore, myths, legends and the storytellers who tell them. So, sit back and enjoy the tale of…

The Magic Salmon

The King and Queen had died in tragic circumstances and Princess Alex found herself all alone in the world. Well, not all alone. There was her cruel uncle, Duke Rumbert. Princess Alex was too young to become queen and Duke Rumbert would rule on her behalf until she was old enough.

Then she would marry Prince Simon from the kingdom next door. She had never even met him, but they had written to each other from an early age. His letters were full of jousting and how well his favourite knight was doing in the Inter-Kingdom Jousting League.

He bored her already. It would, however, mean peace between their two kingdoms, so she supposed she would have to do it. But her uncle Rumbert plotted to marry her so he could rule the kingdom as king instead.

“Throw him in the Royal Pond!” said Simon.

“No, he might escape,” said Alex, picking up her book. “Leave him to me. I have an idea.”

And that was that. Princess Alex saw that Prince Simon was clever and never gave up, and his time as a fish had made him a good listener. Prince Simon realised that Princess Alex didn’t need rescuing, but needed a friend.

They saw that together they would be a good king and queen, so they got married and they and their kingdoms lived happily ever after.

Until then he kept her in the castle. It was a nice castle, as castles go. It had a library of books to read, a garden to walk in, a royal pond full of fishes, and all her favourite foods to eat, but it was a prison none the less. She was so annoyed she wrote to Prince Simon about it.

A week later, there was a knock at the castle gates. The guard answered it.

Alex looked out of her tower window and saw Prince Simon. He was in a suit of armour that looked several sizes too big for him.

Duke Rumbert strode out to meet the young Prince.

“Is… is Alex in?” asked Prince Simon in a half deep, half squeaky voice.

Alex wanted the floor to open up and swallow her. “This is so embarrassing!”

Rumbert wasn’t impressed either. “I think you mean, Her Royal Highness and Heir Presumptive to the Throne of Norovia?”

Simon swallowed. “Yes.” And then, loudly so his voice echoed round the courtyard, he added, “I’m here to rescue her.”

Alex was mortified. At this moment she hated Simon more than she hated Uncle Rumbert.

Rumbert’s browed creased with concern and he put his arm around Simon’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Simon. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. You see. You won’t be marrying her. Ever.”

Simon frowned. “Uhm, why not?”

“Because you’ll be a fish.”

“Pardon?”

“Long ago I knew a witch who taught me how to turn people into fish,” said Rumbert and he muttered the spell under his breath.

Simon’s mouth opened and closed, but he couldn’t breathe. He began to shrink down inside his armour until it collapsed around him in a heap. And there, flopping about on the grass was nothing but a large salmon, his mouth opening and closing.

“At least your armour fits you now,” Rumbert said looking at the fish’s silver scales. “Throw it in the Royal Pond,” he ordered the guards.

The next day Alex went down to the Royal Pond. The big silver Salmon swam round it glumly.

“I’m so sorry,” she said.

“I thought you liked fish,” said Rumbert.

“Yes,” said Alex, “with a sauce, not as a future husband!”

“Well that’s all right because when you’re old enough you’ll be marrying me!” he declared, before striding back to the castle.

The salmon just swam round the pond, and the more it swam, the calmer Alex felt and the more she opened up. She talked about how much she missed her parents and all the feelings she kept bottled up. It was nice having someone to talk to. It was easier when he wasn’t quoting jousting facts all the time.

One day she went down to the pond after it had rained heavily overnight and found the pond overflowing.

“I’m going to escape,” said the Salmon.

“You can speak!” said Alex. “Why did you say nothing before?”

“Well it’s not easy and now I have this uncontrollable urge to swim out to sea. I can’t help myself. Maybe I can find a way to break the spell then I can come back and rescue you.” And with that he jumped out of the pond, flopped along a little stream of overflowing water and down into a drain.

Alex sighed and called after him. “But I don’t need rescuing!”

When Rumbert found out that the Prince had escaped, he offered a reward for the capture of the magical fish. Every man with a fishing rod, every fishing boat with a net, every fishmonger with a sharp knife, kept a look out for a talking salmon.

*“Every man with a fishing rod… kept a look out for a talking salmon.”*

Alex took refuge in the castle library as Rumbert never went there. She looked at the shelves wondering what book to choose. She pulled out a dusty leather bound volume, read the title on the spine, smiled and began to read.

After flopping down into the drain, the water carried the Salmon down into the river and out toward the sea. It was only once he reached the sea, that he realised he didn’t have a plan. He had no idea how to break the spell, or who might help.

Princess Alex, however, did have a plan. Several in fact. She read a book about mining and dug a tunnel under the castle wall. She didn’t get far before someone raised the alarm. Rumbert had to pay some workmen to fill in the hole she left.

*“Rumbert had to pay some workmen to fill in the hole.”*

Afterwards, she read a book on carpentry. She made a set of ladders and climbed over the castle wall. This time she got further but the Night Watch caught her.

Then she read a book about Theatrical Costumes. She disguised herself as a washerwoman and walked out of the castle gates.

This time she got much further. They only caught her when she forgot to curtsy to the Royal Guard patrol.

Back in the library again, she browsed through the books looking for her next escape idea. In a dark corner high on the shelves she spied just the book. This time, her plan would work and she wouldn’t get caught.

Unfortunately, Salmon did. The fishing lines and bait of the river fishermen might have been easy to dodge, but out at sea the great nets of the fishing boats were much harder to avoid and Salmon found himself trapped.

*“The great nets of the fishing boats were much harder to avoid”*

When the fishermen found they had caught a talking salmon they took him back to their country, where they put him on display in a trough in the town square. People queued for ages to see him. One day, a woman dressed in black joined the queue.

“I smell magic. My magic,” she said.

“Your magic?” said the Salmon. “Duke Rumbert said a witch taught him the spell that turned me into a fish.”

“I didn’t teach it to him, he stole it from me!” she said.

“But can you turn me back?”

“Yes, but you must do something for me in return.”

“I promise,” said the Salmon.

The witch cast another spell and Simon turned back into a Prince again, complete with suit of armour. This one fitted him so perfectly it was practically body-hugging.

“It’s like my scales!” he said, much impressed.

“Don’t forget your promise,” said the witch.

Now Prince Simon could rescue Princess Alex. Racing for the castle, he passed Royal Guards stopping and searching washerwomen.

“Odd,” he thought.

Next, he had to halt at a Stop! sign as workers filled a hole outside the castle walls.

“Strange,” he said.

Then he passed a sign saying ‘No Ladders Allowed – by Order!’ on the castle wall.

“Most peculiar!”

When he reached the castle gates, Duke Rumbert was surprised to see him but he put a brave face on it.

“I’m finally here to rescue you,” Simon called to Princess Alex.

Alex, who had been reading in the courtyard, dropped her recipe book and groaned. “But you don’t need to. I’m in the middle of building a hot air balloon in my tower.”

Rumbert drew his sword. So Simon drew his. They fought. Clish! Clash! Flish! Flash! up and down the courtyard until the Duke stumbled and dropped his sword.

Defeated, Rumbert, sneered “You think you’ve won, but I shall have my revenge,” he said.

“That’s what the witch said,” answered Simon and spoke a spell that the witch had taught him. Rumbert’s eyes widened, his mouth began to open and close and he fell to the floor, flipping and flopping, before turning into a great big fish.

*“He fell to the floor, flipping and flopping.”*

“Throw him in the Royal Pond!” said Simon.

“No, he might escape,” said Alex, picking up her book. “Leave him to me. I have an idea.”

They saw that together they would be a good king and queen, so they got married and they and their kingdoms lived happily ever after.

“Queen Alex snuck down to the kitchens for a secret snack.” — “*Queen Alex snuck down to the kitchens for a secret snack.”*

And as for Duke Rumbert, every so often at night, Queen Alex snuck down to the kitchen for secret snack of fish paste sandwiches until every last bit of fish paste, and Rumbert, was gone.

Illustrations:

“It was a nice castle…”

Caernarvon Castle by Moonlight (1780-85) Joseph Wright of Derby Cc Manchester city Galleries

“He was in a suit of armour that looked several sizes too big”

“’I’m so sorry,’ she said.”

“’I’m going to escape,’ said the Salmon.”

“Every man with a fishing rod… kept a look out for a talking salmon.”

“Alex took refuge in the castle library.”

“Rumbert had to pay some workmen to fill in the hole.”

“She made a set of ladders and climbed over the castle wall.”

“She disguised herself as a washerwoman.”

“The great nets of the fishing boats were much harder to avoid”

“People queued for ages to see him.”

“Simon turned back into a Prince again.”

“He fell to the floor, flipping and flopping.”

“Queen Alex snuck down to the kitchens for secret snacks.”