THE DANCERS UNDER THE HILL

by Marcus Attwater

short story, epub

If there really had been twelve sisters the oldest would surely have been married before the youngest was out of the nursery. They wouldn’t all have been of dancing age at the same time. I think humans care about that kind of thing, but not, apparently, when they are telling stories. Their stories don’t have to be true.

This one is.

It is all very well starting a collection of folktales, and editing out the offensive bits, and then telling them to children for generations on end, but has anyone ever asked the subjects of those tales for their opinion?

The Dancers Under the Hill re-imagines the Grimms’ fairy tale ‘The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes’ as remembered by someone who was actually there, and it is not quite the story you thought you knew…