Stories Told by the Miller

Name: Stories Told by the Miller
Author: Violet Jacob

Janet and her small brother Peter, orphaned and living with a cruel, witch-rumored grandmother beside a mill-pond, find refuge in the friendship of the local miller, who begins entertaining them with stories drawn from his late grandmother's book and memory. The frame narrative traces the growing bond between the miller and the two children across a series of storytelling sessions, culminating in his marriage proposal to Janet, made conditional on Peter's approval, and their happy union at the tale's end. The miller's first story tells of a Water-Nix who lives hidden in the mill-race until a passing pedlar's song of the sea awakens in her an unbearable longing for the ocean. She flees inland to the coast, is nearly caught by village boys, is abducted by a pirate who wants a bride, and is freed by a captive priest who bribes a guard with stolen jewels. Abandoned again, she is aided by a lovesick, poetry-obsessed student, but abandons him too upon hearing the pedlar's song once more, ultimately diving into the sea and swimming off with a sea-kelpie forever. The second tale concerns three brothers sent out by their mother to see the world. The two elder brothers, having achieved nothing, lie to their honest younger brother about their wealth and marriages, tricking an innkeeper's clever daughter into posing as a bride to maintain the deception. She sees through the ruse, falls for the youngest brother instead, and with the help of a loyal magpie exposes the plot, elopes and marries him, then uses the magpie's cunning to recover a stolen royal crown from thieves, winning riches and a reward from a king while the deceitful brothers are left humiliated and destitute. Next comes the story of Master Bogey, a young goblin-like creature living in a tree outside a nursery window, who sneaks into a grand house out of curiosity and befriends a mistreated, ragged doll belonging to a cruel little girl named Jane, while her sisters' vain, fashionable dolls mock him. With his parents' blessing, he returns to rescue the doll, and after a narrow escape from discovery, the two are united and live happily in the treetop. The miller then reads of a proud Princess who eats magic fruit from a "Tree of Pride" and becomes cold and vain, spurning the King she was to marry. The rejected King captures the old guardian of the tree, learns that only its spring blossoms can undo the curse, and eventually persuades the Princess, with help from a shrewd lady-in-waiting, to wear a wreath of the flowers, restoring her heart. She flees to seek his forgiveness, and together with the old man and her horse Amulet and impudent lapdog Giroflé, faces capture by an Enchantress and a sinister Bat-King in an enchanted forest before the lovers escape and marry. Another evening brings the tale of Farmyard Maggie, an orphaned girl who tends poultry and befriends a proud gamecock, Alfonso, and a vain Cochin-China cock. Fleeing cruel treatment, they join a band of gipsies, where Maggie befriends the gipsy girl Rhoda and the quiet Dan. Alfonso is stolen to be used as a fighting cock; Maggie searches for him, is briefly taken in by a well-meaning Bishop, escapes with Rhoda's help, and eventually finds Alfonso badly injured after a cockfight. He survives, crippled but content, and the whole company is reunited, with Rhoda marrying Dan. A further story tells of Laurine, a beautiful but unhappy Princess forced by her stepfather to marry whichever suitor plays music loudest at a contest. Aided by a clever Fiddling Goblin, she escapes amid the resulting cacophony, aided unknowingly by a poor, drum-playing suitor named Swayn. The two eventually meet, fall in love under mistaken identities, are separated by misunderstanding, and reunite after Laurine becomes a famous dancer and Swayn a wandering musician; imprisoned as vagrants, freed to perform for a king, and later saving each other from accusations of witchcraft, they finally marry with the goblin's blessing. The final tale, connected to a statue the miller shows the children in the nearby town, describes a Princess who befriends a witch wishing to reform her ways, receives the witch's magical flying black cloak in return for helping her, and uses it to travel the world studying flowers. On one flight she rescues a freezing, starving orphan boy, raising him with the witch's help. He grows into a humble, hardworking gardener who becomes the world's most renowned botanist, and at a banquet honoring his life's achievements, he dies peacefully, envisioning the Princess as an angel; his enchanted cloak flies off into the sky alone.

By Violet Jacob · First published 1909 · Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Frame Narrative · 9 chapters · 53,412 words

First lines

Janet and little Peter lived in an old white-washed cottage that stood in a field by the border of the mill-pool. It was a tiny, weather-stained cot, to which a narrow path led through a gap in the low wall of the highroad. Across the road stood the mill itself, grey, windowless, and solid, with stone steps leading up to a door, through which, on a grinding day, you could hear the noise of the machinery and see the dusty atmosphere within. Peter and Janet thought the mill-field over the road a charming place; and so it was, for at one end the overflow from the tree-hidden dam poured down its paved slide in a white waterfall, to wander, a zigzagging stream, through the field and out, under the road, to the pool near their cottage. From the farther side of the dam the mill-lead ran evenly below the gnarled roots of the trees shadowing its course, and was lost in that dark hole in the wall behind which the flashing wheel turned. The water came racing out to join the overflow and dive with it through the causeway, coming up in the pool beyond. From there it meandered over the country into the river, which carried it to the sea. On wild days in winter you might hear the roaring sound of the North Sea beating against the coast.

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Stories Told by the Miller is listed on Textopian as a novel by Violet Jacob, dated 1909 CE.

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Work type: Novel
Author: Violet Jacob
Date: 1909 CE
Language: English
Genres: Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Frame Narrative, Romance, Coming-of-Age
Length: 53,412 words
Structure: 9 chapters, 937 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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Work identity for Stories Told by the Miller by Violet Jacob
Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Discussion starters

What should a reader notice first when entering Stories Told by the Miller?
How does this novel by Violet Jacob fit its genre, period, or classroom use?
Where does Fantasy first become important in the reading?

Similar titles

Genres

Fantasy — The work is saturated with magical elements including water spirits, enchanted forests, flying cloaks, goblins, and supernatural beings that define the narrative worlds.
Fairy Tales — Each story follows classic fairy tale conventions with magical quests, curses, transformations, and moral resolutions characteristic of the folktale tradition.
Frame Narrative — The central structural device features a miller telling consecutive stories to two children, creating a story-within-stories format that bookends the entire work.
Romance — The overarching narrative arc culminates in the miller's courtship and marriage to Janet, with romantic elements appearing in several contained stories.