aryanhwy | because I have a lot of friends who know a lot of things about disparate folk tales

A month or two back when Gwen and I were at the library one Saturday, I picked up Philip Pullman's Grimm Tales for Young and Old, because I have enjoyed his "His Dark Materials" series and have a penchant for a good fairy tale. I finally started reading it last night, and have, for the most part, found them excellent, and look forward to reading some of them to Gwen.

But reading them reminds me of a very vivid dream that I had last fall, one which had an element with all of the qualities of a fairy tale, except it's not a fairy tale that I remember. I wrote it down fairly soon after dreaming it:

I remembered a story from my childhood, of a girl whose words appeared on her skin as she spoke. She was a mean, selfish, vindictive girl, and it was a curse that an evil fairy had levied upon her to cause her to change her ways, of course. And of course, the fairy was not evil but instead her benefactrix, for the girl, so ashamed of the ugly things tattooed across her face, her arms, her delicate hands, did change her ways and her words. Slowly, the old, ugly words faded, as new words were written over them, words of kindness and comfort, of cheer, of delight in simple things. The “curse” was never lifted, but years passed and the girl became beautiful because of the beautiful words that covered her. In the end, of course, again of course, a handsome prince comes riding by, sees her, becomes captivated with her beauty, and swoops her off to his castle.

Of course, this has very strong echoes of the fairy tale with the two daughters, the one whose words turned into gold and crystals and flowers and the one whose words turned into frogs and toads (a story I remember leaving a deep impression upon me as a child; it was one of the "second-wave" fairy stories for me, meaning it wasn't one of the ones I don't remember a time not knowing, but rather is one where there is a clear, albeit indefinitely defined, before and after period). But my question is this: Does anyone know of a folk-tale like this, or did it really spring fully formed out of my head?