I apologize I have so little to go on.  The book was given to me by my boyfriend in the late 80’s or early 90’s.  It had a light grayish hardcover (there may have been a dustcover but not when I received it) and he may have obtained it from a library or his mother may have sent it to him.  It had a clever and catchy phrase type title like, “Some Great Reward” or “Infinite Jest” or “As You Wish” and from what I remember the story was about a useless King who had a beautiful daughter and a wicked queen for a 2^nd wife, who consorted with dark forces and dabbled in dark magic and who mercilessly abused her dwarf Morgana, who had special healing powers.  Or maybe the queens name is Morgana but I don’t seem to think so.

The story is told from a storyteller’s perspective and bits and pieces of the story stand out in my mind.  The Queen is especially awful to Morgana and she does things like snip off the end of the dwarf’s nose and she’s verbally abusive towards her as well.  But it’s usually inconsequential as the dwarf always manages to heal herself.  I remember the dwarf rolls herself up into a ball and rolls away down the corridors of the castle.  I remember too an especially bizarre twist toward the end when the Queen goes to a forest (possibly to get pregnant?) and Morgana is there and its implied there might have been an orgy where you could not see where queen ended and dwarf began?  If I am remembering correctly an heir to the throne is needed  but the King is in poor health (from a life of frivolous debauchery if memory serves) and the dwarf tries to give him remedying tinctures and herbs to give strength to his member (I SWEAR that is how I remember it being said)  The Queen is in danger of not having an heir, while her beautiful step-daughter is coming of marriage and child bearing age.  I know there are parts too that describe the absolute riches the queen bestows upon herself and the castle with rich tapestries and gold gilded everything, all the while commissioning busts and statues and paintings to be made while the kingdom becomes increasingly poorer.

I hope this is enough to get the title.  I looked it up about 10 years ago when I could still remember the title, only to find out it was out of print but I was at work and had to get busy on something and moved on never considering that I would absolutely never remember the title again.  Thank you for your help!

1.  I’m not sure if this is a book or just a story.  Don’t know title or author.

2.  It’s about a little girl who is learning to knit. When she finishes her mittens, she shows them to her old world grandmother, who throws them into the fire in the fireplace. The grandmother says that is how other people will treat your product, so get used to it – or some such moral. Harsh lesson, I thought. I have the impression it was a Polish or Russian or Scandinavian author.