The merchant himself went back home to his family, his wife, and his children, and he lived with them until the day he died. But this story is not as strange or as amazing as the story of the Princess and the horse.
Dinarzad asked, “Please, sister, what is the story of the princess and the horse?” Shahrazad said…
I heard, O happy King, there was a princess on the southernmost tip of the Cairo Kingdom, the only offspring of the queen and king. She began riding horses at the age of seven and developed a deep passion for the sport. The man who took care of the stable had a young boy, around the same age as the princess. The pair grew up together, riding horses everyday until nightfall. They fell in love and the boy asked the princess to marry him. The princess, deeply in love, accepted in a heartbeat but when the queen found out she became enraged and said to herself, “I would rather be dead than have my beautiful daughter marry a poor stable boy.” Then, on a dark night the queen went over to the farm house where the boy and his father slept. The queen, knowing soothsaying and magic, cast a spell on the boy turning him into a horse. The next morning when the princess went over to see the boy, she found his father weeping. The boy’s father told the princess the boy had gone missing in the middle of the night without leaving anything behind. The princess, with an anguished heart, grieved for the boy and didn’t set foot in the stables for a year. During that time, the queen arranged a marriage for her daughter with the prince of a neighboring kingdom. When alone, the princess would think of the boy, sigh deeply with grief and say, “None has felt a pain as great as mine.” In her depression, the princess grew thinner and thinner, and pale with sadness. On the night in which the princess was to get married, she ran into the woods hoping to die but encountered a white horse. When the horse saw the princess it ran to her and threw itself at her feet, whining and rubbing its head against her. The princess, touched with pity, looked into its eyes and saw the boy’s eyes and fainted. The horse waited patiently for the princess to wake up but the king and his servants came into the woods looking for her. The princess was taken home by the king and nursed back to health. Three months went by before the princess was fully healed and able to leave the palace. She ran back to the woods and found the white horse and looking once again into its eyes began to weep. The princess hopped on the horse’s back and went to a mystical island looking for a witch to help the boy. The princess found an old lady who immediately saw her plight and filled a bowl of water, uttered an incantation and an oath, and said to the boy, “Horse, if you have been created in this imagine by the Almighty God of Heavens, stay as you are, but if you have been put under a spell, change back to your original form.” Then she sprinkled the boy with water and he returned to his human form. The princess and the boy rushed to each other and quickly embraced. The boy told the princess and the old lady what the evil queen had done. The old lady became furious and turned both the queen and king into frogs. The princess and the boy returned to the Cairo Kingdom, married immediately and became the new king and queen of the land. But this story is not as strange or as amazing as the story of the fisherman.
Nice work–I like how you pick up on the mechanics of magic in the tales (there’s usually a bowl of water, and a human-to-animal transformation). And of course, it has the correct ending, leading into another story!
“When alone, the princess would think of the boy, sigh deeply with grief and say, ‘None has felt a pain as great as mine'” (Waterkemper).
“Not even the princess who lost her only love to her mother.” As the princess sat alone with her own thoughts, she recalled:
[The Tale of the Princess and the Queen]
There once was a kingdom ruled by a proud king, his fair queen, and their young princess. The queen was the most desired woman in the palace, until the princess became a lady. The queen did not care, for she still had the love of her king. However, shortly after the princess reached maturity, the king died of an incurable disease. The queen was heartbroken and vowed to never remarry unless she falls greatly in love again.
Being so desired by the many men in the kingdom, the princess was not satisfied with any of them as her future husband. Then one day, a prince from a neighboring kingdom came to visit the queen’s and princess’ palace. His king ordered him to court the queen in order to form an alliance between the two kingdoms. As soon as he laid eyes on the princess, he fell madly in love with her. However, he could not disobey his king, so he pursued the queen. When the prince arrived, the princess too fell madly in love with him. However, she knew that the prince was there to see her queen, so she respectfully sat by the queen’s side.
It didn’t take long for the prince to court the queen, she immediately fell in love with him and agreed to marry him. To the prince, the queen said, “Please stay the night, as my future husband, you should get accustomed to this palace.” The prince agreed, “It would be my pleasure Your Majesty.” Later that night, after the queen was asleep, the prince sneaked out to go see the princess. He quietly knocked on her chamber door and she opened it, surprised to see the prince at her door. She asked him, “What are you doing here?” He replied, “I know I am to marry the queen, but I must tell you that I love you before that. For if I don’t, I will regret it for the rest of my days.” The princess was shocked and full of emotion that she jumped onto him and kissed him. They enjoyed each other’s company all night, until the prince had to return back to the queen’s bedside before she awoke. Later that morning, the prince and queen announced their engagement and both kingdoms were filled with joy.
After the wedding, the prince and queen spent each day together, while the princess watched in sadness. The pain to know that you and your love are so close to each other, but can never be together. Day after day, the princess watched the prince and queen, getting more and more depressed. Then on the day before the prince and queen were wed for one full year, the princess jumped out the window of her chamber and fell to her death. Thinking about this tale, the princess wished that she was as lucky as the princess who was able to see her love everyday, even if she could never be with him.
“In her depression, the princess grew thinner and thinner, and pale with sadness” (Waterkemper).
By the way, I found your story very interesting and engaging. It fit in perfectly with the overall plot and stylistically, I think you did a good job as well. I’m not sure if you ever watched “Once Upon a Time,” but the beginning of your story reminds me of one of the main character’s (Regina/The Evil Queen) tragic love story. While reading your story, I also found it very interesting how you decided to your tale from a woman’s perspective, since a lot of the tales and sub-tales in the “original” focused on men’s stories.
Dinarzad asked, “Please, sister, what is the story of the fisherman?” Shahrazad said…
There once was a boy who lived on a small island cast deeply into the middle of the ocean. Raised by the sea breeze, he arrived one day in a cradle floating over the water. The boy never knew of his family, or origin, but he was raised to love the sea and all she had to offer. His mother, the Sea, showed him that she could be all he needed. Providing food with fish, embrace with waves, and accompaniment with all of her inhabitants. He became an excellent fisherman in his years. However, as the boy became a man, he began to feel as though something was missing.
The Sea would notice when his ambiguous longing pained him, and tried to cheer him up with a cool tickling breeze, a playful splash, or pushing beautiful sea creatures ashore. But, eventually, it stopped working. It pained her, and so she asked the fisherman once and for all what she could do and he asked her to help him find companionship.
To please the fisherman, she told him to build a boat promising to send him off to find someone who could cure his loneliness. The fisherman sailed for four nights and five days. On the fifth night, as the sun began to set, the fisherman’s boat reached land. There was a group of women at the shore. They were weary and hungry as they had spent the entire day trying to fish for food.
One woman, Nala, was the most beautiful and gentle of them all. The strangers exchanged stories. The fisherman ensure Nala that she would never go hungry if she would marry him.
They were wed the next morning, and raised a family over the following years.
Nonetheless, as lovely as this story is, it is not nearly as heartwarming as the story of what became of the Sea after the boy who grew up to become the fisherman left her behind.