Once upon a time, there was a wealthy prince and princesses who had spent all their years being pampered in the palace. They realized how sheltered their lives had been and conspired to investigate what life was really like for common people. They dressed in plain clothes, dirtied themselves, hid their fine features, and set off for a region where they would not likely be recognized. This brought them to a county, many miles away, under the patronage of a wealthy lord. The lord of the county had a beautiful daughter of marrying age and was holding a contest to determine who should be her husband.
"On the morrow," he proclaimed to his subjects, "shall be held a contest of archery. Whoever succeeds in taking down the eagle, using no more than two arrows, shall wed my daughter."
The disguised prince turned to his sister for assistance. "I wish to participate in the contest tomorrow," he said, for he had seen how beautiful and virtuous the lord's daughter appeared. "Make me a bow and some arrows." The princess agreed and did the best she could with the materials she could find. It was certainly not the finest craftsmanship.
The following day, almost every bachelor in the region was present at the contest. The eagle was released and a flurry of arrows filled the sky, but none touched a feather upon its body. The prince, who was pretending to be lame in both legs, sat on the ground and let his first arrow fly after all others had missed. This one struck the eagle's wing and it landed in a tree many yards away. He shot the second arrow and it pierced the bird's heart. The lord was distressed that so lowly a person had won the hand of his daughter and concocted a new plan to have her wed someone else.
"This is just the first competition," the lord exclaimed. "There shall be a second and final task to decide the husband of my daughter. First, a man must catch a bluebird from the forest (a rare bird in those parts). If he does not catch one by sundown tomorrow, he cannot continue. Then, he must go to the mountains and catch another before morning the following day." This was truly a difficult task, one the lord believed the crippled peasant could not hope to complete.
Bluebird (Wikipedia) |
While all the bachelors set of into the forest to find the elusive bluejay, the prince turned once again to his sister. "Make me two traps from whatever material we have and set them outside our door tonight." The princess did as she was bid, believing it all to be in vain.
However, the next morning they awoke to the sounds of chirping outside their window. Upon examination, there were, indeed, two bluejays caught within the traps. The princess delivered the birds to the lord and he was forced to concede his daughter's hand. She returned to their hut with the lord's daughter, who quickly attended to her husband's needs. Though beautiful and learned, she was also kindhearted and free of vanity so she was not distressed by her circumstances and sought to make the best of them. Upon recognizing this in his bride, the prince decided to end the ruse the following day.
"Return to your father tonight," he instructed, "and come back to tend to me tomorrow."
The girl agreed and did as she was instructed, but she arrived the next day to find a curious scene in front of the hut. The prince and princess had bathed and donned their fine clothes once more. They waited for the lady beside a magnificent carriage with two pure white horses to draw it. The lady was hesitant to approach for she did not recognize neither her husband nor her sister-in-law. The prince stepped forward, took her hand, and kissed it gently.
"My lady," he addressed her, "forgive me for deceiving you. I am your husband, the same man you sat with all the previous day, but I am not a peasant. I am, in truth, the prince of this kingdom. I have been dazzled by your beauty, charm, grace, and kindness, and I wish to take you home with me to be my princess." When the lady expressed despair at having to be so far away from her father, whom she loved dearly, the prince showed her a golden path being constructed that would lead directly from the palace to her father's land. Satisfied, she joined the prince and his sister in the carriage to leave for the palace directly, where they lived out their days happily in each other's company.
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Author's Note: This story is based on the Native American tale "Dirt-Boy" from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929). In the original tale, the Sun and his sister, Star, go down to earth disguised as an old woman and her crippled grandson in order to solve the matter of a chief's two daughters who were to marry but had refused all suitors. The chief decides to hold an archery contest to determine who shall be their husband. When the Sun (called Dirt-Boy by the villagers) wins, the chief announces another contest to catch two fishers (rare birds in the area) for the hands of his daughters. The Sun succeeds at this task as well and the chief is forced to give his daughters over to him. One of the daughters deserts her sister on the way to the boy's hut and marries a raven instead, believing this to be a better alternative than marrying Dirt-Boy. The other sister continues on and is a faithful wife. The Sun rewards her by showing her his true form, transforming his house and his wife, and creating a golden path from his great house to the house of his wife's father so that she may take it to see him often.
I changed this story to be more of a fairy tale, with the Sun and Star becoming a prince and princess. The chief and his daughters became a lord and one lady. I cut out the second sister to make sure the story wasn't too long. Because this is no longer a Native American tale, I also took out the characters of Coyote and Raven, who only played very small roles in the plot anyways.
Shelby, In your first line you say, “Once upon a time there was a wealthy prince and princesses . . . “. The number in the verb and nouns does not match up. It was a probably a typo, but I just wanted to point it out to you. But I like how you took the story and made it your own.
ReplyDeleteHey Shelby!
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading stories about princes and princesses. I don't think I've ever seen or read a story about a prince or princess who dressed up like common people to find out what life is like. I thought this was a very clever way to take the story. I also liked that you included a competition in your story. It reminded me of Robin Hood or something. Great story, I look forward to reading more of your stories in the future!