Week 2 Story: The Lion that Loved the Princess

This story is now apart of my Portfolio Page.

A beautiful princess would daily go to the jungle to fetch water from the river for her people. One day the Lion followed her to the river entranced by her beauty. The Lion found an irreplaceable amber stone while walking far into the jungle and gave it to the princess. Every day after that the princess would gather water while the Lion told stories of other areas of the jungle filled with many wonders. Slowly, the princess began to have feeling for the Lion but feared to tell her parents because she knew they would never approve of their love. One day the Lion asked the princess to not go back to the village but instead stay with him and become his wife. The princess was overjoyed and agreed to marry the Lion. All she needed to do was grab something from the village and they could leave. As the princess tried to sneak back into the village her parents snatched her and tied her up. The King and Queen had noticed that the princess’s trips to get water were growing longer and longer so that had a spy watching her. They forbade the princess from seeing the Lion ever again and from ever leaving the village. The Lion waited days for the princess to come back to the river but she never returned. Instead a new boy was coming from the village to fetch water but when the Lion tried to talk with the boy he ran back to the village scared.

The Lion called for the Mongoose, he needed a favor to save his beautiful princess. The Lion asked the Mongoose to burrow into the village and find the princess and free her. The Mongoose agreed but only if the Lion agreed to pay him with all of the Lion’s teeth and claws. For the Mongoose knew that if they Lion did not have his teeth and claws he could no longer be the King of the Jungle. The Lion angrily growled “NO” how was he supposed to survive without his teeth and claws. But the Mongoose did not care and began to go away. The Lion agreed to the deal. Even if he was to perish at least his beautiful princess would be free but first he wanted to make sure the princess made it out of the village safely. The Mongoose burrowed into the village and found the princess locked inside a hut. When the Mongoose explained that the Lion was waiting for her out in the jungle so that they could run away the princess could not contain her joy. 

She grabbed her bag and the Mongoose helped her sneak out into the jungle to meet the Lion. When the princess and the Mongoose arrived the princess and Lion embraced each other so happy to finally be back together. The Mongoose then asked the Lion for his payment. Sadly, the Lion started to pull out his teeth, the princess confused urged him to stop until the Lion explained the deal he has made with the Mongoose. The princess asked the Mongoose if he would instead take a priceless amber stone as payment for rescuing her. Eagerly the Mongoose took the deal. The princess pulled out the amber stone from her bag and gave it to the Mongoose who rushed away with his payment. The Lion was able to keep his teeth and claws and him and the princess could now be together.

Love can conquer all boundaries!

The King of the Jungle. Source: Pixabay

Authors Notes: This story was based on one of the stories from The Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs called The Lion in Love. In the originally fable the Lion falls in love with a beautiful woman and ask her parents if he can marry her. Her parents were afraid of what the Lion would do to them if they told him “no” so they agreed but only if he removed his teeth in claws so that he could not hurt their daughter. The Lion removed his teeth and claws so that he can marry the women and goes to the parents again who then laugh at him and tell him “no” but now they had no fear that he could hurt them. Ending with “Love can tame the wildest”. In my story, I chose to make the women a princess since the Lion is the King of the Jungle. I also took a theme of the princess going to get water from the river daily after the Disney movie “The Jungle Book”. Like Mowgli the Lion watches the princess get water and is mesmerized by her beauty but Lion has the courage to talk to the princess. I also wanted to bring in another animal that would still cause the Lion to have to sacrifice his claws and teeth for his love. I choose to use the Mongoose because they are an animal that burrows and could therefore sneak into the village without being detected. Unlike the original story I wanted my couple to end up together despite their many differences. Which is why there is a stone to replace the teeth and claws. The stone is made from amber which is known for its calming proprieties, like how the Lion and princess were so at ease together. I hope you have enjoyed my story and would love to hear feedback!

Reading Notes: Anthropomorphize

From the different stories in the Anthology untextbook I liked the element of giving animals human characteristics. In The Hare that Was not Afraid to Die the animals acted like humans but also interacted with humans. This also happened in the Aespo’s Fables: The Lion but, in these stories the lion was not fully anthropomorphize. In one story, The Lion in Love the parents recognize that he is an animal and do not want their daughter to marry him. This still gives a separation of the human from the animals instead of total immersion of the animals into the human world (like the movie Zootopia). I plan on bringing the anthropomorphize element into my personal storytelling assignments, I am just not sure in what ways yet but really like this style. Another story that suck out to me and I enjoyed was the Tricksters story about the tiger, Brahman, and jackal. From the title, you knew that one of the character (the jackal) was going to be tricking someone. Except, his trick was actually to help the human, most of the time the tricksters are about gaining the best interest in themselves not usually helping others. Not only did we learn a lesson but the trickster was helpful.

The main characters in Zootopia interacting at the DMV. Source: Flickr by BagoGames

Reading Options

The first set of reading that grabbed my eye was Italian Popular Tales. My maternal grandfather was actually born in Italy. His family came to American when he was two years old. He has never told us any childhood stories from Italy so when I saw this section it caught my eye. I am curious to see if my grandfather will know any of the stories. The next set of reading that stuck out to me was Robin Hood. I loved the Disney version of Robin Hood as animals when I was little but I am interested to learn the actual tale. However, I am worried about being able to follow along with the stories since they are written in ballads (the music versions sound fun though). The final reading that I chose was Tales of a Parrot. This reading was chosen from the unique name that caused me to look further. After reading the overview it seems like a good group of tales that might be funny due to the parrot keeping a wife from cheating on her husband by telling her stories.  

Read all of the stories. Created at imgflip

Time Strategies

After this first week of classes I think my biggest issue was trying to figure out what I should get what done first. I was overwhelmed by all of the different assignments in the different classes that I needed to get complete. In the article Four Questionsto Help You Overcome Procrastination one of the question you should ask is “What are my three biggest priorities today?”. This can help me by identifying what three things I want and need to accomplish for that day so that I can get all of my assignments done. I plan on creating a “To Do” list with the assignments that I need to get done for the day so I can make sure to get them done for the day and know what I need to be working on. After my first round at college I learned that it is better to complete the assignments to the best of your ability before you call it quits. I would put friends and families before doing my assignments in class and my grades suffered. I thought that if I couldn’t turn in a perfect project I was not going to turn in anything at all. I also gave up after I got one zero. I have now learned to keep working in the class and ask for help. Now I am working on focusing to get my GPA up, all because I did not focus in the beginning. I am hoping to keep working hard and make it through school with A’s.

The Time Is Now! Source: Flickr by Asja Boros