I have had a lifelong interest in fairy tales, why, I'm not quite sure. It's the meanings hidden within them, I think, that fascinate me. It's a theme I'd like to think of as a strand I could write about often but as I have only one piece of paper left and this is the first item on it, here goes.
What follows is an outline of a story which I remember from primary school but have never been able to trace. I love it.
THE THREE PRINCESSES
There were three princesses named Anina, Belina and Carina. (My names)
Their father, the King, wanted to find out how much they loved him. (Is this sounding familiar?)
The first two made up extravagant answers. (They really weren't very nice characters at all.)
The third daughter said that she loved him as much as the salt in her food. (In fact, she was the only nice one of the three.)
The King was furious with her and she was banished.
The elder daughters were pretty horrible to the King, showing their true colours.
The youngest heard about this and came back to the palace and managed to find a job in the kitchen.
And yes (you've guessed it) she cooked him a meal without salt. When it was brought to him, he raged about it and sent for the cook.
His daughter revealed herself to him and explained what she'd done and he understood what she'd meant all along.
The two baddies were banished and the King and his only truly loving daughter lived happily ever after.
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(A student of the history of literature could probably tell me that there's a common source of world stories which have inspired our greatest writers through the ages. Son no.2 once found a similar tale to this from an Italian source.)
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The meaning for me in this is as follows:
King-foolish-vain.
Older sisters-flattering-avaricious-uncaring-false.
Youngest-won't lie-knows true values.
Salt in food-preserves-gives taste-flavour-savour-is earthy-can purify-protect-heal.
What can it say to us?
Be truthful-don't listen to flattery-know true values-stay grounded-value purity.
Husband has just added "Be the salt of the earth." Oooh! Impressive, what!! And this even pre-dates Shakespeare.
