The life I live and think.

Rapunzel, a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. 

“A lonely couple, who want a child, live next to a walled garden belonging to an enchantress. The wife, experiencing the cravings associated with the arrival of her long-awaited pregnancy, notices a rapunzel plant (or, in some versions^[7] of the story, rampion), growing in the garden and longs for it, desperate to the point of death. On each of two nights, the husband breaks into the garden to gather some for her; on a third night, as he scales the wall to return home, the enchantress, Dame Gothel, catches him and accuses him oftheft. He begs for mercy, and the old woman agrees to be lenient, on condition that the then-unborn child be surrendered to her at birth. Desperate, the man agrees. When the baby girl is born, the enchantress takes the child to raise as her own, and names the baby Rapunzel. Rapunzel grows up to be the most beautiful child in the world with long golden hair. When Rapunzel reaches her twelfth year, the enchantress shuts her away in a tower in the middle of the woods, with neither stairs nor a door, and only one room and one window. When the witch visits Rapunzel, she stands beneath the tower and calls out:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair.

Upon hearing these words, Rapunzel would wrap her long, fair hair around a hook beside the window, dropping it down to the enchantress, who would then climb up the hair to Rapunzel’s tower room. (A variation on the story also has the enchantress imbued with the power of flight and/or levitation and the young girl unaware of her hair’s length.)

One day, a prince rides through the forest and hears Rapunzel singing from the tower. Entranced by her ethereal voice, he searches for the girl and discovers the tower, but is naturally unable to enter. He returns often, listening to her beautiful singing, and one day sees Dame Gothel visit, and thus learns how to gain access to Rapunzel. When Dame Gothel is gone, he bids Rapunzel let her hair down. When she does so, he climbs up, makes her acquaintance, and eventually asks her to marry him. Rapunzel agrees.

Together they plan a means of escape, wherein he will come each night (thus avoiding the enchantress who visited her by day), and bring her silk, which Rapunzel will gradually weave into a ladder. Before the plan can come to fruition, however, Rapunzel foolishly gives the prince away. In the first edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Rapunzel innocently says that her dress is getting tight around her belly (indicating pregnancy); in the second edition, she asks the witch (in a moment of forgetfulness) why it is easier for her to draw up the prince than her.^[8] In anger, Dame Gothel cuts short Rapunzel’s braided hair and casts her out into the wilderness to fend for herself. When the prince calls that night, the enchantress lets the severed braids down to haul him up. To his horror, he finds himself staring at the witch instead of Rapunzel, who is nowhere to be found. When she tells him in anger that he will never see Rapunzel again, he leaps from the tower in despair and is blinded by the thorns below. In another version, the witch pushes him and he falls on the thorns, thus becoming blind.

For months, he wanders through the wastelands of the country and eventually comes to the wilderness where Rapunzel now lives with the twins she has given birth to, a boy and a girl. One day, as Rapunzel sings while she fetches water, the prince hears Rapunzel’s voice again, and they are reunited. When they fall into each other’s arms, her tears immediately restore his sight. The prince leads her and their children to his kingdom, where they live happily ever after.

In another version of the story, the story ends with the revelation that the witch had untied Rapunzel’s braid after the prince leapt from the tower, and the braid slipped from her hands and landed far below, leaving her trapped in the tower.”

The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Brothers Grimm. 

“Twelve princesses, each prettier and far more beautiful than the last, sleep in twelve beds in the same room; every night their doors are securely locked, but in the morning their dancing shoes are found to be worn through as if they had been dancing all night. The king, perplexed, promises his kingdom and each daughter to any man who can discover the princesses’ midnight secret within three days and three nights, but those who fail within the set time limit will be put to death. 

An old soldier returned from war comes to the king’s call after several princes’ have failed in the attempt. Whilst traveling through a wood he comes upon an old woman, who gives him an enchanted cloak that he can use to observe them unawares and tells him not to eat or drink anything given to him in the evening by any of the princesses and to pretend to be fast asleep until after they leave.

The soldier is well received at the palace just as the others had been and indeed, in the evening, the eldest princess comes to his chamber and offers him a cup of wine.The soldier, remembering the old woman’s advice, throws it away secretly and begins to snore loudly as if asleep.

The twelve princesses’, sure that the soldier is asleep, dress themselves in fine dancing gowns and escape from their room by a trap door in the floor. The soldier, seeing this, dons his magic cloak and follows them. He steps on the gown of the youngest princess, whose cry of alarm to her sisters is rebuffed by the eldest. The passageway leads them to three groves of trees; the first having leaves of silver, the second of gold, and the third of glittering diamonds. The soldier, wishing for a token, breaks off a twig of each as evidence. They walk on until they come upon a great clear lake. Twelve boats appear with the twelve princesses’ are waiting. Each princess gets into one, and the soldier steps into the same boat as the twelveth and youngest princess. The young prince in the boat rows slowly, unaware that the soldier is causing the boat to be heavy. The youngest princess complains that the prince is not rowing fast enough, not knowing the soldier is in the boat. On the other side of the lake stands a castle, into which all the princesses go and dance the night away.

The twelve princesses happily dance all night until their shoes are worn through and they are obliged to leave. The strange adventure continues on the second and third nights, and everything happens just as before, except that on the third night the soldier carries away a golden cup as a token of where he has been. When it comes time for him to declare the princesses’ secret, he goes before the king with the three branches and the golden cup, and tells the king all he has seen. The princesses know that there is no use in denying the truth, and confess. The soldier chooses the first and eldest princess as his bride for he is not a very young man, and is made the King’s heir.”

My personal favorite variants to this tale are them being cursed by an evil king and have to dance each night. The other that the princes the princesses spent their nights dancing with were actually dead and planned to take them away from the mortal world forever. 

The story of Ourson and Violette and the sacrifice of love she makes for him. 

The Greek mythology story of Argus and the peacock.

A brother and sister ran away from their witch stepmother one day after they grew tired of her cruel mistreatment towards them. They wandered off into the countryside and spent the night in the woods. The morning came and the brother was thirsty. They sought out a spring of clear water. The evil stepmother discovered they escaped and bewitched the springs in the forest. The brother was about to drink from one when his sister heard the rushing sound “Whoever drinks from me will become a tiger.” She begged her brother not to drink from the well. He didn’t and they went on their way. They came to a second spring, but the sister heard the rushing water, “Whoever drinks from me will become a wolf.” She begged him not to drink. He didn’t, but said he would drink from the next spring. They continued to the third spring. She heard the rushing water, “Whoever drinks from me will become a deer.” Before she begged him not to drink, he was already a deer. After she calmed down from being overwhelmed, the pair decided to stay and live in the woods forever. The sister took care of the brother and tied her gold chain around his neck. They went to live in a little house deep within the woods and lived there happily for a while. One day, they were disturbed by a hunting party. The King himself followed the strange deer to its home. When he saw the beautiful sister, he asked her to marry him and she accepted. She became queen and they went to live happily in the King’s castle. The stepmother discovered that the brother and sister were still alive and plotted against them. One night, she killed the queen and replaced her with her own disfigured daughter, whom she transformed to resemble the queen. When the queen’s ghost secretly visited the bedside of her infant son for three nights, the King caught on and the stepmother’s evil plan was thwarted. The queen came back to life and witch and her daughter were tried for their crimes. The daughter was banished into the woods where she was torn to pieces by animals. The stepmother was burned at the stake. At the witch’s death, the brother became human again and the family was reunited at last and they all lived happily ever after. 

Shah Jahan and Mumtez Mahal have an amazing story and one that is true. It is tangible because we can touch a portion of the love he had for her that still stands to this day. They were betrothed at age fourteen and married five years later in 1612 AD. They had fourteen children (seven of which lived past the age of ten). Although she was his third wife, she was by far his favorite and most loved. She died in Burhanpur in 1631 AD giving birth to their fourteenth child (lived for seventy-five years). He began constructing a suitable mausoleum and funeral garden in Agra that would take 20,000 workers, 1,000 elephants, and 20 years to complete: the Taj Mahal. He started a similar black mausoleum for himself across the river, but it sits unfinished. He is burned next to his “Chosen One of the Palace” which is what Mumtaz Mahal means. In his words, “The intimacy, deep affection, attention and favour which His Majesty had for the Cradle of Excellence (Mumtaz) exceeded by a thousand times what he felt for any other.”

Salim and Anarkali is a famous love story from Lahore, Punjab (present-day Pakistan). The son of the great Mughal emperor Akbar, Salim (later Emperor Jahangir), was a rude bad boy. This parents sent him away to the army for fourteen years before letting him return. On that day, a great celebration was held for his return. The harem of Akbar held a Mujra (dance performance) by a beautiful girl named Nadeera. Akbar called her “Anarkali” (Blossoming Pomegranate) since she was an exceptional beauty “like a blossoming flower.”  Salim fell in love with her instantly and she with him. The saw each other frequently, keeping it a secret. Salim told his father he intended on marrying her and make her the Empress. Since she was not of noble blood, Akbar did not allow it and forbade Salim from seeing Anarkali again. They argued so harshly that Akbar ordered Anarkali arrested and placed in one of the jail dungeons in Lahore. After many attemps, Salim and one of his friends helped Anarkali escape to the outskirts of Lahore. Then, Salim organized an army of those loyal to him from his fourteen years in the army. He attacked the city, but Akbar’s vast and great army defeated him. He gave his son an ultimatum: surrender Anarkali or suffer the death penalty. Out of his love for Anarkali, he chose the death penalty. She would not accept that. She presented herself before Akbar and asked to take Salim’s place. After Akbar agreed, she asked if she and Salim could spend one pleasant night together. Akbar allowed them to do so. After their night, she was entombed before her love’s eyes. One version of this story has Akbar assisting Anarkali and her mother through a series of underground tunnels with her promise to leave the Mughal empire never to return. This seems legitimate considering his soft-side towards common-blood women, considering his mother was of common blood. 

Pyramus and Thisbe is an old story from Roman mythology taken place in the city of Babylon. Because of their parents’ resentment towards each other, Pyramus and Thisbe were forbidden to marry. Through a crack in the walls, they whispered their love to each other. They arranged to meet under a mulberry tree and state their feelings for each other. Thisbe arrives first, but upon seeing a lion with a bloody mouth from a recent kill, she ran, leaving behind her veil. The lion drinks from a fountain and takes her veil in its mouth. When Pyramus arrived, he feared the worst when he saw her veil in the lion’s mouth. He kills himself by falling on his sword, splashing his blood on the white mulberry leaves. His blood turns the white mulberry fruits dark. When she thinks it is safe, Thisbe returns, eager to pour her heart to Pyramus. However, she finds his dead body under the shade of the mulberry tree. She mourns the loss of her love, then stabs herself with the same sword. The gods heard her lament and forever changed the color of the mulberry fruits into the stained color to honor their forbidden love. This story has been adapted and referenced several times, including Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

Paolo and Francesca is a very popular love story made famous by Dante’s Divine Comedy, Inferno, Circle 2, Canto 5. What makes this story even better is that it is true. Francesca was the daughter of Guido I da Polenta. He was at war with the Malatesta family and during peace negotiations, he wanted to solidify it by marrying his daughter to the heir of the Malatesta family, Giovanni (Gianciotto) Malatesta, who was deformed. Guido knew Francesca would not go for the marriage with Giovanni, so it was done by proxy with Giovanni’s handsome brother, Paolo. She was unaware of the deception until the morning after the wedding. They fell in love after reading about the love between Lancelot and Guinevere. They hid their love, considering they were both married and had children. Giovanni found out about their love and killed them himself, without asking for reasons or repentance. 

The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is a beautiful one, yet tragic (aren’t all the good ones?) It was even written into an operaOrfeo ed Euridice. Orpheus fell deeply in love with Eurydice, a nymph. They were very much in love and very happy together. They got married. Aristaeus, the Greek god of the land and agriculture, became quite fond of Eurydice, and actively pursued her. While fleeing from the god, she ran into a nest of snakes and was bitten fatally on her legs. Distraught, Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to the Underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone. He was the only person ever to do so. They agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to Earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the Upperworld. In his anxiety he forgot that both needed to be the Upperworld, and he turned to look at her, and she vanished for the second time, but now forever. 

The story of Heloise and Abelard is a tragic, yet passionate love stories. 

Peter Abelard (1079-1142), one of the greatest thinkers of the Middle Ages, but because his teachings were controversial, he soon was accused of heresy. 

Heloise (1101-1164) was a well educated niece of a prominent cleric named Canon Fulbert. He first introduced Abelard to Heloise. 

Canon Fulbert searched all over Paris, France for a proper tutor for his niece. After searching, it was clear Peter Abelard was the only choice to match Heloise’s intelligence. The moment he saw her, he became intrigued by her beauty and intelligence. Twenty years her senior, they fell in love anyway. They grew closer together, joining in an affair. Heloise became pregnant because of it. Abelard insisted they get married, but because of her love for him, she persisted back that they not for fear he would be disgraced. She bore a son and they were married in secret. They kept their family a secret, but somehow, Canon Fulbert found out about their marriage. Infuriated by Abelard ruining Heloise, Canon sent henchmen to castrate Abelard. Ashamed, he joined a monastery. Heartbroken, Heloise gave up her child and joined a convent. Although they did not see each other, their love was kept alive by letters they wrote to each other. Their letters were put into a book The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Their love story has been alive for about one thousand years.