Week 7 Story: Finding a Wife for King Josh
Once upon a time, there was a young Prince named Chris. Chris had just experienced the death of his father, Douglas, and was starting to feel the pressure of his upcoming position to take the throne. Although Chris adored his father and everything he had done for the Kingdom of Marten, he was not sure taking over and being a ruler was what he desired. He was the only full-blood heir to the throne, however, he had a half brother that was 2 years younger than him. The half brother, Josh, had been conceived when Douglas had taken a second wife besides Chris's mother. Josh was the opposite of Chris and had always thought he would make a great King even though the throne did not belong to him. Despite having different mothers, Chris and Josh had always been extremely close and did everything together.
After much consideration, Chris decided to abdicate his claim to the throne in order to let Josh take place as King over Marten. Josh was honored by the opportunity his brother had presented to him and gladly accepted.
In order to produce heirs for the throne after his rule, Josh would need to take a wife or have multiple. In order to find a rightful suitor and wife, Chris agreed to go to surrounding towns and find women. He first began with the neighbor town, Lamar. Chris had been to Lamar on many occasions growing up and felt that the daughters of King James would make agreeable wives for Josh.
After getting to Lamar, he set up a meeting for King James in order to present his idea of having his two daughters become wives of Josh. At first. King James was extremely hesitant to let his daughters go because he was unsure they were ready to take on the role of wives and began to try and produce heirs. He knew the pressure that came with needing to have sons and being at the command of a King. After time and conversation, Chris convinces King James that the daughters would have amazing lives in Marten and that he had no reason to worry.
And so the following morning, the daughters and Chris set off for Marten...
The "Marten" castle, image found on Wikipedia
Authors Note: This story was based off of Bhishma going to the Swayamvara in order to find wives for his half brother. In that story, Bhishma takes the three daughters in a more agressive way, using his power. Where as in my story, Chris does not use force.
Bibliography: Bhishma at the Swayamvara by Sister Nivedita
http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/pde-mahabharata-bhishma-and-amba.html
Hey Payton,
ReplyDeleteInteresting story! Is there a particular reason why you wanted to retell this story using a non-aggressive method? I'm just curious at the reasoning. It was certainly interesting to read this alternate retelling though and I much prefer this happier version where both sides agree to the marriage rather than the brute force used in the original story!
Payton,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story. I like how you made it more simplified and re-told it in a non-aggressive way but it still got the moral of the story across which if the three wives for the king. Stories like these are my favorite because it helps simplify the more complicated ones, which in my opinion are very confusing sometimes! What made you choose to tell the story this way?