The Legend of Water Lily

Beautiful princesses make the most beautiful flowers

Greetings, reader. This week's story comes to us from Central Java. The Legend of Water Lily is a story about a princess who is beautiful but also forgetful. The way this story ended caught me by surprise. It's not often I see a twist ending like this in a fairy tale. Click the link above to read the story and then continue with me below to analyze it.

Firstly, we need to talk about the ending. I was wondering why the most beautiful girl in the kingdom had to go to this pond to pick a flower. It seemed a little ridiculous. However, once Princess Dewi Arum gets turned into a flower, it made a little more sense to me, in the sideways way of fairy tale magic. It had to be a beautiful flower to cure everyone of this sickness, so it had to be a beautiful girl who turned into the flower. I wonder if a moderately pretty girl would have made a flower that was strong enough to take away the symptoms of this illness but not cure it. Either way, I also have to wonder about that old man. Did he know what would happen to the princess or was he surprised as well? After he finished curing everyone in the kingdom, did he have to leave because of what happened to the princess, or did they let him stay because he saved them?

We also need to talk about this king. He didn't want to ask his daughter to do something dangerous. It probably felt like sacrificing her. So he actually asked her opinion. We know the king loves his daughter and respects her enough to ask for her opinion in big matters like this and stand by her decision. I'm sure when he was yelling at her near the end of the story, he was partially relieved that she wasn't hurt or dead. After all, no one had seen her for days. However, after she turned into a flower, he was sad and then picked the flower. That puzzled me. If Princess Dewi Arum turned into the flower, didn't he just kill her? Maybe if he'd left her alone, they could have changed her back. Somehow. I'm going to assume that he didn't think of that because he doesn't seem like he would deliberately kill his daughter to save his kingdom. Or, at least, not without a lot of debate and thought.

Let's look at the old man for a moment. I know I already mentioned that I wonder about his motives, but really. Everyone started getting sick, the king offers a reward, several people fail, and once the king is truly desperate this old man shows up with his mysterious magic. Now, I'm not saying this old man caused the sickness to start in the first place, but I'm saying if he had any kind of grudge against the royal family, this would be a great way to harm them. The king doesn't completely trust this old man because when Princess Dewi Arum goes with him to this lake, so do several soldiers. However, if the old man either knew what would happen at the lake, or had set some spells to make it happen, it couldn't have worked out better. The king would never have agreed to sacrifice his daughter to cure the illness, but if she were changed into a flower first... Well, that illness may have been cured, but I think the kingdom fell into some dark times afterwards. Perfect for an angry, plotting spell caster.

The moral of the story is that if you're the most beautiful girl in the kingdom and a princess, you're going to have a difficult life. Alternatively, if you're going to yell at your child, don't do it near a magical lake.

Have an alternative moral? Think of something I missed? Wondering if the princess was actually the most beautiful girl in the kingdom? Comment below!