Reading Notes: Georgian Folktales, Part A

Of the stories for part A, though I most enjoyed "The Serpent and the Peasant" and "The Priest's Youngest Son," the story I found most interesting in terms of the possibility for being rewritten was "Fate." In this story, a young prince, discontented with the marriage arranged for him, takes some money and sets out to find his true fate. On his journey, he is led to a palace filled with letters writing out the fates of many people. He is shown his, which states that he will marry a weaver's daughter who has been chronically ill for 9 years. He is discontented with this as well and sets out to change his fate. One night, seeking shelter, he comes upon a hut and is shown hospitality by its owner, a weaver. There he finds the weaver's daughter, who is completely invalid and confined to her bed. In the middle of the night, he stabs her and steals away, leaving his things behind. Some time later, on a hunt, he comes across a palace and a beautiful maiden and asks her to marry him. After they are married, he discovers the scar over her heart and she explains how a youth stabbed her, but after the wound had healed, she was cured and the money he had left behind allowed their family to build their palace. Thus he realizes how he failed to change his fate and explains everything to his wife.

I think this story is a good one for retelling simply because I feel the prince kinda sucks. You can't fault him for running away from an arranged marriage (my grandpa did that), but the whole "stabbing a sick girl cause you don't want your notecard fate to come" true thing doesn't really sit well with me. If I do choose to rewrite this one, I think I will change the story following the prince's discovery of his fate to be a quest to change his fate by finding and healing the weaver's daughter, not killing her.

Story Source: Fate from Georgian Folk Tales by Marjory Wardrop

Georgian Prince by G. Gagarin. Source: WikiMedia Commons