Week 5 Storytelling: The Betrayal

The Betrayal 

Once upon a time there was a noble king and an unfaithful queen. The king loved his queen so much that he practically worshiped the ground she walked on. He showered her with gifts and attention. He provided her with anything she ever wanted. They lived happily together for many years, and all seemed well... but the queen had a dirty secret. You see, not long after she married the king, she met a man- a commoner who invoked in her the worst kind of lust. Each night when the king had fallen asleep, she'd sneak off to the chapel where she'd meet her secret lover. They'd run off together, spending the night in the throes of passion before the sun would begin to rise and the queen would have to sneak back into bed where the king snored peacefully.

Each morning the king would awaken to see his beautiful queen resting beside him. He'd smile and stretch before placing a kiss on her forehead and getting up to begin the day's duties. It was a happy life for the king and he counted himself incredibly lucky to have such a stunning and wonderful wife. However, things took a terrible turn one day when the king woke up and his wife was nowhere to be found. He cried out for her, but no answer. He rushed through the halls, calling her name but to no avail. His queen was nowhere to be found! The king checked everywhere before finally ending up at the chapel. It was here that he found his queen, wrapped in a blanket and snuggled up to another man. The king roared in anger, waking the queen and her lover from their slumber. She panicked and tried to explain, but the king was beside himself in rage. He called for the guards. "Take this man and his whore to the dungeon!" He yelled, and the queen and the man were hauled off.

For days the king could not be bothered with kingdom affairs. Stricken with grief and heartbreak, the king spent many days pacing in his room. He tried to figure out what he'd done wrong. How had he not pleased her? What could he have done better? Had he not given her the world, not shown her enough affection? These questions plagued the king, and his hatred and distrust began to grow. It started in his heart, which had been broken into many tiny pieces, swirling around the jagged edges of his once full of love heart and pulling it back together to form a seething mass of anger and deep sadness. This darkness spread out, winding around his veins and running alongside his arteries. It ignited a fire within him, a fire of complete and total hatred for women. After all, the woman he'd loved more than anything in the world had betrayed him and for what? Some peasant!

His heart and mind now fully consumed by the darkness, the king ordered his wife and her lover be executed. They cried and pleaded for mercy, but he showed them none. The fire in his soul burned bright in his eyes as the executioner's sword came swiftly down on their necks. No woman would hurt him like she did ever again. In fact, no woman would hurt any man in his kingdom if he could help it.

Image Information:
King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway with their regalia.
Found on Wikipedia

Author's Note:
My story this week comes from The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898). This week I chose to base my story on the tale of Scheherazade from the un-textbook, but unlike the original story I did not focus on the woman who defeats the king. I chose to focus on WHY the king ended up hating women so much that he started marrying and killing them one after another. I wanted to show the heartbreak he felt and the happy man he was before he was betrayed and fell deep into darkness. I wanted to portray the woman as a villainous betrayer to the king because that is really what she was. I felt very little pity for her when I read the original. Sure, execution for adultery is harsh, but so is finding out your wife who you love and cherish is cheating on you with some random guy from the town outside your palace. Anyway, I enjoyed the story of Scheherazade and feel like she is definitely a hero, but wanted to focus on a character whose story is not fully told: the king.