I bought a folk tale book the other week when we had GST at BMV, and ever since then I've been absorbed reading it, partly because folk tales have ambiguous meanings that are not always clear at first.
One of the stories that caught my attention is a Swedish folk tale about a king and his three daughters. This reminded me a lot of King Lear, only this has a happy ending and isn't a tragedy and actually gives a good explanation as to why the king tests his daughters of their love.
Anyway, I wanted to share it here with you guys because sometimes, we take people's words of love for granted, and misinterpret their meanings. When we show appreciation to people we value and are rejected by them, we often don't understand why. To them, your appreciation might be something so basic as salt and bread, that they don't care to think of it as something genuine and misinterpret your meaning. Only when your appreciation is gone do they realize its significance.
Salt and Bread
Once upon a time there was a King with three daughters. The two older girls were jealous of the youngest, whom the King loved dearly, and they spent their time and effort trying to destroy the King's love for her. They tried to win special favours and privileges from their father, never missing an opportunity to suggest that the younger girl did not return his affection. Their evil jealousy wouldn't let them rest. At last, the King became troubled over the rumors he heard from the older daughters. He even became suspicious of the youngest girl. One day when the three daughters were with him, he could not refrain from putting their love to the test.
So he asked the oldest girl to tell him how much she loved him, and she replied: "I value you, my father, as God in heaven!"
Her answer pleased him. He then asked the second daughter the same question, and she replied: "Oh my father, I value as my own life!"
This answer also pleased him. He turned now to the youngest daughter, asking her how she would describe her feelings.
She answered: "Oh my father, I value you as salt and bread."
The King was startled by this reply. Then he became angry that she cared no more for him than the humblest things on a poor man's table. His anger turned to fury that his youngest daughter, on whom he had lavished so much affection, thought so little of him in return. And he ordered his servants to drive her out of his house. They did as they were told, and took her into the woods and abandoned her. Now, at last, the two older daughters were happy.
In the woods, the youngest daughter was miserable and frightened. She cried when she thought about the home and the father she loved. She could not understand his anger, nor why she had been banished. She wandered about the woods helplessly, and at last, in fear of the wild animals, she climbed into a tall tree.
Another King from another country happened to be hunting in the woods at the moment. As he rode his horse, he heard his dogs barking with excitement at the tree where the Princess was hiding. He looked up and saw the beautiful face of the unhappy girl. He spoke to her kindly and asked her to come down.
They rode back to his castle, where he fed her and warmed her. Overcome by his kindness, the Princess poured out her story. The king was impressed with her goodness and asked her to marry him. The girl had fallen in love with him and agreed.
Invitations were sent out to the neighbouring kingdoms. When the wedding day came, the royal guests arrived, among them were the young Princess' father and her two sisters. They did not recognize her, so sure they were that the Princess had disappeared forever in the woods.
When they took their seats at the banquet table, wonderful food of all kinds were set before the guests. But none of the food was salted, and there was no salt on the table. Neither was there bread.
At last the girl's father could not refrain from commenting, he said, "I don't understand, but it seems to me as if the two most precious things are missing from this feast."
"Ah?" the Princess, now Queen, replied. "What can you be speaking of?"
"Why," her father replied, "salt and bread."
"Yes," the girl said. "They are among the most precious things we know. And once because I valued my father as highly as these things I was driven out of his house and into the woods to die."
When her father heard these words, he was over come and recognized her. He cried with joy and embraced her, thankful and happy that she was alive. He begged her for forgiveness and for his misunderstanding of her words of affection and for his having driven her away.
As for the older sisters, they were sent to the woods and nothing was ever heard of them again. No hunting Kings had ever come to rescue them.
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