The Princess and the Riddles

One of my favorite stories when I was a kid is one I can't remember the name of or the author. But, I remember the feeling it gave me and I remember a portion of it. It was a book I frequently checked out at my library in my grade school. It was one I truly wish I could find today.

The book had many stories in it but the one I remember the best, and the one I loved to read the most, was the story about a princess, a monster, and a man that loved the princess. It had mystery and adventure and love. That was the part I wanted the most. The love part. I thought if I could find a man, when I grew up of course, to love me the way the man in the story loved the princess I would be happy for the rest of my life. It was a feeling I wasn't getting at such a young age, but it was a feeling that I knew I wanted to have and enjoy.

The story goes somewhat like this. The princess was suppose to marry someone to help her rule the kingdom. Men came from all over the land and faraway to seek her hand in marriage. She was beautiful and elegant and her kingdom was happy and wealthy and everyone in it loved her.

But she was being held captive by an evil monster. He didn't want her to marry anyone and he put a spell over her. He could only see her at night, and so he would send his pet raven for her with a cage she would have to get into and be carried to the monster's lair. The bird was massive and the cage enormous and it would carry her for miles away from the kingdom to the monster.

When she arrived he would tell her a riddle and the answer. This is what he used to keep her from marrying any of the gentlemen that came to ask her hand in marriage. They had to answer the riddle correctly in order to do so, but no one was ever able to get the correct answer and everyday the riddle changed and therefore so did the answer. So nobody could study up on it and come back the next day to answer the question correctly. Everyday it was a new riddle.

Well, the man that had heard of the princess and the riddles went to the kingdom to see for himself and when he saw the princess he instantly fell in love with her and knew he had to marry her and live with her for the rest of his life. He watched for days as suitors came and she asked the riddle and they couldn't answer and were turned away. But what he did different than everyone else is he also watched her at night, and he saw the giant bird come with the cage and take the princess away and then return with her in the morning. He figured out that he needed to go with her, but he did not know how he was going to pull that off. Then fate intervened.

Now this is the part of the story I don't remember at all. He might have come across a witch that sold him a potion or he might have known one along, but what I do remember is that he somehow became invisible and snuck his way onto the cage with the princess when the raven came to fetch her one night.

So, he traveled with the princess to the monster's lair and that is where he learned where the riddles came from and the answers. He wanted to kill the monster when he saw what it was that summoned the princess at night, but he knew that they would not be returned to the castle if he did. Only the monster was master over the raven and the bird would not return them on it's own, so he had to wait all night and watch the monster with the princess.

But, finally it was time to go back, so he climbed in the cage with the princess again and off they were flown back to the kingdom. He snuck back out of the castle and then later that day he went to ask her hand in marriage. She asked her riddle and he answered it with the answer he had heard the night before and just like that the spell that the monster had over her was broken and she instantly fell in love with the man and they were married.

Now, I am not sure what happened to the monster. This was a long time ago that I read this story and my memory has started to fade, but I think the monster somehow went to the kingdom and the man and he fought. I believe the monster was killed and the man and the princess lived happily ever after.

That is the kind of love I wanted as a little girl and it is the kind of love I found as a woman. A man that will risk everything, wait for the right opportunity, answer with the right answers, fight the monsters away, and sweep you off your feet is the kind of love everyone should have. It's what fairytales and bedtime stories are made of. It's what dreams are made of and what we all should aspire for.

I got mine. Did you get yours?