Week 7 Story: The Maiden and the Magical Bracelet

Image Information: the magical bracelet. Web Source: pexels.

Once there was a beautiful maiden. She lived in the countryside with her two wonderful parents. They loved her very much and were fully aware of her great beauty. Her mother and father sometimes worried that someone would notice how beautiful their daughter was. They feared that he would desire to marry her for the wrong reasons, so this is why they chose to stay in the countryside instead of living in a big city around many people.

The mother knew that her daughter would grow even more beautiful as she got older. Because of this, her mother decided to seek help on the matter to make sure that her daughter could live a normal life with no unnecessary attention. The mother traveled into town to see a woman named Riko who was a very powerful woman with great magic. There she told Riko of her daughter and the fears she had for her future. Riko immediately started to scramble around the room as if she was looking for something. 

"Aha, here it is. This is just what you need," Riko said. 

Riko had pulled out an old golden bracelet that was a little rusty but still beautiful. The mother took the bracelet that Riko handed her. She gazed at the bracelet for a long while and turned it in her hands.

"How will this help my daughter?" she asked.

"This bracelet has magical qualities. When your daughter puts it on, it will mask her great beauty such that she looks just like everyone else. Should she take it off, then everyone will know her secret," replied Riko.

With this, the mother took the bracelet and went on her way. When she arrived home, she placed the bracelet in a wooden box in her bedroom. She figured she would wait to have her daughter put it on until she could no longer protect her daughter.

The maiden was a hard worker. Living on a farm in the country, she was well aware of a hard day's work and didn't mind it much. Her father often accompanied her in the fields to harvest their crops. She enjoyed this time that she had to spend with her father. One day, it was extremely hot outside and her father fell ill due to heat stroke and never recovered. She and her mother wept for their loss. Her mother soon passed just as her husband. They say she died of a broken heart.

Before her mother died, she told her daughter to fetch the old bracelet from the box in her bedroom and put it on. The young maiden did so and returned to her mother.

Her mother said, "Wear that bracelet everywhere you go for if everyone discovers your great beauty, you will never find true love."

The maiden was filled with great sorrow at the loss of her parents but she continued to wear the bracelet everywhere she went just as her mother had told her to. She also continued to take care of their home and tend to the farm. Unfortunately, the farm became too much for the maiden to handle and she was forced to sell it and move to the city.

The maiden did not mind this much as she always wanted to live in the city. She missed her parents' farm often but enjoyed being around many other people for the first time in her life.

One day, she was walking down the streets of the city, heading back to her home. She started to notice that people were stopping in their tracks and staring at her. This confused her greatly until she looked down at her wrist and noticed that the bracelet was gone for it must have fallen off her wrist. Soon the tales of her beauty spread far and wide and the maiden was overwhelmed with thousands of marriage offers. None of these men really loved her, as they didn't even know her. Her mother was exactly right in what she said.

The young maiden never gave up on love, though. She made any of the men that sought after her prove their love and worthiness. She hoped that one day one of her suitors would be able to truly love her for who she was as a person and not her beauty. She is still waiting.

Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales: Maiden with the Wooden Helmet by Andrew Lang; link to the reading online.

Author's Note: The original story was about a maiden with extraordinary beauty that lived in the countryside. Her father passed away first and the mother did her best to raise her daughter. After many years, the mother caught a cold and did not recover. Before she died she told her daughter to wear a wooden helmet to hide her face. After her parents passed, the maiden went to work as a caretaker for a man's wife. The man’s son discovered her beauty when he returned home and he asked her repeatedly to marry him. The maiden did not agree to marry him until she had a dream where her mother told her to marry the man. She finally agreed to marry the man. On her wedding day, they tried to take the wooden helmet off of her head in order to style her hair but it would not come off so she had to leave it on for the wedding. As soon as they were pronounced married, the helmet burst off and broke into many pieces. Everyone at the wedding was able to see the face of the bride for the first time. And the maiden and the man lived happily ever after. I liked the original story but wanted to change up a couple of things for a more unexpected ending. I decided to let the fact that she originally lived in the countryside play a bigger role in the storyline and moving to the city play a negative role in that it leads to her secret being discovered. I also decided to replace the helmet with a magical bracelet instead.