THE
FISHERMAN AND THE PRINCESS
STORY CUE CARD
Bibliographic
Information (best version for telling):
Arbuthnot, M. H. (1976). Time
for Magic. Chicago: Scott Foresman.
Ethnic Origin:
Vietnamese
Running
Time:
Six to seven minutes.
Power
Center(s):
Princess first
hears the beautiful song being played by the fisherman.
Princess waits besides the window overlooking the river for the fisheman who does not come.
Princess hears the fisherman playing his song at the base of the tower.
Princess turns away from the fisherman because he is not the prince she was
expecting, but the fisherman falls in love with her.
Fisherman's death and the discovery of the crystal.
Princess looks into the cup and sees the fisherman and hears his song.
Princess dies and her lady in waiting hears the song coming from the river.
Characters:
Princess
Fisherman
King
Princess's Lady in Waiting
Scenes:
Princess in her room in the tower
overlooking the river
Fisherman on the river
Lady in waiting talking to the King
Fisherman being brought before the
King
Fisherman playing flute at the base
of the tower
Princess in her room in the tower
overlooking the river
Synopsis:
A long time ago,
a princess lived in a castle beside a river. The princess was incredibly
beautiful and her father had her put in the tower room of the castle in order
to keep all but her immediate family from gazing upon her. In her tower, the
princess spent many hours reading and doing embroidery and waiting for the
prince that she was destined to marry.
The princess
spent many afternoons gazing out her tower room at the river that ran beside
the castle. She often wondered what the river saw as it flowed beyond the
castle. One afternoon as she sat watching the river, she noticed a small boat
coming towards her. As the boat neared the castle she noticed a strong, young
fisherman inside. He took out a flute and began to play the most beautiful
music the princess had ever heard. The song spoke to her of feelings for which
there are no words and all of the most beautiful things on earth. Eventually
the fisherman drifted past the castle and his song was lost to the princess.
The next day the
princess again sat besides the window gazing down at
the river in the late afternoon and again the fisherman passed by and began
playing his beautiful, haunting music. The princess was once again captivated,
but being very shy did not know how to let the fisherman know how much she
liked his music. Then she glanced over at the flowers in her room and began
plucking the petals and sending them down in a shower upon the river.
This continued
every day with the fisherman coming and playing his flute and the princess
sending showers of flower petals down on the river. The princess began to
fantasize that the fisherman was really a prince and one day soon he would come
to marry her. She also began to hear the beautiful melody that he played in her
dreams at night.
Then one day the
fisherman did not appear beneath her window. He had known that a beautiful
young woman lived in the tower, but he did not know that she was the kings daughter. When he found out he was afraid to
return. The princess stayed by the window until the last ray of sunlight fell
across the empty river.
The next day the
princess again waited beside the window searching for a sign of the fisherman,
but he still did not appear. She remained beside the window until the dawn of
the next day and then she began to weep. One day followed the next and still
the princess sat beside the river waiting in vain for the fisherman who did not
return. She would not sleep or eat and she grew thin and her beauty faded like
a flower left too long out of water.
The king grew
worried about his daughter and called in doctors from all over his kingdom and
the next one, but no one could find a physical cause for the princess
illness. At last, one of the princess ladies in waiting could bear it no
more and she sought out an audience with the king and told him what she knew of
the fisherman.
The king sent
out his soldiers to find the fisherman and after several weeks they returned
with him. The fisherman was young and strong, but he was a plain man and not
the prince the princess had imagined in her dreams. The king spoke to him,
saying Although you are only a fisherman you seem to hold the key to the
princess happiness. Perhaps you are the man fate has destined her to
marry. Let us see if the princess will love you as she loves your music.
The fisherman
was told to stand at the base of the tower and play his song on his flute.
After several minutes, the princess rushed down from the top of her tower
hardly believing that the sounds she heard was really the song she had so
longed to hear again. She once again imagined that the fisherman must be a
prince who would take her away and they would live happily together from then
on. But when she reached the bottom step and turned her gaze upon the fisherman
she could not believe her eyes. She thanked him, but turned away as he was just
a poor fisherman and not the prince of her dreams. Although the princess was
cured, something beautiful had gone from her life.
The fisherman
never returned again in his boat and the princess never again heard his song in
her dreams. In time the princess began to forget him, but still she remained in
her tower waiting for the prince who did not come.
The fisherman
had been struck with love for the princess from the moment he saw her, but when
she turned her back on him, he knew that a love between them was hopeless.
Before too much longer had passed the fisherman died of a broken heart. The
beauty of the fisherman was in his heart and in his songs instead of his face
and the princess could not see past his face to his inner beauty.
When the
fisherman did not come to his boat one day, one of his friends went to his home
and found a beautiful crystal beside the fishermans body. He realized at once that the crystal
had been created by the unrequited love between the
fisherman and his princess.
One afternoon as
the king was out in the market, he saw the crystal and was drawn to it, knowing
that he must take it back for his daughter. He had the crystal made into a
teacup and presented it to her daughter one evening. A more beautiful teacup
was never seen and when she went to bed that night one of her ladies in waiting
brought her tea before retiring.
As the princess
looked down into the warm tea, she thought she saw a boat forming upon its
surface and then she noticed a tiny fisherman holding a tiny flute. She bent
closer to the cup and as she listened she began to hear the song that had so
captivated her in the beginning and she knew that the fisherman had died
because of her indifference to his love.
The princess
began to weep and her tears fell into the cup. The crystal dissolved because
the princess tears were tears of love and they set the fishermans soul free.
Rhymes/Special
Phrases/"Flavor":
Princess throwing a shower of
petals down upon the river.
Audience (why is
this story appropriate for the audience? developmental characteristics?):
Elliot and Geldman say that this age group is dealing with their
emerging sexuality and aquiring skills for dealing
with the opposite sex and mate selection which are themes in this story. Stover
and Tway say that teens are determing
their individual principles, developing positive relationships wih the opposite sex and thinking about marriage which are
all themes in this story.
Bibliographic information
on other versions/variants (at least two)?
Graham, G. B. (1970). The Beggar
in the Blanket & Other Vietnamese Tales. New York: The Dial Press.
Shepard, A. (1998). The Crystal
Heart: A Vietnamese Legend. New York: Atheneum
Books for Young Readers.
Brief comparison
of all versions/variants in terms of language, rhythm, "tellability," "flavor," content, etc.
Stress the differences in style rather than those of content.
In the Graham version the fisherman sings the song and only
passes by the girl's window one time which I didn't feel was enough to develop
any kind of relationship between them. This story ends with a festival. Another
fisherman brings a tea cup that he had carved from the crystal to the fesitval. The princess sees the face of the fisherman in
the cup while drinking tea and her tear of remorse lets the spirit of the
fisherman rest. Their is a lot of detail in the beginning of this story, but the
ending is really weak.
In the Shepard version the fisherman also sings the song and
only passes by the window of the princess one time. When the fisherman sings to
her from the base of her tower she laughs in his face and shuts the door. He is
found by the villagers with a crystal upon his chest and a wise woman tells
them it is his heart. They put the crystal in a boat and let it float out to
sea and it comes to rest at the palace. The princess apologizes to the
fisherman when she sees his face in the cup and her tear causes the crystal to
melt away. This version ends with the princess marrying someone else, but often
hearing the fisherman's song.