Scheherazade

At the storytelling concert, one of the tellers shared an old story that I heard before, but I heard it in a new way and would like to share it.

There once was a Persian king who was happily married and ruled over a happy kingdom.  But then one day, he found that his wife, whom he truly loved, had been unfaithful to him.  He sought out her lover and had him killed.  And then as the law was in his country, he had his wife beheaded in the public square.

His anger burned hot within him.  Soon as he looked about his kingdom he stopped seeing women and began to see only the possibility of betrayal.  He decided that he would eliminate the possibility of infidelity by marrying a new wife each day and then having her executed the next morning.  In this way, no woman would betray him again.

It was the unhappy task of the vizier to choose the bride of the day.  He did his job with sad obedience and selected a new woman each morning.  He sat her at the marriage feast.  And in the morning he marched her in chains to the square to be beheaded.

It didn't take long for the people of the kingdom who had the means to send their daughters off to far places or if they lacked the wealth to encourage them to flee.  The day came when the vizier could find no woman to offer the King.  As he worried what to tell his master, his daughter Scheherazade told him that she was ready to be the king's bride.

The vizier told his daughter that he had a special dispensation from the king and he did not have to offer his own daughters.  But Scheherazade insisted and the vizier reluctantly agreed to let her be the day's bride.  With tears in his eyes, he led her to the marriage banquet.  He watched with sadness as she went with the king to the wedding chamber.

As the evening progressed, the king noticed that Scheherazade had tears in her eyes.  "You volunteered to do this, but now you cry?" he asked.  She explained that her tears were not for herself, but because she could not say one last goodbye to her sister.

The king thought there would be no harm in that, so he invited the younger sister to come to the bedroom for a final goodbye.  After they kissed and embraced, Scheherazade's sister implored her to tell a story as she did each night.  So with the king's leave, she began a story that engrossed the king as well as her sister.  And then the sun began to rise, and she stopped right in the middle of the story.  "These stories are for the night not for the day."

The dejected vizier took a piece of regal cloth with him to the palace in the morning, expecting to cover his daughter's body with it after her execution.  The king took his place on the throne and issued decree after decree and order after order.  But never did he call for Scheherazade's death.

The marriage banquet was held for the second night for the first time with the same bride.  The food tasted a little better, the mood seemed a little lighter.  And Scheherazade called for her sister and finished one story, began another and stopped in the middle of it as the sun rose.

For 1,001 nights she told every story she could create and find.  During this time, she bore the king three sons and participated in each night's wedding banquet.  Finally she told the king, "I have no more stories, do what you will."

But the stories had changed the king.  He had grown to truly love Scheherazade and to trust her.  "You will not be killed," he told her, "your stories have saved you."

The king wanted to use a sword to change the world, but stories changed his heart.