by Sarah Earlene Shere, ©2024
(Apr. 19, 2024) — Princess Adel rejected every suitor her father had brought her way. What’s worse is that the princess was vain and cruel, adding insults and mockery to those she refused. At last, a king was presented to her; he was a wise and good man, but the princess sneered. “Why, he has a chin like the beak of a thrush bird. Send King Thrushbeard away!”
In anger, Adel’s father made a proclamation that the first man who correctly answered three of his questions would marry his daughter. The next morning, hundreds of men lined up at the palace to answer the king’s questions; by the end of the day, only one man had correctly replied to all. Immediately, with much protest from the princess, the king had his daughter married to the stranger.
To Adel’s dismay, her new husband was a musician and an entertainer to the last king she had refused to marry, who was now mockingly known as Thrushbeard. The young groom, being poor, told his bride she would have to help bring in their income, and offered to get her a job with him at the palace. Adel, afraid of facing the spurned suitor in her humbled state, begged him to let her find employment elsewhere. The musician agreed. But the pampered princess soon found herself unequipped to do the simplest most menial tasks. Finally, the only choice was to scrub floors at the palace of King Thrushbeard.
One day, while scrubbing the palace floor, Adel heard the king enter the room with some guests. A familiar female voice fell on her ears. “I say, I do believe that filthy, little scrub woman is someone I used to know. Yes! I’m sure that she used to be a princess,” then laughing, “Princess Scrubs, how elegant you look!”
Mortified, Adel ran from the room, out into the garden and wept. She was surprised when the king joined her and offered his handkerchief. He shook his head, “Your husband should be ashamed of himself for making you do tasks below your rank.”
Adel instinctively jumped to her husband’s defense. “No! He is a good, kind, patient, hard- working man. I want to help ease his burden as provider. He has nothing but faith in me and hope that I can be more than I am. Besides that, he loves me, in spite of myself.”
The king smiled. “Well, then, it would appear that I answered your father’s questions correctly after all.” Adel studied the king’s face and gasped as she began to recognize the eyes of her husband. “For you see,” he continued, “your father’s three questions were really wrapped in one, with three answers, ‘If you took away my daughter’s upbringing, social standing and grand surroundings what would remain?’ To which I replied, ‘Faith, Hope and Love’.” King Thrushbeard then tenderly drew his weeping wife into his arms. Adel had finally learned remorse, the gift of forgiveness and the joy of being lifted high after being brought low.
Heartwarming story with truth.