Seibaek: A fairytale - Just because

The Princess with the Orange

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away lived the most beautiful princess the world had ever seen. As so many other princesses she was locked away in a tower, because that is how you raise a princess. Being alone all day, every day without anyone to talk to, you can get quite lonely, but the princess was so fortunate as to have her best friend with her constantly. Her best friend was an orange. From Brazil that is.

You might wonder what a princess and an orange could have in common, but when your options are narrowed down, you learn to cope with what you have got. And in fact, it was a very nice orange – fresh and bright in colour, young and in its prime. With that said, they still did not enjoy the longest, deepest or most heartfelt conversations. But they got by.

As you might have guessed, this could not end happily, seeing as a princess and an orange do not have the same lifespan. One day the orange began to rot. Struck with grief the princess watched her best friend slowly fade away in a very smelly and wrinkly manner. When the orange finally passed away the princess was heartbroken.

One day a handsome young prince heard the rumour of a beautiful young princess who was devastated by the loss of her friend. Knowing it is best for a princess to always have a smile on her face, he set out to aid her in her need. After 40 days of riding night and day through deserts and deep forests, climbing over the highest mountains and crossing the widest rivers he arrived at the gates to the princesses’ castle.

He immediately lost his heart at the sight of the sad princess and wanted nothing more than making her happy again, and since he was such a handsome prince she soon agreed on marrying him. On one condition! She told him that she could not marry him unless he mended her broken heart by giving her a new orange. Back in those days, oranges was not something you could find in your local grocery store, the prince would have to go on a journey to Brazil. (Because that is where all oranges come from)

The prince sat out, galloping away in the horizon on his mighty steed. His ivory white steed was indeed so fast that it could run across water without sinking to the bottom. Nonetheless it took the prince seven days and seven nights to get to the borders of Brazil, and there he found his first challenge. All princes have to endure challenges, you see.

An enormous green dragon was guarding the border and would not let him trough. But the prince was lucky; the dragon had the most awful toothache, and offered to let him pass if he in return found a dwarf who could remove the dragons’ sick tooth. The prince agreed and set out on his new mission.

Not long after, he arrived at an entrance to a cave. Knowing that dwarfs live in caves, he went in. Deep within the cave he found a small man working with fluid gold, and casting it into shiny armour. The prince asked the small man if he were a dwarf. He was. He asked if he knew how to pull out a tooth. He did. He asked if he would help him. He would not. But the dwarf wanted the princes’ help, and in return he would help, and remove the tooth. The prince had to make the dragon promise to protect the small dwarf when it was needed, and then the dwarf would remove the tooth, and even give him the golden armour. And so he did.

The dwarf got his promise, the dragon got rid of its tooth, the prince got his shiny armour and the permission to enter Brazil, and collect an orange. As soon as he had the orange he hurried home to give the orange to the princess, make her smile again and then marry her.

When the princess saw the handsome young prince, she was so happy that he had succeeded and returned to her, that she promised to spend every day for the rest of her life trying to make him as happy as he had made her.

And they all lived happily ever after.