Find this story here. Read the summary and analysis below.
Summary
The story begins with an old dying king giving final instructions to his most loyal servant John, who has earned the title Faithful because of his undying loyalty for the king. The king makes him promise he will serve his son as faithfully as he has served him and Faithful John obliges. The king then tells him to show his son around the entire palace, to acquaint him with his inheritance, except for one last room. The room allegedly contains the portrait of the "Princess of the Golden Roof", and if the Prince were to catch sight of it, he would faint with ardent love and then put himself in danger for her sake. Faithful John promises to protect the prince from all danger, and the king passes away.
O: This story shares it's structure with many other stories in this book focusing on loyalty as a theme. The king makes his most loyal servant promise to serve his son with the same amount of devotion, and also to keep him from harm. I suppose a clash between his twin directives is also a theme being explored here, as will be evidenced next.
The prince, or the new King, soon realises that there is this one room that is never shown to him. He demands to know what lies within it, and Faithful John tells him that danger lies beyond the door and it must never be opened. Upon being pressed he even tells the king of his promise to his father, and warns of grave misfortune. But the young king is insistent, and Faithful John finally has to give in and open the door. He tries to shield the king from seeing the painting, but the king peers over his shoulder, and as predicted, faints. He wakes up in love and full of vigour to gain her, and seeks Faithful John's help in the endeavour.
O: So Faithful John must decide whether to protect his new master from danger as he promised, and refuse his demand to be let in the last room, or obey his master's command faithfully as promised. A classic trope of clashing promises are shown, and John decides to protect his master, but allowing him to see the room, thereby putting him in danger.
John advises the king that in order to win the hand of the princess, he should melt all the gold in his kingdom and have them turned into different gold statues, bowls, vases and the like. They fill the ship with these items and go to the Princess' lands. Faithful John goes to the palace and shows some of the items to the maid under disguise of a merchant, to get access to the princess. The princess, promised more such treasures, is lured to the ship. While the princess gushes over all the golden treasures on the ship, the ship has already set sail back to the homeland. When she realises the treachery, she gets angry, but the king reveals his identity and his undying love for her to calm her down.
O: There is a lot of use of Gold here. Gold can be interpreted as a sign of wealth, but also of purity, which seems to support the princess' naivete at being lured so easily. Again faithful John does all the dirty work for his king, being the true father figure - from teaching him about his kingdom and inheritance to even kidnapping his queen for him. I see parallels to a Bhishma storyline in the narrative of John.
Faithful John notices three ravens circling above and listens in on their conversation. He learns that it is predicted that when the ship docks at their kingdom, a fine chestnut horse will appear. If the king mounts it, it will fly away with him and he will never see his beloved again, unless someone else gets on the horse and shoots it in the head first. Even after that, the king will be in danger, so the ravens say to each other. When he reaches his palace, the king will find a wedding shirt that will look like it is woven from gold and silver, but it will be made of brimstone and pitch, and when he wears it, it will burn him up. Unless of course someone else, wearing gloves, was to seize it and throw it in fire. But then, even after the wedding is finished and there is dancing, the queen will fall to the ground as though dead, unless someone lifts her up and takes three drops of blood from her right breast. If one were to know these remedies, and applied them, then he would turn to stone. Faithful John, of course, decides to save the life of his master, forfeiting his own.
O: Three ravens. Three threats. Three drops of blood. Just saying. Moving on, don't you love prophecies where you know the solution already? Another classic faithfulness dilemma has been thrown in - misfortune if you hide the information from the king, and death/stone if you do.
The three incidents take place just as predicted, and all three times Faithful John saves the king silently and without explaining himself - by shooting the horse in the head, throwing the king's wedding shirt into the fire, and taking three drops of blood from the queen's right breast. The king forgives the first two incidents thinking there must be reason, but is outraged at the thirst and orders Faithful John arrested. The next day at the execution, Faithful John asks to be heard, and explains it all to the king. Even as the king pardons him, Faithful John turns to stone.
The king is taken by guilt. He moves the statue of his most faithful servant to his bedchamber. Even after his queen bears him twins, his guilt remains. One day while his wife is at church, he gazes sadly at the statue and wishes he could take his doubt of his servant back. The statue suddenly speaks and tells him he could be restored to life if only the king would kill his children and smear their blood on the statue. The king is horrified, but reminded of John's faithfulness, and beheads his own children. He smears the blood on the statue, and Faithful Joe returns to life. He tells the king, "Your faithfulness will not go unrewarded", and puts the kids' heads back in position to bring them back to life.
O: Statue in the bedchamber, and the queen bears the king twins. It seems Faithful John is ever present in this marriage. Moving on, the entire sacrifice your children to me is very biblical - remember Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac?
The king is overjoyed, but then he hears his wife return. Wanting to test his wife, he hides his kids and Faithful John in a chest before she enters. She tells him she has been talking to God about the injustice dealt to Faithful John as well, and feels partially responsible for the same. The king narrates the proposition he got and asks his wife what to do. The queen is horrified, but also feels they should kill their children for Faithful John was, well, faithful. The king is overjoyed that his wife has passed the test, and opens the chest to reveal the trio alive and well.
O: This testing of the wife is also very reminiscent of another Hindu Epic, the Ramayana and the testing of Sita.
Analysis
The theme of faith and loyalty is underlying to this story, and clearly there is an implication that faithfulness is a two way relationship. The king needed to repay faithfulness with faithfulness. There is again a lot of instances of faith being testes with little clashes of different points of faith - little dilemmas for the characters to work through while walking the road of faithfulness. This story does a good job of showing that dilemmas aren't always in black and white, but different shades of gray.
Gold is also used as a plot device, and to build an essence of purity in the characterization. Gold is also used to hint at naivete, and to show how greed can blind a person, in the most literal of senses. The thematic use of three is also seen - three ravens who prophesy three threats to the King's union with the princess. The significance of taking three drops of blood exactly to save the princess' life.
There is also inherent sexualisation of the relationships here. The act of taking three drops of blood from the Queen's right breast is clearly more intimate than explained in words, as evidenced by the King's reaction, who was unmoved by the shooting of a horse and the burning of his wedding dress. There is also some significance to the act of shifting John's statue to the king's bed chamber, especially when he is intimate with the queen.
Illustration Watch
The three ravens form the main motif for the illustrations for this story, appearing both in the headpiece and the tailpiece. The intimacy between the king and the queen and the curiosity of the eavesdropping Faithful John is also depicted very well as the ship rocks on the ocean, guided home by an angel.
Faithful John notices three ravens circling above and listens in on their conversation. He learns that it is predicted that when the ship docks at their kingdom, a fine chestnut horse will appear. If the king mounts it, it will fly away with him and he will never see his beloved again, unless someone else gets on the horse and shoots it in the head first. Even after that, the king will be in danger, so the ravens say to each other. When he reaches his palace, the king will find a wedding shirt that will look like it is woven from gold and silver, but it will be made of brimstone and pitch, and when he wears it, it will burn him up. Unless of course someone else, wearing gloves, was to seize it and throw it in fire. But then, even after the wedding is finished and there is dancing, the queen will fall to the ground as though dead, unless someone lifts her up and takes three drops of blood from her right breast. If one were to know these remedies, and applied them, then he would turn to stone. Faithful John, of course, decides to save the life of his master, forfeiting his own.
O: Three ravens. Three threats. Three drops of blood. Just saying. Moving on, don't you love prophecies where you know the solution already? Another classic faithfulness dilemma has been thrown in - misfortune if you hide the information from the king, and death/stone if you do.
The three incidents take place just as predicted, and all three times Faithful John saves the king silently and without explaining himself - by shooting the horse in the head, throwing the king's wedding shirt into the fire, and taking three drops of blood from the queen's right breast. The king forgives the first two incidents thinking there must be reason, but is outraged at the thirst and orders Faithful John arrested. The next day at the execution, Faithful John asks to be heard, and explains it all to the king. Even as the king pardons him, Faithful John turns to stone.
The king is taken by guilt. He moves the statue of his most faithful servant to his bedchamber. Even after his queen bears him twins, his guilt remains. One day while his wife is at church, he gazes sadly at the statue and wishes he could take his doubt of his servant back. The statue suddenly speaks and tells him he could be restored to life if only the king would kill his children and smear their blood on the statue. The king is horrified, but reminded of John's faithfulness, and beheads his own children. He smears the blood on the statue, and Faithful Joe returns to life. He tells the king, "Your faithfulness will not go unrewarded", and puts the kids' heads back in position to bring them back to life.
O: Statue in the bedchamber, and the queen bears the king twins. It seems Faithful John is ever present in this marriage. Moving on, the entire sacrifice your children to me is very biblical - remember Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac?
The king is overjoyed, but then he hears his wife return. Wanting to test his wife, he hides his kids and Faithful John in a chest before she enters. She tells him she has been talking to God about the injustice dealt to Faithful John as well, and feels partially responsible for the same. The king narrates the proposition he got and asks his wife what to do. The queen is horrified, but also feels they should kill their children for Faithful John was, well, faithful. The king is overjoyed that his wife has passed the test, and opens the chest to reveal the trio alive and well.
O: This testing of the wife is also very reminiscent of another Hindu Epic, the Ramayana and the testing of Sita.
Analysis
The theme of faith and loyalty is underlying to this story, and clearly there is an implication that faithfulness is a two way relationship. The king needed to repay faithfulness with faithfulness. There is again a lot of instances of faith being testes with little clashes of different points of faith - little dilemmas for the characters to work through while walking the road of faithfulness. This story does a good job of showing that dilemmas aren't always in black and white, but different shades of gray.
Gold is also used as a plot device, and to build an essence of purity in the characterization. Gold is also used to hint at naivete, and to show how greed can blind a person, in the most literal of senses. The thematic use of three is also seen - three ravens who prophesy three threats to the King's union with the princess. The significance of taking three drops of blood exactly to save the princess' life.
There is also inherent sexualisation of the relationships here. The act of taking three drops of blood from the Queen's right breast is clearly more intimate than explained in words, as evidenced by the King's reaction, who was unmoved by the shooting of a horse and the burning of his wedding dress. There is also some significance to the act of shifting John's statue to the king's bed chamber, especially when he is intimate with the queen.
Illustration Watch
The three ravens form the main motif for the illustrations for this story, appearing both in the headpiece and the tailpiece. The intimacy between the king and the queen and the curiosity of the eavesdropping Faithful John is also depicted very well as the ship rocks on the ocean, guided home by an angel.
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