The Enchanted Lake and the Ensorcelled Prince: Storytelling

The sultan followed the fisherman to the lake to find out why the fish wouldn't cook. What he found instead was a prince who was half stone, trapped in a palace at the edge of an enchanted lake — and a story underneath the story he thought he was investigating.

In this episode, Vanessa Rogers tells the Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince — the nested story inside the Fisherman and the Djinn — about a prince who discovered his wife's betrayal, struck the man she loved, and left him for dead. About a wife who spent three years nursing her dying lover back to health while her husband watched in silence. And about what happens when a woman with real magical power finally decides she's done being patient.

The fish in the lake are the citizens of a vanished city — a whole kingdom transformed by one sorceress's grief and rage. The four colors of the fish? The four faiths of the people who used to live there.

This is the story after the djinn story. And it is fascinating

Follow us:

Fabric of Folklore website

Youtube channel

Instagram 

Linkedin

Transcript

0:01

The Entail of the Enchanted Lake and the Ensourcled Prince. The Sultan receives four fish from what he's been told is an enchanted lake from a very poor fisherman. And he presents him these four fish of four colors. One is red, one is blue, one is yellow, and one is white. Neither the fisherman nor the Sultan have ever seen fish of this nature. And in fact, it seems as if they are supernatural of some sort. But the king is very grateful that the fisherman has thought of him, and he gives him a gift of money and sends him on his way. And he gives the fish to his cook who has prepared all sorts of different types of fish from all over the world. And the f the the the cook takes them back to her kitchen. And she puts oil in the frying pan and it starts to sizzle. And the fish, one at a time, she starts to throw them into the pan. But as she does so, the wall opens up. And out of the opening is an arm and a hand. And a voice from within the wall says, Are you still held? And the fish in the frying pan. stand up and with their mouths in unison they say, We are held. Please free us. Come and find us. The wall closes up, and when she looks back down at her fish in the pan, they are charred black. And so she is she's terrified because how can she serve these fish To the king. And so she goes to tell the king exactly what happens. But of course, she knows her story seems unbelievable. And so uh he's the king says, Okay, I need to see this happen. And so he sends for the fisherman, and the fisherman goes and casts his net again and brings back the four colored fish. And the king comes to the kitchen as the cook is about to prepare the fish. And as she turns on the stove and they Oil is sizzling. Once again, the wall opens and the hand emerges and it says, Are you still held? And the fish stand up on their fins and their mouths move in unison and they say, We are held. Please free us. Come find us. And once again, they turn black. They are charred as if they have been held in the fire for hours. And the the wall closes up and the hand disappears and the Sultan is absolutely stunned. He doesn't he's never seen anything like this before. And so he vows to go and find this hidden city where these fish are. And so he has his advisors send for the fisherman again. And his advisors say, No, no, you cannot go. We have people for this. y send them and and the the sultan says, No, this is something I need to do. And so he gets on his horse and he follows the fisherman out to the enchanted lake, surrounded by four mountains. And so once the fisherman has shown him the lake, uh he leaves. And the location that the fisherman has not explored is a palace, a hidden city. And the The Sultan starts walking through the palace and there are candles lit. There are plates of food upon tables, but there is not a single voice. His voice is the only voice that echoes in the chambers, and it's a very eerie feeling, feeling as if you were the only one in a beautiful palace where obviously people used to live. And as he's walking, he sees a beautiful fountain, and leaning against the fountain is a man. And the man is sitting against the fountain and in his lap is a book. And at first it looks as if the man is reading the book, but he realizes the man is not moving at all. And as he gets closer, he realizes that the man is actually part of the ground. And in fact, his legs are stone. all the way up to his waist and from his waist up he is human. And the Sultan says, What is this sorcery? What has happened? And so the prince who is sitting half stoned reading a book tells him his story. And his story is this. He grew up with his beautiful cousin who he was destined to marry. And they were very much in love, and for the first few years of their marriage, they had a beautiful marriage, until he heard a rumor by the servant girls in the halls, and that rumor was that his wife was having an affair. And so as he's walking along the the halls, he goes to his wife's chamber where he finds the lover. And so he goes. to the lover and he slits his throat, but it's not deep enough to kill him, and then he runs. Now the wife is filled with rage. She she is so angry that her husband would have killed her lover that she immediately turns in to a woman that is unrecognizable and she starts spewing words that he has never heard that don't sound like the language that he has grown up hearing. They sound mysterious and magical and he is transformed into half stone leaning against the fountain and the entire rest of the wet realm is filled with water and all of the people who inhabited this realm. All of the people of different religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and one other. I can't remember the other religion. Uh are turned into fish. And the only people who are still alive as humans are the lover who is in a tomb that the wife has built to m keep her lover alive, but just barely. And herself and he is half human, but he is only half human so that she can punish him. And she punishes on a on a daily basis with whips and a hair shirt that scratches his skin raw. And so after hearing his story, the prince's story, the Sultan asks where this tomb might be located. And so he finds the lover and swiftly cuts his throat and hides the body. And then he hides himself as the lover under the blanket. And so when the wife comes to the sorceress comes to see her lover and she's crying and she's saying, I miss you so much. I wish that you were were really here with me instead of in this in this form, he he pretends the Sultan pretends to be the lover and he starts to to croak with his sore voice and he says, Why are you lonely? And so she tells him the story of why why she's lonely and why there are no humans and why she turned everyone into fish and she's very despondent and she's very sad. And he says, I think I could be healed if you would only undo the wrongs you have done. And so she dries her tears and she goes out, and she mutters some words of magic, and once again the realm is transformed back into what it was. The fish are in human form. They are no longer a lake. Instead it is a beautiful city and her prince, her husband, He's turned from s half stone to half to true human. And the Sultan walks up to the wife and he cuts her in two. And he leaves the prince to rule his kingdom once again, has a whole man who needs to heal and goes back to his his own kingdom and is grateful upon. Pun he's so very grateful. Uh and he calls the fisherman back to him and he's he tells him the story of the hidden city and he says, if it wasn't for you, if it weren't for the actions of you gifting me these fish, this city would still be ensconced. It would still be a hidden city with people being punished who didn't deserve. to be punished, and for that I will grant you even more wealth. I want to marry one of your daughters. And so the king marries the Sultan marries one of the fisherman's daughters, and the the fisherman becomes a an advisor to the Sultan, and they live happily ever after. Now this is the second part to the fisherman and the djinn. The fisherman in the very beginning is is shown this clear lake This enchanted lake by the djinn who has granted him this after uh being tricked to back into the bottle after the the fisherman has freed him. You definitely want to go back and listen to part one. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Y Rogers of and this is Fabric of folklore, make sure you hit that subscribe button and the like button and listen for more stories because we're gonna be telling a lot of different stories around the 1001 Arabian Knights. Until next time, keep the fairy tales and folktales alive.