Week 3 Storytelling: Juliana's Joy
Once upon a time, in the enchanted forest of Nicomedia, lived a beautiful girl named Juliana. Juliana was a very sweet girl who often attended church cared deeply about others. One day at dinner, Juliana's father explained to her that he has arranged for her to be married to the Duke, Eugene. Upon meeting Eugene, Juliana found that he was very rude and nasty to his people.
Juliana, being the caring girl that she is, knew that she could not be married to someone so cruel. Nearing the end of their first date, Juliana informed Eugene that she would only be his wife if he changed his ways to be kind to people. Leaving Eugene in a state of shock, Juliana began the long ride back to her family's cottage.
Upon Juliana's arrival home her father grew extremely angry. Upset by the fact that she did not follow through with his plans, he demanded that Juliana return to the Duke the next day and agree to be his wife.
When she arrived at Eugene's home, she told him once again that is he did not start behaving kindly, she would not marry him. Rather than changing the way he acts, Eugene grew angry at Juliana and demanded that she be sent to jail.
Though she found prison to be a dreadful place, Juliana found ways to enjoy it. She hummed songs and paid her respects to the spirit of the forest. On her third morning in prison, Juliana awoke to the sound of rocks pelting on the outside walls of her jail cell. Still angry that she will not marry him, Eugene hired the children of the village to throw rocks outside her wall to drive her crazy.
However, Juliana's kind heart is protected by the spirit of the forest. Rather than hearing the sound of pelting rocks, the magic around her quickly tuned her ear to hear a joyful drum beat instead.
Eugene grew even more angry and decided to pit Juliana against Nicomedia's most talented sword fighter. The day of the battle, Juliana was extremely anxious because she did not have any experience with fighting or weapons. The Duke arranged a grand event to showcase the fight and Juliana could feel thousands of eyes staring at her while she prepares for her brutal end. The crowd began counting down and Juliana grew more and more nervous.
However, Juliana's kind heart was protected by the spirit of the forest. The crowd counted down to one and the battle began. However, a different kind of battle played out in front of the people of Nicomedia. Rather than drawing their swords, Juliana and her opponents could not resist the urge to DANCE. They began a gruesome dance battle which delighted all people present at the event- allowing them to see the fun they were missing out on under the rule of Duke Eugene.
Just a few short months later, Duke Eugene was removed from power and the Kingdom was much more cheerful because of it. Juliana found herself living in a small cottage near the library, where she continued to live a life of joy and fun.
Authors note:
This is my rewrite of the story of Saint Juliana. In this story, Juliana is set to marry a Pagan provost, but refuses to unless he converts to Catholicism. This angers the Provost and he devises many ways that he could kill her. Juliana did not lose faith and found that God saved her life in all of these scenarios. I really liked this story for a couple of reasons. For one, I really enjoyed the fact that the story features a girl who did not sway in her beliefs. I also like that it is not a love story in the end. I decided to change the religious basis of the story and change it to a fairy tale type instead. I think I would like to do a story book of fairy tales featuring strong women. This is a very rough version of the story I would like to tell so I am extremely open for comments and feedback!
I really loved this story! Wow, Linsey, great job!! I think I could have used some more dialogue so that I knew what was going on in the characters minds, but otherwise you wrote a fantastic story based off of another fantastic story. I think you did a great job of incorporating the source text into the story and making it your own. Overall, I wish this story was longer (because I could not get enough) but as is, it is a fantastic read.
ReplyDeleteThis story made me laugh. I don't know if that was your intention, but it was a really joyful story. Eugene is a huge jerk, and I love that he was defeated by DANCE. Like, that's awesome. I think you did a great job of the fairytale element. I didn't know the original story, so before I got to your A/N, I thought that it was taken off a fairytale, so your vibe definitely worked.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it could use some more dialogue, and maybe a bit of proofreading. I also wonder what happened to the Duke? Who took over the kingdom and where did he go?