~ by Amanda Pizzolatto 

Once upon a time, on an island kingdom across the sea, lived a great Viking chief and his intelligent son. The young prince had quickly become best friends with a priest and almost singlehandedly converted the tribe to Christianity. One day, the prince sought out the priest’s advice with something of a dilemma. The chief of another Viking tribe kidnapped the princess of Scotland and was planning on exchanging her for the throne of Scotland, but the king of Scotland did not want to give up his throne to a Viking and was setting off for war. Their island kingdom was in between Scotland and the other Vikings, meaning the Scots would stop there. The biggest thing of all was that the princess herself had appeared to the prince in a dream, begging him to stop the war and to rescue her.

The priest asked some pointed questions, and when he was satisfied with the answers, recommended that the prince do as the princess asked, stop the war and save her. After explaining everything to the prince’s father and asking him to delay the Scots long enough for the prince and the priest to rescue the princess. Before long, the two were on their way towards the other island kingdom where the princess was being held; hoping to get there before anything bad could happen to the princess.

After a few days, both prince and priest were in audience with the Viking chief who had stolen the Scottish princess, seeking to reach a truce and convert the tribe to Christianity. The chief seemed to think it over, before telling them that he would consider it, if they picked out the Scottish princess from a group of twenty women. Thinking it would be easy, they agreed. The following day, they set out for the house where the princess was held prisoner, a quaint mansion by a lake. The chief led them to the back of the mansion, where twenty bears wandered by the lake, encircled by a high fence. The chief explained, the twenty women were bears by day, human by night, and the prince had to choose from the bears. Saying a quick prayer to God and his guardian angel, the prince ventured into the fenced area.

The bears left him alone for the most part, most concentrating on eating or drinking from the lake. The prince soon sensed that he was being guided towards one specific bear, its fur seemingly darker than the rest. The prince touched her, and she merely nudged him back, indicating she was the princess. The look on the chief’s face seemed to further prove that the prince had guessed rightly. The bear nudged the prince towards the lake, immersing herself in it. Once nearly emerged, the bear changed into the Scottish princess. The other bears followed suit, all changing into women, exclaiming that the spell was finally broken.

The chief was none the happy about it, but there was nothing he could really do as at that moment, the prince’s father led the Scots straight to the lake. Between the prince’s father and the Scottish king, everything was taken care of. The chief who kidnapped the princess was stripped of his rank and another, better man was asked to rule in his stead. This new chief accepted and allowed the Catholic faith in his kingdom. A few years passed before the Viking prince married the Scottish princess, with the prince’s best friend presiding over the wedding. And with that union, helped unite two nations that had once been at war, and bringing both into a stronger union with God.