L is for Love

I’m doing folklore and book review posts to reach and please a larger audience. Previous years have shown select interest in both and to minimise blogging throughout the year, I’m focusing my efforts on April.

If you’d rather check out my book review for today, go here.

There are many folktales where love is the main conflict. This can be because someone was magically caused to fall in love with someone they shouldn’t, or because it happened the natural way.

Folklore

P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses [8 CE]

DAPHNE AND PHOEBUS

Daphne, the daughter of a River God
was first beloved by Phoebus, the great God
of glorious light. ‘Twas not a cause of chance
but out of Cupid’s vengeful spite that she
was fated to torment the lord of light.
For Phoebus, proud of Python’s death, beheld
that impish god of Love upon a time
when he was bending his diminished bow,
and voicing his contempt in anger said;
“What, wanton boy, are mighty arms to thee,
great weapons suited to the needs of war?
The bow is only for the use of those
large deities of heaven whose strength may deal
wounds, mortal, to the savage beasts of prey;
and who courageous overcome their foes.—
it is a proper weapon to the use
of such as slew with arrows Python, huge,
whose pestilential carcase vast extent
covered. Content thee with the flames thy torch
enkindles (fires too subtle for my thought)
and leave to me the glory that is mine.”

to him, undaunted, Venus, son replied;
“O Phoebus, thou canst conquer all the world
with thy strong bow and arrows, but with this
small arrow I shall pierce thy vaunting breast!
And by the measure that thy might exceeds
the broken powers of thy defeated foes,
so is thy glory less than mine.” No more
he said, but with his wings expanded thence
flew lightly to Parnassus, lofty peak.
There, from his quiver he plucked arrows twain,
most curiously wrought of different art;
one love exciting, one repelling love.
The dart of love was glittering, gold and sharp,
the other had a blunted tip of lead;
and with that dull lead dart he shot the Nymph,
but with the keen point of the golden dart
he pierced the bone and marrow of the God.

Immediately the one with love was filled,
the other, scouting at the thought of love,
rejoiced in the deep shadow of the woods,
and as the virgin Phoebe (who denies
the joys of love and loves the joys of chase)
a maiden’s fillet bound her flowing hair,—
and her pure mind denied the love of man.
Beloved and wooed she wandered silent paths,
for never could her modesty endure
the glance of man or listen to his love.

Her grieving father spoke to her, “Alas,
my daughter, I have wished a son in law,
and now you owe a grandchild to the joy
of my old age.” But Daphne only hung
her head to hide her shame. The nuptial torch
seemed criminal to her. She even clung,
caressing, with her arms around his neck,
and pled, “My dearest father let me live
a virgin always, for remember Jove
did grant it to Diana at her birth.”

But though her father promised her desire,
her loveliness prevailed against their will;
for, Phoebus when he saw her waxed distraught,
and filled with wonder his sick fancy raised
delusive hopes, and his own oracles
deceived him.—As the stubble in the field
flares up, or as the stacked wheat is consumed
by flames, enkindled from a spark or torch
the chance pedestrian may neglect at dawn;
so was the bosom of the god consumed,
and so desire flamed in his stricken heart.

He saw her bright hair waving on her neck;—
“How beautiful if properly arranged! ”
He saw her eyes like stars of sparkling fire,
her lips for kissing sweetest, and her hands
and fingers and her arms; her shoulders white
as ivory;—and whatever was not seen
more beautiful must be.

Swift as the wind
from his pursuing feet the virgin fled,
and neither stopped nor heeded as he called;
“O Nymph! O Daphne! I entreat thee stay,
it is no enemy that follows thee—
why, so the lamb leaps from the raging wolf,
and from the lion runs the timid faun,
and from the eagle flies the trembling dove,
all hasten from their natural enemy
but I alone pursue for my dear love.
Alas, if thou shouldst fall and mar thy face,
or tear upon the bramble thy soft thighs,
or should I prove unwilling cause of pain!
“The wilderness is rough and dangerous,
and I beseech thee be more careful—I
will follow slowly.—Ask of whom thou wilt,
and thou shalt learn that I am not a churl—
I am no mountain dweller of rude caves,
nor clown compelled to watch the sheep and goats;
and neither canst thou know from whom thy feet
fly fearful, or thou wouldst not leave me thus.
“The Delphic Land, the Pataraean Realm,
Claros and Tenedos revere my name,
and my immortal sire is Jupiter.
The present, past and future are through me
in sacred oracles revealed to man,
and from my harp the harmonies of sound
are borrowed by their bards to praise the Gods.
My bow is certain, but a flaming shaft
surpassing mine has pierced my heart—
untouched before. The art of medicine
is my invention, and the power of herbs;
but though the world declare my useful works
there is no herb to medicate my wound,
and all the arts that save have failed their lord.,”

But even as he made his plaint, the Nymph
with timid footsteps fled from his approach,
and left him to his murmurs and his pain.

Lovely the virgin seemed as the soft wind
exposed her limbs, and as the zephyrs fond
fluttered amid her garments, and the breeze
fanned lightly in her flowing hair. She seemed
most lovely to his fancy in her flight;
and mad with love he followed in her steps,
and silent hastened his increasing speed.

As when the greyhound sees the frightened hare
flit over the plain:—With eager nose outstretched,
impetuous, he rushes on his prey,
and gains upon her till he treads her feet,
and almost fastens in her side his fangs;

but she, whilst dreading that her end is near,
is suddenly delivered from her fright;
so was it with the god and virgin: one
with hope pursued, the other fled in fear;
and he who followed, borne on wings of love,
permitted her no rest and gained on her,
until his warm breath mingled in her hair.

Her strength spent, pale and faint, with pleading eyes
she gazed upon her father’s waves and prayed,
“Help me my father, if thy flowing streams
have virtue! Cover me, O mother Earth!
Destroy the beauty that has injured me,
or change the body that destroys my life.”

Before her prayer was ended, torpor seized
on all her body, and a thin bark closed
around her gentle bosom, and her hair
became as moving leaves; her arms were changed
to waving branches, and her active feet
as clinging roots were fastened to the ground—
her face was hidden with encircling leaves.—

Phoebus admired and loved the graceful tree,
(For still, though changed, her slender form remained)
and with his right hand lingering on the trunk
he felt her bosom throbbing in the bark.
He clung to trunk and branch as though to twine.
His form with hers, and fondly kissed the wood
that shrank from every kiss.

And thus the God;
“Although thou canst not be my bride, thou shalt
be called my chosen tree, and thy green leaves,
O Laurel! shall forever crown my brows,
be wreathed around my quiver and my lyre;
the Roman heroes shall be crowned with thee,
as long processions climb the Capitol
and chanting throngs proclaim their victories;
and as a faithful warden thou shalt guard
the civic crown of oak leaves fixed between
thy branches, and before Augustan gates.
And as my youthful head is never shorn,
so, also, shalt thou ever bear thy leaves
unchanging to thy glory.,”

Here the God,
Phoebus Apollo, ended his lament,
and unto him the Laurel bent her boughs,
so lately fashioned; and it seemed to him
her graceful nod gave answer to his love.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Two households, both alike in dignity
 (In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),
 From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
 Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
5 From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
 A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
 Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
 Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
 The fearful passage of their death-marked love
10 And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
 Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,
 Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
 The which, if you with patient ears attend,
 What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

[Despite the feud between their families, the moment Romeo and Juliet meet they instantly fall in love. Tragedy follows.]

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

Act 3, scene 1

TITANIA, ⌜waking up⌝
 What angel wakes me from my flow’ry bed?
BOTTOM ⌜sings⌝
 The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
  The plainsong cuckoo gray,
 Whose note full many a man doth mark
135  And dares not answer “nay”—
 for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a
 bird? Who would give a bird the lie though he cry
 “cuckoo” never so?
TITANIA 
 I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again.
140 Mine ear is much enamored of thy note,
 So is mine eye enthrallèd to thy shape,
 And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me
 On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.
BOTTOM  Methinks, mistress, you should have little

p. 79145 reason for that. And yet, to say the truth, reason
 and love keep little company together nowadays.
 The more the pity that some honest neighbors will
 not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon
 occasion.
TITANIA 
150 Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
BOTTOM  Not so neither; but if I had wit enough to get
 out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own
 turn.
TITANIA 
 Out of this wood do not desire to go.
155 Thou shalt remain here whether thou wilt or no.
 I am a spirit of no common rate.
 The summer still doth tend upon my state,
 And I do love thee. Therefore go with me.
 I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
160 And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep
 And sing while thou on pressèd flowers dost sleep.
 And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
 That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.—
 Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed!

[Puck had, under the instruction of Oberon, slipped Titania a love potion. He had also turned Bottom’s head into that of an ass.]

Further Reading:

• Various love stories in folklore [The Multicolored Diary]
• 5 Mythical Love Stories Depicted in Art
• The Six Greatest Love Stories of Irish Myth
• Tristan and Isolde
• Guinevere
• Cupid and Psyche
• Apollo and Daphne
• ECHO AND NARCISSUS IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY
• Helen of Troy
• Pygmalion

Folklore in a Nutshell by Ronel

Love has always played a major role in stories. The curse in Beauty and the Beast could only be broken by love. A frozen heart could only be thawed by true love in Frozen (and in Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen on which it’s loosely based). In the Brothers Grimm’s folktales, Briar Rose and Snow White could only be saved by love. Though, it could be argued that in Grimm’s folktales it was lust and not love that drove the princes to save the princesses.

In mythology, there is no clear line between love and lust and so a deity would be worshipped for both. I’ve already covered how Freyja, Cupid, Isis and Aphrodite fill this role.

In Greek mythology there are an abundance of love stories that are influenced by others, usually Aphrodite or Cupid. The tragic tale of Apollo and Daphne ends with the nymph turned into a tree after Apollo was shot with an arrow to fall in love and Daphne to reject all love. Paris’ obsession with Helen has a war break out that changes Greece forever as Troy is sieged, all thanks to Aphrodite. Narcissus’ obsession with himself has the nymph Echo lose herself and become a cautionary tale about love. The sculptor Pygmalion falls in love with the statue he created and asks Aphrodite to turn her into a real woman… At least Cupid and Psyche’s love story turned out well.

The ultimate story of forbidden love has to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. We all know it: for some daft reason that no-one remembers the Capulets and Montagues are at odds; Romeo and Juliet fall in love even while knowing they shouldn’t; they try and fail to be together; she fakes being dead; he kills himself in grief and she follows suit.

Okay, so perhaps there’s more to the story to make it so lasting. Various retellings – mostly in movies – have come and gone. In Titanic, Rose and Jack are separated by class. Yet he saves her in every way a person can be saved. And though he dies (spoiler alert) she loves him even beyond death.

In medieval romances, the most prominent story arc is Queen Guinevere’s love affair with King Arthur’s chief knight, Lancelot. In most modern versions though, Guinevere stays faithful to Arthur despite feelings she might have for Lancelot.

The tale of Tristan and Isolde was made popular through French medieval poetry. It’s inspired by the Celtic legend of the Cornish knight and the Irish princess who accidentally ingest a love potion causing them to fall madly in love even though the princess is to marry the knight’s uncle. The potion’s effects last a lifetime.

There are various love gods that influence the lives of mortals, bringing either tragedy or comedy, but rarely lasting love.

Love in Modern Culture

In a lot of folktales and fairy tales, a spell can be broken by true love’s kiss. Here’s a song:

Harry Potter book series by JK Rowling

Love potions induce a very fake and powerful infatuation in the drinker. They will suddenly “fall in love” and behave very romantically toward the person who produced it, and will obsess over them by acting silly and unreasonable. It is not possible to artificially create actual love so any feelings generated by the potion do not represent real affection or true love.^[1] After centuries of trying, potioneers now doubt that love potions to create real feelings are possible.^[2]

Hector Dagworth-Granger, an esteemed potioneer, once explained that although a skilful potioneer can produce powerful infatuations, nobody has managed to create the “truly unbreakable, eternal, unconditional attachment that alone can be called Love”

Learn more here.

BBC Merlin

Love Spells are enchantments that induce feelings of love, often to the point of obsession. They can be used to make the victim fall in love with either the caster or someone of their choosing.

Because they interact with love, the greatest force of all, love spells are very difficult for even highly skilled sorcerers to break. In fact, some are so strong they can only be broken by a kiss from the victim’s true love.

Learn more here.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series

A love spell was a spell that caused the target to feel an increasingly uncontrollable desire and passion for the spell’s beneficiary.^[1]

Despite its name, the spell does not create love, but extreme attraction and lust, though the target believed they were in love. Those under the spell’s influence eventually lost all capacity to reason and could easily become murderous if they perceived any obstacle between them and the object of their lust, even turning against them in case of rejection.

Learn more here.

Shrek film

Love Potion is a concoction that can cause whoever drinks it to fall in love with the first person they kiss. The Fairy Godmother brewed it for Fiona with several ingredients (the only known ones being “a drop of desire, a pinch of passion, and just a hint of lust”)

Learn more here.

Love in My Writing

Origin of the Fae: Love

Several love deities are involved in the lives of mortals. Prende, Ziva, and Aine to name a few. Some stick to what folklore says about them, especially Cupid, as it’s good for branding and has humans remember and worship them. Others have gone from playing with the emotions of humans, to giving good advice – in love songs, romance novels, advice columns and more. Most see it as a serious task to keep love alive in the hearts of mortals as hate can so easily consume them. They have an annual love gods’ conference where they swap notes and figure out how to best do their jobs in the future. Aine, a Celtic goddess of love, is in charge of the love gods as most can’t tolerate each other, but they all respect her.

Probably great advice from the various love gods…

See this immortal in action in my writing:

Russian Roulette (Irascible Immortals #4)

Yue-Lao entered the drawing room full of love gods in various incarnations, greeting each other like they haven’t seen each other in forever – and weren’t each other’s competition for mortal attention.

He ignored the overpowering perfume of roses set in vases on every available surface – even in the fireplace. Yue-Lao far preferred the understated elegance of orchids and the unity they represented above the romantic and sometimes fleeting love roses symbolised.

He merely smiled and nodded in greeting, not wanting to talk to the others. If Aine hadn’t invited him personally, he wouldn’t even have bothered to attend.

Russian Roulette, Irascible Immortals #4, Ronel Janse van Vuuren

Remember that you can request all of my books from your local library!

Where did you encounter love gods for the first time? Check out my Pinterest board dedicated to these immortals.

You can now support my time in producing folklore posts (researching, writing and everything else involved) by buying me a coffee. This can be a once-off thing, or you can buy me coffee again in the future at your discretion.

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