Week 13 Reading Extra Credit: Filipino Tales

The Wicked Woman's Reward

Once a king had five women, two of which he loved most because they could have children.  He said whichever bears him a baby boy will be his wife.  One bears a girl, the other a boy.  The one that bears the girl is jealous and kills her own baby and steals the other woman's child.  She replaces the child with a cat.  When the king finds this, the woman who bore a boy is commanded to be drowned and she is killed.  When the other woman presents him with the baby boy she stole, he marries and loves her dearly.  Soon, the water the dead woman was drowned in started smelling sweet.  Her body washes up and is growing sweet flowers.  Anyone who tries taking the body is pecked at by birds.  When the king hears of this, he goes to her body and feels remorse upon seeing her.  The dead body leaps up, tells the king about the corrupt wife he married, and in his rage he throws his wife out a window and kills her.  The king commands for the woman who actually bore the boy child to be buried among the noble dead.  The child grows to be a wonderful prince and king.

Flowers in Water (body not included)
sourced via Pixabay

I liked the weird plot twist of this story.  It was strange to me the whole flowers growing on the dead body thing.  I guess it was just a cool representation of how she was actually a good person.  I personally would have added the detail that the other woman when dead starts to smell like manure or something of that degree.  I would like to place this story into a more modern context! I feel like it would make for a very interesting story!

Bibliography:
Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler