The Fables of Fontaine: Vol. 1

A storybook collecting short fables. Most are not original to the author but from ancient poems now lost.

The Maiden and the Sun

When the fox's foster daughter came of age to marry, her face was gentle as a fair spring, so peerlessly lovely that any would say she outshone every beauty of the world.

So the fox said to her daughter: "Daughter, daughter, I am old and frail; I fear I can no longer care for you as before. I hope you will choose a husband for yourself—everyone longs for the honor of being your spouse."

The maiden answered her mother: "Then, mother, marry me to the most powerful among mortal things."

"Ah, that is the sun," said the fox. "Sun high in the vault of heaven, you shall be my son-in-law."

"No," the sun declined. "These clouds are far stronger than I, for they can cover my light."

"Then, flowing cloud that can hide the sun's light, let my daughter marry you."

"Alas, no! For the wind can scatter me with ease—better entrust her to the wind!"

But the wind was blocked by the mountains, so the fox went to the mountain.

The mountain declined, saying it had once quarreled with a mouse, and the mouse in rage had bored a tunnel through the mountain— thus the mouse was far stronger than the continuous ranges.

The mouse deferred to the cat, the cat to the dog, the dog to the wolf, and so on and on, until it returned again to the sun— and so this young beauty was married to the sun after all.

This story says: people should follow the arrangement of fate, not evade it a hundred ways. However sincere or clever you are, you cannot finally flee the duty you ought to bear.