I’ve started working on my second book in my Heart of God series, which I’m very excited about. It’s already shaping up to be a strong story with lots of plot twists and continued relationship building between Selah and Dylan and the trials they face as they continue to find their hope and faith in God. I will be sharing more about this second book in the coming months. But, since it is spring, I’ve been sharing some older posts that I shared over the last couple years about my Spring Equinox Chronicle (Book 2 of The Solstice Chronicles), and looking back, I never posted this blog about the story behind Swan Lake and why I chose to use this story as part of the basis for Beauty Redeemed, so here it is.
Beauty Redeemed: A Spring Equinox Chronicle is the second book in my faith-based fairytale series. If you haven’t read my article about Hades and Persephone, the other story behind Beauty Redeemed, you can read it here:https://beautyrestored.org/2023/10/05/hades-and-persephone-a-look-at-the-fairytale-myth-behind-beauty-redeemed/
Like my first book, I wanted to incorporate a twist or elements from a fairy tale. When I started thinking about this book, I wanted a story that reflected a story of darkness and light or purity. The story of Swan Lake has always intrigued me and I’m excited to incorporate elements from this story as well as another story that is more in the realm of mythology than fairy tales, but both will hopefully integrate into a beautiful story about the beauty and hope and redemption that comes with the story of spring.
Swan Lake follows the story of a girl lured into darkness by an evil sorcerer who transforms her and other girls into swans. They can only turn back into their human selves when the moon rises over the enchanted lake and if the sorcerer dies before the curse is broken, they will remain swans forever. The story also follows a prince whose mother is forcing him to choose a bride from the princesses who will be attending his birthday ball. Disheartened by his coming decision, the prince journeys into the forest with his friends to go hunting. While there, he comes upon a flock of beautiful swans. Just as he is about to take aim, the swans settle by the lake and are transformed into beautiful girls. The prince falls in love with the swan queen and finds out that if he declares his love for the swan queen, he will break the curse and set them all free. The following night at the prince’s ball, the sorcerer brings his daughter disguised as the swan queen, portrayed as the black swan. I found out that in most renditions of Swan Lake that the swan queen and black swan are usually played by the same girl, which makes it a very sought after role for many ballerinas. That element of the dark and the light character being played by the same person spoke to the direction I was wanting to go with this second story in The Solstice Chronicles–the battle or struggle between good and evil, dark and light and how even though things can look good and pleasing and right, they could really be something evil in disguise and we have to be careful who or what we declare our love over. Back to the story of Swan Lake. The prince was convinced that the black swan was the swan queen and declared his love for her, proclaiming to the world that he would marry her, only to find out that the sorcerer had been behind the ruse from the start and he had pledged his love to the wrong girl. When the prince finds the swan queen, he asks her forgiveness and she forgives him but she would rather die than live the rest of her life as a swan and she throws herself into the lake(not your typical happy ending).The prince sacrifices himself for her and his sacrificial love breaks the spell and sets the rest of the girls free and renders the sorcerer powerless.
A broken vow, love lost, a sacrificial death that renders evil powerless. Sounds an awful lot like another story I know.
Beauty Redeemed is a story that explores the battle between Light and Dark. Princess Julianna, a daughter of light in the kingdom of Genesia, has always struggled with internal darkness that she’s afraid to share with others out of fear of what they would think of her being the princess of light. Like the girl in Swan Lake, she is lured into the realm of darkness by the Dark Lord. He convinces her that she doesn’t belong in the world of beauty and light. That her ties to darkness are too strong and she will never break free from the bonds of darkness that have held her for so much of her life. In the world of The Solstice Chronicles, if someone ends up in the Dark Realm, it takes the blood sacrifice of someone who loves the person to set them free. Julianna’s redemption and rescue comes from an unexpected source, but she is freed by the sacrificial love of a Prince, just like the story of Swan Lake. You find out throughout the story of Beauty Redeemed that Julianna’s family loves her despite her draws to darkness. They do everything in their power to save her and bring her home. And, she has another valiant warrior who is always working on her behalf to free her and has already bought back her freedom from the realm of darkness, showing the advocate we have in Christ, who covered us with His blood when He died on the cross, and made it possible for us to step out of the realm of darkness into the realm of light.
If you struggled with darkness, you are not alone. Many succumb to the lies of the Enemy that tell us we’re too far gone. Too deep in the throws of darkness to get out. To entangled in the dark webs we’ve made for ourselves to be rescued. The Enemy tells us that we are not worth it. No one will ever love us enough to rescue us. But, know this. You are never too far gone. You are never too lost. Jesus has been with you long before you were conceived and has never left your side. He is fighting your battles with you and is waiting to pull you out of the miry darkness that surrounds you. You need only to believe in the power of spring and the resurrection of our Prince, whose sacrificial love has set every single person free from sin and death.
May you find the beauty of redemption in your life today.
Ashley Beach-Author and Storyteller 