drawing by Elizabeth Ratisseau

myths are stories that have been told, re-told and
passed on from generation to generation

their origins predate our written history; and we
will continue to re-tell them as long as we exist
as a species

we do so because they strike a deep chord and
resonate within us

scholars such as Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell
have contended that myths -

- arise from and reflect the ways humans think
and feel

- and teach us WHAT life is and HOW we should
live it

mythology was humanity's first cosmology, sociol-
ogy, psychology, morality and more

compelling stories such as The Lord of the Rings
and Star Wars are essentially contemporary re-
tellings of ancient myths

in this and future PonderAbout posts, myths from
very different epochs, locals and cultures will be
presented

as you take them in, sense your reaction and
try to discover their message

Princess Ilse - a German Myth

Ilse was . . . the lovely daughter of the giant of the Ilsenstein. She was so charming that she was known far and wide as the beautiful Princess Ilse, and was wooed by many knights, among whom she preferred the lord of Westerburg. But her father did not at all approve of her consorting with a mere mortal, and forbade her seeing her lover.

Princess Ilse was willful, and in spite of his prohibitions she daily visited her lover. The giant, exasperated by her persistency and disobedience, finally stretched out his huge hands and, seizing the rocks, tore a great gap between the height where he dwelt and the castle of Westerburg.

Princess Ilse, perceiving the cleft which parted her from her lover, recklessly flung herself over the precipice into the raging flood beneath, where she was changed into a bewitching undine. She dwelt here in the limpid waters for many a year, appearing from time to time to exercise her fascinations upon mortals . . .
- Myths of Northern Lands, H. A. Guerber