Darwyn and Shea

There once was a girl named Shea who was the most coveted being in all the land. The people called her a witch for her supernatural powers of strength and healing, but in reality, even she knew not the original source of her magic. All she knew was that her mother told her to never cut her hair, for it somehow held her power in its strands.

One day, she happened upon a man named Darwyn. He was known throughout the land for his manipulative and cunning ways, but Shea, being the sweet and innocent girl that she was, always wanted to see the best in people. She was not stupid, of course, and had heard the tales of this mysterious Darwyn, but could not quite bring herself to believe that the man who stood before her was the man who could do those horrible things she heard about. He was tall and handsome, with broad shoulders, a full beard, and permanent grin that sent her tumbling head over heels for him. Even though there was a small voice in the back of Shea's head that was nagging her, whispering "he's dangerous," she went right ahead and fell in love with him. How could she have ever resisted? How could anyone with those stunning eyes ever have stolen the change from a blind beggar's cup? How could anyone with that smile ever have, allegedly, killed his brother so he could gain the family's inheritance? Even knowing these things, Darwyn drew Shea in with such a force that she could not help but feel safe, a little too safe.

After many blissful nights spent together, there came one where the peace was interrupted. For you see, humans tend to fear what they do not understand. When the king caught wind of the witch with the magic hair, he was threatened and frightened, for he could not fathom that Shea might be good at heart. So the king sent soldiers from the royal guard to the door of the two lovers' home, seeking Shea. When Darwyn answered the door, the high guard declared, "Shea is wanted by the king for witchcraft and sorcery. She is to be thrown in prison immediately, but the king must know the source of her powers." After hearing this, Darwyn made a nasty deal with the guards: he promised he would find Shea's source powers if the guards paid him handsomely in precious jewels.

When Shea awoke the next morning, Darwyn asked, "My love, there is one thing you have not told me about you. What is the source of your magic?"

The voice in the back of her head starting speaking a little louder now, and Shea decided to tell a lie. She said, "If you bind my fingers and toes together, I will no longer have powers." Darwyn bought the lie and that night he bound her fingers and toes and called upon the royal guard, but Shea easily escaped her bondage.

The next day Darwyn asked again, "My love, you lied to me and made me look like a fool. Tell me, what is the source of your magic?"

The voice in her head grew even louder, and she decided to lie once more. She said, "If you place a crystal in my mouth and shut it, I will have no strength." Once again, in the night Darwyn placed a crystal in her mouth and called the guard, but she still had strength to escape her shackles.

On the third day, Darwyn grew weary and frustrated with Shea. He asked her again, "Shea! You have made me a fool twice now. I ask you to trust me with this secret, for if I know it, I will love and understand you more deeply. What is the source of your power?"

By this time, the voice in her head was shouting, "He's a liar! He wants to use you and destroy you!" It was than that Shea resigned herself to keeping her secret. As the days went on, so did Darwyn's insistence that she let him in on the secret. As resolve is wont to do, it depleted in strength with the passing of the days.

Eventually, she and Darwyn both knew she could bear his questioning no more. With a deep sigh, she finally told him, "The source of my power lies in my hair. If you take a razor and cut off my locks, I will be powerless." Knowing that he had finally won, that night after Shea was asleep, Darwyn took a razor and cut her hair clean off. He immediately called upon the royal guard, and this time Shea had no power left in her to fight them off. She struggled, but she was weak and weary. After tossing the reward at Darwyn, the guard bound and carried Shea to the palace, where the king sentenced her to prison for the rest of her days to live with the fact that her love was a lie.

Author's Note: Hello! I had a lot of fun re-telling this tale from the book of Judges in The Bible! The original story comes from the Bible Women's unit and is the story of Samson and Delilah. The original text is about a Nazarite man named Samson who had supernatural strength gifted by the Lord that is held in his hair. He was never to cut his hair or he would lose his strength. Delilah was a temptress and was known for being such around the land, but she found her way into Samson's bed nonetheless. She did the same questioning scenario as took place in my retelling, eventually convincing Samson to tell her the source of his strength. She bound him and cut his hair, turning him over to the king to be put in prison.

Originally I was unsure of how I wanted to write this tale. Since it is a story from the Bible, and the Old Testament portion of the Bible at that, it is very old and was written in the New King James version, which is just hard to read, although there are other versions of the Bible that are more easily understood. I knew that I wanted to somehow update the story into more modern times, or at least a time that modern readers could grasp. I eventually came to the conclusion that the medieval time period might be a good time to place this tale into. Perhaps my mind was just on this time period because I just watched A Knight's Tale (which is a fantastic movie by the way), but that's where I went ahead and placed my story. In an effort to change the text even more, I reversed the gender roles of the characters. I thought it was a bit on the sexist side to perpetuate the trope that women are temptresses and wicked, so I made the trickster the man. I wanted him to be truly evil and vile, so I tried to add just a few of the atrocious acts I imagine he committed in his day. I think Shea knowing these tales added a different feel to the story and allowed the character of Shea to be seen in a different light than the character of Samson in the original text. Even though Shea fell victim to Darwyn's ways, she was not innocent, as indicated by the voice in her head throughout the story. In addition, I wanted to keep true to the original text by keeping Shea's source of power in her hair, so that is what you see here. Enjoy!

Bibliography:

Background image "Samson and Delilah" by Lucas Cranach the Younger. His Wikipedia page.

"Delilah" from the book of Judges, New King James Version. Web Source.