The Legend of Princess Manorah

A story told and passed on through generations since the Ayutthaya period and which inspired a poem by King Rama V of Thailand. 

Kinnaree Manorah was a princess of Thai legend and was the youngest of the seven Kinnaree daughters of King Prathum and Queen Jantakinnaree. She lived in the mythical Mount Grairat kingdom. The Seven Kinnaree appeared as half woman half swan. They could fly or shed their wings to assume human form as they pleased.

Within the Krairat (Grairat) kingdom was the great Himmapan Forest in which lived strange creatures, unknown to human realms. In the middle of the forest was a beautiful lake which the seven Kinnaree loved to visit regularly on the auspicious day of Panarasi (Full moon day). Nearby, the lake, an old hermit practiced his meditations.

One day, a young man named Prahnbun, was strolling in the Himmapan forest, saw the seven princesses at play at the great pond. Prahnbun, stunned by the beauty of Manorah, thought, "If I can catch her and present her to Prince Suton, son of King Artityawong and Queen Jantaivee of Udon Panjah the Prince would surely fall in love with her. But how will I be able to catch her?"

He knew of the old hermit who meditated nearby in the forest and he decided to seek advice from the wise old man about his plans. The hermit told the young man that to catch the Kinnaree would be very difficult, as they would fly away if anyone frightened them, but that there was a great dragon living deep in the forest that might be able to help him. Prahbun thanked him for his advice and raced off to see the dragon.

The great dragon was not happy to hear Prahnbun's plan but was, eventually persuaded by Prahnbun to give him a magical rope with which he would be able to catch Manorah. Prahnbun thanked the dragon, hurried away to the pond with the magical dragon rope, and crept up to the pond's edge where the Kinnaree were playing. While the Kinnaree were all happily distracted with their play at the water's edge, he struck; throwing the magic rope around the neck of Manorah and caught her so tight, she could not escape. Her sisters fearful of being caught themselves; all took flight and flew away to safety.

Prahnbun then secured Manorah's wings to stop her from flying away and lead her away through the forest heading back to Udon Panjah to present her to the Prince Suton. The Prince happened to be riding through the forest when he came across Prahnbun with his prize. The beauty of Manorah instantly charmed the Prince and when Prahnbun told him that he had captured Manorah for him, the Prince was delighted with Prahnbun's good intentions and rewarded him handsomely.

The Prince returned to his Summer Palace in the forest with Manorah where their love for each other blossomed. When the Prince told his mother and father the whole story, they were very happy and immediately arranged the wedding between the Prince and Princess Manorah who returned to the Udon Panjah palace where they were married and lived happy ever after.

25 Things You Should Know About Love

1. It is possible to love someone who doesn’t love you back. It’s not a full love, it doesn’t have a whole lot of depth, but it’s still there.

2. People always say that you have to love yourself before anyone else can love you but that’s not really true. You can be loved even if you hate yourself. It’s just not going to be healthy. It’s not going to be the best kind of love.

3. Falling in love is nature’s drug and you can OD on it.

4. Emotionally OD. Not, like, actual death. Ew.

5. It’s so painful to have loved someone once and then never again. Sometimes you’ll wish it never happened just so you didn’t know how good it felt.

6. Then you remember that quote “It’s better to have loved and lost than to have ever loved at all” and you’re like, “okay, fine.”

7. You will never love someone quite the same way you do the first time.

8. In most cases, this is a good thing. The first time is fucking insane.

9. It’s a beautiful moment when you realize you are someone who’s worth loving.

10. And it’s an even harder moment when you temporarily forget it.

11. Sex doesn’t always bring people closer. Sometimes it just exposes the weaknesses in the relationship.

12. That being said, a relationship can survive on good sex for a disturbing amount of time.

13. Someone you love will betray you. You can’t go through this life without it.

14. You can’t force yourself to love someone. If it’s not there, it’s not going to happen. Ever.

15. Everyone is an idiot when it comes to matters of the heart. Love is the great equalizer. Whenever you feel intimidated by someone’s coolness, just imagine them sobbing in their bedroom after someone broke their heart. I guarantee it’s happened.

16. Love doesn’t always feel like brain orgasms. Sometimes it feels the best when it’s at its most subtle, like when it’s 3 p.m. on a Sunday and you’re reading a book with your feet entangled with someone else’s on the couch. You look around you for a second and realize that you’ve never felt safer. Ironically, it’s the quieter moments that will leave the most indelible mark.

17. Everyone wants to be loved. Everyone wants to rely on someone. For a lot of people, it’s their Achilles heel. Love is the reason why they made most of their mistakes.

18. At its best, love can feel better than heroin. At its worst, it can feel like heroin withdrawal.

19. I’ve never done heroin though so this is purely speculation.

20. Finding love is the unconscious motivator for a lot of the things we do. It’s why we work out, it’s why we go to a bar on a Saturday night when we really don’t want to, it’s why we agree to meet strangers off the internet.

21. Don’t be embarrassed if you’ve never been in love before. You have a ton of company.

22. When you fall in love with someone, be prepared for the possibility that you might hate them one day.

23. You will always have that one ex who will stick in your mind. They’ll feel like a perpetual dull ache in your side.

24. Love will make you into the best and worst version of yourself, often in the same night.

25. Love is the reason why we’re all here. Well, most of us anyway.

Scary and Grisly so beware before reading

One of the scariest tales of couple lore is an oldie. This urban legend has been around so long your grandpa might have heard it as a warning the first time he asked his parents for the car keys. The story goes a young couple parked in a secluded area one night to have a little quiet time alone. In seconds this turned into a passionate make out session when the girl pushed her boyfriend away claiming to hear some spooky sounds. Thinking to calm her down he tries to start the old clunker of a car he’s driving. It won’t turn over and he remembers to his embarrassment that the gas gauge needle was stuck on half a tank. He knew now that it must be bone dry.

Knowing there was gas station just a few miles down the road he told his nervous girlfriend to lock the doors, keep the windows up, and he’d be right back. After thirty minutes the girl is even more nervous when she hears a muffled noise. She looks frantically around, straining to see outside with the windows of the car still rolled up, but all she sees is darkness. There’s a sound on the roof like a sudden gush of water then silence. After a few seconds, the frightened young woman begins to hear a light tap…tap…tap on the roof of the car. She looked frantically around again and wonders if she shouldn’t get out and just have a quick look around, but nerves win out over her curiosity. She spends the next hours until dawn listening to the steady tapping and wondering why her boyfriend would leave her in this predicament. Surely, he knew her parents would be angry or what the other kids would say about the pair being out this late.

Finally, as the sun comes up, she sees a police officer walk cautiously up and stops a few feet away from the car. She rolls the window down and tells him her story in a timid voice. She doesn’t understand why the officer is just staring at her the way he is, so she asks if perhaps he hasn’t seen her boyfriend on the road. She’s afraid he might have gotten lost on the way back to the car as this is the only explanation she can think of, but the cop doesn’t response immediately. As if he is in a daze himself, he gestures for her to get out the car and come toward him. “Don’t look back at the car,” he tells her sternly, “just walk over here quickly.” She does as she’s told, but once she reaches the safety of the police officer’s side, she can’t resist whirling around looking back at her boyfriend’s vehicle, and begins to scream. She can see the source of the tapping sound is actually the steady dripping of her boyfriend’s blood. His body is hanging by a chain from the tree next to the car and his throat has been savagely slashed.

Later, after her recovery from the nervous breakdown brought on by the events of that horrible night, she finds it was her parents who called the police when just a few minutes after she left for her faithful date, they learned a mental patient escaped from the local mental hospital.

The chances of this story being true are nil, but it makes a great yarn for the campfire or any dark night.