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During his visit to Paige's
family home, the Prince is asked to name some famous people
from his country of Denmark. One of the names he
mentions is Kierkegaard.
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), a
renowned philosopher/theologian, once likened the
Incarnation of Jesus Christ to a fairytale. He
described it as such:
"Suppose there was a king who
loved a humble maiden. The king was like no other
king. Every statesman trembled before his power. No
one dared breathe a word against him, for he had strength to
crush all opponents. And yet, this mighty king was
melted by love for a humble maiden. How could he
declare his love for her? If he brought her to the
palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body
in royal robes, she would surely not resist -- no one dared
resist him. But would she love him?
She would say she loved him, of
course, but would she truly? Or would she live with
him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she had
left behind? Would she be happy at this side?
How could he know? If he rode to her forest cottage in
his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright
banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want
a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal.
He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble
maiden and to let shared love cross the gulf between them.
For it is only in love that an unequal can be made equal."
John Eldredge writes of this
quote, "The king clothes himself as a beggar and renounces
his throne in order to win her hand. The Incarnation, the
life and death of Jesus, answers once and for all the
question, 'What is God's heart toward me?' "*
Obviously, whoever wrote the
screenplay, The Prince and Me, must have been
familiar not only with Kierkegaard, but his famous "fairy
tale" as well.
*As quoted in The
Sacred Romance by John Eldredge.
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