Public Domain Super Heroes
Register
Advertisement
Scheherazade
Scheherazade

Real Name

Scheherazade

First Appearance

Unknown

Original Publisher

Arabic Folklore

Created by

Unknown

Origin[]

The story goes that every day the king would marry a new virgin, and every day he would send yesterday's wife to be beheaded. This was done in anger, having found out that his first wife was unfaithful to him. He had killed 1,000 such women by the time he was introduced to Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter.

Against her father's wishes, Scheherazade volunteered to spend one night with the King. Once in the King's chambers, Scheherazade asked if she might bid one last farewell to her beloved sister, Dunyazad, who had secretly been prepared to ask Scheherazade to tell a story during the long night. The King lay awake and listened with awe as Scheherazade told her first story. The night passed by, and Scheherazade stopped in the middle of the story. The King asked her to finish, but Scheherazade said there was not time, as dawn was breaking. So, the King spared her life for one day to finish the story the next night. So the next night, Scheherazade finished the story, and then began a second, even more exciting tale which she again stopped halfway through, at dawn. So the King again spared her life for one day to finish the second story.

And so the King kept Scheherazade alive day by day, as he eagerly anticipated the finishing of last night's story. At the end of 1,001 nights, and 1,000 stories, Scheherazade told the King that she had no more tales to tell him. During these 1,001 nights, the King had fallen in love with Scheherazade, and had three sons with her. So, having been made a wiser and kinder man by Scheherazade and her tales, he spared her life, and made her his Queen.

Public Domain Appearances[]

Literature:

  • One Thousand and One Nights
  • The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade (1845)

Music:

  • Shéhérazade (1888)
  • Shéhérazade (1902)

Public Domain Comic Appearances[]

  • Classic Comics #8

See Also[]

Advertisement