With romance in the air, it is time to relive the most famous love legends which have inspired lovers across time and history to be true to their passions. Almost all of these symbolize, in one way or another, the inexorability of mutual attraction and finally the power of love standing up against all odds. And even though the lovers do not come to a happy end, the loss and separation works almost like a catharsis, cleansing the human soul of its prejudices and restrictions and preparing for the renewal of love and harmony.
##Romeo and Juliet
Whenever you think of star-crossed lovers, the first pair that almost always comes to mind is that of Romeo and Juliet. Immortalized in Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, the plot of the play go back to an Italian tale which was in the fifteenth century translated into English prose and verse by English Renaissance writers. The love legend is set in the Italian city of Verona where the lovers belong to two warring clans – Juliet is from the Capulet family while Romeo is a Montague. The two meet at a masked ball, fall in love but have to contend with the long-standing enmity between the two families. In the end both lovers commit suicide, unable to bear the thought of living without each other. The themes of young love, budding passion and the futility of all violence were the themes that have continued to make the Romeo and Juliet love legend relevant even six hundred years down the line.
##The Butterfly Lovers
This is another legend of star-crossed lovers and refers to the Chinese pair, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Set in Eastern Jin Dynasty of China, the legend revolves around Zhu, a beautiful and intelligent young woman, who adopts the disguise of a young man to acquire higher education. In the process she meets a co-scholar Liang and the two develop a deep bond of love and friendship. Although Liang discovers the real identity of Zhu, it is already too late as Zhu’s marriage has been arranged to another man. Liang dies heartbroken. On the day of her marriage, Zhu visits Liang’s grave and wishes that it would open to let her in. With a clap of thunder, the grave opens and Zhu throws herself in. Their spirits turn into a pair of beautiful butterflies and emerge from the grave to fly into the free air, never to be separated again.
##Mark Antony and Cleopatra
One of the most interesting of love legends, this is set in 31 BC and straddles the two continents of Europe and Africa. Mark Antony a Roman general is smitten with Egyptian queen Cleopatra, so much so that he leaves his wife Octavia. However Octavius, his wife’s brother, launches an attack as much as for political ends as for personal revenge. In the end the invading Roman forces prove too much for Antony and Cleopatra and both commit suicide so as to avoid being captured by the enemy. The legend of this couple was as much known for their smoldering passion as for their political alliance, something which attracted Shakespeare enough to craft another remarkable historical play, Antony and Cleopatra.
##Laila and Majnu
Set in the exotic deserts of Middle East, the story of Laila and Majnu continues to be synonymous with single-minded devotion which ultimately leads to dissociation with worldly sense and order. The legend became popular with Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi's masterpiece, Layli o Majnun but is based on a real story of a young man called Kais during the Umayyad era in the 7th century. He fell in love with Laila and wooed her by composing poems. Her father however forbade marriage with Kais and instead arranged Layla’s marriage to another man. Kais became half-crazed with grief and fled into the desert where he would wander in the wilderness or write poetry with a stick in the sand. Eventually Laila fell ill and died and Kais was later found dead at the grave of an unknown woman, having carved three verses of poetry on a rock near the grave. Because of his descent into madness, Kais came to be known as Majnu or madman in Arabic.
##Guinevere and Lancelot
This love story is different from others in the sense that it is not based on pure and blameless love. Guinevere, the consort of legendary King Arthur, falls in love with Sir Lancelot, one of the Knights of the Round Table. The two carry on a brief but passionate affair which is comes to an end which King Arthur is told about it. Guinevere is imprisoned while Arthur launches an attack on Lancelot. The details about the battle vary according to various versions of the legend but in almost all, the conflict between Arthur and Lancelot marks the beginning of the downfall of the great king. In the end, Guinevere enters a convent while Lancelot goes back to his own land to a life of penitence. The inexorability love and passion which cannot be denied are the most attractive elements of this love legend.
##Sohni and Mahiwal
The legend of Sohni and Mahiwal takes one to the farmlands of Punjab, in northern India. Set in a potter’s village, Sohni and Mahiwal are a young couple but forbidden to marry according the dictates of their kin-groups. Sohni is married off to another man but she swims every night with the help of an upturned earthen pot to meet her love on the other bank of the river, Chenab. One night her sister-in-law discovers the secret and replaces the pot with a vessel of unbaked clay which melts in the raging waters of the river and Sohni drowns. Mahiwal sees his beloved fighting the waves and jumps in himself but is drowned as well. So it is in death that the lovers are united forever.
##Troilus and Cressida
Set in the backdrop of the Trojan War, the story of Troilus and Cressida is about a Trojan prince who falls in love with the daughter of a Trojan priest who has defected to the Greek side. The story soon follows the motif of lovers from warring sides as Cressida is taken to the Greek side in a political exchange. Despite the lovers’ promise to be true to each other, Cressida eventually yields to the advances of Diomedes, a Greek fighter, while Troilus is heartbroken at Cressida’s desertion and in the end is killed by Achilles. Though the love story is complicated by betrayal and the war, it underlines the uselessness of violence and war which kills even the noblest and most abiding emotions, love.
##Robin Hood and Maid Marian
The interesting legend of Robin Hood becomes even more delightful with the romantic angle of Maid Marian. Even though Maid Marian belongs to an aristocratic family and overtly disapproves of Robin Hood’s method of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, eventually she comes to understand his essential nobility and unselfish behavior and even succumbs to his personal charm. Interestingly though, there is no evidence of a female companion in the earliest medieval stories of Robin Hood. Originally Maid Marian was a separate character and associated with May Games festivities. It is likely that the interpolation was a result of popularization of the Robin Hood legend in the sixteenth century. She became romantically linked to Robin Hood as the latter became a central figure in May Day, associated as he was with the forest and archery. The result though has turned out to be one of the most enduring and widely-loved love legends from medieval England.
##Hero and Leander
Originally a Byzantine myth, the love story of Hero and Leander follows the familiar trajectory of star-crossed love. Hero was a priestess of Aphrodite who dwelt in a tower in Sestos and Leander was a young man from Abydos. The two fell in love. Leander would swim every night across the Hellespont to be with her. Hero would light a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way. One stormy winter night, Hero’s lamp was blown away and Leander lost his way in the waters. Unable to bear the grief of her lover’s death, Hero too jumped from her tower and died. The legend is today famous as Renaissance dramatist Christopher Marlowe’s poem, Hero and Leander which after his death was completed by George Chapman.
##Tristan and Isolde
Another Arthurian legend, the story of Tristan and Isolde too describes a love which transcends the restrictions of social institutions like marriage. Isolde, the daughter of the King of Ireland is betrothed to King Mark of Cornwall. King Mark sends his nephew, Tristan, to Ireland to escort Isolde back to Cornwall. During the voyage, Isolde and Tristan fall forever in love. Despite Isolde getting married to Mark of Cornwall and later Tristan marrying Iseult of Brittany, the two cannot forget their love for each other. Tristan falls ill and sends for Isolde in hopes that she would be able to cure him. It is agreed that if Isolde decides to come, the returning ship's sails would be white, or the sails would be black if she refuses. Iseult, seeing the white sails, lies to Tristan and tells him that the sails are black. He dies of grief before Isolde can reach him. In the end, Isolde too dies of a broken heart.
