The Lion asked me to do something impossible—and by that, I do not mean spinning a cloak for a giant out of the hair of a princess. I did that task, and others that I really suffered to accomplish.

But how can I possibly do this task? The Lion has asked me to kill him, cut him up into little pieces, and burn him.

He insists that it is the only way to break the spell he is under. How is it possible that anything will be left of my darling Lion after I have burned him to ashes?

The Lion’s Lover in The Wounded Lion, Pink Fairy Book. Painting “In the Grove of the Temple of Isis” by John William Godward, 1915.