The Maiden of Stone

I recently happened across a beautiful statuesque maiden sitting on a stone bench. Curious about how such a thing could happen, I asked the elderly caretaker of the adjoining royal manor estate to tell me what he knew. Here is the sad tale of forbidden love that he recounted:
This beautiful young princess was imprisoned in a countryside château by her evil stepmother. Guarded by a sentry, the princess was forbidden any contact with suitors. The wicked stepmother feared that her own children would be denied the throne upon the elder king’s death if the princess, who was the rightful heir, were to marry. One day a young knight caught sight of the lonely maiden peering from the loft window as he traveled through the realm. Enraptured by her beauty, he boldly returned and quietly entered the château, passing the sleeping guard. It wasn’t long before the two fell in love and planned an escape. Alas, they were detected and the foul stepmother placed a spell upon the young lovers, turning the maiden to stone and sending the knight into an enchanted forest to wander for eternity.

This photo was taken by a Hasselblad 500C medium format film camera with a Carl Zeiss Distagon 1:4 f=50mm lens and Hasselblad/63 1xHZ-0 filter using CineStill 50D film, the negative scanned by an Epson Perfection V600 and digitally rendered with Photoshop.