Once upon a time a fearsome king lived in a frozen land. As he grew older, he began to feel lonely, so he decided to get married.

The king sent his servants out into the world to search for the perfect woman. "Find someone who will melt my heart," he commanded. "She must be kind, generous and good. She must be beautiful and sweet. But most of all, she must be warm."

Everywhere the servants traveled, they met beautiful women, but no one seemed right until they met a shy young girl named Violet. Her smile was so wide and warm, and her eyes so bright, that the servants knew at once that this was the woman for their king.

Violet felt sad to leave her family, but agreed to meet the king. "Surely he will not ask me to stay," she told her parents and her sisters. "Why would a king want to marry someone like me?" So saying, she set off on the journey to the king's palace.

The moment the king saw Violet, he fell in love with her. Her smile melted his frozen heart, and the tyrant turned kind. Violet loved this gentle, generous man, and so they married.

Violet loved the king, but the cold weather made her unhappy.The king wanted to make her happy, so he decreed, "From now on, half of each year will be warm and filled with sunshine."

Just one problem remained. Violet missed her old home and family. She begged the king to allow her to visit them.

The king could not resist his wife's request, but he feared someone might steal her love, and so he told her: "You may visit your family in the springtime each year, but only in the form of a flower. In wintertime, as Violet, you will return to me."

Violet agreed, and so each spring, disguised as a flower, she returned home. There, surrounded by thousands of other violets, she bloomed in the company of her family. Every winter, while the other flowers slept, she returned to her beloved king.