There was a very kind and beautiful maiden named Malvina, who was betrothed to Oscar, the bravest of all warriors ~ One autumn day, as Malvina sat waiting for her beloved to return home from battle, she could see, far in the distance rising out of the mist, a figure was limping over the heather clad moor ~

It was Oscar's faithful messenger, who, wounded and weary, knelt before her and gave her a sprig of purple heather ~ He told her that Oscar had been slain in battle, and as he lay dying, had plucked the heather and asked that it be given to Malvina as a token of his eternal love.

As Malvina listened, tears fell from her eyes onto the purple heather, and it immediately became white! With each step she took, her falling tears turned every patch of the purple heather-clad moors to white!

Even in the depths of her sadness, the kind and beautiful Malvina wished that others might be happier than she ~ and she prayed ~