All Prophecies are Self-Fulfilling
The prophecy which gives this story its title is one very simply expressed: “There will one day come a girl child who will unseat a king and bring about a great change.” When the presence of Beatryce becomes a concern for those whose destiny is likely to be changed by the prophecy coming true, events are very swiftly set in motion. One must understand, of course, that since the prophecy was first discovered, untold millions of girls had been born. Since there is nothing definite in the prophecy concerning literally anything about the girl other than that she is not a boy, any of those millions could potentially have been the girl in question. The narrative subtly suggests that all prophecies are of the self-fulfilling kind since any effect predicted within them only comes about as the result of causes set in motion by those who expect the prophecy to be realized. In retrospect, the best course of action the king fearful of being unseated could have taken was simply to ignore the arrival of Beatryce.
Love Conquers
There is a goat named Answelica in the story that plays a major role. And by a major role, what is meant is that without the goat, there really is probably not much point in even talking about Beatryce. They are a team within a team: like Butch and Sundance within the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. The goat is just a goat; it cannot talk or anything, but it can communicate. And it communicates most strongly with Beatryce. They are inextricably linked together and the tie that binds is the love one has for the other. The goat cannot talk, but it can love and its love for the girl child who seems destined to unseat a king is utterly essentially to their part in making the prophecy self-fulfilling. Love conquers. Not all, necessarily, but certainly enough to make a difference when coming up against antagonist where love is absent.
The Power of Stories
The tale of Beatryce comes to an end with the narrator posing a question: what has the power to change the world? The first answer to come to mind is, as one might suspect from the above theme, “love.” Love can change the world, especially in those places where it does not exist. But love is not the final word on the issue. Indeed, love is not the final word of the text. That honor goes to another possible answer to the question: “stories.” Just as the power of love can make the world better, so can the power of storytelling effect change. This is not a new idea, of course. Lawyers have long known that the power of stories can be far greater than the power of evidence when it comes to reaching members of a jury. Likewise, the best historians know that a great story light on the facts will almost always trump factual truth dryly presented.
