Italian Folktales (57 page)

“I told you to tell no one about the box. So go away, since I'm giving you nothing more.”

“Please, you alone can make good this loss.”

A second time the Wind's heart went out to Geppone, and he pulled out a gold box and gave it to him. “Don't open this one unless you are famished. Otherwise it won't obey you.”

Geppone thanked the Wind and headed home through the valleys with the box. Hunger soon got the better of him, and he opened the box and said, “Provide!”

Out of the box jumped a big, strapping man holding a club and began thrashing poor Geppone for dear life.

As soon as he could, Geppone shut the box and continued on his way, all stiff and bruised. To his wife and children who'd come down the road to meet him and find out how things went, he said, “All right. I brought back a finer box than the other one.” He sat them around the table and opened the gold box. This time, out came not just one, but two big, strapping men with clubs and set upon the family. The wife and children screamed for mercy, but the men didn't let up until Geppone got the box closed.

“Now go to the prior,” he instructed his wife, “and tell him I brought back a much nicer box this time than the last.”

The wife went, and the prior asked her the usual questions. “So Geppone's back? What did he bring home this time?”

“Just imagine, Prior, he brought a nicer box than the other one. It's solid gold, and the beautifully cooked dinners it serves are a dream. But Geppone wouldn't part with this box for the world.”

The priest sent for Geppone at once. “Geppone, Geppone, you don't know how glad I am you're back. And with another box. Show it to me.”

“If I do, you'll take this one away from me, too.”

“No, I won't, I promise.”

Geppone showed him a corner of the glittering box. The priest couldn't contain himself a second longer. “Geppone, give it to me, and I'll give you back the other one. What do you need with a gold box? I'll give you the other one for it and then something.”

“All right, return the other one, and I'll give you this one.”

“Agreed.”

“But beware of opening this box, Prior, unless you are famished.”

“This box couldn't come my way at a better time,” said the prior. “I'm expecting the bishop tomorrow and many other priests. I'll keep them all fasting till noon, then open the box and offer them a big dinner.”

In the morning, after saying their Masses, all the priests started milling around the prior's kitchen. “He refuses us breakfast this morning,” they said. “Just look, the fire's out, and the larder's empty.”

But those in the know said, “Just you wait! At dinner time he's going to open a box and serve a meal finer than any we could imagine.”

In marched the prior and seated everybody around the table, in the center of which gleamed the gold box, with all eyes now upon it. The prior opened the box, and out leaped six strapping men with clubs and began clubbing the priests for all they were worth. Under that onslaught the prior dropped the box, which lay open on the floor, so the men went on pounding the life out of the dinner guests. Geppone, who was hiding nearby, noticed the box and shut it. Otherwise the men would have beaten the priests to death. So that was the meal they got, and it appears that they were unable to say their office in the evening. Geppone kept both boxes, never lent them out again, and from that day on lived a life of ease.

 

(
Mugello
)

84

There was once a king who had no children. He was always imploring heaven to send him a child, but all his prayers were in vain. One day he had gone to pray as usual, when he heard a voice. “Do you want a boy who will die, or a girl who will flee?”

He didn't know what to say and kept silent. He went home, sum
moned all his subjects, and asked what reply he should make. They answered, “If the boy is to die, that's the same as having no child. Ask for the girl. You can keep her under lock and key and she can't flee.”

The king went back to his prayers and heard the voice. “Do you want a boy who will die, or a girl who will flee?”

“A girl who will flee,” he replied.

So nine months later the queen gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Many miles outside the city the king had a large park with a palace in the middle of it. He took the baby girl there and shut her up with a nurse. Her father and mother rarely visited her, so that she wouldn't think about the city and decide to run away.

When the maiden was sixteen, the son of King Giona came by there. Seeing her, he fell in love with her and bribed the nurse with a great deal of money to let him into the palace. Overcome with love for one another, the two young people got married without their parents' knowing a thing about it.

Nine months later the princess gave birth to a fine baby boy. The next time the king called on her, he was met by the nurse, whom he asked how his daughter was getting along. “Beautifully, Your Highness,” replied the nurse. “Would you believe she's just had a baby?” The king refused to have anything more to do with the girl.

She continued to live in her palace with her husband and their son. When the boy reached fifteen without ever having seen his grandfather, he said to his mother, “Mamma, I would like to meet my grandfather.”

“Go to his palace, then, and meet him,” answered his mother.

He rose bright and early, took a horse and a goodly supply of money, and departed.

His grandfather made no fuss over him; he hardly looked at him and said nothing. Cut to the quick by such a cold welcome, the young man said three or four months later, “What do you have against me, Grandfather? Why won't you even talk to me? For you, I'd go and cut off the sorceress's head.”

“That's just what I wanted,” replied the grandfather, “for you to go and cut off the sorceress's head.”

Now this sorceress was so hideous that all who laid eyes on her turned to stone, and the old king was certain that would be his grandson's fate. The youth chose a fine horse, a goodly supply of money, and departed.

Along the way he met a little old man, who asked, “Where are you going, my boy?”

“To the sorceress, to cut off her head.”

“Oh, goodness me! For that you'll need a horse that can fly, since
you'll have to go over a mountain swarming with lions and tigers that would devour you and your horse in a flash.”

“But where can I find a horse that flies?”

“Just a minute, and I'll get you one,” replied the old man. He disappeared and returned with a magnificent flying horse.

“Now listen to me,” said the old man. “You cannot look directly at the sorceress, or you'll turn to stone. You must watch her in a mirror, which I'll now explain how to get. Walk down the road a little way and you'll come to a marble palace and a garden of flowering peach trees. There you will see two blind women, who have only one eye between the two of them. Those women have the mirror you need. The sorceress spends her time in a meadow full of flowers, whose scent alone is enough to cast a spell over you. Beware of it. And look at the sorceress only in the mirror, or you'll turn to stone.”

With the flying horse he hurdled the mountain infested with bears, tigers, and snakes, which all lunged after him. But he soared high and escaped them.

With the mountain behind him, he traveled and traveled and finally saw a marble palace in the distance. “That must be the blind women's palace,” he said to himself. These blind women had only one eye between the two of them, and they passed it back and forth to one another. The young man didn't dare knock, but went for a stroll in the garden while the women ate their dinner. When they'd finished, they too strolled into the garden, and he climbed a tree so they wouldn't see him. They were in conversation, and the one who had the eye at the moment held it up to glance about her. “Oh, you should see these fine new mansions the king has built!” she exclaimed.

“Give me the eye,” replied her sister, “and let me look too.”

The woman held out the eye, and the young man reached down from the tree and took it.

“So you're not giving it to me?” said the other sister. “You want to see everything all by yourself?”

“But I gave it to you!”

“No, you did not!”

“I put it right into your hand.”

They argued and argued until it dawned on them that neither sister had the eye. Then they said very loudly, “That means somebody's in the garden and has taken our eye. If this person is here, please give us back our eye, since we have only one between the two of us. Name what you want in return, and we'll reward you with it.”

The youth then came down the tree and said, “I took the eye. You
must give me your mirror in exchange for it, since I have to kill the sorceress.”

“Gladly,” replied the blind women, “but you must first return the eye so we can find the mirror.” He courteously returned it, and the blind women went into the palace and came back out with the mirror, for which he thanked them and continued on his way.

On and on he traveled until the air grew sweet with flowers, and the nearer he got to them, the stronger the scent became. He reached a handsome palace in the middle of a meadow full of flowers. The sorceress was strolling in the meadow. He had meanwhile mounted his horse backward and looked at her only in the mirror, with his back to her. The sorceress, who was confident of her power to turn people to stone, did not run or make any effort to protect herself. Facing the other way and looking into the mirror, he rode right up to her, swung his sword around behind him, and cut off her head. Then he put the head into a bag out of sight. It had dripped a little blood, though, which changed into serpents on contact with the ground. Thanks to the flying horse, he got safely away.

He took a different road home, passing through a seaport along the way. Beside the sea was a chapel, which the youth entered and found a beautiful maiden dressed in mourning and weeping. At the sight of the young man, she cried, “Be gone! Be gone! If the dragon comes, he will eat you, too! I'm here waiting for him, since today it's my turn to be eaten. He eats one person alive every day.”

“No, no, beautiful maiden, I will free you.”

“It's impossible to kill a dragon like this one!” she said.

“Don't be afraid. Jump up on my horse,” said the youth, and helped her into the saddle.

In that instant a great din and splashing was heard. The youth, after telling the maiden to close her eyes, pulled the sorceress's head from the bag. Just as the dragon stuck his head out of the water, he saw the sorceress's head, turned to stone, and sank to the bottom of the sea.

The maiden was the king's daughter, and the king gave her in marriage to the young man, promising to make him his heir if he stayed there. But the youth thanked him and said he already had his own kingdom to which he had to return. He took the princess with him and went first to his grandfather, who was surprised and dismayed to see him come back alive.

“Grandfather,” said the youth, “didn't you want me to go and cut off the sorceress's head? I went, and I've brought it back to you. If you don't believe me, just look!”

He pulled it from the bag, and his grandfather turned to stone. Then the young man went to his parents, and they all returned to the grandfather's kingdom.

 

And there they lived a life happy and long,

But nothing did they ever give me for my song.

 

(
Upper Val d'Arno
)

85

There was once a king and a queen who were very sad because they had no children. The queen kept asking, “Why can't I bear children the same as the apple tree bears apples?”

Now it happened that instead of bearing a son, the queen gave birth to an apple, but an apple redder and more beautiful than any you ever saw. The king placed it on a gold tray on his balcony.

Across the street from the king lived a second king, who happened to be standing at his window one day and saw, on his neighbor's balcony, a beautiful maiden as fair and rosy as an apple bathing and combing her hair in the sun. Open-mouthed, he stood staring at her, never having seen so lovely a maiden. But the minute the girl realized she was being observed, she ran back to the tray and disappeared inside the apple. The king had fallen madly in love with her.

He racked his brains and ended up crossing the street and knocking on the door, which the queen answered. “Majesty,” he said to her, “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“By all means, Majesty,” replied the queen. “Any way neighbors can help one another out . . . ”

“I would like to have that magnificent apple on your balcony.”

“Do you know what you're asking, Majesty? I'm that apple's mother, mind you, and I had to wait a long time before I had her.”

But the king wouldn't take no for an answer, so the other king and queen had to grant his wish, in order for them all to remain good neighbors. Thus he went home with the apple, which he took straight to his own room. He put out everything necessary for her toilette, and the
maiden would emerge every morning to bathe and arrange her hair while he looked on. That was all she did. She neither ate nor talked; she only bathed and arranged her hair, then went back inside the apple.

The king lived with his stepmother, whose suspicions were aroused by her stepson's constant seclusion in his room. “I'd give anything to know what my son is up to!”

War broke out, and the king had to go off and fight. It broke his heart to leave his apple. He called his most trusted servant to him and said, “I'm leaving the key to my room with you. See that nobody goes in. Put out water and a comb every day for the apple girl, and make sure she has everything she needs. And don't forget, she tells me everything.” (That wasn't so, the girl never said a word, but the king thought it wise to tell his servant the contrary.) “If a hair of her head is harmed during my absence, you'll pay with your life.”