The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics) (8 page)

Three soldiers who had finished their tour of duty were on the way home and decided to spend the night in the woods. To protect themselves from wild animals, they built a bonfire and then took turns keeping watch during the night.

The first to hold watch was a miller’s son. While he was standing guard, an old woman came and tiptoed around the fire, pleading with the young man, for God’s sake, to let her warm her bones by the fire. He was about to say no when she promised to give him a little hat that had the power to take him wherever he wanted. The soldier tried it out, and the hat really was able to whisk him away and then bring him back again. And so he gave the little old lady what she wanted, and he kept the hat for himself. He also warned the old woman that the next man on watch was a rather gruff chap. “You had better leave as soon as he comes on duty. He might hurt you!” She left without any words of complaint.

The second soldier had just begun standing guard when the old woman reappeared and went over to the fire to warm her bones. He was also annoyed when he saw what she was doing, and he began to threaten her. But she promised him an enchanted horn. “If you blow into the little hole here, then soldiers, exiled and homeless, from all over will come marching out of this larger opening, and they will stand at attention, ready to serve you. If you do the opposite, they will all vanish and go back into the horn.” He tried out the power of the magic horn, and it worked just as the old woman had told him. He kept the gift and let the woman warm her bones. Toward morning he told her: “Get ready to leave, for the third
watchman is Fortunatus, a shepherd’s son, and he has no manners at all. He will not put up with an old woman as company.” He went over to Fortunatus, the most ferocious of the trio, and woke him up so that he could take over the shift.

The old woman went right up to Fortunatus, and her voice trembled as she pleaded with him to let her stay by the fire. The new watchman was rude to her, but when she offered him a magic purse filled with gold, one that would be constantly replenished and eventually make him the richest man in the land, the cheeky fellow grabbed the purse, tried out its power, and was delighted with the trade. He let the old woman warm her bones.

The next day the three went back on the road, but they did not swap stories about what had happened that night. They stopped at an inn, where they ate and drank without knowing how they would settle the bill. In the end, the third fellow paid the tab, and after that, the three told each other about the marvelous gifts they had each received from the woman in the woods.

They returned to the road in high spirits, but before long each went his separate way. The fellow with the purse emptied it several times for his pals, and they returned home, married, and were rich and happy. Fortunatus, on the other hand, thought it would be more pleasant and cheery to spend some time indulging in life’s pleasures. And so he traveled great distances. His good looks, his wealth, and the lavish feasts he hosted earned him respect wherever he went.

The king, who believed that Fortunatus was a prince from another kingdom, invited him to the castle. The king’s daughter fell madly in love with him and was hoping that Fortunatus would ask her father for her hand in marriage. But Fortunatus was unwilling, and that made her all the more lovesick. The princess was sure that he was harboring some kind of dark secret, and she tried to figure out why he was so completely indifferent to her. She brought him the finest foods and set the finest wines before him, and finally he revealed his secret. Then he fell into a deep sleep. While he was asleep, she took his magic purse and had another one made just like it. She
filled it up with gold coins and put it in his pocket. When he woke up, she told him again that she wanted to be married, and when he refused, she sent him away.

He was back on the road again. When the purse failed to fill itself back up, Fortunatus knew right away who was responsible. He could no longer pay his servants, and before long, they abandoned him. In order to eat, he had to sell his fine garments. He called on the princess but was turned back at the door and then banned from the city.

Poor as a beggar, he decided to go see his war comrades. After all, since he had made them wealthy, they would never let him starve. He went to visit one of them and was recognized right away. He was given a bed, new clothes, and enough money to live without worrying about the next day. The comrade even presented him with the wishing hat given to him by the old woman, for he no longer needed it. Wearing new clothes, carrying a purse of gold, and sporting a wishing hat on his head, Fortunatus returned to the princess. She was astonished to see him back in his former glory and was sure that he would now agree to what she wanted. But once again she was wrong. Using the same means as before, she got him to tell her everything. Then, when he was asleep, she exchanged his wishing hat for an ordinary hat. He discovered soon enough that he had been fooled again.

He was back on the road, now on foot, and once the money in the purse was used up, he visited the second comrade and told him about his double misfortune. Again he was given a purse filled with gold, and the magic horn to boot. After all, it was just sitting there and never put to use.

Filled with thoughts of revenge, Fortunatus returned to the king’s city, the place where so many terrible things had happened to him. At the gates, he blew his horn, and lo and behold, behind him was an entire army of soldiers bearing weapons, some on foot, some on horseback. He surrounded the city and was thinking about blockading it and starving everyone in it. The terrified monarch invited the warlord—who was already atop the city wall—to come in and dine with him. Fortunatus accepted, and the princess had no trouble figuring
out who he was. She sat at his side during the banquet, and once again she used her craft to extract from him what she wanted. He succumbed to her seductions, but then he blew into his horn to command his army to retreat. During the night she exchanged the magical horn for an ordinary one, and when the young man refused to propose, he was condemned to death by the king. Fortunatus blew on the horn again, but no one came to his rescue. He was certain that he was lost, but just then, the princess, who had not given up hope, let him escape from the city undetected.

Once again he was on the road, poor and practically starving, when he saw a tree with wondrously beautiful apples hanging from it. He picked one of them and ate it as fast as he could. As soon as he finished the apple, a horn appeared on his forehead. He was beside himself and cursed the tree that had duped him so badly. He went back on the road, hungry as ever, and saw another apple tree. Even though he knew he might sprout a second horn, he ate one of the apples. But lo and behold, as soon as he finished the apple, the horn fell off his forehead. Overjoyed, he took a few of those apples with him and then went back to get some more apples from the first tree.

He returned to the city where the king ruled, disguised as a fruit peddler this time. He had picked the most beautiful apples from the first tree and set them out for display right beneath the princess’s chambers. She happened to look out the window and saw those wondrously beautiful apples and was determined to buy some no matter what they cost. The peddler quickly sold his wares and had a nice piece of change in his pocket. Just as quickly he raced off to the city to buy new clothes so that he would not be recognized.

The princess tasted the apples with her chambermaid. As soon as they finished eating just one, each sprouted an ugly horn on her forehead. Sobs and screams could be heard coming from the princess’s chambers. None of the doctors, who had been summoned from all over, knew what to do. Proclamations were issued, offering a royal reward for the person who could find a remedy to cure the evil. No one showed up. The
news reached Fortunatus at last, and he was overjoyed that his trick had worked. He returned to the city in which the king was living and declared at the castle that he possessed the means to rid the princess of the deformity on her forehead. Disguising himself as a priest practiced in the art of healing, he arrived at the castle. The king went to test the “priest” by asking him to heal the chambermaid first. The “doctor” handed her the apple from the second tree, and the horn fell off.

The king was elated and took the priest to his daughter. When he stood before the princess, he told the kneeling girl, just as if he were a priest, to confess anything that was on her conscience; otherwise he would not have the power to cure her. The princess obeyed and told him about the man who had scorned her love several times now and how she had found revenge. The priest told her to give him everything she had stolen from the man. The unhappy princess gave him the purse, the hat, and the horn, and he in turn gave her the apple. As soon as she finished eating it, a second horn sprouted from her forehead.

Quickly, he put on the hat and wished himself to the top of a mountain near the city. Then he blew on the horn, and before long he had an army as strong as the previous one. He used it to attack the city. Once he had conquered it, he burned it to the ground. The king and his daughter perished in the flames, as did everyone in the court.

The victor ruled over the entire country and for a long time he reigned as
king.

A nobleman had three daughters, each more beautiful than the next. One day the girls were sitting in the royal gardens, chattering away about their wishes and dreams. The eldest wanted to marry the king’s counselor, the second hoped to marry his chamberlain, and the third declared that she would be quite satisfied with the king himself. It happened that the king was also in the gardens, and he overheard the entire conversation. He summoned the three sisters to ask them what they had been talking about in the garden. The first two confessed everything; the youngest was less eager to do so. But then all at once the king declared: “Your three wishes will be granted.”

Even though his mother was opposed to the wedding, the king decided to marry the youngest of the three daughters of the nobleman. While he was with his troops, the queen gave birth to a beautiful boy.

The king’s mother and a wicked confidante put the queen’s child into a basket and set it out on the water. They told the king that his wife had given birth to a small dog. The king was so upset that he had his wife locked up in a tower. When he returned, however, he relented and was glad to take her back.

The king’s wife gave birth to a second beautiful boy, once again while the king was away. That boy suffered the same fate as his brother. The king was told that his wife had given birth to a cat. Enraged, he ordered his wife imprisoned. But once again, when he returned, he was willing to forgive her right away, for he loved her dearly. The queen gave birth a third time, now to a wondrously beautiful girl, who suffered
the same fate at the hands of the evil queen. Yet again the king forgave his wife, and she was back in his good graces.

The three baskets with the children in them washed up, one after another, on the shores, near where a fisherman made his home. The fisherman and his wife were happy to raise the three orphans, for they had no children of their own. When the foster parents died, the three siblings inherited the land and the house on it.

One day an old man came to visit them. He told them that they could make their fortune by going to a distant mountain and fetching a talking bird, a singing tree, and water from a sparkling stream the color of gold. The eldest of the brothers decided to go, and when he arrived at the mountain, the old man was already waiting for him. “Take the bird first, then a branch from the tree, and finally water from the stream. But don’t turn around, because if you do, you will be turned into a pillar of stone.” The young man was too curious for his own good. He turned around and was changed into stone.

The second brother followed the advice of the man and refused to turn around, no matter how much screaming and shouting he heard behind him. He took the bird, clipped a branch from the tree, and filled a flask with water from the sparkling stream. And that’s when the curse was lifted from his brother and all the others who had been turned into stone.

When he returned home he put the bird into a beautiful cage, planted the branch in the garden, and made a little hole in the ground for the water. The branch quickly grew into a tree, and its leaves played melodious tunes that wafted in the breezes. The king and the queen heard the sounds and followed them to the house of the siblings. “Now you can jump for joy; your father and mother are here,” the bird sang. When the king heard those words, he went into the garden, saw his beautiful children, and learned everything that had happened from the bird. The king was overjoyed to discover his very own children, and he returned home with them. The queen’s confidante was burned at the stake. The old queen herself was already dead, and so she escaped the punishment she deserved.

A weasel, white as snow, was frolicking about in a meadow, moving around as quickly and gracefully as a will-o’-the-wisp. Some boys ran by with their dogs and started chasing the little animal, until it collapsed, exhausted and surrounded by the dogs. A little girl was standing nearby, and she felt so sorry for the small creature that she picked it up, held it tight, and made those nasty boys run away. All she had with her was an egg, and she offered it to the weasel, who gobbled up the whole thing, even licking out the shell. As soon as the little animal had finished its meal, it disappeared, perky and happy. The eggshell left behind, as it turned out, was as heavy as the inside of the egg. And it had a dull sheen as if made of silver, and it was.

At home the girl kept a hen, and every day it laid one egg. After the girl’s trip to the meadow, the hen started laying two eggs a day, right on a rocky slope where the weasel made its home. When those eggs were cracked, their shells turned into silver in the course of the day. The girl soon became wealthy. She became more and more beautiful and would have had many proposals, but she had no interest in marrying any of the oafish farmhands who came around to see her.

One day the girl brought the little animal an Easter egg that had been blessed by the priest. When the weasel crawled out of its hole and started nibbling on the egg in the girl’s hand, the egg burst into flames that shot up as high as a palace. The dazed girl came to her senses and awoke as if from a deep
sleep. Suddenly, she was in a grand palace, and next to her was a handsome young prince, holding her in his arms.

Through compassion, and with the help of the consecrated egg, the courageous girl had lifted the curse put on the weasel and turned him back into a prince. Before long she became his wife.