Fairy Tales, Their Origin and Meaning; With Some Account of Dwellers in FairylandBunce, John Thackray
History
Fairy Tales, Their Origin and Meaning; With Some Account of Dwellers in Fairyland
Bunce, John Thackray
Fairy tales -- History and criticism
So the Princess went to the Red Sea, and counted the reeds, and cut off
the eleventh reed, and beat the Caterpillar with it, and then the Lion
conquered in the fight, and both of them took their human forms again.
But the Enchanted Princess was too quick for the poor wife, for she
instantly seized the Prince and sprang upon the back of the Griffin, and
away they flew, quite out of sight. Now the poor deserted wife sat down
on the desolate shore, and cried bitterly; and then she said, "So far
as the wind blows, and so long as the cock crows, will I search for my
husband, till I find him;" and so she travelled on and on, until one day
she came to the palace whither the Enchanted Princess had carried the
Prince; and there was great feasting going on, and they told her that
the Prince and Princess were about to be married. Then she remembered
what the Sun had said, and took out the casket and opened it, and there
was the most beautiful dress in all the world; as brilliant as the
Sun himself. So she put it on, and went into the palace, and everybody
admired the dress, and the Enchanted Princess asked if she would sell
it?
"Not for gold or silver," she said, "but for flesh and blood."
"What do you mean?" the Princess asked.
"Let me sleep for one night in the bridegroom's chamber," the wife said.
So the Enchanted Princess agreed, but she gave the Prince a sleeping
draught, so that he could not hear his wife's cries; and in the morning
she was driven out, without a word from him, for he slept so soundly
that all she said seemed to him only like the rushing of the wind
through the fir-trees.
Then the poor wife sat down and wept again, until she thought of the egg
the Moon had given her; and when she took the egg and broke it, there
came out of it a hen with twelve chickens, all of gold, and the chickens
pecked quite prettily, and then ran under the wings of the hen for
shelter. Presently, the Enchanted Princess looked out of the window, and
saw the hen and the chickens, and asked if they were for sale. "Not for
gold or silver, but for flesh and blood," was the answer she got; and
then the wife made the same bargain as before--that she should spend the
night in the bridegroom's chamber. Now this night the Prince was warned
by his servant, and so he poured away the sleeping draught instead of
drinking it; and when his wife came, and told her sorrowful story, he
knew her, and said, "Now I am saved;" and then they both went as quickly
as possible, and set themselves upon the Griffin, who carried them over
the Red Sea; and when they got to the middle of the sea, the Princess
let fall the nut which the North Wind had given to her, and a great
nut-tree grew up at once, on which the Griffin rested; and then it went
straight to their home, where they lived happy ever after.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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