Now the king had a daughter, who was just as beautiful as her mother,
and had the same golden hair. And when she was grown up, the king looked
at her and saw that she was just like this late queen: then he said to
his courtiers, ‘May I not marry my daughter? She is the very image of my
dead wife: unless I have her, I shall not find any bride upon the whole
earth, and you say there must be a queen.’ When the courtiers heard this
they were shocked, and said, ‘Heaven forbid that a father should marry
his daughter! Out of so great a sin no good can come.’ And his daughter
was also shocked, but hoped the king would soon give up such thoughts;
so she said to him, ‘Before I marry anyone I must have three dresses:
one must be of gold, like the sun; another must be of shining silver,
like the moon; and a third must be dazzling as the stars: besides this,
I want a mantle of a thousand different kinds of fur put together, to
which every beast in the kingdom must give a part of his skin.’ And thus
she thought he would think of the matter no more. But the king made the
most skilful workmen in his kingdom weave the three dresses: one golden,
like the sun; another silvery, like the moon; and a third sparkling,
like the stars: and his hunters were told to hunt out all the beasts in
his kingdom, and to take the finest fur out of their skins: and thus a
mantle of a thousand furs was made.
When all were ready, the king sent them to her; but she got up in the
night when all were asleep, and took three of her trinkets, a golden
ring, a golden necklace, and a golden brooch, and packed the three
dresses--of the sun, the moon, and the stars--up in a nutshell, and
wrapped herself up in the mantle made of all sorts of fur, and besmeared
her face and hands with soot. Then she threw herself upon Heaven for
help in her need, and went away, and journeyed on the whole night, till
at last she came to a large wood. As she was very tired, she sat herself
down in the hollow of a tree and soon fell asleep: and there she slept
on till it was midday.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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