Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Clever Little Tailor:
"A proud princess set a riddle to her wooers and sent them away when they could not answer. Three tailors came. Two were known for their cleverness and skill, and the third for his uselessness. The princess asked them what two colors were her hairs. The first said black and white; the second brown and red; the third gold and silver, and he was right.

The princess demanded that he spend the night with a bear as well. In his stall, the tailor began to crack nuts. He offered the bear not nuts but pebbles, and the bear could not crack them. The tailor took one away, substituted a nut, and cracked it. The tailor began to fiddle, and the bear danced. The tailor offered to teach it, but first he had to cut its nails. He trapped it in a vise and left it there.

The princess agreed to marry him. The other two tailors freed the bear. It came after the carriage. The tailor stuck his legs out the window and threatened the bear with the claim that they were a vise. It ran off."

Conall Cra Bhuidhe:
"Conall Cra Bhuidhe was a royal tenant and had four (or three) sons. One day, his sons and the king's fought, and the king's big son was killed. The king told Conall that he could save his sons if he stole the brown horse of the king of Lochlann. Conall told him that he would steal the horse to please the king, even if his sons were in no danger. His wife lamented that he had not rather let the king kill his sons than endanger himself.

Conall went with his sons to Lochlann, and there he told them to seek out the king's miller. They stayed with him, and Conall bribed the miller to put him and his sons in the sacks of bran he delivered to the king. In the stables, Conall had his sons make hiding holes before they tried to steal the horse. When they tried, it kept making such noise that the servants would come. They would hide, but in time, the king realized that there were men in the stables, and found Conall and his sons.

Conall told his story, and because he had had to steal it, the king said he would not hang him, but he would hang his sons. He told Conall that if he were ever in a worse situation than his sons, and told him the story, he would give Conall his youngest son.

Conall told of a time when he went to get a cow and its calf with his servant, and they met with cats. The head bard among them told cat after cat to sing a cronan to Conall, and demanded that he pay a reward for it. First he had to give the calf, then the cow, then (in Campbell's version) the servant, and finally the cats went after him. He got up a tree and killed a cat that came after him, but the cats dug at the tree's roots. Fortunately a priest was traveling with delving men and heard the noise, and they came to his rescue.

The king told him he had won his youngest son, and if he could tell him of a still harder case, he would give him his next youngest son. Conall told of a time that he followed some smoke and fell into a giant's cave. It threatened to kill him, but it was blind in one eye, and Conall said he could cure that eye, and blinded it in the other instead. In the morning, the giant ordered him to free the goats. Conall killed one and in its hide escaped with the rest. The giant realized this and offered him a ring for his stalwartness. Conall told it to throw it to the ground and he would take it; he did, and it called to the giant when he called to it, and Conall could not take it off. He cut off his finger and threw it into the sea, and when it called back to the giant, the giant followed it and drowned. Conall took all its gold and silver and offered as proof that he was in fact missing a finger.

The king told him he had won his next youngest son, and if he could tell him of a still harder case, he would give him his (next) oldest son. Conall told him that he was married, but went to sea and found a woman trying to slit the throat of a baby by a cauldron. He asked her, and she told him that the giant there would kill her if she did not. He managed to trick the giant but the giant caught him, and Conall barely managed to kill him in time.

The king's mother was listening to this, and told him that she had been the woman and he had been the baby, so Conall had saved his life. The king gave him the horse, gold and silver, and all the lives of his sons."

Costanza / Costanzo:
"A king married to have heirs, and his wife bore three daughters. In time, he realized that his wife had come to an age where she would have no more children, and his three daughters were ready for marriage. He married them off and split his kingdom between them, keeping only enough land to support his court. A few years later, the queen gave birth to a fourth daughter, Costanza. Costanza was raised well and became a gracious, educated and accomplished princess. When she was old enough to marry, they proposed that she marry the son of a Marquis, because her dowry would not be enough for a match equal to her birth. Costanza refused to marry below her station, dressed as a man, and left, calling herself Costanzo. She entered a king's service, where the queen desired her as a lover, but Costanza rejected her. The king had long wished to have as a captive one of the satyrs that did great damage in his land; the queen suggested to him that so good a servant as Costanza could catch one. The king proposed it to Costanza, who agreed to please him. She asked for a large vessel, wine, and bread. In the woods, she filled the vessel with the wine and bread and climbed a tree. The satyrs smelled it, ate the bread, and fell asleep. Costanza tied up one and carried him off. On the way back, the satyr woke and began to laugh: at a funeral of a child, at a hanging, at a crowd that hailed her as "Costanzo", and at being presented to the king.

The king tried to make the satyr talk. The queen said that Costanzo could certainly make it talk. Costanzo tried to bribe it with food, then threatened it with hunger, and finally promised to free it. It ate and talked. It told that at the funeral, the apparent father was not the father, but the priest was; at the hanging, the crowd was filled with officials who pilfered far more money than the thief to be hanged; and that it would explain the rest the next day. The next day, it explained that they were hailing her by the wrong name, and that the king was deluded into believing his wife's maidens were women, when they were disguised men. The king had his queen and her disguised lovers burned, and married Costanzo."

The Crystal Ball:
"A witch was afraid of her three sons. She turned the oldest into an eagle and the second into a whale, and each could take his human form for only two hours a day. The youngest fled before he could suffer the same and went off to seek the king's daughter, bewitched and held prisoner in the Castle of the Golden Sun. He saw two giants quarreling over a wishing cap, and they asked him to settle the dispute. He put on the cap, forgot he had it on, and wished himself to the castle.

The king's daughter told him that only a crystal ball would break the enchantment. She directed him to go down the mountain and fight a wild bull beside a spring. If he killed it, a bird would spring out of it. If the bird was forced to let free an egg in its body, the crystal ball was its yolk, but the egg would light everything about it on fire if dropped on the land.

He fought the bull. The bird sprung free, but his brother the eagle harried it until it dropped the egg. This landed on a fisherman's hut, setting it ablaze, but his brother the whale drowned the hut with waves. The youngest brother took the crystal ball to the enchanter, who admitted himself defeated and told him that the ball would also break the spell on his brothers. The youngest hurried to the princess, and they exchanged rings."

Cupid and Psyche:
"Envious and jealous of the beauty of a mortal girl named Psyche, Venus asks her son Cupid (known to the Greeks as Eros) to use his golden arrows while Psyche sleeps, so that when she awakens, Venus (Aphrodite in the Greek tradition) would place a vile creature for her to fall in love with. Cupid finally agrees to her commands after a long debate. As he flies to Psyche's room at night, he turns himself invisible so no one can see him fly in through her window. He takes pity on her, for she was born too beautiful for her own safety. As he slowly approaches, careful not to make a sound, he readies one of his golden arrows. He leans over Psyche while she is asleep and before he can scratch her shoulder with the arrow, she awakens, startling him, for she looks right into his eyes, despite his invisibility. This causes him to scratch himself with his arrow and fall deeply in love with her. He cannot continue his mission, for every passing second he finds her more appealing. He reports back to Venus shortly after and the news enrages her. Venus places a curse on Psyche that keeps her from meeting a suitable husband, or any husband at that. As she does this, it upsets Cupid greatly, and he decides as long as the curse stays on Psyche, he will no longer shoot arrows, which will cause the temple of Venus to fall.


After months of no one — man or animal — falling in love, marrying, or mating, the Earth starts to grow old, which causes concern to Venus, for nobody praises her for Cupid's actions. Finally, she agrees to listen to Cupid's demands, allowing him one thing to have his own way. Cupid desires Psyche. Venus, upset, agrees to his demands only if he begins work immediately. He accepts the offer and takes off, shooting his golden arrows as fast as he can, restoring everything to the way it should be. People again fall in love and marry, animals far and wide mate, and the Earth begins to look young once again.

When all continue to admire and praise Psyche's beauty, but none desire her as a wife, Psyche's parents consult an oracle, which tells them to leave Psyche on the nearest mountain, for her beauty is so great that she is not meant for a mortal man. Terrified, they have no choice but to follow the oracle's instructions. But then Zephyrus, the west wind, carries Psyche away, to a fair valley and a magnificent palace where she is attended by invisible servants until nightfall, and in the darkness of night the promised bridegroom arrives and the marriage is consummated. Cupid visits her every night to sleep with her, but demands that she never light any lamps, since he does not want her to know who he is until the time is right.

Cupid allows Zephyrus to take Psyche back to her sisters and bring all three down to the palace during the day, but warns that Psyche should not listen to any argument that she should try to discover his true form. The two jealous sisters tell Psyche, then pregnant with Cupid's child, that rumour is that she had married a great and terrible serpent who would devour her and her unborn child when the time came for it to be fed. They urge Psyche to conceal a knife and oil lamp in the bedchamber, to wait till her husband is asleep, and then to light the lamp and slay him at once if it is as they said. Psyche sadly follows their advice. In the light of the lamp Psyche recognizes the fair form on the bed as the god Cupid himself. However, she accidentally pricks herself with one of his arrows, and is consumed with desire for her husband. She begins to kiss him, but as she does, a drop of oil falls from her lamp onto Cupid's shoulder and wakes him. She watches him fly away, and she falls from the window to the ground, sick at heart.

Psyche then finds herself in the city where one of her jealous elder sisters lives. She tells her what had happened, then tricks her sister into believing that Cupid has chosen her as a wife on the mountaintop. Psyche later meets her other sister and deceives her likewise. Each sister goes to the top of the peak and jumps down eagerly, but Zephyrus does not bear them and they fall to their deaths at the base of the mountain.

Psyche searches far and wide for her lover, finally stumbling into a temple where everything is in slovenly disarray. As Psyche is sorting and clearing the mess, Ceres (Demeter to the Greeks) appears, but refuses any help beyond advising Psyche that she must call directly on Venus, who caused all the problems in the first place. Psyche next calls on Juno in her temple, but Juno gives her the same advice. So Psyche finds a temple to Venus and enters it. Venus then orders Psyche to separate all the grains in a large basket of mixed kinds before nightfall. An ant takes pity on Psyche, and with its ant companions, separates the grains for her.


Venus is outraged at her success and tells her to go to a field where golden sheep graze and to retrieve some golden wool. A river-god tells Psyche that the sheep are vicious and strong and will kill her, but if she waits until noontime, the sheep will go to the shade on the other side of the field and sleep; she can then pick the wool that sticks to the branches and bark of the trees. Venus next asks for water flowing from a cleft that is impossible for a mortal to attain and is also guarded by great serpents. This time an eagle performs the task for Psyche.
Psyché aux enfers by Eugène Ernest Hillemacher, 1865

Venus, furious at Psyche's survival, claims that the stress of caring for her son, made depressed and ill as a result of Psyche's lack of faith, has caused her to lose some of her beauty. Psyche is to go to the Underworld and ask the queen of the Underworld, Proserpina (Persephone to the Greeks), to place a bit of her beauty in a box that Venus had given to Psyche. Psyche decides that the quickest way to the Underworld is to throw herself off some high place and die, and so she climbs to the top of a tower. But the tower itself speaks to Psyche and tells her the route that will allow her to enter the Underworld alive and return again, as well as telling her how to get past Cerberus (by giving the three-headed dog a small cake); how to avoid other dangers on the way there and back; and most importantly, to eat nothing but coarse bread in the underworld, as eating anything else would trap her there forever. Psyche follows the orders precisely, rejecting all but bread while beneath the Earth.

However, once Psyche has left the Underworld, she decides to open the box and take a little bit of the beauty for herself. Inside, she can see no beauty; instead an infernal sleep arises from the box and overcomes her. Cupid (Eros), who had forgiven Psyche, flies to her, wipes the sleep from her face, puts it back in the box, and sends her back on her way. Then Cupid flies to Mount Olympus and begs Jupiter (Zeus) to aid them. Jupiter calls a full and formal council of the gods and declares that it is his will that Cupid marry Psyche. Jupiter then has Psyche fetched to Mount Olympus, and gives her a drink made from ambrosia, granting her immortality. Begrudgingly, Venus and Psyche forgive each other.

Psyche and Cupid have a daughter, called Voluptas (Hedone in Greek mythology), the goddess of "sensual pleasures", whose Latin name means "pleasure" or "bliss". "

Hehe.n///n

Dapplegrim:
"The youngest of twelve sons goes off to serve the king for a year. The king's daughter had been carried off by trolls, but no one can discover anything about where she is, although the king has offered half the kingdom and the princess's hand in marriage to anyone who can bring her back.

When he returns home, his parents had died, and his brothers had already split up the entire estate except twelve mares, and they give them to him as his portion. When he goes to see them, they each have a foal, and there is, in addition, a dapple-gray colt. It persuades him to kill all the foals so that it can suckle from all twelve mares all year. The effects are so amazing that the colt persuades him to do it two more years. At the end of the third year, the youth trades with his brothers, the twelve mares and their new foals for equipment for his horse, Dapplegrim, and the youth rides off to rejoin the king's household.

The rest of the king's men grow envious of him, and tell the king he had said he could rescue the king's daughter. The king, despite the youth's denials, orders him to do it. Dapplegrim instructs him to tell the king he must have his horse wellshod. The king agrees, and Dapplegrim is, after three tries, able to climb the hill where the princess was imprisoned, and they carry off the princess.

The king is glad to see her, but the envious men persuade him not keep his word. He tells the youth that he must let the sun into the king's hall first, although the king's hall was built under a ridge. Dapplegrim asks to be shod again, and then tramples the ridge to nothing. Once again, the envious men persuade the king to break his promise, and the king says that his bride must have as fine a horse as he has. Dapplegrim tells the youth that they must retrieve the horse from Hell, and therefore they will not only need him to be reshod, but more supplies.

When they ride off, birds are sent to stop them, but the youth spills rye and barley, and the birds eat and forget them. Beasts are sent to stop them, but the youth throws down twelve ox carcasses, and the beasts eat and forget them. Then Dapplegrim neighs as they ride along, three times, and each time the response grows louder. Dapplegrim has the youth cover him with oxhides covered with spikes, and then set down a tar barrel. When the horse comes it sets the tar barrel on fire, and when Dapplegrim defeats it, the youth throws a bridle on it, which tames it.

The king says that the princess shall hide herself twice, and the youth has to find her, and then the youth has to hide himself twice, and the princess not find him. With Dapplegrim's advice, he finds her as a duck and as a loaf of bread. Then he hides as a tick in Dapplegrim's stall, and Dapplegrim neighs and kicks so that the princess does not dare come in. Then, he hides as a clod of earth under Dapplegrim's hoof. The princess comes into the stall, but can not get him to budge his feet, and so can not find the youth.

The king agrees to the marriage, and the youth rides on Dapplegrim, and the bride on Dapplegrim's match, to the church."