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The King of the Golden River

"The richness of the Treasure Valley, high in the mountains of Stiria or Styria, southeastern Austria, is lost through the evil of the owners, the two elder, "Black Brothers," Hans and Schwartz, who in their foolishness mistreat Southwest Wind, Esquire, who in turn floods their valley, washing away their "liquid assets," and turning their valley into a dead valley of red sand.

This personified wind has the power to keep things this way through his influence with other winds that had caused the valley's unique fertility. Forced into a trade other than farming Hans and Schwartz become goldsmiths. They cruelly melt their younger brother Gluck's prize heirloom, a golden mug, which consists of the head of a golden bearded man. This action releases the King of the Golden River for Gluck to pour out of the crucible as a finely dressed little golden dwarf. The Golden River is one of the high mountain cataracts, that surround the Treasure Valley. Gluck fancies that it would be good if that high majestic river would actually be what it appears in the setting sun, a river of gold. The dwarfish king disagrees with Gluck, but offers a proposition: if someone were to climb up to the source of the river and throw into it at least three drops of "holy water," it would become for that person only a river of gold. That person must do it on his first and only attempt or be overwhelmed by the river to become a black stone.

Hans and Schwartz desire to take the challenge, duel each other with the result that Schwartz is thrown into jail for disturbing the peace. Hans, who had the good sense to hide from the constable, steals holy water from the church and climbs up the mountains to the Golden River. He has a hard time of it on a glacier and gets away without his provisions and only his flask of holy water. Overcome with thirst Hans is forced to drink from this flask, knowing that only three drops are all that's needed. Along the path, Hans comes across three prostrate individuals dying of thirst, a puppy, a fair child, and an old man. Hans satisfies his own thirst while denying the three needy individuals.

The "demeanor" of the surroundings of his journey turns bleak and inauspicious, climaxing in Hans being transformed into a black stone once he has hurled the holy water flask into the Golden River. Gluck secures the release of his brother Schwartz, who, buying his holy water from a "bad priest," eventually fares likewise, spurning in his turn the fair child, the old man, and his brother Hans lying prostrate in his path. The Golden River then acquires another black stone around which to rush and wail.
Gluck and the King of the Golden River

Gluck takes a turn at climbing the mountain. He encounters first an old man walking down the mountain trail who begs water from the flask. Gluck allows him to drink, leaving only a third of the holy water. He then encounters a fair child, lying by the road, whom he allows to drink all but a few drops. Following these unselfish acts, Gluck's path is made bright and pleasant making him feel better than he had in his whole life—no doubt, due to his kindness. He then comes across the prostrate puppy, whom he gives the final drops of the holy water. The puppy turns into the King of the Golden River, who tells Gluck the fate of his two brothers and, thereupon, shakes three drops of dew from a lily into Gluck's flask to throw into the river. Gluck does this, and the Golden River forms a whirlpool where it travels underground and emerges in the Treasure Valley, which then becomes lush and fertile once more. Gluck the new owner is a wealthy man, who never turns away the needy from his door. Ever afterward, though, the people show and tell travelers the tale of the two black stones in the Golden River, known as The Black Brothers."

The King Who Wished to Marry His Daughter

"A king lost his wife and declared he would not marry anyone who did not fit her clothes. One day, their daughter tried on her dress and found it fit. Her father declared she would marry him. At her foster-mother's advice, she put him off with demands for clothing: a dress of swan's down, a dress of moorland canach, a silk dress that stood on the ground with gold and silver, a gold shoe and a silver shoe, and a chest that could lock inside and out, and travel over land and sea. When she got the chest, she put her clothing in it and got in herself, and asked her father to put it to sea, so she could see how well it worked. It carried her off, and she kept riding it to another shore.

There, a herder-boy would have broken it open, but she got him to get his father instead. She stayed with his father for a time, and went into service at the king's house, in the kitchen. She refused to go to the sermon because she had bread to bake, and sneaked off to go dressed in the swan-down dress and the king's son fell in love with her. She went again, in the moorland canach dress, and then in that of gold and silver, with the shoes, but the third time, the king's son had set a guard, and she escaped, but leaving a shoe behind.

When the king's son tried it on women, a bird sang that it was not that one but the kitchen maid. Every woman failed, and he fell ill. His mother went to the kitchen to talk, and the princess asked to try it. She persuaded her son, and it fit. They married and lived happily ever after."

The King who would have a Beautiful Wife

"A king was determined to find a beautiful wife. He himself , searched high and low to find the love he so desired, but he failed to do so . Finally, he sent a trustworthy servant to search for him. One day, he passed a tiny cottage, which held two sisters, one eighty and the other ninety. He saw their small, delicate hands, which had kept white and soft through spinning. He thought they must belong to a beautiful woman, and told the king. The king sent him to try to see her.

One of them lied, claiming to be fifteen and her sister twenty, and the king decided to marry her. She said that she had never seen a ray of sun since she was born, and being touched would turn her black; the king had to send a carriage. He did, she went, heavily veiled, and they married. Their wedding night, he saw the old woman he had married and threw her out the window, where she caught on a hook. Four fairies saw her there and mischievously gave her youth, beauty, wisdom, and a tender heart. The king saw her the next morning, thought he must have been blind, and had her rescued.

Her sister came to her and plagued her for how she had become young again, until the queen said that she had had her head cut off, or, in other variants, that she had had herself skinned, and a new one had grown in its place. The sister went to get the same treatment from a barber, and died."

The Knights of the Fish

"An industrious but poor cobbler tried to fish until he was so hungry that he thought he would hang himself if he caught nothing. He caught a beautiful fish. It told him to cook it and then give two pieces to his wife, and bury two more in the garden. He did this. His wife gave birth to twin boys, and two plants sprang up, bearing shields, in the garden.

When the boys were grown, they decided to travel. At a crossroad, they parted ways. One found a city grieving, because every year a maiden had to be offered up to a dragon, and this year the lot had fallen on the princess. He went to see where the princess was, and then left her to fetch a mirror. He told her to cover it with her veil and hide behind it; when the dragon approached, she was to tear the veil off.

She did, and the dragon stared at his rival, identical to him. He threatened it until he finally smashed it to pieces, but as every fragment reflected him, he thought he too had been smashed. While it was still baffled, the knight killed it. The king married him to his daughter.

The princess showed him all over the castle, and he saw a castle of black marble, and was warned that whoever went to it never returned. He set out the next day. When he blew his horn and struck the gate, a hideous old woman finally opened the door. Echoes warned him off. He lifted his helmet, and the woman let him in because he was so handsome. She told him that he would marry her, and he refused. She showed him over the castle and killed him by dropping him through a trap door.

His brother came to the city, and was taken for him. He kept quiet, so he could help his brother, and told the princess that he had to go back to the castle. He demanded to know what happened to his brother, and the echoes told him. He stabbed the witch. She told him that she would not tell him because she was dying; then she told him how to save her life, with plants from the garden. Then she told him the way down, and he found the bodies of his brother and all her other victims, whom he restored with the same magic, and also a cave full of the maidens killed by the dragon, whom he also restored. The witch was so annoyed that she died, and the castle fell down."

The Lambkin and the Little Fish

"A brother and sister had a stepmother who hated them. One day, they were playing a counting-out game in a meadow by a pool, and their stepmother turned the boy into a fish and the girl into a lamb. Then guests came, and the stepmother ordered the cook to serve the lamb. The lamb and fish lamented their fates to each other, and the cook served another animal and gave the lamb to a good peasant woman, who had been the girl's nurse. She suspected who the lamb was, and brought her to a wise woman. This wise woman pronounced a blessing over the lamb and fish, restoring their human forms, and gave them a little hut in the woods, where they lived happily."

The Lassie and Her Godmother

"A poor couple had a baby girl. They wished to have the child christened, but could not pay the parson's fees. At last, the father found a beautiful lady who offered to get the child christened, but said that she would keep her as her own child afterwards. The father spoke to his wife about it, and his wife refused, but when the beautiful lady made the same offer the next day, his wife agreed that they should accept if they could not find anyone else. The child was christened, and the lady then took her home and treated her kindly.

When the girl was old enough to know right from wrong, the lady went on a journey, forbidding her to go into certain rooms. The girl could not resist looking into one, and a star sprang out. When her foster mother returned, she was angry with her, and threatened to send her away, but at her pleading, let her stay. The next time the foster mother went away, the girl opened the second door, and the moon sprang out. Again, the angry foster mother was appeased by the girl, but the third time, when she let out the sun, the foster mother insisted that the girl had to leave. Before sending her away, she gave her the choice of being ugly and able to speak, or being beautiful but mute. The girl chose to be beautiful.

She wandered in the woods until nightfall, when she climbed a tree over water and slept there. Several female servants sent from the castle to fetch water saw her reflection, thought it was their own, and decided they were too beautiful to fetch water. Finally, the prince went himself, realized she was there, and coaxed her down to be his queen. His mother objected, arguing the girl could not speak and might be a witch. Nevertheless, he married her.

When she was to have her first child, the prince set a watch about her, but they all fell asleep, and the foster mother came, took the baby, and smeared the queen's mouth with blood, saying she would be sorry as her foster mother had been when she let out the star. Everyone thought she had killed and eaten the child, and the prince's mother would have had her burned if the prince had not pleaded for her. The same thing happened the second time, though the watch was twice as strong; the foster mother decreed that the girl would be as sorry as the foster mother had been when she had let out the moon. The third time, the watch was three times as strong, the foster mother decreed that she would be as sorry as the foster mother when she let out the sun, and the prince was unable to save her. But when they were leading her to the fire, the foster mother reappeared with the children, restoring them to their parents, said that the girl had been sufficiently punished, revealed that she was the Virgin Mary, and restored her speech. Thereafter they lived happily, and even the prince's mother grew to love the young queen."

The Lazy Spinner

"A lazy woman did not like to spin and when she did, did not wind onto a reel, but left it the bobbin. Her husband complained, and she said she needed a reel to do that, but when he went to cut one, sneaked after and called that whoever cut a reel would die. This put him off cutting it, but he still complained. She made some yarn and said it must be boiled. Then she put some tow in the pot instead and set her husband to watch. After some time, he opened the pot, saw the tow, and thought he had ruined the yarn. He did not dare complain after that."

Little Annie the Goose-Girl

"Little Annie or Aase worked for the king as a goose-girl. One day, she sat on the road to see the king's son. He warned her not to look to have him, and she declared that if she was to have him, she would.

The Prince looked over all the pictures of princesses sent him, and chose one. He had a stone that knew everything and would answer questions, so Annie warned the princess that if there were anything about her that she didn't want the prince to know, she had best not step on the stone that lay beside the bed. The princess asked that Annie get into the bed, and then, when the prince was asleep, Annie would get out and the princess would get in. When Annie got in, the prince asked who stepped into his bed, and was told a maid, but when the princess and Annie had traded places, the princess got out in the morning, the prince asked who stepped out, and the stone said someone who has borne three babies.

He sent her away, and sent for another princess. From his warning to Annie not to think to have him, to the princess's stepping out of bed, it went as with the first, except that this princess had borne six. He sent her away, and sent for a third. But this time, when Annie was still in bed with him, he put a ring on her finger, too tight for her to get off again. When the third princess proved to have borne nine babies, he asked the stone the trick, and it told him how the princesses had all put Annie in their place. The prince went to find Annie. She had a rag tied about her finger, and although she claimed to have cut herself, he pulled it off and found the ring.

So they wed, and Annie had the king's son after all."