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Mr Simigdáli

A king's daughter refuses all her suitors. She takes almonds, sugar, and groats -- or semolina -- and makes the figure of a man from them. Then she prays for forty days, and God brings the figure to life. He is called Mr Simigdáli (Mr Groats) -- or Master Semolina if made from that -- and is very handsome. A queen hears of him and sends a golden ship to kidnap him. Everyone comes out to see it, and the sailors captures Mr Simigdáli. The princess learns how he had been carried off, has three pairs of iron shoes made for herself, and sets out.

She comes to the mother of the Moon, who had her wait until the Moon came, but the Moon can not tell her where Mr Simigdáli had been taken, and sends her on to the Sun, having given her an almond. The Sun and its mother give her a walnut and send her on to the Stars. One star has seen him, and the Stars and their mother give her a hazelnut. She goes on to the castle where Mr Simigdáli is prisoner. She looks like a beggar and he does not recognize her, so she begs a place with the geese.

Then she breaks the almond and it holds a golden spindle, reel and wheel. The servants tell the queen, who asks what she wants for her; the princess will trade it only for Mr Simigdáli to come to spend a night with her. The queen agrees but gives Mr Simigdáli a sleeping potion. The princess can not wake him. The walnut contains a golden hen and chicks, and she tries and fails again. The hazelnut contains golden carnations, but that day, a tailor asks Mr Simigdáli how he can sleep with the princess's talk. Mr Simigdáli readies his horse and does not drink the potion; when the princess begins to talk to him, he rises and takes her with him on his horse.

In the morning, the queen sends for him, but he is not there. She tries to make her own man, but when the figure is done, she curses instead of praying, and the figure rots.

The princess and Mr Simigdáli return home and live happily.

Myrsina

Myrsina is the youngest of three orphaned sisters. Three times, the sun declares that she is the most beautiful. Her jealous sisters tell her it is time to honor their mother with a memorial, or to rebury her. They make the traditional food, go to her grave in the forest, and exclaim they have forgotten the shovel and so can not plant flowers, or can not dig her up to rebury her. The two oldest must go back for it, and Myrsina watch the food. In the evening, Myrsina realizes they will not return and cries. This wakes the trees, and one tells her to roll her bread down the hill and follow it. She does and lands in a pit, which pit holds a house. She hides there and does the housework while the owners, the Months, are about. The Months wonder who is doing it until the youngest stays behind and hides. He catches her, and the Months take her as their sister.

Word reaches her sisters. They come to her with a poisoned cake, claiming to have been unable to find her. She gives part of the cake to the dog, and it dies. When the sisters hear she is still alive, they come back; she will not open the door to them, but they claim to have a ring that their mother said must go to Myrsina. She could not defy her mother's wishes and put on the ring. She fell to the floor. The Months returned, lamented her, and kept her body in a golden chest.

A prince came by, and they gave him their best room, so that he saw the chest. He pled for it, and they finally gave it to him, on the condition that he never open it. He became ill and did not want to die without knowing what was in the chest. He opened it, wondered at Myrsina, and thought the ring might reveal to him who she was. He took it off, and Myrsina came back to life. Myrsina had the ring thrown into the sea and married the prince. One day, her sisters came to harm her, and the prince had his soldiers deal with them.

Nature's Ways

A king wished to shelter his daughter and have her love no one but him. He had her put in a castle on an island and gave her only women servants. She realized that she was surrounded by women but that her father was different and questioned her teacher until she learned about men. Then she made dough from flour, eggs, butter and milk, and made a figure of a man from the dough. She then prayed over the image until God granted it life. The teacher brought her clothing for the new man, he and the princess fell in love, and all three of them were careful to hide his existence from the king, but one day they slept late and the king found them. The king was going to execute them all, but his daughter begged for a trial, at which she told the story and said she had only wanted to love and be loved. When it was found that the man had no family at all, they realized what the daughter said was true. The king repented and built a fine palace for his daughter and her husband.

This shows that Nature knows the way of God and men can not thwart it.

Niels and the Giants

A couple had two sons. The older was content to be a shepherd like his father, but the younger, Niels, wanted to be a hunter. He got a gun, practiced with it, and became a good shot. The mother decided she wanted to go on a pilgrimage to Rome. The family sold everything they own and set out; Niels brought the gun. One night, they did not stay at an inn because the heat had made them go slowly that day, and the moon was up. They came to a crossroads in the forest and did not know which way to go. They decided to stay there. In the first watch, the older son shot a stag; in the second, the younger climbed a tree and saw three giants. They were eating, and by careful shots, he had them quarrel about knocking each others' hands and making them p***k themselves with the forks. The third giant realized he was about and caught him.

They demanded a service of him. They wished to carry off the king's daughter, and had put everyone to sleep in the castle except a little black dog. If he shot the dog so it did not bark and wake everyone, they would spare his life. They threw him in and he landed on grass. He shot the dog and went to the gate, but on the way, he saw an enormous sword, a drinking horn, and an inscription saying that whoever drank from the horn could wield the sword. He looked through the castle and found the princess. He took half her handkerchief and one of her slippers. Then he drained the horn and could wield the sword. He went to the gate, where there was a small door and a large door. He opened the small door, claimed he was too weak for the large one, and cut off their heads as they came through. Then he ran to rejoin his family, with his sword. He shut the door with such a bang that the castle woke. They were astounded by the bodies. The princess said they must find the giant-slayer, because she was honor-bound to marry him. She had a house built, and put over its door that whoever told the story of his life could stay there for nothing.

Meanwhile, Niels and his family went on toward Rome, but they met a man who showed them the holes in his shoes, and told them the shoes had been new when he left Rome. Discouraged, they turned back. They came upon the house and decided to stay there. The steward questioned the father and the older son, and told the princess that nothing had happened to them, but admitted he had not asked them all. The princess went herself. The older brother put in that he had forgotten to tell that his brother had found a sword. Niels, who had guessed this was a way to discover him, wanted to escape, but they found the sword, and searched him, finding the handkerchief and slipper. Niels was afraid that they would punish him, but the princess said only they must wait until her father returned. When he did, the princess married Niels, who was king after the king died.

The Nine Peahens and the Golden Apples

An emperor's golden apple tree was robbed every night, and his sons set themselves to watch it. The older two slept, but the youngest stayed awake. Nine peahens arrived. Eight riffled the tree, while the ninth came down beside him and became a beautiful maiden. She talked with him. He begged her to leave one apple, and she left two. This went on for two nights, until his brothers spied on him and saw how it happened. They made a bargain with a witch, and the next night she leapt up and cut off a lock of the maiden's hair. The prince caught the witch and had her executed, but the peahens did not return.

Grieving, the prince set out in search. He found a castle with an aging empress, who had one daughter. On hearing that nine peahens bathed in the lake outside, he set out, despite her efforts to have him stay. The empress bribed his servant to blow a whistle when the nine peahens approached. This threw him into an enchanted sleep. The ninth tried to wake him, but to no avail. She told the servant they would come on the next day and never again. The next day, the servant put him to sleep again, and the maiden told him that if the prince wanted to find her, he should roll the under peg on the upper. The servant repeated this to the prince. The prince cut off his head and went on alone.

A hermit directed him to a castle, he found the ninth peahen, and they were married at once. One day his wife, the empress, had to go on journey, and forbade him to go into the twelfth cellar. When he went in, a cask with iron bands about it asked him for water. He gave it three cups. It burst, and a dragon sprang out to fly off and capture the empress.

He set out in search of her. He saw a fish on the bank, helped it into the water, and received a scale to call it; a fox in a trap, and received a couple of hairs; and a wolf in another trap, and received a couple of hairs. He found where the empress was held captive, and they tried to escape. The dragon saw them, his horse told him there was plenty of time to eat and drink before setting in pursuit, and after he ate and drank, the dragon captured them. He let the prince go because of the drinks of water, but promised it would be the only clemency.

The prince returned to the castle and had the empress ask the dragon where he got the horse. The dragon told how a witch had a mare and foal, and whoever watched them for three days would get his pick of her horses, and whoever failed would lose his life. The prince set out, and found she had poles about her house, every one of which except one had a skull on it. She hired him to look after the horse. He watched all day, but in the night, he fell asleep, and they escaped into the water. He asked the fish, who told him the charm to get them out. When he went back for dinner, the witch scolded the horse, heard its reason, and told it to go among the foxes; he used the fox hairs and got it back, and then, the next day, the wolf hairs.

He asked for the ugly horse in the corner and would not be dissuaded. Then he returned to the castle and carried off the empress. When the dragon saw them, he asked whether he could eat or drink first, but the horse said he would not catch whether he ate first or pursued at once. Still, the dragon rode after, and the horse complained to the prince's of the effort of catching him. The prince's horse asked it why it put up with it. The dragon's horse threw the dragon and killed him, and the empress rode it the rest of the way home.

The Nixie of the Mill-Pond

A miller became poor as custom no longer favored the watermill. A nixie appeared to him with the boon of returning him to a man of means if he yielded to her in troth, that which had just been birthed within the bounds of his house and home. Thinking it a trifle, but a kitten or a puppy, he trothed. In truth, he returned home to find his wife cradling a newborn in comfort. The miller's wife had just birthed their new son through a hard labor. Bound in troth, blessed with a newborn son, he never let the boy go near the millpond lest the trixy nixie settle account, leaving him with nix and naught bar the means for which he was bound.

The boy grew up into the world of adulthood and became a hunter, a hunter skilled enough to be taken into a lord's service. Taken into service thus, he betrothed and later wed. The day dawned true and bright, yielding to a warm afternoon. In the afternoon a strong deer gave chase. Long, long went the pursuit before the hunter brought it down. Upon dusk the hunter went to freshen in the millpond. In the twilight, the nixie seized him, drawing him down, down into the cold millpond's unknowable depths.

His wife searched everywhere in the dark of night, searching for her husband with the light of the moon, calling and weeping from her heart all the time for her lost husband, her lost husband who had in truth failed by sundown to return to hearth. She continuing weeping and calling all the while for her lost husband, searching everywhere that is, except the millpond. Weeping and calling for her husband, she neither saw nor heard anything as neither the millpond nor the watermill were milling. Spent, she fell asleep and dreamt of climbing a nearby mountain and finding an old woman.

Upon waking, she ascended the mountain of which she had dreamt, and there was an old woman. The woman gave her a golden comb and instructed her to comb her hair by the pond whilst thinking of her husband and then when finished, to lay the golden comb upon the sand. This the man's wife did. As the nixie stole the comb her husband's head emerged from the millpond. The man's wife returned to the old woman of the mountain who gifted her with a golden flute, bidding her play and to do the same with the golden flute as she had done with the golden comb. The woman returned to the millpond and did as she was bidden, to play whilst thinking of her husband. Leaving the flute on the sand upon finishing the golden song of her heart, the nixie looted a second time. As the flute submerged, half her husband's body emerged.

The third time, she received a golden spinning wheel from the old woman; upon the nixie's procuring of the spinning wheel of gold, her husband emerged completely from the millpond, and he stole his wife's hand with view for escape, to get far away from the millpond. Tempestuous, the nixie tried to drown them, but the man's wife called upon the old woman of the mountain, who turned her into a toad and him into a frog. The ensuing flood of the nixie's wrath sundered them. They regained their human forms on dry land, but far, far apart.

Time passed as time does and many things changed. They both became shepherds. Fortune's turning favored a reconciliation. Without either recognizing the other they met tending their herds. The old man played a tune on his flute that she remembered, it was the same tune she played to him on the magical golden flute, the flute now lost and treasured with loot of the nixie. She wept as he recognized her and his tears of joy ran together with hers as they kissed.

Nourie Hadig

A rich man had a beautiful wife and a beautiful daughter, Nourie Hadig. Every month, Nourie Hadig's mother asked the new moon if she was the most beautiful. Finally, however, the moon said her daughter was more beautiful. She took to her bed and told the man that he must get rid of her daughter and bring her bloody shirt as proof. Instead of killing the girl, though, the father abandoned Nourie Hadig in the woods.

Nourie Hadig found a house and when she entered it, the door closed behind her. She found rooms full of treasure and a sleeping prince. A voice told her to cook food for the prince for seven years, leaving it beside his bed.

At the next new moon, the moon told Nourie Hadig's mother her daughter was still more beautiful. The wife realized that her daughter had not been killed and was determined to find and murder her. The husband admitted that he had not killed Nourie Hadig but did not know where she was; the wife set out to find her. Every new moon, she asked the moon again about her daughter and heard every time that her daughter was more beautiful.

After four years, gypsies came by the house where Nourie Hadig was. She bought a girl from them, and they both served the prince. At the end of the seven years, the prince woke and because the gypsy girl was tending him, he thought she had served him all seven years, so he decided to marry her. While wedding arrangements were going on, the prince went to town and told Nourie Hadig that since she must have helped some, he would buy her something. She asked for the Stone of Patience. He went to buy it. The stonecutter told him that if one's troubles were great, the stone would swell until it burst from sorrow on hearing them, but if the person made much of a little, the person would swell and burst, and so he must watch and ensure that the servant who asked for it did not burst. He gave Nourie Hadig the stone, and she told it her story. It swelled and was about to burst when the prince broke in and insisted on marrying her rather than the gypsy.

The next new moon, the moon said that the princess of Adana was more beautiful, so the mother knew where her daughter was. She had a beautiful ring made that would make the wearer fall asleep and had a witch bring it to her daughter, pleading that she had been out of her mind when she ordered her death. The gypsy girl persuaded the daughter to wear the ring, and she fell down dead. The prince refused to bury his wife; he would tend her as she had tended him. Many doctors were unable to heal her, but one tried to steal the ring. She started to come awake; he slid it back on and got the prince to promise him rewards for healing his wife. Then he took the ring off, which restored Nourie Hadig to life.

While the ring was on Nourie Hadig's finger, the moon had told the wife that she was the most beautiful one. After the ring was removed, though, it said that Nourie Hadig was. The wife became so angry that she died.