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The Pretty Little Calf

An official without children left home to take up his post. His first wife said she would offer him gold on his return; the second, silver; the third, a son. He was pleased with the third wife, but the other wives were jealous. When she bore a beautiful son, they claimed she had borne a lump of flesh; the first wife threw the baby into a pond, but he floated, and so the second wife had him wrapped in straw and grass and fed to a water buffalo. When the official returned, his first wife gave him gold, the second silver, and when he heard that his third wife had borne a horrid lump of flesh, he sentenced her to grind rice in a mill.

The water buffalo gave birth to a beautiful calf with a hide like gold. It was very fond of its master, who always gave it some of his food. One day, the official said that if it understood human speech, it should bring the dumplings he gave it to its mother. The calf brought them not to the water buffalo but to the repudiated wife. The first two wives realized that it was the son. They claimed to be ill; the first wife said she needed to eat the calf's liver, and the second, that she needed the calf's skin. The official let the calf loose in the woods and bought another to kill.

A woman named Huang had announced she would throw a colored ball from her house, and whoever caught it would be her husband. The calf caught it on its horn. Miss Huang realized that she had to marry it. She hung the wedding robes on its horns, and it ran off. She chased it and found a young man in wedding robes by a pond; he told her to come, she said she had to find her calf, and he told her that he was the transformed calf. He went back to his father and told him the truth. The official was ready to kill his first two wives; his son persuaded him to pardon them, but he had his son bring back his mother from the mill.

Prince Ring

A prince and his men hunted a hind with a golden ring on its horns. A darkness came over them, and they lost the hind and their way, and separated because they each thought they knew better the way back home. The prince came upon a woman on the seashore, next to a barrel. He saw a golden ring in the barrel, and mentioned it. The woman said he might have it if he took it out; when he bent over, she pushed him in, fastened the top, and threw it into the sea.

It drifted a time, but hit against rocks. He guessed he was near land, kicked out the top, and swam ashore. A giant found him there and took him home to his wife. One day, the giant showed him everything of the house but the parlour. When the giant was gone, he tried to look in. As soon as he did, something within moved and tried to speak, frightening him off. He tried two more times, and the third was brave enough to see a great black dog, and that it said, "Choose me, Prince Ring."

Sometime later, the giant said that he did not have long to live, and so would carry him back to the mainland. He offered the prince anything to take with him; the prince chose what was in the parlour. Surprised, the giant nevertheless gave him the dog and took him to shore in a stone boat, telling him at the end that he could claim the island in two weeks, in which time he and his wife would be dead.

The prince and dog walked on. The dog told him he was not curious, since he did not ask his name; the prince asked, and the dog said to call it "Snati-Snati". Then they came to a castle, and the dog told him to take service and get a little room for them both.

The king quickly esteemed Ring. A counsellor named Red told him that it was odd, when Ring had done so little. The king set both Ring and Red to cutting trees; Ring took two axes, and Snati-Snati cut as well, so that they cut more than twice what Red cut.

Growing more jealous, Red said that the king should get Ring to kill and flay the wild oxen in the woods. Finally, the king sent him. There were two, and Snati-Snati took the larger and Ring the smaller, with some help from the dog. The king highly favored him after this.

Red persuaded him to set Ring to find the gold cloak, chess-board, and piece that the king had lost a year ago. The king added that if he found them before Christmas, he could marry the king's daughter. Snati-Snati told him to get all the salt he could, and then carried it as they set out. The dog helped him up a cliff, and they came to a hut. Four trolls slept, and the porridge pot was on the fire. Snati-Snati told Ring to pour all the salt into the pot.

When the trolls woke, the old hag ate first and complained that she had stolen milk from seven kingdoms and now it was salt. After they ate, the old one became thirsty and sent her daughter to fetch water, but the daughter would not unless the old hag gave her the gold piece. The daughter took it and went, but when she bent to drink, the prince and dog pushed her in.

The hag grew thirstier, and sent her son, though he demanded the golden cloak; he met the same fate as his sister. Finally, she sent her husband, though he demanded the golden chessboard; he met the same fate as his children, but when the prince and dog went back to the cottage, his ghost followed them. They had to wrestle with it and defeat it a second time.

At the cottage, Snati-Snati said they had to go inside, once the witch got out they could not defeat her, but he would attack with a red-hot iron from the fire and the prince must pour boiling porridge over her, and by those means, they defeated her. They returned to the king late Christmas night. The king was well pleased, but the dog asked Prince Ring to trade places for the night: he would sleep in the prince's bed, and the prince where he usually slept. Ring agreed, but after a time, the dog sent him to his own bed, with instructions not to meddle with anything about it.

In the morning, Red went to the king, with his hand cut off, and demanded justice, but Ring showed him the bed, where the hand still held a sword. The king hanged Red and married Ring to his daughter. Snati-Snati asked to sleep at the foot of the bed, their wedding night; Ring granted this, and in the morning, saw a prince sleeping there, with an ugly dogskin beside him. Ring burned the dogskin and woke the prince.

This prince was also named Ring. His father had married a woman who had cursed him into that shape until a prince of his name let him sleep at his feet his wedding night. This stepmother had been the hind he had hunted, and the woman who had pushed him into the barrel, for fear that the curse would be broken; she had also been the hag whose treasure they had stolen.

They divided the rest of the trolls' treasure, and Ring married the other Ring to his sister, giving him his father's kingdom, while he stayed with his father-in-law and had half the kingdom and the whole after his death.

The Princess and the Tin Box

Once upon a time, in a far off country, there lived a king whose daughter was the most beautiful lady in the world. From the minute of her birth, expensive gifts were lavished upon her. All her toys were made of gold or platinum and other precious materials. China dolls or wooden blocks or linen books were not given to her as they were deemed to be too cheap for the beautiful daughter of a king.


The fifth prince was the strongest and most handsome of all the suitors but unfortunately, he was also the poorest. His kingdom had been overtaken by mice, locusts, wizards, and mining engineers so that nothing much of value was left. He brought to the princess a tin box filled with mica, feldspar and hornblende which he had picked up along the way.

The king told the princess to select the gift she liked best and then she would marry the prince who brought it. The princess admired the first four gifts but examined the tin box with great interest for in all of her life she had never seen tin or mica or feldspar or hornblende.

After careful consideration, the princess selected the gift she liked best: the platinum and sapphire jewel box, her logic being that in time, she would meet more admirers who would give her gifts, and these she could put in the box. The princess married the third prince that very day.

Prince Hat under the Ground

Because of a rash promise, a father has to give his daughter to Prince Hat under the Ground. She spends the days all alone in his subterranean abode, but when night falls, he returns and he is always tender and caring.

The problem is that she has promised him never to see his face. Three years pass and she has three children. She increasingly becomes less lonely and happier. Three years in a row, she visits her father's castle, when he remarries and her two sisters marry. However, the king's new consort makes her believe that she has to see her husband's face, because he might be a troll. At the third visit, her stepmother gives her a wax candle that she is to hold over her sleeping husband to see his face. To her happy surprise, she sees a beautiful young man, but a drop of wax falls onto his chest. He wakes up in horror, but now he is blind and the abode has turned into a hollow of toads and snakes.

The princess follows him on his wanderings, and she has to leave her children one by one. When she a second time fails to keep a promise, he disappears. After long searches, she is helped by three old women until she finally arrives at a castle, where a troll queen is preparing for marriage with Prince Hat.

Through bribes, the princess gets to share the bed with her prince for three nights, but the troll queen has given him a potion so that he does not notice anything during these nights. It is not until the third night that he manages to stay awake and sees that his wife has found him. The spell is broken and they live happily everafter.

Prince Prigio

The plot of Prince Prigio begins with the introduction of a queen who does not believe in fairies. After many childless years, she and the king finally had a boy, Prigio. When the queen refused to invite the fairies to the christening, none of the nobles would attend, and so the king and queen were alone when the fairies arrived and presented the child with gifts. Among the gifts were a never-empty purse (the purse of Fortunatus), seven-league boots, a cap of darkness which would make him invisible, a wishing cap, a magic carpet, and also beauty, courage, and luck, but the last fairy decreed, "My child, you shall be too clever!"

This would have pleased the queen, but she did not believe it. She had all the items swept into a lumber room.

The prince grew up to be too clever. He would argue with everyone and knew better than everyone. He had two younger brothers, neither of whom was clever, and both of whom were liked; they fell in love with their cousins. The king particularly disliked Prigio, fearing he would claim the throne, and wanted to be rid of him. One day, a firedrake appeared in the country; the king was sorry that it would kill his second son as well as his first before the youngest son killed it, but he would sacrifice him to be rid of Prigio. Prigio, like his mother, refused to believe in its existence and reminded him that it was the youngest son who triumphed, so they should send him at once.

Alphonse, his youngest brother, went and was eaten; Prigio, still not believing in firedrakes, thought he had gone off to travel. The king sent Enrico, the second, as well, and he also died. The king tried to send Prigio, who refused because he still disbelieved in the firedrake and also he was the last surviving heir. The king decided to take the rest of the court and abandon Prigio alone in the castle. When they did, Prigio found they also stole every piece of clothing except what he wore. He searched the castle and found the lumber room with the fairies' gifts. The seven-league boots bore him to an inn to eat, and he thought he dreamed it. No one paid any attention to him; he did not know that he was wearing an invisibility cap. He stole food, and when his cap was knocked off, paid from it from the purse -- which he found still full later. Whenever his cap came on or off, he appeared or vanished, but did not realize it.

Still invisible, he went to a ball where everyone spoke badly of him except for one lady, who praised his aiding a poor student, and Prigio fell madly in love with her. At once, he believed in fairies and magic and realized everything that had happened to them. He used the things to make himself suitable for the ball and went and met the lady, the daughter of the English Ambassador, Lady Rosalind. When she spoke of the firedrake, he said he would kill it. He went back and found a magical spyglass, which he knew from Arabian Nights and spied out the dragon. He realized that even with his magical gifts, he had no chance, and his brothers had had none. He went to library to find a book by Cyrano de Bergerac about his trip to the moon. In it, he read of the Remora, which was as cold as the firedrake was hot; he resolved to find one and make the creatures fight. He found it using the spyglass, and went both creatures, taunting them in the other's name. The monsters met, fought, and killed each other.

He went back to the ambassador's house, and found that his father had issued a proclamation offering a reward for him, and another promising to make the Crown Prince, and marry to his niece, whoever brought the king the firedrake's horns and tail. He also found that his carpet had vanished, a servant having accidentally wished himself to the royal castle, with the firedrake's horns and tail.

Then the carpet reappeared, with the servant, the king, and the queen, who refused to believe it. The king refused to be reconciled with Prigio. He tells how the servant claimed the reward, and when they disbelieved him, show them the carpet.

During the night, the prince went back and cut off the firedrake's hooves. At court, the servant claimed that the proclamation had promised the reward to whoever brought the horns and tail, not the dragon-slayer. Prigio pointed out that if this was allowed, the king could not claim to say one thing and have meant another, which was a royal prerogative. The niece refused to choose between them. The king finally said that whoever brought its hooves would receive the reward. Prigio produced them at once.

The king insisted that he must marry his cousin, the promised niece, at once, or hang. Prigio prefers to hang, but suggested that if he recovered his brothers, the king could remit his sentence. The king agreed. Prigio went back to the castle where he had been abandoned, killed an old cat he found there, burned it, and restored it to life with the water from the Fountain of Lions -- being certain that the fairies would not have neglected it. Having thus tested it, he went to the firedrake's lair and restored his brothers; he then went to the remora's and restored the knights it had frozen.

The king was pleased to see his sons but would not restore Prigio to the Crown Princeship. Prigio pointed out he had the water and the firedrake's head, and the king agreed.

After a triple wedding, Rosalind suggested to Prigio that he could use the wishing cap and make himself no cleverer than anyone else. Prigio agreed but thought better of it: he wished himself to appear no more clever than anyone else.

The Princess in the Chest

A king left his queen because they were childless and told her if she did not have a child by the time he returned, in a year, he would part with her. An old woman advised her to eat a bud from a bush. She would have a daughter. The old woman would give her a nurse, who must raise the girl without anyone else seeing her until she was fourteen. The queen did as she said, but when the fourteen years were one day short of complete, the king went to see her. The princess said that now she would die. The king had his choice of a pestilence, a long and bloody war, or putting her body in a wooden coffin and setting a sentinel over it every day for a year. He did not believe it, but chose the coffin. The next morning, she was dead. He did as she directed, but every night, the sentinel vanished. Soon, the story was that the princess's ghost ate whoever it was, and soldiers deserted rather than take on the duty. The king got more by offering rewards, but no one ever received it.

One day, a smith named Christian came to the capital looking for work. Soldiers got him to agree to the job, because he had gotten drunk. When the drink wore off, he tried to flee, but a little man stopped him and told him to stay in the pulpit until the coffin lid slammed. He went into the pulpit, and at midnight, the princess came out and howled, demanding the sentinel. She saw him in the pulpit but could not get up after him. Finally, she had to go back to the coffin.

The next day, the king gave him a reward and a good meal, where he had plenty to drink, until the king offered twice the gold, and Christian agreed to stay the next night, too. He tried to flee, and the little man stopped him again, telling him to stay in front of the altar and hold the book there. The princess rushed up to the pulpit that night; when she did not find him, she shrieked that war and pestilence would begin, but then she saw him and could not reach him. She had to go back to the coffin, but she was less ugly that night than the one before.

The third day, Christian agreed when drunk again, but only for half the kingdom. He tried to sneak off again, this time earlier to avoid the little man, and through a window. The little man still stopped him, but this time he was to lie down by the coffin, so that its lid would cover him. She came out at midnight and shrieked that war and pestilence would come, and prowled the church for an hour. Then she went away, and soft music came, and Christian heard a mass of thanksgiving being said for the deliverance. He came out and found the princess alive. They agreed to marry, and the king consented.

The Princess on the Glass Hill

A farmer's haymeadow was eaten every year on St. John's night. He set his sons, one by one, to guard it, but the older two were frightened off by an earthquake. The third, Boots, was despised by his brothers, who jeered at him for always sitting in the ashes, but he went the third year and stayed through three earthquakes. At the end, he heard a horse and went outside to catch it eating the grass. Next to it was a saddle, bridle, and full suit of armor, all in brass. He threw the steel from his tinderbox over it, which tamed it. When he returned home, he denied that anything had happened. The next year, the equipment for the horse was in silver, and the year after that, in gold.

The king of that country had a beautiful daughter and had decreed that whoever would marry her must climb a glass mountain to win her. She sat on the mountain with three golden apples in her lap; whoever took them would marry her and get half the kingdom.

The day of the trial, Boots's brothers refused to take him, but when the knights and princes had all failed, a knight appeared, whose equipment was brass. The princess was much taken with him, and when he rode one-third of the way up and turned to go back, she threw an apple to him. He took the apple and rode off too quickly to be seen. The next trial, he went in the equipment of silver and rode two-thirds of the way, and the princess threw the second apple to him. The third trial, he went in the equipment of gold, rode all the way, and took the third apple, but still rode off before anyone could catch him.

The king ordered everyone to appear, and in time Boots' two brothers came, and the king asked if there was anyone else. His brothers said that he sat in the ashes all three trials, but the king sent for him, and when questioned, Boots produced the apples, and therefore the king married his daughter to him and gave him half the kingdom.