The Royal couple and the Three Snake-Leaves

There was once a very poor man who had a son. When the poor man could not afford to maintain his son, his son left home with his father's blessings to seek his fortune. 

It was at this time that the king of the kingdom was about to go to war.

The poor man's son decided to join the army and fight for his kingdom.

When the battle started however everyone in the king’s army got afraid and ran away. Even the leader of the king’s army fell. 

At this time the poor man’s son came forward and he rallied his people and encouraged them to fight back. It was thanks to this boy that the army fought and defeated the enemy.

After the battle was over the king heard what the man had done and he put the young man in a very powerful position in the army and gave him a lot of treasures and riches.

The king had a very beautiful daughter. However the daughter had a very strange condition for her marriage. She had made a vow to marry only a man who would allow himself to be buried alive with her if she died first. She was willing to do the same if her husband died before her. 

So though the princess was very beautiful the suitors were afraid of the wow that the princess had made and did not come forward to marry her. 

The young man who had fought in the army and risen in ranks found the princess very beautiful and he decided to marry her with her condition. 

The royal couple lived happily for a long time. The old king retired and the new princess and her husband were made the new king and queen.

However once the queen fell ill and no physician their kingdom could save her. 

Finally the Queen lay dead. 

The young king remembering the promise that he had made to his wife was taken to the grave of his wife and buried alive along with her dead body.

There were four candles, four loaves of bread and four bottles of wine placed before the king inside the grave. After his provisions came to an end the king knew that he would have to die. 

As the king was staring in front of him he saw a snake come towards his wife’s dead body. He pulled out his sword and cut the snake into three pieces. “As long as I am alive you will not be able to touch her body.” The king told the dead body of the snake. 

At that time a second snake came out of the corner and it saw the first snake lying dead. The snake went back out of the hole and came with three green leaves in its mouth. The second snake took the pieces of the dead snake and put one leaf on each wound. Immediately the pieces of the snake joined together and the first snake came alive. 

The two snakes escaped from the hole through which they had come. 

The leaves used by the snake were lying on the ground and the king suddenly realized that these leaves were no ordinary leaves but could bring back the dead to life. 

He picked up the three leaves and put one on the mouth of his wife and two on her eyes. He was stunned when his wife came back to life. 

Then the king and the queen went back to their palace happily.

The king had a very faithful servant. The king gave the three snake leaves to his servant and asked his servant to keep the leaves safe because it could save their lives.

However things were not the same with the queen after she had come back to life. 

All the love that she had felt for her husband just vanished. 

Once when the king and the queen wanted to go on a journey by the sea, the queen fell in love with the captain of the ship. 

She and the captain together plotted and decided to throw the young king into the sea. “We shall tell everyone that the king died on this journey.” The queen caught the hands of the captain. “I will praise you so much before my father that my father will marry me to you.” 

After throwing the king into the sea, both the queen and the captain turned back to their kingdom.

The faithful servant saw all this and he was quiet. He jumped into the sea and brought out the king out of the waters. With the help of the snake leaves he brought the king back to life. 

The servant and the king both rowed hard, and they reached the old king before the queen and the captain of the ship could reach the kingdom. There the new king told the old king everything that had happened.

The old king was disbelieving that his daughter had acted this way, but finally he agreed that the king had to be right. 

So when the wicked queen and the captain of the ship came back in their ship and lied about the death of the new king, the old king punished his ungrateful daughter and the captain of the ship by putting them in a ship and letting them sail forever in the seas where they would be drowned without any help.

Adapted from the Green Fairy Book