The Enchanted Wreath - Park Six

Instead of entering the castle, the Prince went to the shore and he hid behind a rock. 

That was when he saw a girl come out of the sea. The girl stretched her arms towards his window. 

The prince caught her hand.

The girl was frightened and tried to reach for the water.

However the Prince held on fast. “You are my wife and I will never let you go.” 

The words were hardly out of his mouth when he saw that the girl changed into a hare. The hare changed into a fish and the fish changed into a bird. The bird finally changed into a snake. 

The Prince almost dropped the snake but held on by instinct. He drew his sword out with his other hand and cut off the head of the snake. 

With that the spell was broken. 

That was when the Prince saw his wife standing before him with the wreath upon her head and the birds singing for joy.

The next morning the stepmother was very happy as she raced back to the palace. The old witch had given her an ointment which had to be put on the daughter's tongue, which would break the dove’s spell. However, the only condition to this was only if the real princess was dead, the ointment would work. 

The stepmother was convinced that she had killed her stepdaughter and had no doubts that the ointment would work. 

So the stepmother traveled all night to get to the palace as soon as possible. 

She went straight to her daughter's room.

Though she triumphantly applied the ointment on her daughter's tongue nothing happened.

The daughter still repeated the same words again and again. 

That was when the Prince entered the room with his real wife.  “You both deserve to die.” The Prince told the stepmother and the other girl. “If it was left to me I would kill the two of you. But the princess has begged me to spare your life. So you will be put on a ship and carried off to a desert island. You will stay there till you die.” 

After this was carried out nothing more was heard of the stepmother and her daughter. 

The prince and his wife lived long and happily and ruled their people well.

Adapted from Scandinavian Folk Tales