The king and the princess both talked with each other and came up with a plan. They decided to send the miller's daughter to the forest with a knife.
The miller’s daughter was very beautiful and she agreed as soon as the king approached her with the task.
The miller's daughter went to the forest and she started scraping at the iron stove. However, she was at it for more than a day and the following night too, but there was no impression on the iron stove.
The voice from the iron stove called in daybreak. “It seems to me as if it is day outside.”
The miller's daughter nodded. “I think so too because I can hear my father's mill rattling.”
The voice inside the iron stove now sounded angry. “You are not the princess. You are a miller's daughter. Please go away and tell the king's daughter to come because she has promised to come.”
The second time, the king and the princess gave a gold coin to a herdsman's daughter and asked her to scrape the iron off the iron stove.
The herdsman’s daughter was even more beautiful than the miller's daughter. She agreed to go to the forest because of the gold coin but she too could not make any impression on the iron stove in the morning.
The voice from the iron stove called out. “It seems to be day outside.”
The herdsman's daughter noted. “It seems to me too because I can hear my father blowing his horn.”
The voice inside the iron stove was angry. “You are a herdsman's daughter. Please ask the king's daughter to come and do what she had promised.”
When the princess heard this she began to cry, but she knew that she had to keep her word. She put a knife in her belt and went to the iron stove in the forest.
As soon as she began to scrape, the iron gave way. Before two hours were up, she had made a little hole in the iron stove.
She peeped in and that was when she saw a handsome young man all shining with gold and precious stones.
The minute the princess saw the man she fell in love with him. She scraped the iron stove harder than before and made a hole large enough for him to get out of.
He got out and held her hand and smiled at her. “You are mine. You have set me free and I am yours.”
He wanted to take her with him to his Kingdom, but the princess wanted to talk to her father for one last time and tell him what had happened.
The prince agreed to this, but he asked her not to say more than three words, because if she did say more, an enchantment would stop them from meeting again.
The princess went back to her castle. She tried to keep to the prince's condition, but she spoke more than three words to her father.
Immediately the iron stove and the prince vanished from the forests.
Adapted from Grimm Brothers’ Stories
No comments:
Post a Comment