The beautiful princess told the third prince her story.
‘My father was a great king and he had six kingdoms to rule. He loved his wife dearly and let her do as she pleased. When the princess was just a few weeks old, her mother wanted to visit a particular mountain.
After getting permission from the king, the Queen and her attendants set out to visit the mountain.
On the way to the mountain, the Queen saw a beautiful castle.
The castle was unlike anything that the Queen had ever seen and she was sure that the castle belonged to the fairies.
The Queen had read that the fairies had fruits in the garden in their castle the tastes of which were unlike anything that had been tasted by any human.
The Queen saw the garden from outside and she was determined to have the fruits from this garden to see how it tasted.
She knocked on the doors of the castle, but no one opened the door.
The Queen was however determined to get the fruits and she had her attendants draw up ladders and try to get inside the garden for the fruits.
However, the Queen could not do much that day, because she suddenly began to feel ill.
She went to bed for the night, feeling ill.
In the dead of the night, an old woman visited the Queen.
“Who are you? Why are you trying to get inside our garden?”
Through her sickness, the Queen realized that the old woman was actually a fairy and told her all about her plan to take fruits from the garden of the fairies.
The woman nodded. “We are fairies and me and my sister have decided to let you have as many fruits as you want.”
The Queen who was now convinced that the sudden sickness that she was feeling could be made right only by the fruits of the fairy’s garden, was thrilled on hearing this.
That was when the old woman imposed a strict condition. “We will let you take as many fruits as you want only if you agree to give us your little daughter in return. We will bring her up with us. You will not get to see her until her marriage.”
The Queen was in a dilemma. But she was also convinced that if she did not take the fruits from the fairy’s garden, her illness was going to take a turn for the worse and take her very life.
So the Queen agreed to the condition.
She ate one fruit and immediately felt better.
The Queen loaded plenty of fruits from the fairy’s garden and left for one of her kingdoms.
The fairies sent some dwarves with the Queen and her attendants to get the princess to the castle of the fairies.’
Adapted from Andrew Lang’s Fairy Tales
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