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Grimms' Fairy Tales
The
Queen Bee
Two kings' sons once went out in search of
adventures, and fell into a wild, disorderly way of living,
so that they never came home again. The youngest, who was
called Simpleton, set out to seek his brothers, but when
at length he found them they mocked him for thinking that
he with his simplicity could get through the world, when
they two could not make their way, and yet were so much
cleverer. They all three travelled away together, and came
to an ant-hill. The two elder wanted to destroy it, to see
the little ants creeping about in their terror, and carrying
their eggs away, but Simpleton said, "Leave the creatures
in peace; I will not allow you to disturb them." Then
they went onwards and came to a lake, on which a great number
of ducks were swimming. The two brothers wanted to catch
a couple and roast them, but Simpleton would not permit
it, and said, " Leave the creatures in peace, I will
not suffer you to kill them." At length they came to
a bee's nest, in which there was so much honey that it ran
out of the trunk of the tree where it was. The two wanted
to make a fire beneath the tree, and suffocate the bees
in order to take away the honey, but Simpleton again stopped
them and said, "Leave the creatures in peace, I will
not allow you to burn them." At length the three brothers
arrived at a castle where stone horses were standing in
the stables, and no human being was to be seen, and they
went through all the halls until, quite at the end, they
came to a door in which were three locks. In the middle
of the door, however, there was a little pane, through which
they could see into the room. There they saw a little grey
man, who was sitting at a table. They called him, once,
twice, but he did not hear; at last they called him for
the third time, when he got up, opened the locks, and came
out. He said nothing, however, but conducted them to a handsomely-spread
table, and when they had eaten and drunk, he took each of
them to a bedroom. Next morning the little grey man came
to the eldest, beckoned to him, and conducted him to a stone
table, on which were inscribed three tasks, by the performance
of which the castle could be delivered. The first was that
in the forest, beneath the moss, lay the princess's pearls,
a thousand in number, which must be picked up, and if by
sunset one single pearl was wanting, he who had looked for
them would be turned into stone. The eldest went thither,
and sought the whole day, but when it came to an end, he
had only found one hundred, and what was written on the
table came to pass, and he was changed into stone. Next
day, the second brother undertook the adventure; it did
not, however, fare much better with him than with the eldest;
he did not find more than two hundred pearls, and was changed
to stone. At last the turn came to Simpleton also, who sought
in the moss. It was, however, so hard to find the pearls,
and he got on so slowly, that he seated himself on a stone,
and wept. And while he was thus sitting, the King of the
ants whose life he had once saved, came with five thousand
ants, and before long the little creatures had got all the
pearls together, and laid them in a heap. The second task,
however, was to fetch out of the lake the key of the King's
daughter's bed-chamber. When Simpleton came to the lake,
the ducks which he had saved, swam up to him, dived down,
and brought the key out of the water. But the third task
was the most difficult; from amongst the three sleeping
daughters of the King was the youngest and dearest to be
sought out. They, however, resembled each other exactly,
and were only to be distinguished by their having eaten
different sweetmeats before they fell asleep; the eldest
a bit of sugar; the second a little syrup; and the youngest
a spoonful of honey. Then the Queen of the bees, which Simpleton
had protected from the fire, came and tasted the lips of
all three, and at last she remained sitting on the mouth
which had eaten honey, and thus the King's son recognized
the right princess. Then the enchantment was at an end;
everything was released from sleep, and those who had been
turned to stone received once more their natural forms.
Simpleton married the youngest and sweetest princess, and
after her father's death became King, and his two brothers
received the two other sisters.
From Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, trans. Margaret
Hunt (London: George Bell, 1884), 1:269-271. |
