But upon learning that he was not her equal by birth, the haughty princess spurned him and demanded that he would first have to accomplish a second task. She went out to the garden and herself strewed ten sacks of millet in the grass. “By sun-up tomorrow morning, he must have finished gathering it all up,” she said, “and not a grain may be missing.”
The young man sat himself down in the garden and pondered how in heaven’s name to fulfill such a charge, but he could think of nothing and so sat there sadly waiting for daybreak, when he would be led to his death. But when the first rays of sunlight fell on the garden, he saw the ten sacks of grain all lying stuffed side by side and not a grain was missing. The king of the ants had come with his army of thousands and thousands of ants and the grateful creatures had taken great pains to gather and bag all the grain. The princess herself came down to the garden and was stunned to see that the youth had accomplished the task he had been assigned, but she could not yet quell her proud heart and said, “Even though he managed to complete the two tasks, he will not become my husband until he brings me an apple from the tree of life.”
The youth did not know where to find the tree of life. He set off and wanted to keep walking as long as his legs held out, but he had no hope of finding it. After he had traversed three kingdoms and, come evening, arrived at a forest, he sat himself under a tree and wanted to sleep, when he heard a fluttering in the branches, and a golden apple fell into his hand. Whereupon three ravens flew down to him, sat themselves on his knees, and said, “We are the three young ravens you saved from the jaws of hunger. When we grew up and heard that you were searching for the golden apple, we flew over the sea to the end of the earth where the tree of life stands and fetched you an apple.”
Overjoyed, the young man made his way back to the city and brought the golden apple to the lovely princess, who now had no excuse to reject him. They shared the apple of life and both bit in and ate it, whereupon her heart was filled with love for him, and they found happiness and reached a ripe old age together.
THE QUEEN OF THE BEES
Once upon a time two princes went out in search of adventure and led such a wild and dissolute life that they couldn’t find their way home again. The third and youngest one, known as Simpleton, went in search of his brothers. But when he finally found them, they heaped him with scorn, saying that given his simplicity he shouldn’t even try to make his way in the world, seeing as the two of them who were much smarter couldn’t make it. So the three set out together and came to an anthill. The two elder brothers wanted to destroy it and watch the little ants running around in terror and carrying off their eggs, but Simpleton said, “Leave the creatures in peace. I can’t abide your bothering them.”
So they continued on their way and came to a lake in which many, many ducks were swimming around. The two elder brothers wanted to catch a few and roast them, but Simpleton wouldn’t hear of it and said, “Leave the creatures in peace. I can’t abide your killing them.”
Finally they came to a beehive in a tree full of so much honey that it dripped down the trunk. The two elder brothers wanted to light a fire in front of the tree so that they could suffocate the bees and take their honey. But Simpleton stopped them again and said, “Let the creatures be. I can’t abide your burning them.”
At last the three brothers came to a castle. In its stables stood stone horses and there was not a living soul in sight. They went through all the rooms and halls until at the end of a corridor they saw a door with two locks. But in the middle of the door there was a small slit, through which they could peak into the room. Seated at a table they spied a little gray man. They called to him once, twice, but he did not hear them; they called a third time and he finally stood up, opened the locks, and came out. He did not say a word but led them to a richly laden table, and once they had eaten and drunk their fill, he brought each of them to his own bedroom.
The next morning the little gray man came to the eldest brother, winked, and led him to a stone tablet on which three tasks were inscribed whose completion would lead to the spell on the castle being lifted. The first task was: In the woods beneath the moss lay the pearls of the princess, a thousand in number, which had to be gathered, and if, come dusk, even a single one was missing, he who searched for them would turn to stone. The eldest brother went to the woods and searched all day, but by sundown he had only gathered a hundred. Just as the tablet said, he was turned to stone.
The following day the second brother undertook the same task, but he didn’t do much better than the eldest. He found no more than two hundred pearls and was turned to stone.