“Yes, Father, I did get around in the world. Thank God I can breathe fresh air again!”
“Whereabouts have you been?”
“Oh, Father, I’ve spent time in a mouse hole, in a cow’s stomach, and in the wolf’s gut. It’s good to be home again.”
“We wouldn’t sell you again for all the riches in the world,” said the parents, who kissed and cuddled their dear Tom Thumb. Then they gave him plenty to eat and drink, and made him a new suit of clothes, as his old duds were tattered from his travels.
FAITHFUL JOHANNES
Once upon a time there was an old king who fell ill and thought, The bed in which I lie will surely be my deathbed. So he said, “Tell Faithful Johannes to come to me.” Faithful Johannes was his favorite servant, so called because he had faithfully served the king for his entire life. Once he stood before the bed, the king said to him, “Dear Faithful Johannes, I feel that my end is near, and my only worry is about my son – he is still so young he cannot always make decisions for himself, and if you do not promise me that you will counsel him in all he needs to know and be his foster father, I cannot die in peace.”
To which Faithful Johannes replied, “I will not forsake him and will gladly serve him, even if it costs me my life.”
Whereupon the old king said, “Then I can die in peace and confidence.” And he added: “After my death, take him around the entire castle, to every chamber, hall, and vaulted passageway, and show him all the treasures it contains – but don’t take him to the last chamber at the end of the long hallway in which the painting called The Princess of the Golden Roof lies hidden. If he lays eyes on that painting, he will be so smitten by her beauty that he will swoon and for her sake face great peril. You must safeguard him from that.” And when Faithful Johannes once again shook hands on it, the king lay his head back on the pillow, was still, and died.
As they carried the old king out to be buried, Faithful Johannes told the young king what he had promised his father on his deathbed, and added: “On my honor I will keep my word, and be faithful to you as I was to him, even at the cost of my life.”
Once the mourning period was over, Faithful Johannes said to him, “It is time for you to see your inheritance – I will show you around your father’s castle.” So he took him everywhere, up and down the keep, and showed him all of the magnificent chambers and the treasures they contained – all except for the room with the perilous painting. But the painting was positioned such that you saw it as soon as the door swung open, and it was so splendidly painted that the princess looked alive and kicking and there was nothing sweeter and lovelier to look upon in the whole wide world.
The young king noticed that Faithful Johannes always bypassed one doorway and said, “Why don’t you unlock this one?”
“There is something terrible to look upon inside,” he said.
But the young king replied, “I have seen the entire castle, so I want to know what’s in there too.” He lunged forward and wanted to force the door open.
But Faithful Johannes held him back and said, “I swore to your father on his deathbed that you would not set eyes on what’s in there – it could bring you and me great misfortune.”
“Stuff and nonsense,” said the young king. “If I can’t get in there it will be my undoing. Day and night I would not rest until I’d seen it with my own eyes. I will not move from this spot until you unlock that door.”
Faithful Johannes fathomed that there was nothing to be done, and sighing with a heavy heart he searched for the right key on the big key chain. Once he had opened the door he entered first, intending to hide the painting so that the king would not see it, but it was no use. The king stood on tiptoes and spotted it over his shoulder. And no sooner did he catch a glimpse of the painting of the fair maiden glimmering with gold and precious stones than he fainted and fell to the ground. Faithful Johannes picked him up and carried him to his bed, fretting all the while. “Dear God, the thing is done, what misfortune will it bring us!”
Then he fortified the young king with a swallow of wine until he came to again. But the first words he said upon waking were: “Who, in heaven’s name, is the girl in the painting?”
“She is the Princess of the Golden Roof,” replied Faithful Johannes.
Then the king replied, “My love for her is so great, if all the leaves on the trees were tongues they could not express it. I will devote my life to finding her. You are my Faithful Johannes, you must stand by me.”
Faithful Johannes pondered for a long while how to go about tackling this task, as it was hard enough just to stand there and peer at the princess’s face. Finally he had an idea and said to the king, “Everything around her is made of gold – tables, chairs, bowls, goblets, pans, and all household utensils. There are four tons of gold in your treasure vault. Have one of the goldsmiths of your realm fashion it into all sorts of receptacles and devices, into birds, wild game, and wondrous golden creatures. That will please her, and we will carry it with us to her kingdom and try our luck.”