Read The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics) for Free Online Page A

me, but I can’t give her to you. She cost me far too much.” The nephew carried on and said: “I’ll pay for her. I’ll send you the money right away.” The uncle finally agreed, and the slave girl was his. The two made their way to Karl’s home, elated to be leaving together. And Karl was relieved to be returning home. On the way they stopped in a city in a kingdom that seemed familiar to Karl’s beloved.
    The slave girl had a secret plan which she did not reveal to Karl right away. “Let’s go to the market together,” she said, “to a place where no one is allowed to transact business. We can sell things that are worth no more than twelve kreuzers or twenty-one at the most. Before long someone will come along and chase us away.”
    That’s what the two did. An official appeared, as predicted, and made them leave. For a few coins he let the two off. Asecond official came, took his bribe, and left. The next day, the king himself sent a personal official. The slave girl gave him an envelope and put a letter inside it. The official brought the message to the king and he immediately recognized the handwriting of his beloved daughter. He had been searching for her for a long time.
    The king raced to the marketplace that his daughter had named in the letter. When he found her, he took her home with Karl and said: “I have no other heirs. As the husband of my only child, you shall become vice chancellor and then, after I’m gone, king.”
    The king’s marshal was filled with envy and wanted more than anything else to become the future ruler. He asked Karl: “Would you like to go hunting with me? Do you enjoy the sport?”
    “Oh, yes, I am passionate about hunting!”
    The two left for the hunt, and the marshal sent Karl ahead of everyone else. Then he shot him from behind, hitting him in the leg. Karl fell down, and he appeared to be dead. The marshal was sure that he was finished, and he threw the body over a cliff into a river. But Karl was able to swim until he reached an island.
    Karl lived on the island for nearly half a year and survived by eating roots. He used herbs to heal his wounds. One day he saw a ship in the distance and thought: “If only that ship could see me and take me on board.” He waved a white cloth, which the sailors saw, and they took him on board.
    Karl returned home to his parents and became an artist. He was a skillful painter and traveled to his wife and her father, the king. When he arrived, they did not recognize him, since they believed that he had died long ago. He told them he was a painter, and of course that’s what he was. The king gave Karl a room and asked him to decorate the walls with pictures. Karl let no one into the room while he was working, and he painted the little hut in the garden where the princess had once washed clothes as a slave. She was the first one to take a look at how his work was going, and she clapped her hands in delight when she saw the scene and recognized him. She threwher arms around Karl and brought the news to her father. Karl described all the adventures he had experienced.
    The marshal was sentenced to death, and Karl was restored to the position he had once held. The loving couple lived happily together for many years.

THREE FLOWERS
    Schönwerth’s note:
Wood sprites, or forest sprites, are tiny creatures that make their homes near hearths. Their clothing is made of spun moss that hangs in ropelike strands from trees. We think of them as enchanted beings hounded by phantom hunters. They live together as married couples and bear children. Their enemies are the phantom hunters, who rage through the lands like wild beasts during autumnal storms. The wood sprites’ only protection against them is to take refuge on a tree stump that has three crosses carved into it.
    Three huntsmen went in search of their sister, who had been abducted by a witch and hidden away in the woods. They traveled deep into the forest and managed to survive by killing