9. Interpretations of Fairy Tales

It happened once, where was it? Yes, where did it not happen? There was a king who was so beloved by his people that he constantly heard them express their wish that he should find a wife who was as good and noble as he was. It was difficult for him to find someone whom he believed would be as suitable as he desired for his people. But he had an old friend, a poor forester who lived simply and contentedly in the forest, but who was very wise. He could easily have become rich, for the king would have gladly given him everything. But the forester wanted to remain poor and keep his wisdom. So the king went to his friend, the forester, and asked him for advice. He gave him a sprig of rosemary and said to him, “Keep this, and the girl before whom it bows—think here of the divining rod motif—that is the girl you are to marry!” So the king had a large number of girls brought before him the very next day. He had a large quantity of pearls spread out before the girls and the name of each one written on the table with pearls. Then he announced that the girl before whom the sprig bowed would become his wife; the others would receive only the pearls. Then he went around with the sprig of rosemary—but it did not move, it did not bow before any of them. The girls received their pearls and were sent away. On the second day, the same thing was done, but it happened again, and on the third day it was no different. The king slept the following night and heard something at his window. It turned out to be a little gold bird. It said to him, “You don't know it, but you have done me a great service twice. I want to do you a favor too. When morning comes, get up, take your sprig of rosemary, and follow me. I will lead you to a place where you will find a horse. It has a silver arrow stuck in its body. You must pull it out. Then it can lead you to where you will find your wife!” The next morning, the king went out and followed the golden bird. They finally came to a horse that was weak and sick and said, “A witch shot an arrow into my body.” The king pulled the arrow out of the horse, and at that moment, the weak animal was transformed into a wonderfully bold horse. The king mounted the horse, the sprig of rosemary moved in front of the horse, and the golden bird flew ahead, leading the king on his magical horse. Finally, they came to a glass castle. There they heard a humming and buzzing from afar, and when they entered, the king, the sprig of rosemary, and the golden bird saw another king standing there, made entirely of glass, and in the stomach of this glass king was a large bumblebee. It was the one that was buzzing so loudly, and it was working terribly hard on the king's stomach, trying to work its way out from the inside. The king asked the glass king what this was all about. Yes,” he said, ”just look at the sofa; there sits my queen in her pink silk robe, and you will soon see the secret of what is happening. For now the web that the thorn bush has spun around the queen is being torn apart, and soon it will be completely torn down. When there is none left, when it is completely gone, an evil spider will come and spin a new web around the queen, and while I am enchanted here in a glass body, my wife will be spun into a web by the spider. We have now been imprisoned here for many hundreds of years, until we are redeemed.”