The Clever Peasant Lass

There was once a poor peasant who had no land, just a little hut, and an only daughter. “We should ask the king for a bit of newly cleared woodland,” said the daughter. When the king heard of their poverty, he even gave them a plot of grassland. She and her father hoed it up and planned to sow a little rye and similar crops on it. When they had the field almost hoed, they found in the ground a solid gold mortar. “Listen,” said the father to the girl, “because our lord king was so gracious and made us a present of this field, we must give him the gold mortar in return.” The daughter, however, was unwilling to agree to this and said, “Father, if we have the mortar and not the pestle, we’ll have to produce the pestle, too; so we’d better keep quiet about it.”

But he wouldn’t listen to her and took the mortar to the king, saying he’d found it in the moor and wouldn’t he accept it as a token of respect. The king took the mortar and asked if he’d not found anything else. “No,” answered the peasant. Then the king said that he should also produce the pestle. The peasant said that they hadn’t found it, but for all the good it did him, his statement fell on deaf ears. He was put in prison and was to stay there until he produced the pestle. Every day the servants had to bring him bread and water, the sort of fare one gets in prison; there they heard the man continuously crying, “Alack, alas, if I’d listened to my daughter!”

Then the servants went to the king and told him how the prisoner kept crying, “Alas, if I’d only listened to my daughter!” and wouldn’t eat or drink. The king ordered the servants to bring the prisoner into his presence and then asked him why he kept crying, “Alas, if I’d listened to my daughter!” “What did your daughter say?” “She said I shouldn’t bring the mortar, otherwise I should have to produce the pestle, too.” “If you have so clever a daughter, just have her come here.” Accordingly, she had to appear before the king. He asked her if she really was so clever and said that he would propound her a riddle; if she could solve that, he’d marry her. Straightway she said “Yes,” she’d like to guess it. Then the king said, “Come to me neither clothed nor naked, neither riding nor driving, neither on the road nor off the road. If you can do that, I’ll marry you.”

She went away and undressed herself completely, then she wasn’t clothed. She took a big fishnet, got in it, and wrapped it all around her; then she wasn’t naked. She borrowed a donkey for a fee and tied the fishnet to the donkey’s tail; it had to drag her along in the net, and that was neither riding nor driving. Furthermore, the donkey had to drag her in a rut, so that she touched the ground only with her big toe, and that was neither on the road nor off the road. When she arrived in this fashion, the king said that she’d solved the riddle and that all the conditions had been fulfilled. He then released her father from prison, took her to himself as his wife, and put the whole royal estate in her charge.

When several years had passed and the king was once going to a review, some farmers happened to stop in front of the palace with their carts; they’d been selling wood, and some had ox-teams, some horses. There was one farmer who had three horses, one of which gave birth to a young foal, which ran away and lay down right between two oxen hitched to a cart. Now when the farmers met, they began to quarrel, hit one another and make a row, and the one who owned the oxen wanted to keep the foal, saying that the oxen had had it. The other said “no,” that his horses had had it and that it was his.

The dispute came before the king, and he gave the decision that where the foal had lain, there it should remain. Thus the owner of the oxen got it, though it didn’t belong to him. The other farmer went away and wept and wailed over the loss of his foal. Now he had heard that the queen was very gracious because she, too, came of poor peasant stock. He went to her and asked if she couldn’t help him get his foal back. She said, “Yes, if you’ll promise me you won’t betray me, I’ll tell you how. Early tomorrow morning when the king is reviewing the watch, take up a position in the middle of the street where he must pass. Take a big fishnet and make believe you’re fishing. Keep on fishing and empty out the net as if were full,” and she told him, besides, what answer he should make if he were questioned by the king.

Accordingly, the next day the farmer stood there and fished on a dry spot. When the king passed by and saw that, he sent his runner who was to ask what the foolish man was up to. “I’m fishing,” he answered. The runner asked how he could fish where there was no water. Said the farmer, “I can fish on a dry spot just as well as two oxen can have a foal.” The runner went away and brought the reply to the king. The latter had the farmer come before him and told him that he hadn’t hit upon that by himself and asked from whom he’d got it; and he was to own up at once. However, the farmer wouldn’t do so and kept saying, “God forbid, I hit upon it myself.” But they laid him on a bundle of straw and beat him and tortured him until he confessed that he got it from the queen. When the king got home, he said to his wife, “Why did you play me so false? I no longer want you as my wife. Your time’s up, go back where you came from to your peasant hut.”

He gave her permission, however, to take along one thing, namely, what was dearest and most precious to her, and that was to be her farewell. “Yes, dear husband,” she said, “if you so order, I shall do it,” and fell on his neck and kissed him and said she wanted to take leave of him. Then she ordered a strong sleeping potion brought for a farewell drink with him. The king took a deep draught, but she drank but a little. Soon he fell into a deep sleep, and when she saw that, she called a servant, and taking a fine white linen cloth, wrapped him up in it. The servants had to carry him out to a carriage in front of the door, and she drove him home to her hut. Then she put him in her little bed, and he slept right through a day and a night.

When he woke up, he looked around and said, “Good heavens, where am I?” and called his servant. But no servant was there. Finally his wife came to the bedside and said, “Dear king, you ordered me to take along what was dearest and most precious to me in the palace. Well, I’ve nothing dearer or more precious than you, and that’s why I took you along.” Tears came to the king’s eyes, and he said, “Dear wife, you shall be mine and I thine,” and took her back with him to the royal palace and married her anew. And they’re surely still living today.