Array The Brothers Grimm - Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm - A New English Version

The king soon came back to his senses, however, and said, ‘What a beautiful picture! What a beautiful girl! Who is she?’

‘She’s the Princess of the Golden Roof,’ said Faithful Johannes.

‘Oh, I’m in love, Johannes! I love her so much that if all the leaves on all the trees were tongues, they couldn’t express it. I’d risk my life to win her love. Johannes, my faithful servant, you must help me! How can we reach her?’

Faithful Johannes thought hard about this. It was well known that the princess was a reclusive character. However, he soon thought of a plan, and went to tell the king.

‘Everything she has around her is gold,’ he explained, ‘tables, chairs, dishes, sofas, knives and forks, all solid gold. Now among your treasures, your majesty, as you’ll no doubt remember, are five tons of gold. What I suggest is to get the royal goldsmiths to take, say, a ton of it and make all manner of pretty things, birds and beasts and strange animals and the like. They might take her fancy, and we could try our luck.’

The king summoned all the goldsmiths and told them what he wanted. They worked night and day and produced a large number of pieces so beautiful that the young king was sure the princess would never have seen the like.

They loaded everything on board a ship, and Faithful Johannes and the king disguised themselves as merchants so that they were quite unrecognizable. Then they weighed anchor, and they sailed across the sea until they came to the city of the Princess of the Golden Roof.

Faithful Johannes said to the king, ‘I think you should wait on the ship, your majesty. I’ll go ashore and see if I can interest the princess in our gold. What you’d best do is set some things out for her to look at. Decorate the ship a bit.’

The king set to eagerly, and Faithful Johannes went ashore with some of the smaller gold objects in his apron, and went straight to the palace. In the courtyard he found a beautiful girl drawing water from two wells with two golden buckets, one for plain water and one for sparkling. She was about to turn and go in when she saw Faithful Johannes and asked who he was.

‘I’m a merchant,’ he said. ‘I’ve come from a far land to see if anyone’s interested in our gold.’

He opened his apron to show her.

‘Oh, what lovely things!’ she said, putting the buckets down and taking up the gold pieces one after the other. ‘I must tell the princess about them. She loves gold, you know, and I’m sure she’d buy everything you’ve got.’

She took Faithful Johannes by the hand, and led him upstairs, for she was the princess’s own chambermaid. When the princess saw the golden objects she was delighted.

‘I’ve never seen such beautifully made things,’ she said. ‘I can’t resist them. Name your price! I’ll buy them all.’

Faithful Johannes said, ‘Well, your royal highness, I’m only the servant really. My master is the merchant — he usually deals with that side of things. And these little samples of mine aren’t to be compared with what he’s got on the ship. They’re the most beautiful things that have ever been made in gold.’

‘Bring them all here!’ she said.

‘Ah, well, I’d like to oblige you, but there’s so many of them. It would take days to bring them all up here, and besides, it would need so much space to set all the pieces out that I don’t think your palace has got enough rooms, big and splendid though it is.’ He thought that would make her curious, and he was right, because she said, ‘Then I’ll come to your ship. Take me there now, and I’ll look at all your master’s treasures.’

Faithful Johannes led her to the ship, feeling very pleased. When the young king saw the princess on the quayside, he realized that she was even more beautiful than her portrait, and his heart nearly burst. But he escorted her on board and led her below, while Faithful Johannes remained on deck. ‘Cast off and set all the sail you have,’ he told the bosun. ‘Fly like a bird in the air.’

Meanwhile below decks the king was showing the princess the golden vessels and all the other beautiful objects, the birds, the animals, the trees and flowers, both realistic and fantastical. Hours went by, and she didn’t notice that they were sailing. When she’d seen everything she gave a little sigh of contentment.

‘Thank you, sir,’ she said. ‘What a beautiful collection! I’ve never seen anything like it. Truly exquisite! But it’s time I went home.’

And then she looked through the porthole, and saw that they were on the high seas.

‘What are you doing?’ she cried. ‘Where are we? I’ve been betrayed! To fall into the hands of a merchant — but you can’t be a merchant! You must be a pirate! Have you kidnapped me? Oh, I’d rather die!’

The king took her hand and said, ‘I’m not a merchant. I’m a king, just as well born as you are. If I tricked you into coming on board, it’s only because I was overpowered by love. When I saw your portrait in my palace, I fell to the ground unconscious.’

The Princess of the Golden Roof was reassured by his gentle manner, and presently her heart was moved, and she agreed to become his wife.

Now as the ship sailed onwards, Faithful Johannes happened to be sitting in the bows, playing the fiddle. While he was doing that, three ravens flew around the ship and settled on the bowsprit, and he stopped playing and listened to what they were saying, for he knew the language of the birds.

The first said, ‘ Kraak! Look! That’s the Princess of the Golden Roof! He’s taking her home with him!’

The second one said, ‘Yes, but he hasn’t got her yet.’

The third one said, ‘Yes, he has! Kraak! There she is, sitting next to him on the deck.’

‘That won’t do him any good,’ said the first one. ‘As soon as they step ashore, a chestnut horse will run up to greet them, and the prince will try and mount it. Kraak! But if he does, the horse will leap into the air and carry him away, and he’ll never see her again.’

‘ Kraak! ’ said the second. ‘Isn’t there any way of preventing that?’

‘Yes, of course there is, but they don’t know it. If someone else jumps in the saddle, takes the pistol from the holster and shoots the horse dead, the king will be safe. Kraak! But whoever does that must never tell the king why he did it, because if he does, he’ll be turned to stone up to his knees.’

‘I know more than that,’ said the second raven. ‘Even if the horse is killed, the king isn’t safe. When they go into the palace, they’ll find a beautiful wedding robe laid out for him on a golden tray. It’ll seem to be made of gold and silver, but really it’s made of sulphur and pitch, and if he puts it on it’ll burn his flesh away right down to the marrow. Kraak! ’

‘Surely they won’t be able to save him from that,’ said the third.

‘Oh, yes, it’s easy, but they don’t know how. Someone wearing gloves will have to take the robe and throw it on the fire, and then it’ll burn up safely and the king won’t be harmed. Kraak! But if he tells the king why he did it, he’ll be turned to stone from his knees to his heart.’

‘What a fate!’ said the third. ‘And the dangers don’t end there, either. Even if the robe burns up, I don’t think this king is destined to have his bride. After the ceremony, when the dancing begins, the young queen will suddenly turn pale and fall down as though dead.’

‘And can she be saved?’ said the first.

‘With the greatest of ease, if anyone knew. All they have to do is lift her up, bite her right breast, draw three drops of blood from it and spit them out. Then she’ll come to life again. But if they tell the king why they’ve done it, their entire body will turn to stone, from the crown of their head to the soles of their feet. Kraak! ’