King Grisly-Beard
A great king of a land far away in the East had a daughter who was very
beautiful, but so proud and haughty and conceited, that none of the princes who
came to ask for her hand in marriage was good enough for her. All she ever did
was make fun of them.
Once upon a time the king held a great feast
and invited all her suitors. They all sat in a row, ranged according to their
rank -- kings and princes and dukes and earls and counts and barons and
knights. When the princess came in, as she passed by them, she had something
spiteful to say to each one.
The first was too fat: 'He's as round as a
tub,' she said.
The next was too tall: 'What a maypole!' she
said.
The next was too short: 'What a dumpling!' she
said.
The fourth was too pale, and she called him
'Wallface.'
The fifth was too red, so she called him
'Coxcomb.'
The sixth was not straight enough; so she said
he was like a green stick that had been laid to dry over a baker's oven. She
had some joke to crack about every one. But she laughed most of all at a good
king who was there.
'Look at him,' she said; 'his beard is like an
old mop; he shall be called Grisly-beard.' So the king got the nickname of
Grisly-beard.
But the old king was very angry when he saw how
his daughter behaved and how badly she treated all his guests. He vowed that,
willing or unwilling, she would marry the first man that came to the door.
Two days later a travelling fiddler came by the
castle. He began to play under the window and begged for money and when the
king heard him, he said, 'Let him come in.'
So, they brought the dirty-looking fellow in
and, when he had sung before the king and the princess, he begged for a gift.
The king said, 'You have sung so well that I will
give you my daughter to take as your wife.'
The princess begged and prayed; but the king
said, 'I have sworn to give you to the first man who came to the door, and I
will keep my word.'
Words and tears were to no avail; the parson
was sent for, and she was married to the fiddler.
When this was over, the king said, 'Now get
ready to leave -- you must not stay here -- you must travel with your husband.'
So the fiddler left the castle, and took the
princess with him.
Soon they came to a great wood.
'Pray,' she said, 'whose is this wood?'
'It belongs to King Grisly-beard,' he answered;
'hadst thou taken him, all would have been thine.'
'Ah! unlucky wretch that I am!' she sighed;
'would that I had married King Grisly-beard!'
Next they came to some fine meadows.
'Whose are these beautiful green meadows?' she
said.
'They belong to King Grisly-beard, hadst thou
taken him, they would all have been thine.'
'Ah! unlucky wretch that I am!' she said;
'would that I had married King Grisly-beard!'
Then they came to a great city. 'Whose is this
noble city?' she said.
'It belongs to King Grisly-beard; hadst thou
taken him, it would all have been thine.'
'That is no business of mine,' said the
fiddler, 'why should you wish for another husband? Am I not good enough for
you?'
At last they came to a small cottage. 'What a
paltry place!' she said; 'to whom does that little dirty hole belong?'
The fiddler said, 'That is your and my house,
where we are to live.'
'Where are your servants?' she cried.
'What do we want with servants?' he said; 'you
must do for yourself whatever is to be done. Now make the fire, and put on
water and cook my supper, for I am very tired.'
But the princess knew nothing of making fires
and cooking, and the fiddler was forced to help her.
When they had eaten a very scanty meal they
went to bed; but the fiddler called her up very early in the morning to clean
the house.
They lived like that for two days and when they
had eaten up all there was in the cottage, the man said, 'Wife, we can't go on
thus, spending money and earning nothing. You must learn to weave baskets.'
Then the fiddler went out and cut willows, and
brought them home, and she began to weave; but it made her fingers very sore.
'I see this work won't do,' he said, 'try and
spin; perhaps you will do that better.'
So she sat down and tried to spin; but the
threads cut her tender fingers until the blood ran.
'See now,' said the fiddler, 'you are good for
nothing; you can do no work. What a bargain I have got! However, I'll try and
set up a trade in pots and pans, and you shall stand in the market and sell
them.'
'Alas!' she sighed, 'if any of my father's
court should pass by and see me standing in the market, how they will laugh at me!'
But her husband did not care about that, and
said she would have to work if she did not want to die of hunger.
At first the trade went well because many
people, seeing such a beautiful woman, went to buy her wares and paid their
money without even thinking of taking away the goods. They lived on this as
long as it lasted and then her husband bought a fresh lot of pots and pans, and
she sat herself down with it in the corner of the market.
However, soon a drunken soldier soon came by and
rode his horse against her stall and broke all her goods into a thousand
pieces.
She began to cry, and did not know what to do.
'Ah! what will become of me?' she said; 'what will my husband say?' So she ran
home and told him everything.
'Who would have thought you would have been so
silly,' he said, 'as to put an earthenware stall in the corner of the market,
where everybody passes? But let us have no more crying; I see you are not fit
for this sort of work, so I have been to the king's palace, and asked if they
did not want a kitchen-maid; and they say they will take you, and there you
will have plenty to eat.'
So the princess became a kitchen-maid and
helped the cook to do all the dirtiest work. She was allowed to carry home some
of the meat that was left over, and they lived on that.
She had not been there long before she heard
that the king's eldest son was passing by, on his way to get married. She went
to one of the windows and looked out. Everything was ready and all the pomp and
brightness of the court was there. Seeing it, she grieved bitterly for the
pride and folly that had brought her so low. The servants gave her some of the
rich meats and she put them into her basket to take home.
All of a sudden, as she was leaving, in came
the king's son in his golden clothes. When he saw such a beautiful woman at the
door, he took her by the hand and said she should be his partner in the dance.
She trembled with fear because she saw that it was King Grisly-beard, who was
making fun of her. However, he kept hold of her, and led her into the hall. As
she entered, the cover of the basket came off, and the meats in it fell out.
Everybody laughed and jeered at her and she was so ashamed that she wished she
were a thousand feet deep in the earth. She sprang over to the door so that she
could run away but on the steps King Grisly-beard overtook her, brought her
back and said:
'Fear me not! I am the fiddler who has lived
with you in the hut. I brought you there because I truly loved you. I am also
the soldier that overset your stall. I have done all this only to cure you of
your silly pride, and to show you the folly of your ill-treatment of me. Now it
is all over: you have learnt wisdom, and it is time to hold our marriage
feast.'
Then the chamberlains came and brought her the
most beautiful robes. Her father and his whole court were already there, and
they welcomed her home. Joy was in every face and every heart. The feast was
grand; they danced and sang; everyone was merry; and I only wish that you and I
had been there.
Task
After
reading the story above:
1. Make summary using 50-100 words
2. Make questions based on the story minimally 10
questions
