The Queen Bee

by The Brothers Grimm

　　

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Two kings' sons once went out in search of adventures, and fell into awild, disorderly way of living, so that they never came home again. Theyoungest, who was called Simpleton, set out to seek his brothers, butwhen at length he found them they mocked him for thinking that he withhis simplicity could get through the world, when they two could not maketheir way, and yet were so much cleverer. They all three travelled awaytogether, and came to an ant-hill. The two elder wanted to destroy it,to see the little ants creeping about in their terror, and carrying theireggs away, but Simpleton said, "Leave the creatures in peace; I will notallow you to disturb them." Then they went onwards and came to a lake,on which a great number of ducks were swimming. The two brothers wantedto catch a couple and roast them, but Simpleton would not permit it,and said, "Leave the creatures in peace, I will not suffer you to killthem." At length they came to a bee's nest, in which there was so muchhoney that it ran out of the trunk of the tree where it was. The twowanted to make a fire beneath the tree, and suffocate the bees in orderto take away the honey, but Simpleton again stopped them and said, "Leavethe creatures in peace, I will not allow you to burn them." At lengththe three brothers arrived at a castle where stone horses were standingin the stables, and no human being was to be seen, and they went throughall the halls until, quite at the end, they came to a door in which werethree locks. In the middle of the door, however, there was a little pane,through which they could see into the room. There they saw a little greyman, who was sitting at a table. They called him, once, twice, but hedid not hear; at last they called him for the third time, when he got up,opened the locks, and came out. He said nothing, however, but conductedthem to a handsomely-spread table, and when they had eaten and drunk,he took each of them to a bedroom. Next morning the little grey man cameto the eldest, beckoned to him, and conducted him to a stone table, onwhich were inscribed three tasks, by the performance of which the castlecould be delivered. The first was that in the forest, beneath the moss,lay the princess's pearls, a thousand in number, which must be pickedup, and if by sunset one single pearl was wanting, he who had looked forthem would be turned into stone. The eldest went thither, and sought thewhole day, but when it came to an end, he had only found one hundred,and what was written on the table came to pass, and he was changed intostone. Next day, the second brother undertook the adventure; it did not,however, fare much better with him than with the eldest; he did not findmore than two hundred pearls, and was changed to stone. At last theturn came to Simpleton also, who sought in the moss. It was, however,so hard to find the pearls, and he got on so slowly, that he seatedhimself on a stone, and wept. And while he was thus sitting, the Kingof the ants whose life he had once saved, came with five thousand ants,and before long the little creatures had got all the pearls together, andlaid them in a heap. The second task, however, was to fetch out of thelake the key of the King's daughter's bed-chamber. When Simpleton cameto the lake, the ducks which he had saved, swam up to him, dived down,and brought the key out of the water. But the third task was the mostdifficult; from amongst the three sleeping daughters of the King was theyoungest and dearest to be sought out. They, however, resembled eachother exactly, and were only to be distinguished by their having eatendifferent sweetmeats before they fell asleep; the eldest a bit of sugar;the second a little syrup; and the youngest a spoonful of honey. Thenthe Queen of the bees, which Simpleton had protected from the fire,came and tasted the lips of all three, and at last she remained sittingon the mouth which had eaten honey, and thus the King's son recognizedthe right princess. Then the enchantment was at an end; everything wasreleased from sleep, and those who had been turned to stone received oncemore their natural forms. Simpleton married the youngest and sweetestprincess, and after her father's death became King, and his two brothersreceived the two other sisters.

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