Section 1
Once, a monarch was engaged in a hunt in a vast woodland, and he pursued his quarry with such fervor that none of his companions could keep up with him.As the evening drew near, he came to a halt and surveyed his surroundings, only to realize that he had become disoriented and couldn't determine his location.He searched for an exit from the forest, but he was unable to locate one.Subsequently, he spotted an elderly woman with a nodding head who came towards him, and it turned out she was a witch.
"Can you show me the way through the woods, my dear woman?" he asked her.
"I can indeed, your majesty," she replied. "However, there is a condition. If you do not fulfill it, you will die of hunger here in the woods and never get out."
The king inquired, "What kind of condition is it?"
"I possess a daughter," the old woman stated, "who is as lovely as anyone you can discover in the whole world, and who deserves to become your wife.""If you will make her your queen, I will indicate the way out of the woods," she said.
The king was terrified and agreed to the witch's request, so she guided him to her cottage, where her daughter was seated next to the fireplace.The daughter welcomed the king as though she had been anticipating his arrival. Although he noticed that she was exceedingly beautiful, he did not take a liking to her and found himself unable to look at her without feeling a secret shiver.
Once he had helped the young woman onto his horse, the old woman directed him on the path, and the king eventually arrived back at his royal castle, where the wedding ceremony took place.
The king had been previously married and had seven children - six boys and a girl - with his first wife. He cherished them above everything else in the world.
Concerned that the stepmother might not treat his children well, and might even harm them, he brought them to a secluded castle that was situated in the heart of a forest.The castle was so well-concealed, and the path was so challenging to locate, that he would not have been able to find it himself if a wise woman had not provided him with a ball of enchanted yarn.Whenever he tossed it on the ground ahead of him, it would unravel and indicate the path.
Despite that, the king visited his beloved children so frequently that the queen became aware of his absences.The queen grew curious and wanted to know why he was spending so much time alone in the woods. She offered a significant sum of money to his servants, who then disclosed the secret to her.They also informed her about the enchanted ball of yarn that could guide the king through the woods.
She could not rest until she found out where the king kept the ball of yarn. Once she discovered it, she made small shirts out of white silk.Since she learned witchcraft from her mother, she stitched a magical charm into each one of the shirts.One day, while the king was away hunting, she took the small shirts and went into the woods. The ball of yarn revealed the way to her.
As they noticed someone approaching from a distance, the children assumed that their beloved father was coming towards them. They joyfully ran to meet him.Subsequently, she cast one of the shirts over each child, as soon as the shirts touched their bodies, the children turned into swans, and they flew over the woods and disappeared.
Content with the outcome, the queen returned home, convinced that she had successfully eliminated her stepchildren.The girl had not accompanied her brothers and the queen was unaware of her presence.
The following day, when the king came to see his children, he only found the girl there, as her brothers were nowhere to be found.
"Where are your brothers?" inquired the king, without changing the structure and speech.
"Oh, dear father," she answered, "they have gone away and left me alone."
"From my window, dear father, I saw how my brothers flew away over the woods as swans," she told him.She presented to him the feathers which were left in the courtyard after her brothers had flown away, and which she had collected.
The king grieved, but he did not suspect the queen of having committed this evil act.The king wished to take the girl away with him, but she was afraid of her stepmother and implored him to let her stay one more night in the castle in the woods before leaving.
The girl, feeling helpless, thought to herself, "I cannot stay here any longer. I must go and search for my brothers."
And when night came she ran away and went straight into the woods.She continued walking throughout the night without any break and even the next day until she became too exhausted to continue.
The girl discovered a hunter's hut and entered it. In one of the rooms, she found six little beds, but she was hesitant to lie down in any of them.Instead she crawled under one of them and lay down on the hard ground where she intended to spend the night.
