The Three Heads of the Well
Long before Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, there reigned in the eastern part of England a king. In the midst of all his glory, his queen died, leaving behind her an only daughter, about fifteen years of age. She was famous for her beauty and kindness. But the king heard of a lady who had likewise an only daughter, and he wanted to marry her for the sake of her riches, though she was old, ugly, hook-nosed, and humpbacked. Her daughter was a yellow dowdy, full of envy and ill-nature; and, in short, was much of the same mould as her mother. But in a few weeks, the king brought his deformed bride to the palace, where the marriage was performed. They set the king against his own beautiful daughter by false reports. The young princess lost her father’s love. One day, meeting with her father in the garden, she begged him, with tears in her eyes, to let her go and seek her fortune. The king consented and ordered her mother-in-law to give her what she pleased. She went to the queen, who gave her a canvas bag of brown bread and hard cheese, with a bottle of beer. She took it with thanks and proceeded on her journey, passing through groves, woods, and valleys, till at length, she saw an old man sitting on a stone at the mouth of a cave. That man said, “Good afternoon, fair girl, where are you going so fast?”
“Dear father,” says she, “I am going to seek my fortune.”
“What have you got in your bag and bottle?”
“In my bag I have got bread and cheese, and in my bottle good small beer. Would you like to have some?”
“Yes,” said he, “with all my heart.”
With that the lady pulled out her provisions and offered him food. He did so and gave her many thanks and said, “There is a thick thorny hedge before you, which you cannot get through, but take this wand in your hand, strike it three times and say, ‘Pray, hedge, let me come through,’ and it will open immediately. Then, a little further, you will find a well; sit down on the brink of it, and there will come up three golden heads which will speak; and whatever they require, that do.”
The girl promised that she would, and she took her leave of him. She came to the hedge and used the old man’s wand, and it divided, and let her through. Then she came to the well. She sat down, and a golden head came up singing:
“Wash me, and comb me,
And lay me down softly.
And lay me on a bank to dry,
That I may look pretty,
When somebody passes by.”
“Yes,” said she, and she took it in her lap and combed it with a silver comb and then placed it upon a rose bank. Then the second and the third heads came, saying the same words. So the girl did the same for them, and then she sat down to eat her dinner.
Then said the heads one to another, “What shall we do for this girl who has used us so kindly?”
The first head said, “I will make her to be so beautiful that she could charm the most powerful prince in the world.”
The second head said, “I will give her a sweet voice. Even the nightingale would envy her.”
The third head said, “I will make her so fortunate that she could become queen to the greatest prince that reigns.”
She then let them down into the well again and so went on her journey. She had not travelled long before she saw a king hunting in the park with his nobles. The king caught a sight of her, approached, and he liked her beauty and sweet voice very much. So he fell desperately in love with her and soon induced her to marry him.
This king found that she was the king’s daughter and ordered some chariots to be got ready. He wanted to pay the king, his father-in-law, a visit. The chariot in which the king and queen rode was adorned with rich gems of gold. The king, her father, was at first astonished that his daughter had been so fortunate till the young king let him know of all that had happened. Great was the joy at Court among all, with the exception of the queen and her ugly daughter, who were ready to burst with envy. The rejoicings, with feasting and dancing, continued many days. Then they returned home with the dowry that her father gave her.
The hump-backed princess, perceiving that her sister had been so lucky in seeking her fortune, wanted to do the same. So she told her mother, and all preparations were made, and she was furnished with rich dresses with sugar, almonds, and sweets in great quantities, and a large bottle of wine. With these she went the same road as her sister, and near the cave, the old man said, “Young woman, where are you going so fast?”
“What’s that to you?” said she.
“Then,” said he, “what have you in your bag and bottle?”
She answered, “Good things, which you shall not be troubled with.”
“Won’t you give me some?” said he.
“No, not a bit, nor a drop.”
The old man frowned, saying, “Evil fortune attend you!”
Going on, she came to the hedge, through which she espied a gap and thought to pass through it; but the hedge closed, and the thorns ran into her flesh, so that it was with great difficulty that she got through. Being now all over blood, she searched for water to wash herself, and, looking round, she saw the well. She sat down on the brink of it, and one of the heads came up, saying, “Wash me, comb me, and lay me down softly,” as before, but she banged it with her bottle, saying, “Take that for your washing.” So the second and third heads came up and met with no better treatment than the first. The heads consulted among themselves what evils to plague her with for such usage.
The first said, “Let her be struck with leprosy in her face.”
The second, “Let her voice be as harsh as a corncrake’s.”
The third said, “Let her have for husband but a poor country cobbler.”
Well, she went on till she came to a town. It was a market-day, the people looked at her, and, seeing such an ugly face and hearing such an unpleasant voice, all ran away but a poor country cobbler. Now he not long before had mended the shoes of an old hermit who, having no money, gave him a box of ointment for the cure of the leprosy and a bottle of spirits for a harsh voice. So the cobbler, having a mind to do an act of charity, was induced to go up to her and ask her who she was.
“I am,” said she, “the King’s daughter.”
“Well,” said the cobbler, “if I restore you to your natural complexion and make a cure both in face and voice, will you in reward take me for a husband?”
“Yes, friend,” replied she, “with all my heart!”
With this the cobbler applied the remedies, and they made her well in a few weeks; after which they were married and so set forward for the Court. When the queen found that her daughter had married nothing but a poor cobbler, she hanged herself in wrath. The death of the queen so pleased the king, who was glad to get rid of her so soon, that he gave the cobbler a hundred pounds to quit the Court with his lady and take to a remote part of the kingdom, where he lived many years mending shoes, his wife spinning the thread for him.
The Three Wishes
Once upon a time a woodcutter lived happily with his wife in a pretty little log cabin in the middle of a thick forest. Each morning he set off singing to work, and when he came home in the evening, a plate of hot steaming soup was always waiting for him. One day he had a strange surprise. He came upon a big fir tree with strange open holes on the trunk. It looked somehow different from the other trees, and as he was about to chop it down, the alarmed face of an elf popped out of a hole. ‘What’s all this banging?’ asked the elf. ‘You’re not thinking of cutting down the tree, are you? It’s my home. I live here!’ The woodcutter dropped his axe in astonishment. ‘Well, I…’ he stammered. ‘With all the other trees there are in this forest, you have to pick this one. Lucky I was in, or I would have found myself homeless.’ Taken aback at these words, the woodcutter quickly recovered, for after all the elf was quite tiny, while he himself was a big hefty chap, and he boldly replied, ‘I’ll cut down any tree I like, so…’ ‘All right! All right!’ broke in the elf. ‘Shall we put it in this way: if you don’t cut down this tree, I grant you three wishes. Agreed?’ The woodcutter scratched his head. ‘Three wishes, you say? Yes, I agree.’ And he began to hack at another tree. As he worked and sweated at his task, the woodcutter kept thinking about the magic wishes. ‘I’ll see what my wife thinks…’ The woodcutter’s wife was busily cleaning a pot outside the house when her husband arrived. Grabbing her round the waist, he twirled her in delight. ‘Hooray! Hooray! Our luck is in!’ The woman could not understand why her husband was so pleased with himself and she strugged herself free. Later, however, over a glass of fine wine at the table, the woodcutter told his wife of his meeting with the elf, and she too began to picture the wonderful things that the elf’s three wishes might give them. The woodcutter’s wife took a first sip of wine from her husband’s glass. ‘Nice’, she said, smacking her lips. ‘I wish I had a string of sausages to go with it, though…’ Instantly she bit her tongue, but too late. Out of the air appeared the sausages, while the woodcutter stuttered with rage. ‘… what have you done! Sausages… What a stupid waste of a wish! You foolish woman. I wish they would stick up your nose!’ No sooner said than done. For the sausages leapt up and stuck fast to the end of the woman’s nose. This time, the woodcutter’s wife flew into a rage. ‘You idiot, what have you done? With all the things we could have wished for…’ The mortified woodcutter, who had just repeated his wife’s own mistake, exclaimed: ‘I’d chop…’ Luckily he stopped himself in time, realizing with horror that he’d been on the point of having his tongue chopped off. As his wife complained and blamed him, the poor man burst out laughing, ‘If only you knew how funny you look with those sausages on the end of your nose!’ Now that really upset the woodcutter’s wife. She hadn’t thought of her looks. She tried to tug away the sausages but they would not budge. She pulled again and again, but in vain. The sausages were firmly attached to her nose. Terrified, she exclaimed, ‘They’ll be there for the rest of my life!’ Feeling sorry for his wife and wondering how he could ever put up with a woman with such an awkward nose, the woodcutter said, ‘I’ll try.’ Grasping the string of sausages, he tugged with all his might. But he simply pulled his wife over on top of him. The pair sat on the floor, gazing sadly at each other. ‘What shall we do now?’ they said, each thinking the same thought. ‘There’s only one thing we can do…’ ventured the woodcutter’s wife timidly. ‘Yes, I’m afraid so…’ her husband sighed, remembering their dreams of riches, and he bravely wished the third and last wish, ‘I wish the sausages would leave my wife’s nose.’ And they did. Instantly, husband and wife hugged each other tearfully, saying, ‘Maybe we’ll be poor, but we’ll be happy again!’ That evening, the only reminder of the woodcutter’s meeting with the elf was the string of sausages. So the couple fried them, gloomily thinking of what that meal had cost them.
