Adapted from an old tale
Once upon a time, on the edge of a forest, there lived a man and his wife and two daughters. One of the girls was the man’s daughter, and she was loving and beautiful. The other girl was the woman’s daughter, and although she was sweet to look at, her heart was cold and hard. Her mother loved her fiercely, and didn’t see that her heart was not kind, but thought she was the most wonderful daughter in the world.
One day the man’s daughter went with him to the forest to chop wood. As they worked, he chopping and she gathering and stacking the wood, it began to rain. When they became too cold and wet to work any longer, they scampered home, arriving before they realized the axe had been left behind. The man knew the rain and mud would ruin the axe, so he asked his wife’s daughter to go into the forest to fetch it, saying, “My daughter and I have worked all day chopping wood, and we are tired, cold, and wet. As you have been home quietly sewing by the fire instead of working in the rain, would you fetch my axe for me?”
The woman’s daughter responded rudely, “You expect me to go into the cold rain to get your axe? A little rain won’t hurt your daughter, because she’s already wet. Why should I get wet too? I might catch a cold! Besides, she’s stronger than I am, and the extra work will do her good!”
The man knew there was no use in arguing, so he asked his daughter to return to the woods to fetch the axe. By then it was dark, and it was hard to see her way. The mud sucked at her shoes and made her uncomfortable, but she was happy to help her father. She sang to herself as she walked, to keep herself company so she wasn’t scared of the nighttime sounds and the branches that caught at her when she strayed from the path. She finally arrived at the clearing in the woods and found the axe, but to her surprise, there were three doves sitting on the handle, looking sad and bedraggled in the rain.
“Poor little doves, why do you sit here in the rain?” said the girl, as she petted them gently. “Before you fly home to your cozy nests, have a little bite of bread saved from my supper. Then I must take this axe you are sitting on, and quickly return home so my father’s wife doesn’t scold me,” and she crumbled her bread for the birds to eat. The birds happily ate the bread, chirping and singing their thanks to the girl.
“Goodbye, my friends,” she called as she picked up the axe and started for home.
The birds chattered among themselves, saying, “What a kind and sweet girl! I feel so much better after eating that bread. Why, I don’t think I could have even lifted my wing to fly if she had not come along!” The birds decided to make her a special gift. When she arrived home, she was wearing it - a beautiful wreath of flowers that would never fade, with a cluster of tiny singing birds inside it.
When the girl stepped into the cottage, her father saw how radiant and beautiful she looked, in spite of her muddy, wet clothing and bedraggled hair. But his wife and her daughter cried, “Where did you get that wreath? How stupid of you to wear such a precious thing in the rain!” And the wife grabbed it, to place it on the head of her own daughter. As she did, the flowers faded and crumbled, and the birds flew away. “It’s all your fault,” said the woman. “Now go to bed, it’s late!”
The girl sadly reached for her faded wreath. As she touched it, it came back to life and the birds returned joyfully. She quickly carried it to her room, and went to bed.
The next day, the father again went to the forest to chop wood, and again came home without his axe. This time, when he asked his own daughter to go get it, the wife interrupted, saying, “No, this time my daughter will go.” And the girl angrily walked off into the woods to find the axe. She became more and more angry as she walked, talking to herself about the unfairness of the task before her, and telling herself that she deserved the beautiful wreath the other girl had received the day before. When she arrived at the clearing to find the axe, she saw three wet, sad doves sitting on the handle.
“Get off of there, you nasty creatures, or I will throw stones at you!” she shouted. “I am taking this axe away, get out of my sight!” And she grabbed the axe and set off for home. Frightened and hungry, the birds flew up into the tree and angrily discussed how to punish the girl for her cruelty.
“We’ve never been treated so harshly,” said one bird. “We must find a way to revenge ourselves.”
“Let us make it so she can say nothing except ‘nasty creatures’ for the rest of her life!” suggested another bird.
“Perfect,” said the third dove, “So it shall be.”
The hardhearted girl made her way home through the darkness, eagerly imagining that a beautiful flowered wreath waited for her there. Her irritation at the birds grew as she stumbled off the path and lost her shoe in the mud, and she was in a high temper when she arrived at the cottage. Her mother flung open the door, asking, “Did you get your wreath?”
“Nasty creatures!” said the daughter.
“What? Don’t speak to me like that!” answered the mother.
“Nasty creatures!” said the daughter, no matter how she tried to tell her mother what had happened. For that is all she could say.
The mother realized a spell had been put on her daughter, and she ran to her husband’s child and cried, “This is your fault! What have you done to my daughter?” And she made the poor girl go to bed without any supper.
Things went from bad to worse, as the woman and her daughter scorned the kind-hearted girl and teased her whenever the father wasn’t looking. They made her do all the unpleasant work, treating her as a servant in her own home. It made them especially angry to see the beautiful flowered wreath upon her head, and to hear the tiny birds singing.
After many weeks, the king’s son was riding through the forest when he heard beautiful singing, a sweet bird song he had never heard before. He stopped to listen, and looked around. He was surprised to see a lovely young woman chopping wood, wearing an unusual flowered wreath upon her head. The wreath seemed to be singing. After watching her and listening for a few moments, he approached her.
“Fair maiden, who are you, and what are you doing here? How do you come to have such an amazing wreath of flowers and birds upon your head?”
“I live in a cottage by the forest, with my father and his wife, and her daughter. I am a simple girl, and often help my father chop wood.” She spoke politely, and was a little bit shy, because she had never even seen a prince before. “The wreath appeared one day after I fed some doves who were starving and cold. I believe it was their gift of thanks, but I do not know for sure.”
The prince was charmed by her polite way of speaking. He could see she had a kind and loving heart. She recognized him as a kind and gentle man, too. He fell in love with her, and she with him. He asked her to be his bride, and she agreed.
The king was a little disappointed, because he had hoped his son would marry a princess. But even more, he had hoped his son would marry a woman with a good heart, so he gave them his blessing and they were wed.
The girl’s father was overjoyed at her good fortune, although he was sorry that she no longer lived under his own roof. His wife and her daughter, however, were jealous and angry, and could not believe what had happened. They determined to take revenge.
They set out to visit an old witch in a neighboring town, and asked her to make a mask of the new princess’s face. Using her magic powers, the witch did so. The mask was so lifelike that nearly no one could have told the difference between the mask and the girl. Still, to be sure, the witch told the hardhearted daughter that when she wore the mask, she should wear a scarf and pretend to have a toothache, in order to be left alone to preserve her secret.
And so it happened. When the princess invited her old family to visit, her hard-hearted stepsister brought the mask along in her coat pocket. While the princess was standing on a rock by the sea, showing them the beautiful scenery around the palace, the stepmother pushed her off into the water, and she immediately sank in the waves. The woman quickly tied the mask onto her own daughter, and wrapped the princess’s scarf around her daughter’s neck, saying, “We must return to the palace. When you see the prince, rest your cheek on your hand and act as if you are in pain. But above all, do not speak to him! Now, I will return to the witch to ask her to take the spell off so you can once again speak normally.”
When the prince returned to the palace, he found his wife in great pain, holding her cheek in her hand. “My dearest wife,” he said, “Whatever is wrong? You must be in terrible pain. Tell me!”
But the girl only muttered under her breath, pointing at her cheek and shaking her head.
“Let me fetch the court physicians. Surely they can help you with their balms and cures. I cannot bear to see you in such pain!” And the prince leapt to his feet and turned toward the door.
In a panic, knowing the physicians would discover the mask, the girl cried out, “Nasty creatures!” forgetting the spell that prevented her from saying anything else.
“What do you mean?” gasped the prince, shocked at the way his usually sweet wife had spoken. “You must truly be feeling terrible. Lie down and rest, and perhaps later you will feel better.”
Late that night, the prince was standing on the balcony gazing out to sea, enjoying the moonlight dancing on the waves. As he watched, a form rose from the water, wearing a wreath upon her head. The woman, for so it appeared to be, stood upon the sand and stretched her arms toward the palace.
“How strange,” thought the prince. “She looks like my wife, who is sleeping in the other room.” And he ran out of the palace and onto the beach, but there was no one there. “I must have imagined it,” he thought to himself, as he stared curiously at the waves tossing and shining in the moonlight.
The next day, the princess appeared to be no better. She held her face in her hand and moaned, but would not speak. The prince decided to send the doctors to her without her permission, for he loved his wife too much to allow her to suffer any longer. When they arrived to help the princess, however, she screamed at them over and over, “Nasty creatures! Nasty creatures!” and they were so shocked they left without examining her.
The prince was confused and upset. “I must have misjudged my wife,” he thought. “Perhaps I was wrong in marrying a simple girl from the forest. I thought she had a tender heart, but she must have only been pretending so she should marry a prince. I should have married the princess my father had already chosen for me.”
His heart was heavy, and the next night he couldn’t sleep. He stood on his balcony, sadly gazing out to sea. He noticed that the waves moved wildly although there was no wind, when again he saw a figure like his wife, standing on the sand and stretching her arms out toward the palace. Again he ran down to the beach, only to find it empty.
The next day the prince had to attend a royal function in another city, and rode away without seeing how his wife was feeling. “Perhaps she will be well when I see her again,” he thought, “and will once again be the sweet tempered, kind hearted girl I married.”
When he returned at midnight, instead of going into the palace, he went to take a stroll on the beach. As he gazed out at the moonlight dancing on the waves, which tonight were raging nearly as if in a storm although the night was perfectly clear, he saw a familiar figure rise from the water and walk up onto the sand. Quickly, he grabbed her, crying, “You ARE my wife! My own dear wife! I will never let you go!” But as he held her, she turned into a crow that he was holding by the wing. He held fast, and the crow became a rabbit. He held fast, and the rabbit became a fish, and then a snake. He drew his sword and chopped off its head, and suddenly, before him, stood his own true wife, with the flowered wreath on her head, full of tiny birds singing for joy.
In the morning, the false princess’s mother arrived with a potion from the witch, to put on her daughter’s tongue to remove the spell. The potion would only work if the true princess was gone forever, drowned in the sea. If she was still alive, the potion would do nothing. Eagerly, the mother roused her daughter from sleep, and placed the potion on her tongue. The girl shouted, “Nasty creatures!”
At that very moment, the prince and his true bride entered the room.
“You both deserve terrible punishment,” he said to the wicked woman and her cold-hearted daughter. “But I think you have been punished enough by your own actions. Now, be gone from here and never be seen in this kingdom again.”
The two troublemakers left the room and were never seen again. And the wise prince and his gentle princess ruled the kingdom with loving kindness, and lived happily ever after.
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