König Drosselbart

King Thrushbeard

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A king's daughter is beautiful but so proud that no suitor is good enough for her, and she mocks them all. At a great feast the suitors stand in a row by rank and she finds fault with every one; she laughs most at a good king whose chin is a little crooked, saying it is like a thrush's beak, and he is called King Thrushbeard from then on. Her angry father swears she will marry the first beggar who comes to his door. A few days later a ragged minstrel sings under the window; the king has him brought up, gives him his daughter, has the priest marry them at once and sends her away with him. On foot they pass a forest, a meadow and a great city, and each time she learns it belongs to King Thrushbeard and sighs that she should have taken him. They come to a tiny house with no servants: she cannot make a fire or cook; the willows for baskets hurt her hands; the thread cuts her fingers at the spinning wheel. He sets her to sell pots at the market; the first time it goes well, the second a drunken hussar rides into her pots and smashes them all. Her husband gets her a place as kitchen maid in the king's castle. She carries leftovers home in little pots in her pockets. At the eldest prince's wedding she watches from the hall door, regrets her pride, and is thrown scraps. The prince, in velvet and gold chains, takes her hand to dance: it is King Thrushbeard. The string of her pockets tears, the pots fall and the soup runs, everyone laughs, and she runs out. On the stairs he catches her and tells her kindly that he was the minstrel and the hussar, to bend her proud heart. She weeps that she was wrong and is not worthy of him; he comforts her, the ladies dress her finely, her father and the whole court come, and they celebrate the wedding.

Retold from Kinder- und Haus-Märchen, Band 1, 7. Auflage (Ausgabe letzter Hand, 1857), KHM 52 by Brüder Grimm (public domain).