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The Gold-spinners (Estonian : Kullaketrajad; German: Die Goldspinnerinnen) [1] is an Estonian fairy tale collected by Dr. Friedrich Kreutzwald in Eestirahwa Ennemuistesed jutud. W. F. Kirby included it in The Hero of Esthonia, and Andrew Lang, under the title The Water-lily. The Gold Spinners, in The Blue Fairy Book .
In a hut hidden deep in a forest, three beautiful maidens spend each waking moment weaving gold flax into yarn. A cruel Witch watches over them, collecting every finished thread. She leaves them only for short journeys - always leaving a full slate of work along with the warning to keep their eyes on their work, and to speak to no man; otherwise the gold will lose its shine and great misfortunes will follow.
During one of the Witch's absences, a Prince is separated from his hunting party, and wandering in the forest, comes across the hut. The elder maidens hide from him, but the youngest seeks out his company. Days later, when the King's search party finds the hut, the Prince and maiden sit before it lost in conversation. The Prince promises to return for the maiden, who sits to work her neglected wheel. Sure enough, the bright thread is dull now, just as the woman had predicted. Terrified, she is convinced that misfortunes will now come. Soon enough, the woman comes and with one glance at the tarnished thread knows everything. The youngest maiden manages to send a message to her Prince through a raven. The Prince comes to her and carries her off.
The Witch is enraged and promptly casts a spell to stop them. She conjures a magic ball, which flies by the maiden as she is held by the mounted Prince crossing a bridge. Whirlwinds cast her from the Prince's arms and into the river. Though he tries to dive in after her, he is restrained by his men. A year later, visiting the spot, he sees a yellow water lily in the river and hears a voice sing a forlorn song about being bewitched and forsaken. He goes on through the forest to the hut and consults the gold-spinners, who insist that the flower must be their sister. He sleeps the night in the hut, having a magic cake for his dinner secretly prepared by the eldest sister. In the morning, as he rides off, he understands the language of the birds. In this way he learns that the Wizard of Finland can help him, and through the birds, contacts him. The wizard, in the form of an eagle, instructs him to stand on the river bank, smeared with mud, and say "From a man into a crab". Once he becomes a crab, he is to swim to the flower, cut its roots, and rise with the lily to the surface. Drifting with the current, he is to ascend a large stone, say "From a crab into a man, from a water-lily into a maiden" and so save the maiden.
He does all of these things and the maiden is restored, more beautiful than ever and dressed in magnificent robes and jewels. Now, although to the Prince only hours had passed in fulfilling his mission, actually ten days had gone by and the King and Queen were at church, weeping for their dead son. The Prince and maiden arrive and are married on the spot. In their happiness, the Prince forgets his promise to the Wizard, to free the two maidens. A crow berates them, how could they forget the sisters. Chagrined, the Prince rescues the pair. The eldest then makes up a poisoned cake to get rid of the Witch, who eats on her return and dies. The Prince and his bride and her sisters live quite happily, recovering fifty wagonloads of the gold thread that had been hidden away by the Witch.
American folklorist D. L. Ashliman classified the tale in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 407, "The Girl as a Flower". [2]
"The Frog Prince; or, Iron Henry" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimm's Fairy Tales. Traditionally, it is the first story in their folktale collection. The tale is classified as Aarne-Thompson type 440.
"The Golden Goose" is a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm.
The Frog Princess is a fairy tale that has multiple versions with various origins. It is classified as type 402, the animal bride, in the Aarne–Thompson index. Another tale of this type is the Norwegian Doll i' the Grass. Eastern European variants include the Frog Princess or Tsarevna Frog and also Vasilisa the Wise ; Alexander Afanasyev collected variants in his Narodnye russkie skazki, a collection which included folk tales from Ukraine and Belarus alongside Russian tales.
"Jorinde and Joringel" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. It is Aarne–Thompson 405. The tale is found virtually exclusively in Germany, barring a Swedish variant, although Marie Campbell found a variant in Kentucky, "The Flower of Dew". The story is known in many English translations as "Jorinda and Jorindel".
The Three Heads in the Well is a fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales.
"The Three Little Men in the Wood" or "The Three Little Gnomes in the Forest" is a German fairy tale collected in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book (1890) as "The Three Dwarfs," and a version of the tale appears in A Book of Dwarfs (1964) by Ruth Manning-Sanders.
"The Nine Peahens and the Golden Apple" is a work of Serbian epic poetry. It is classified as Aarne-Thompson type 400*, "The Swan Maiden", and as Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index (ATU) type 400, "The Quest for the Lost Wife".
"The Hut in the Forest" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book (1897). It is Aarne-Thompson type 431.
The Daughter of Buk Ettemsuch is a fairy tale from northern Africa, collected by Hans Stumme in Märchen und Gedichte aus der Stadt Tripolis. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book (1900).
The Grateful Prince is an Estonian fairy tale. The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 313, "The Magic Flight".
King Kojata or The Unlooked for Prince or Prince Unexpected is a Slavonic fairy tale, of Polish origin. Louis Léger remarked that its source was "one of the most important collections of Polish literature".
"The Riddle" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1819. It is of Aarne-Thompson type 851.
"The Twelve Brothers" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book.
Biancabella and the Snake is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola.
Little Catskin is an American fairy tale from Kentucky, collected by Marie Campbell in Tales from the Cloud Walking Country, listing her informant as Big Nelt.
Little Wildrose is a Romanian fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Crimson Fairy Book.
"Persinette" is a French literary fairy tale, written by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force, published in the 1698 book Les Contes des Contes. It is Aarne–Thompson type 310, The Maiden in the Tower, and a significant influence on the German fairy tale of "Rapunzel".
The Children with the Golden Locks is a Georgian folktale. It is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".
"Mielikki and Her Nine Sons" is a Finnish fairy tale published in the compilation Tales from a Finnish Tupa. It is related to the theme of the calumniated wife and is classified in the international Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index as ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children", in a version of the story that occurs in Northern Europe and Northwest Russia, namely, in Finland, Estonia, and among Finno-Ugric languages spoken in Russia.
The Anar Pari, or Pomegranate Fairy is an Indian folktale collected by Alice Elizabeth Dracott from Simla. The tale is a local form of tale type ATU 408, "The Love for Three Oranges", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index. As with The Three Oranges, the tale deals with a prince's search for a bride that lives in a fruit, who is replaced by a false bride and goes through a cycle of incarnations, until she regains physical form again. Variants are known across India with other species of fruits.
