Crimson Fairy Book

Chapter 16 Paperarlo

Once upon a time there was a king and his wife who had a son.The king loved the child very much, but the queen was a wicked woman, and she hated to see the child.What is even more unfortunate is that the child's father died when he was 12 years old, leaving him alone in the world.

The people knew that the queen was bad, so they put her son on the throne instead of her, and the queen became the queen mother.This made her very angry, and she calmed down only after she formulated a plan to get rid of the prince.Fortunately, the young prince was clever and quick-witted, and he knew the Queen Mother very well, and did not trust her at all.

One day the king, after mourning for his father, ordered all preparations for the hunt to be made.The king was going out again to seek pleasure, and the queen pretended to be very happy, and said she would go with him. "No, mother, I cannot let you go," he replied, "the road is rough, and your body is not strong." But his mother did not listen to him, and when the horn sounded at dawn, the Queen Mother was already with the others up.

They rode all day because of the abundance of game, and at night the mother and son found them both in a strange place.They walked about for a while, not knowing where they were going, when they met a man, and they asked him if they could take the night. "Come with me," said the man cheerfully.It turned out that he was a troll who only ate human flesh.The king and his mother followed, and he led them to his own dwelling.Then they found themselves in a dreadful place, and they knelt down and begged the man, saying that they would give him a great deal of money if he would spare their lives.Seeing that the Queen Mother is very beautiful, the ogre is tempted, and he promises not to hurt her.But he immediately stabbed the king to death, and the body was bound to a horse, and thrown away in the forest.

The troll happened to choose a horse which he had just bought the day before, and he didn't know that it had been made by a magician, or he wouldn't have been so stupid to pick it at this juncture.The horse ran straight to the fairies' house with the king's body on their backs, and knocked on the door with its hooves.The fairies were afraid to open the door when they heard the knocking, but they looked through the windows and found that there were no monsters or trolls to hurt them. "Oh, look, sisters," cried the Fairy, who was the first to come to the window, "it is the horse knocking at the door, and on its back is tied a dead child, the most handsome boy in the world!"

The Fairies came running and opened the door, and let the horses in, and untied the young King.Then they gathered together to admire his beauty and whispered to each other, "We're going to bring him back to life and make him our brother." They did so and lived with him like brother and sister for many years.

Gradually the child grew up like all boys, and the oldest Fairy said to her sisters, "Now I will marry him, and he will be your brother truly." So the young King married the Fairy, they live a happy life together in the castle.Although he loves his wife, he still longs to see the world.

At last this desire grew so strong that he could bear it no longer, and calling the Fairies together, he said to them: "Dear wives and sisters, I must leave you for a while, and go and see the world. I will think of you often, and one day I will return to you."

The fairies cried and begged him to stay, but he would not listen, and at last the oldest fairy, his wife, said, "If you are going to leave us, take a lock of my hair with you - it will be useful in an emergency Yes." So she cut off a long lock of hair and gave it to him.

The king mounted his horse and drove on all day without stopping.At night I found myself in a deserted place with no houses and no people. "What shall I do now?" he thought, "If I sleep here, the beast will eat me! But I and my horse are too tired to go any further!" present, and took out the lock of hair, and said to it, "I want here to have a castle, and servants, and supper, and everything to make me comfortable. Besides, the horses should have stables and feed After a while, he got his wish, and the castle appeared in front of him.

In this way he traveled through many countries, and at last came to the land where a great king ruled.He tied his horse outside the city walls, disguised himself as a poor man, and went to the palace.The queen saw him coming in at the window, and took pity on her, and sent a servant to ask him who he was, and what he wanted. "I am a stranger," answered the young king, "I am poor, and I have come here to find work." "We are full," said the queen, when the servant told the young man's words, " We have a janitor, and porters in the hall, and various servants in the palace. We only want a goose herder. Tell him he can be my goose herder if he wants to." answered the young man Said he would--and thus he got the nickname Paperarlo.In order that no one should guess that he was better off than the goose herder, he covered his face and rags with mud, and made himself a nuisance, and everyone who saw him kept away.

Because he did a good job, the queen was very interested in him.

"Paperarlo, go and wash!" sometimes said the Queen.

"Oh, Queen, I'll be sick when I'm washed," he answered, and whistling the geese away.

One day, the mill in the city broke down, and there was no bread to eat, and the king's army had to go hungry.When the king heard this, he sent for the cook, and ordered him to heat the oven seven times, and bake seven ovens of bread, before the next morning. "Your Majesty, that's impossible." cried the poor cook in despair, "the mill has only just begun to grind flour, and the flour can't be ground until night. How can I heat the stove seven times in one night?" "That's Your business," answered the King, and if he had something in his mind, he would not listen to anything else. "If you can bake bread, you can marry my daughter, but if you can't bake it, you will lose your head."

At this moment Paperarlo, who was passing through the hall where the king gave his orders, heard these words, and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will bake you bread."

"Very well," replied the king, "and if you can't do it, you'll lose your head!" and motioned for both to back off.

The cook still shuddered at the thought, and to his surprise Paperarlo didn't seem at all worried, and when night fell he fell asleep as usual. "Paperallo," cried the other servants, seeing him undressing peacefully to sleep, "you cannot go to bed, you have to work every hour of the night. Remember, don't joke with the king!"

"I really have to go to bed first," Paperarlo replied, stretching, yawning, and quickly falling asleep in bed.An hour later a servant came and shook him by the shoulders. "Paperallo, are you crazy?"

"Get up, or you'll lose your head," they said. "Oh, just let me sleep a little longer," he answered, and that was all he said, though the servants came back in the night to wake him several times.

At last dawn came, and the servants rushed into his bedroom, crying: "Paperarlo!

Paperarlo!Wake up, the king is coming!You haven't baked bread yet, he's going to chop your head off! "

"Oh, don't shout like that," Paperarlo replied, jumping up from the bed.He took a lock of hair in his hand and went into the kitchen.look!There were stacks of bread stacked high in the kitchen—four ovens, five ovens, a full six, and the seventh oven was waiting to come out of the oven.The servants stood there stunned, and the king said:
"Well done, Paperarlo, you have won my daughter," he said to himself: "The lad is a magician."

The princess wept bitterly when she heard the fate that was assigned to her, and said that she would never marry the filthy Paperarlo.Of course, the king paid no attention to her tears and pleas, and a great banquet was held a few days later, and the groom did not wash himself, and was as dirty as usual.

At night, he slept among the geese as usual.The princess went to the king and said: "Father, I beg you to put that disgusting Paperarlo to death."

"No, no!" answered her father, "he is a great magician, and before I can execute him, I must first discover his mysterious powers, and then—we shall see."

Presently a war broke out, and every man in the court was busy polishing his armor and sharpening his swords, for the King and his son were to ride ahead of the procession and lead the men.Paperarlo left his geese, and came to tell the king that he, too, wished to fight.The king agreed, and told him to go to the stables and choose the horse he liked.So Paperarlo inspected the horses carefully, and he did not choose horses with shiny satin skins and rich decorations, but a lame horse, and rode after the king's armed army. later.After a while he stopped and said to them: "My horse can't go any further. You go to fight and leave me alone. I'll stay here and play a game of fighting with some little clay warriors." The soldiers laughed He was so boyish, and rode away after the king.

As soon as they were out of sight, Paperarlo took out his hair, and begged for himself the best armor, the sharpest sword, and the fastest horse.Then he rode swiftly to the battlefield.The battle had just begun, and the enemy was gaining the upper hand when Paperarlo arrived on horseback. Not long after he rushed up, the battle situation of the day changed.He counts one as ten, and the enemy thinks he is the number one warrior in the army, no one can match him, and they run away in front of him.When the battle was over, the king sent for him, thanked him for his timely help, and asked him what reward he hoped for. "I want nothing but your little finger, Your Majesty," he replied.The king cut off his little finger and gave it to Paperarlo.He bowed and put his little finger in his coat pocket.Then he left the field, and when the soldiers rode back, they found the goose herder still sitting on the road making rows of little clay figurines.

The next day the king went out to fight again, and Paperarlo reappeared on his lame horse.As on the previous day, he halted on the high road, and sat down to squeeze his clay soldiers; then he asked himself again his armor, sword, and horse, sharper and more perfect than the last.He caught up quickly, and came just in time: the enemy was almost at the rear of the king's army.The warriors said that if the strange knight did not come to his aid, they would all die.Suddenly someone shouted: "Hold on a little longer, I see him in the distance, his armor is brighter, and his horse is faster than yesterday." So they plucked up their courage and fought desperately until the knight threw himself into a fierce battle.As before, the enemy fled before him, and in a few minutes the king was victorious.The first thing the king did afterward was to send for the knight, to thank him for his prompt assistance, and to ask him what present he should give him in return for his gratitude. "His Majesty's ear," replied the knight.The king could not take back his promise, so he cut off the ear and gave it to him.Paperarlo bowed, put his ear in his coat pocket, and rode away.In the evening when they all came back from the battle he still sat on the road as his clay figure.

The same thing happened on the third day, this time he asked for the king's nose in return for his favor.

Losing his nose was worse than losing his ears and fingers, so the king hesitated to cut his nose.However, he was always proud of being a noble man, so he cut off his nose and gave it to Paperarlo.Paperarlo bowed, put his nose in his coat pocket, and rode away.In the evening when the king came back from the battle, he found Paperarlo sitting on the road making clay toys. Paperarlo got up and said to him, "Do you know who I am? I am your dirty goose herder, Yet you gave me your little finger, your ear, and your nose."

When the king was eating that night, Paperarlo came in, put his ears, nose, and fingers on the table, and turned to the distinguished guests and court ministers who accompanied the king, saying: "I am the invincible warrior who has helped you three times on horseback. I am also a king's son, not a goose herder as you think." He went out to wash himself and put on his good clothes, and the proud princess fell in love with the handsome prince on the spot, but Paperarlo Instead of paying attention to her, he said to the king, "Thank you for marrying my daughter to me. I really want to thank you. But I have a wife in my family, and I love her very much. For her, I am leaving. As a parting gift, I Hope your ears, nose, and fingers are back to normal." With these words he bade them farewell, and returned to his home, where he lived happily ever after with his fairy wife till the end of his life.

(End of this chapter)