It was once a king who had a wife with golden hair, and she was so beautiful that her likeness could no longer be found on earth. It happened that she was ill, and when she felt that she would die soon, she called the king and said, »If you want to repudiate yourself after my death, then do not take one who is not as beautiful as I am, and who does not have such golden hair as I have. You must promise me that.« After the king had promised her, she closed her eyes and died. For a long time the king could not be comforted and did not think of taking a second wife. Finally his counsellors said, »There is no other way. The king must repudiate himself again so that we have a queen.« Now messengers were sent from far and wide to look for a bride who would match the beauty of the deceased queen. But there was none in the whole world to be found, and even if one had found her, there was none who had such golden hair. So the messengers came back home unharmed. Now the king had a daughter. She was just as beautiful as her deceased mother and also had such golden hair. When she had grown up, the king looked at her once and saw that she was similar in all her deceased mother-in-law. And suddenly he felt a strong love for her. Then he said to his counsellors, »I want to marry my daughter, because she is the image of my deceased wife, and otherwise I can not find a bride who matches her.« When the counsellors heard this, they were frightened and said, »God has forbidden that the father should marry his daughter. Nothing good can come of this sin, and the kingdom will be destroyed with it.« The daughter was even more frightened when she made the decision of her father, but still hoped to get rid of his intention. Then she said to him, »Before I fulfill your wish, I must have three clothes. One as golden as the sun, one as silver as the moon, and one as shiny as the stars. Further I demand a coat made of thousands of fur and ruff, and each animal in your kingdom must add a piece of its skin.« But she thought, »It is impossible to achieve this, and I will get my father rid of his evil thoughts.« But the king did not give up, and the most skillful young women in his kingdom had to weave the three clothes, one as golden as the sun, one as silver as the moon, and one as shiny as the stars. And his hunters had to catch all the animals in the whole kingdom. A coat made of thousands of ruff was made of it. When everything was ready, the king had the coat brought, prepared it in front of her and said, »Tomorrow is the wedding day.« When the queen's daughter saw that there was no hope of turning her father's heart, she made the decision to flee. In the night, while everything was sleeping, she got up and took three things from her treasures. A golden ring, a golden spinning wheel, and a golden hairpin. She put the three clothes of sun, moon and stars in a nutshell, put on the coat of all kinds of ruff, and made her face and hands black with rust. Then she prayed to God and went away. And she went all night until she came to a big forest. And because she was tired, she sat down in a hollow tree and fell asleep. The sun rose, and she went to sleep and slept forever, when it was already a high day. Then it occurred to her that the king, who owned this forest, was hunting in it. When his dogs came to the tree, they sniffed, ran around and barked. The king said to the hunters, »See what kind of wild thing has hidden there!« The hunters followed the order, and when they returned, they said, »In the hollow tree lies a wondrous creature. On its skin are thousands of fur, but it lies and sleeps.« The king said, »See if you can catch it alive. Then tie it to the cart and take it with you.« When the hunters touched the girl, she awoke, terrified, and said to him, »I am a poor child left by my father and mother. Embrace me and take me with you.« Then they said, »All kinds of roe, you are good for the kitchen. Come with me, there you can gather the ashes.« So they put it on the cart and drove home to the royal castle. There they showed him a place under the stairs, where no daylight came, and said, »Roe, there you can live and sleep.« Then it was sent to the kitchen, where it carried wood and water, stirred the fire, plucked the feather cattle, left the vegetables, turned the ashes, and did all the bad work. All kinds of roe lived there for a long time, quite poor. »My beautiful princess, how shall it be with you?« But once there was a celebration in the castle. Then she said to the cook, »May I go up a little and see? I want to stand outside the door.« The cook answered, »Yes, go ahead, but in half an hour you have to be here again and collect the ashes.« Then she took her oil lamp, went into her stall, took off her fur coat, and washed away the rust from her face and hands, so that her full beauty came back to the day. Then she opened the noose and brought out her dress, which shone like the sun. And as it happened, they went up to the party. And everyone stepped out of the way, because no one knew her, and they did not mean otherwise than that she was a princess. But the king came up to her, reached out his hand and danced with her, and thought in his heart, »So beautiful, no one has seen my eyes yet.« When the dance was over, she bent over, and as the king looked around, she was gone. And no one knew where to. The guards who stood in front of the castle were called and asked, but no one had seen her. But she had walked into her stall, had quickly taken off her dress, had made her face and hands black, and had changed her fur coat, and was again all rough. When she came to the kitchen and went to her work and wanted to collect the ashes, the cook said, »Let that be until tomorrow, and cook me the soup for the king. I also want to look up a little. But don't let my hair fall in, otherwise you won't get anything to eat in the future.« Then the cook went on, and cooked all kinds of soup for the king, and cooked a bread soup as well as she could. And when she was finished, she took her golden ring from her stall and put it in the bowl in which the soup was served. When the dance was over, the king had the soup brought and ate it. And it tasted so good to him that he never thought he had eaten a better soup. But when he came to the ground, he saw a golden ring there and could not understand how he had gotten there. Then he ordered, »The cook should come before him.« The cook was frightened when he heard the order, and said, »Certainly you have let a hair fall into the soup. If it is true, you will get beatings.« When he came before the king, he asked, »Who would have cooked the soup?« The cook answered, »I cooked it.« But the king replied, »That is not true, for it was cooked in a different way and much better than usual.« He answered, »I have to admit that I did not cook it, but the roe.« The king said, »Go and let it come up.« When all kinds of roe came, the king asked, »Who are you?« »I am a poor child.« He asked, »Why are you in my castle?« It answered, »I am not good enough to throw my boots around my head.« He asked, »Where did you get the ring that was in the soup?« It answered, »I do not know anything about the ring.« So the king could not learn anything and had to send it away again. After a while there was another celebration. All kinds of roe asked the cook, as last time, to allow them to watch. He answered, »Yes, but come back in half an hour and cook the bread soup for the king, which he likes so much.« Then she ran to her stall, hurriedly, and took out of the nut the dress that was as silver as the moon and put it on. Then she went up and looked like a princess. And the king came up to her and was glad that he saw her again. And because the dance began, they danced together. But when the dance was over, she disappeared again, so fast that the king could not remember where she went. But she jumped into her stall and became a roe again and went into the kitchen to cook the bread soup. When the cook was upstairs, she took the golden wheel and put it in the bowl, so that the soup was served over it. Then she was brought to the king, and he ate her, and she tasted as good to him as the last time. And let the cook come, he had to admit this time, that all kinds of roe had cooked the soup. All kinds of roe came back to the king, but she answered, that she would only be there if the boots were thrown at her head and that she did not know anything about the golden wheel. When the king made a feast for the third time, it went no different than the previous times. The cook said, »You are a witch roe and always put something in the soup, of which she is so good and tastes better to the king than what I cook. But because it was so bad, he let it go for a certain time. Now she put on a dress that shone like the stars and entered the hall with it. The king danced again with the beautiful young woman and thought that she had never been so beautiful. And while he was dancing, he put a golden ring on her finger without her noticing and had ordered that the dance should be quite long. When it was over, he wanted to hold her by the hands, but she broke loose and disappeared. She ran as fast as she could in her place under the stairs, but because she had stayed too long and over half an hour, she could not take off the beautiful dress, but only threw the coat of fur over it. And in a hurry she did not make herself completely rusty, but one finger remained white. All kinds of roe ran into the kitchen, cooked the king the bread soup and put, as the cook was, the golden haspel in it. The king, when he found the haspel on the floor, let all kinds of roe roar. Then he looked at the white finger and saw the ring he had put on her in the dance. Then he grabbed her by the hand and held her tight. And when she wanted to break loose and jump, the coat of fur opened a little and the star dress shimmered. The king grabbed the coat and tore it off. Then the golden hair came out and she stood there in full splendor and could not hide any longer. And when she had wiped rust and ash from her face, she was more beautiful than anyone had ever seen on earth. But the king said, You are my beloved bride and we will never separate from each other again. Then the wedding was celebrated and they lived happily until their death. © BF-WATCH TV 2021