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Tale Summary

Once upon a time, there lived a princess who was to be married to a prince who lived far away. Before she left, her mother the queen gave her riches, a waiting-maid for company, and three drops of blood on a handkerchief for good luck. The princess set out on her own horse named Falada, who could speak, and after a way was very thirsty and asked her maid to fetch her some water in her golden cup. The waiting-maid refused, and the princess was so meek that she went down to the stream herself, and the three drops of blood said that it would break her mother’s heart to see her. Later in the day, the princess again requested the same thing of her maid, who again refused, and again the princess went down to drink by the stream instead of from her golden cup. The three drops of blood lamented again, but because it was tucked in her bosom, it fell out when she leaned over the water and was swept away unnoticed by the girl. The maid, however, did notice and knew that the princess was now powerless. The princess was forced to switch horses and clothes with the maid so that when they arrived at their destination everyone was fooled into thinking she was only a peasant while the maid was married to the prince. The king noticed the princess, thinking that she was very beautiful, and asked the false bride about her. She replied that he should find her some work to do because she was only brought along for company and should not be idle, so the king put her to work with a little boy named Curdy who tended to his geese. The false bride then asked her husband to have Falada killed, for she was afraid he would tell someone what she had done. When the real princess heard that he had died, she promised his butcher a sum of money if he would do her the favor of nailing the horse’s head to a gate that she passed through each day. This was done, and every day she talked to the horse head, who told her that her mother’s heart would break to see her. When Curdy and the princess drove the geese into the pasture, she sat down and let down her hair to brush it. He saw that it was of pure gold and tried to grab it, but she sang a rhyme that made his hat blow away, and finished brushing and putting it back up by the time he had caught it. After being teased like this for several days, Curdy went to the king to say he didn’t want to work with her anymore and explained all of the strange habits she had. The next day, the king hid and watched the true princess as she talked to the horse head and brushed her golden hair. When she got home that evening, he pulled her aside and asked why she did those things, but she would not answer him. He told her that if she could not tell him, she could tell the stove, and so she explained her entire sad story to it while he listened. She was then dressed in new fineries and the prince was delighted with her. A banquet was held with the true princess in attendance, and the king, after telling the story, asked the false bride what the punishment should be for such a woman. The maid said that she should be stripped naked and put in a barrel full of nails drawn by two white horses until she died. The king announced that she had just decided her own fate, and after she is killed, the true princess marries the prince.

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