A Riddling Tale (Grimm)
Division into sections is editorial.
The riddle of the three enchanted women
A mysterious enchantment befell three women, transforming them into identical flowers that grew in a field. This magical curse bound them to their floral forms during daylight hours, forcing them to remain rooted in the earth like ordinary blooms. However, the enchantment contained a peculiar exception for one of the three women.
Three women were changed into flowers which grew in the field, but one of them was allowed to be in her own home at night.
This fortunate woman possessed the unique privilege of returning to her human form each evening, allowing her to spend the night hours in her own dwelling with her beloved husband. She could walk, speak, and live as a normal woman once darkness fell, only to be compelled back to the field at dawn's approach to resume her flower form alongside her two unfortunate companions.
During one of these precious nighttime reunions, as dawn threatened to separate the couple once again, the enchanted woman revealed to her husband a potential path to permanent freedom from the curse. She explained that if he could successfully identify her among the three identical flowers and gather her from the field, the spell would be broken forever.
Then once when day was drawing near, and she was forced to go back to her companions in the field and become a flower again
The woman made her desperate plea to her husband, knowing this might be their only chance for a normal life together.
If thou wilt come this afternoon and gather me, I shall be set free and henceforth stay with thee.
The husband agreed to attempt this seemingly impossible task. When afternoon arrived, he made his way to the field where the three flowers grew. The challenge appeared insurmountable - the magical transformation had created three perfectly identical blooms, indistinguishable in every visible aspect. Their petals, stems, leaves, and overall appearance were exactly the same, offering no obvious clue to reveal which flower contained his beloved wife.
The husband stood before the three flowers, knowing that his choice would determine whether his wife would remain trapped in her cursed state or finally achieve freedom. The weight of this decision pressed upon him as he studied each bloom carefully, searching for any distinguishing feature that might guide him to the correct choice. The fate of their future happiness rested entirely on his ability to solve this botanical puzzle. Despite the apparent impossibility of the task, he made his selection and successfully gathered the right flower, thereby freeing his wife from the enchantment forever.
The tale then posed its central question to readers.
The solution revealed
Now the question is, how did her husband know her, for the flowers were exactly alike, and without any difference?
The answer to this riddle lay not in any visible characteristic of the flowers themselves, but in a subtle environmental detail that only the most observant person would notice. The key to solving this puzzle required understanding the natural processes that affect plants during nighttime hours in outdoor settings.
While all three flowers appeared identical in form, color, and size, they had experienced different conditions during the previous night. The two women who remained permanently in their flower forms had spent the entire night in the field, exposed to the natural elements and atmospheric conditions that occur in outdoor environments during darkness.
as she was at her home during the night and not in the field, no dew fell on her as it did on the others, and by this her husband knew her.
The husband's keen observation skills allowed him to notice that while two of the flowers bore the telltale moisture of morning dew upon their petals, one flower remained completely dry. This single flower, lacking the natural dew that forms on plants left outdoors overnight, revealed itself as his wife - the woman who had spent the night safely sheltered within their home rather than exposed to the field's nocturnal conditions.