Allerleirauh (Grimm)
Short summary
A fairy tale kingdom. A king's beautiful golden-haired wife died after making him promise to only remarry someone equally beautiful with golden hair. Years later, the king realized his daughter matched this description perfectly and decided to marry her. The horrified princess
demanded three impossible dresses and a coat of thousand furs, hoping to prevent the marriage. When the king fulfilled these demands, she fled at night, taking the dresses and three golden items. She blackened herself with soot and wandered until hunters found her sleeping in a tree. They brought her to their king's palace where she worked as a kitchen servant. During three royal balls, she secretly appeared in her magical dresses, dancing with the king who fell in love with the mysterious beauty. At the third ball, the king slipped a ring on her finger. When he later summoned her about a golden reel in his soup,
Then he grasped her by the hand, and held her fast... her mantle of fur opened a little, and the star-dress shone forth.
The king recognized his beloved dancer, and they married and lived happily.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The dying queens promise and the kings impossible vow
A king lived with his beautiful wife who possessed extraordinary golden hair unlike any other woman on earth. When the queen fell gravely ill and sensed her approaching death, she called her husband to her bedside and extracted a solemn promise from him.
She made him vow that if he ever remarried, he must choose only a woman as beautiful as herself and possessing the same golden hair. The king promised, and the queen closed her eyes and died. For a long time, the king grieved deeply and had no desire to take another wife.
The kings proposal and the princesss impossible conditions
Eventually, his councillors insisted he must remarry to provide the kingdom with a queen.
Messengers were sent far and wide to find a suitable bride, but no woman could be found who matched the late queen's beauty and golden hair.
The king had a daughter who had grown to be as beautiful as her deceased mother, with identical golden hair. When he looked at her one day, he was struck by her perfect resemblance to his late wife and felt a violent, inappropriate love for her. He declared to his councillors:
I will marry my daughter, for she is the counterpart of my late wife, otherwise I can find no bride who resembles her.
The councillors were horrified and warned that God forbade such unions, predicting ruin for the kingdom. The princess was even more shocked when she learned of her father's resolution, but hoped to dissuade him by making impossible demands. She told him:
Escape to the forest and discovery by the hunting party
Before I fulfil your wish, I must have three dresses, one as golden as the sun, one as silvery as the moon, and one as bright as the stars
She also demanded a mantle made from a thousand different kinds of fur and hair, with every animal in the kingdom contributing a piece of skin. She believed these requests were impossible to fulfill. However, the king persisted, ordering the cleverest maidens to weave the three magical dresses and his huntsmen to gather fur from every animal.
When everything was completed and the king announced the wedding would take place the next day, the princess realized there was no hope of changing his mind. That night, she gathered three treasures - a golden ring, spinning wheel, and reel - packed the three dresses in a nutshell, put on the fur mantle, and blackened her face and hands with soot.
Then she commended herself to God, and went away, and walked the whole night until she reached a great forest.
Exhausted, she climbed into a hollow tree and fell asleep. The next day, a different king who owned the forest was hunting when his dogs discovered her.
The huntsmen reported finding a wondrous beast with fur of a thousand different kinds. When they captured the maiden, she awoke terrified and pleaded that she was a poor child deserted by her parents. The huntsmen decided she would be useful in the kitchen and took her to the royal palace, giving her the name Allerleirauh.
They assigned her a closet under the stairs where no daylight entered and sent her to work in the kitchen doing all the dirty tasks.
Life in the kitchen and the first festival
Allerleirauh lived in great wretchedness, carrying wood and water, sweeping, plucking fowls, and doing menial work.
When a feast was held at the palace, she asked the cook for permission to watch from outside the door. The cook agreed but demanded she return within half an hour to sweep the hearth.
Allerleirauh went to her den, removed her fur dress, washed the soot from her face and hands, and opened the nutshell.
And she opened the nut, and took out her dress which shone like the sun, and when she had done that she went up to the festival
Everyone made way for her, thinking she was a king's daughter. The king danced with her, thinking to himself:
My eyes have never yet seen anyone so beautiful!
When the dance ended, she curtsied and vanished before the king could discover where she went. She had quickly returned to her den, changed back into her fur mantle, and resumed her kitchen duties. The cook ordered her to make soup for the king, and she secretly placed her golden ring in the bowl.
The second festival and the golden spinning wheel
When the king found the ring, he summoned the cook, who was forced to admit that Allerleirauh had prepared the soup. The king questioned her, but she claimed to know nothing about the ring. At the second festival, the same events occurred - Allerleirauh appeared in her silver dress like the moon, danced with the king, then vanished. This time she placed her golden spinning wheel in the soup.
Again the cook was forced to confess that Allerleirauh had made the soup, and again she denied knowing anything about the golden object when questioned by the king.
The third festival, revelation, and marriage
At the third festival, Allerleirauh wore her dress that shone like the stars. The king danced with her again, thinking she had never been so beautiful. During the dance, he secretly slipped a golden ring onto her finger and ordered the dance to last longer than usual. When it ended, she tore herself free and rushed away, but in her haste she could not completely remove her star dress and one finger remained white.
She placed her golden reel in the king's soup. When he found it and summoned her, he noticed her white finger and saw the ring he had placed there. He grasped her hand firmly, and when she tried to escape, her fur mantle opened slightly, revealing the star dress beneath. The king tore off the mantle completely.
Then her golden hair shone forth, and she stood there in full splendour, and could no longer hide herself.
After washing the soot and ashes from her face, she appeared more beautiful than anyone who had ever been seen on earth. The king declared:
Thou art my dear bride, and we will never more part from each other. Thereupon the marriage was solemnized, and they lived happily until their death.