The Gnome (Grimm)
Short summary
A fairy-tale kingdom. A king had three daughters and a magical apple tree. He threatened anyone who took an apple with being wished underground. The three princesses ate the forbidden apples and immediately sank into the earth. The king promised one daughter in marriage to whoever rescued them. Three young huntsmen searched for eight days and found an enchanted castle. They decided one would stay while two searched. The eldest encountered a small gnome who asked for bread, then beat him when he bent to pick up the dropped piece. The second brother suffered the same fate. The youngest brother, Hans, stayed on the third day.
When the gnome dropped the bread, Hans refused to pick it up and instead beat him. The gnome revealed where the princesses were - in a deep well with dragons. Hans descended alone and killed the dragons guarding each princess. He sent the princesses up first.
So he took a great stone which was lying there, and placed it in the basket... his false brothers above cut the rope, so that the basket with the stone fell to the ground.
Hans played a flute he found, summoning elves who flew him to the surface. At the palace, the princesses fainted upon seeing him. They told the truth to a stove while the king listened. The two brothers were hanged, and Hans married the youngest princess.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The cursed apple and the disappearance
A rich King lived in a palace with his three daughters, who walked daily in the palace garden. The King loved all kinds of fine trees, but had a special affection for one particular tree. He declared that anyone who gathered an apple from it would be wished a hundred fathoms underground. When harvest time came, the apples on this tree were all as red as blood.
The three daughters went every day beneath the tree, looking to see if the wind had blown down an apple, but never found one. The tree was so loaded with fruit that it was almost breaking. The youngest princess had a great desire for an apple and said to her sisters:
Our father loves us far too much to wish us underground, it is my belief that he would only do that to people who were strangers.
While speaking, she plucked off a large apple and ran to her sisters to share it. The two elder sisters also ate some of the apple.
Then the two other sisters also ate some of the apple, whereupon all three sank deep down into the earth, where they could hear no cock crow.
The quest begins: three huntsmen and the mysterious castle
When midday came, the King wished to call his daughters to dinner, but they were nowhere to be found. He searched everywhere in the palace and garden but could not find them. Troubled, he made known to the whole land that whoever brought his daughters back would have one of them as wife. Many young men went searching, including three young huntsmen.
After travelling for eight days, the three huntsmen arrived at a great castle with beautiful apartments. In one room, a table was laid with delicate dishes that were still warm and smoking, but no human being was to be seen or heard throughout the castle. They waited half a day, and the food remained warm. Finally, hunger drove them to eat, and they agreed to stay and live in the castle.
They decided that one of them, chosen by casting lots, would remain in the house while the other two searched for the King's daughters. The lot fell on the eldest huntsman.
Testing the brothers: encounters with the mannikin
At midday, a small mannikin came and begged for bread. The eldest huntsman cut a piece from the loaf, but when giving it to the mannikin, the creature let it fall and asked him to pick it up. As the huntsman stooped to do so, the mannikin took a stick, seized him by the hair, and gave him a good beating. The next day, the second brother stayed home and fared no better.
On the third day, the youngest stayed home. The brothers called him Stupid Hans because he did not exactly belong to the forest. When the mannikin came and let the bread fall again, Hans refused to pick it up, saying:
What! canst thou not pick up that piece thyself? If thou wilt not take as much trouble as that for thy daily bread, thou dost not deserve to have it.
The mannikin grew angry and demanded Hans do it, but the huntsman refused and gave the creature a thorough beating instead. The mannikin screamed and cried out that he would reveal where the King's daughters were if Hans would stop. Hans ceased beating him, and the mannikin told him he was an earth mannikin.
The rescue: Hans descends and defeats the dragons
The mannikin showed Hans a deep well without water and warned him that his companions did not intend to deal honourably with him. If he wished to deliver the King's children, he must do it alone. Hans was to take a large basket, seat himself in it with his sword and a bell, and be lowered down. Below were three rooms, each containing a princess with a many-headed dragon whose heads she was combing, but Hans must cut them off.
When evening came, the two brothers returned and asked how Hans had fared. He told them about the mannikin and where the King's daughters were. The brothers grew angry, turning green and yellow. Next morning, they drew lots to see who would descend first. The eldest went down briefly but rang to be pulled up immediately. The second did the same. Then it was Hans's turn, and he let himself be lowered to the bottom.
Hans took his sword and went to the first door, hearing the dragon snoring loudly. He found one princess with nine dragon heads on her lap, which he cut off with his sword. The princess embraced and kissed him, hanging her golden stomacher around his neck. He then rescued the second princess from a five-headed dragon and the youngest from a four-headed dragon. All three princesses rejoiced and embraced him.
Betrayal and justice: the brothers treachery and Hanss vindication
Hans rang loudly and placed the princesses one by one in the basket to be drawn up. When his turn came, remembering the mannikin's warning about his companions' treachery, he placed a large stone in the basket instead. Halfway up, his false brothers cut the rope, thinking they had killed him. They ran away with the three princesses, making them promise to tell their father that they had rescued them.
Meanwhile, Hans wandered the three chambers in despair, expecting to die there. He saw a flute hanging on the wall and played it. With every note, elves appeared until the room was filled. They asked what he desired, and he said he wished to return to daylight. The elves seized him by every hair and flew with him back to earth.
Hans went to the King's palace just as one princess's wedding was about to be celebrated. When the princesses saw him, they fainted. The angry King ordered him imprisoned, thinking he had harmed his daughters. When the princesses recovered, they entreated the King to free Hans but said they could not tell why. The King told them to tell their story to the stove, then listened at the door and heard everything.
Then he caused the two brothers to be hanged on the gallows, and to the third he gave his youngest daughter.