The Griffin (Grimm)
Short summary
A king's daughter was ill and could only be cured by eating an apple. The king promised her hand to whoever brought the healing fruit. A peasant sent his eldest son Uele with apples, but a little iron man cursed them to become frogs' legs. The second son Seame tried next, but his apples turned into hogs' bristles. Finally, the youngest son Hans, called Stupid Hans, succeeded - his apples remained golden and cured the princess.
The king demanded more tasks: Hans must build a boat faster on land than water, then herd a hundred hares without losing one. With the little iron man's help, Hans completed both. For the final task, Hans had to bring a Griffin's feather. On his journey, he met people needing help: a lord who lost a key, parents with a sick daughter, and a ferryman forced to carry everyone across a lake. The Griffin's wife hid Hans under the bed. While the Griffin slept, Hans plucked a feather and learned all the answers. Returning, Hans helped everyone and received great rewards.
So the King thought he himself could make such things useful, and set out on his way to the Griffin; but... the man put him down in the middle of it and went away, and the King was drowned.
Hans married the princess and became king.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
Three brothers seek to cure the princess with magical apples
A king had an only daughter who suffered from a mysterious illness that no doctor could cure. When it was foretold that she would recover by eating a special apple, the king proclaimed throughout his kingdom that whoever brought such an apple would marry his daughter and become king. A peasant with three sons heard this proclamation and sent his eldest son to try his fortune.
Uele, the eldest brother, took a basket of beautiful red apples from their garden and set out for the palace.
When he had gone a short way he met a little iron man who asked him what he had there in the basket, to which replied Uele... 'Frogs' legs.'
The iron man declared that so it would be and remain. When Uele reached the palace and opened his basket before the king, he found only kicking frogs' legs instead of apples. The furious king had him driven away. Seame, the second brother, met the same fate after lying that his basket contained hogs' bristles, and he too was whipped from the palace when his basket transformed accordingly.
Finally, Hans, the youngest son called Stupid Hans, begged his father to let him try.
'Oh!' said the father, 'thou wouldst be just the right fellow for such a thing! If the clever ones can't manage it, what canst thou do?'
Despite his father's mockery, Hans persisted and was finally allowed to go. When he met the little iron man and honestly answered that he carried apples to cure the king's daughter, the iron man blessed his mission. At the palace, Hans's basket revealed golden-yellow apples that tumbled out magnificently.
As soon as she had eaten of those apples, she was cured, and sprang out of her bed. The joy the King felt cannot be described!
The challenge to build a boat faster on land than water
Though overjoyed by his daughter's recovery, the king was reluctant to honor his promise to Hans. Instead, he demanded that Hans first build a boat that would travel faster on dry land than on water. Hans agreed to this seemingly impossible task and returned home to begin work. His father sent Uele into the forest to attempt the task first. When the little iron man asked what he was making, Uele lied and said wooden bowls for the kitchen, so his work became exactly that. Seame suffered the same fate the next day.
On the third day, Hans went into the forest and worked industriously, singing and whistling merrily. When the little iron man appeared and asked about his work, Hans honestly replied that he was making a boat to win the king's daughter. The iron man blessed his endeavor, and by evening Hans had completed a magnificent vessel that sailed as swiftly as the wind across both land and water to the palace.
Herding a hundred hares with a magic whistle
Still unwilling to give up his daughter, the king set another impossible task: Hans must take a hundred hares to pasture from morning until evening without losing a single one. Hans accepted this challenge confidently. The next day, he led his flock to the pasture and watched them carefully. Before long, a servant from the palace arrived demanding a hare for unexpected visitors. Hans refused, saying the king could serve hare soup the next day instead. When the servant persisted, Hans said he would only give a hare to the king's daughter herself.
Meanwhile, the little iron man had appeared again and given Hans a magic whistle, promising that any hare that ran away would return when he whistled. When the princess came for a hare, Hans gave her one, but after she had walked about a hundred steps, he whistled, and the hare jumped from her apron and returned to the flock. That evening, Hans whistled once more to ensure all hares were present, then successfully drove them back to the palace, amazing the king.
The quest for a Griffins feather and the journeys rewards
For his final impossible task, the king demanded that Hans bring him a feather from the Griffin's tail. Hans set out immediately and during his journey stayed at two castles, where he promised to ask the Griffin about a lost key to a money chest and a cure for an ill daughter. He also met a ferryman who begged him to ask why he was forced to carry everyone across the lake. When Hans reached the Griffin's house, only the wife was home.
She warned Hans that no Christian could speak to the Griffin, as he devoured them all, but offered to hide him under the bed and ask the questions herself. That night, Hans successfully plucked a feather from the sleeping Griffin's tail. When the Griffin stirred, his wife cleverly distracted him by asking about the problems Hans had encountered, learning that the key lay under a log in the wood-house, the daughter would be cured by retrieving her hair from a toad's nest under the cellar steps, and the ferryman need only set one person down in the middle of the lake to be freed from his burden.
The Kings greed leads to his doom; Hans becomes King
On his return journey, Hans helped solve all the problems he had promised to address, receiving generous rewards of gold, silver, cattle, sheep, and goats from the grateful people. When he appeared before the king with all these riches and the Griffin's feather, Hans claimed the Griffin gave everyone whatever they wanted. The greedy king immediately set out for the Griffin himself, but when he reached the lake, the ferryman placed him in the middle and abandoned him there. The king drowned, while Hans married the princess and became the new ruler.
Hans, however, married the daughter, and became King.