The Peasant's Wise Daughter (Grimm)
Short summary
A poor peasant and his daughter received land from the King. While digging, they found a golden mortar. The daughter warned against giving it to the King without the pestle, but her father ignored her advice.
The King accepted the mortar but demanded the pestle, imprisoning the peasant when he couldn't produce it.
Learning of his daughter's wisdom, the King challenged her with an impossible riddle. She cleverly appeared before him wrapped in a fishing net, dragged by a donkey, fulfilling his conditions. Impressed, the King married her and freed her father.
Later, when the King wrongly awarded a foal to the wrong peasant, the Queen secretly helped the rightful owner. Discovering her interference, the King banished her but allowed her to take what she valued most. She drugged him and took him to her cottage. When he awoke confused, she explained:
I have nothing more precious and dear than yourself, so I have brought you with me.
Touched by her love, the King forgave her and they returned to the palace together.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The golden mortar and the fathers imprisonment
A poor peasant lived with his only daughter in a small house, owning no land. The daughter suggested they ask the King for some newly-cleared land to cultivate.
When the King heard of their poverty, he granted them a piece of land. As father and daughter dug the field to plant corn and grain, they discovered a mortar made of pure gold buried in the earth. The father wanted to present this treasure to the King as gratitude for his generosity, but his daughter warned him against it.
Father, if we have the mortar without having the pestle as well, we shall have to get the pestle, so you had much better say nothing about it.
Despite her wise counsel, the stubborn father took the mortar to the King. When the King received it and asked if he had found anything else, the peasant said no. The King then demanded he bring the pestle as well. When the peasant explained they had not found one, the King imprisoned him until he could produce it. In prison, the peasant cried out daily:
Ah! if I had but listened to my daughter! Alas, alas, if I had but listened to my daughter!
The Kings riddle and the clever marriage
Hearing the peasant's constant laments, the King summoned him and learned about his daughter's wisdom. Intrigued, the King demanded to meet her.
When the daughter appeared before him, the King tested her wisdom with a seemingly impossible riddle. He promised to marry her if she could solve it:
Come to me not clothed, not naked, not riding, not walking, not in the road, and not out of the road, and if thou canst do that I will marry thee.
The clever daughter solved the riddle ingeniously. She removed all her clothes to be not clothed, then wrapped herself in a large fishing net so she was not naked. She hired a donkey and tied the net to its tail, so the animal dragged her along - neither riding nor walking. The donkey pulled her in the cart ruts so only her big toe touched the ground, meaning she was neither in the road nor out of it. Impressed by her solution, the King declared she had fulfilled all conditions. He freed her father from prison, married her, and entrusted her with care of all royal possessions.
The foal dispute and the Queens secret advice
Years later, during a military parade, peasants selling wood stopped before the palace with their wagons. One peasant owned three horses, while another had oxen. When one mare gave birth to a foal, it ran away and lay down between the oxen of the other wagon. A dispute arose over ownership of the foal.
The King ruled that the foal should stay where it was found, giving it to the peasant with oxen. The rightful owner wept over this injustice. Having heard of the Queen's kindness and humble origins, he approached her for help. She agreed to assist him but demanded he promise not to betray her. She instructed him to stand in the King's path the next morning with a fishing net, pretending to fish on dry ground. When questioned, he should say:
It is as easy for me to fish on dry land as it is for an ox to have a foal.
Banishment, the sleeping draught, and reconciliation
When the King encountered the peasant fishing on dry ground and heard his clever response, he knew this was not the man's own idea. After beating and tormenting the peasant, they forced him to confess that the Queen had given him the advice. Furious at his wife's deception, the King banished her, granting only one favor - she could take with her whatever was dearest to her eyes. The Queen accepted this condition, then secretly prepared a powerful sleeping draught. She embraced and kissed her husband farewell, and they drank together, though she took only a little while he drank deeply. When the King fell into deep sleep, she had servants wrap him in linen and carry him to her humble cottage. There she laid him in her own bed, where he slept for a day and night. Upon awakening confused and calling for his attendants, the Queen revealed her choice:
She had brought him as the most precious thing in her eyes. Moved to tears by her devotion and cleverness, the King declared they would belong to each other forever. He took her back to the royal palace, remarried her, and they lived happily together.