The Sea-Hare (Grimm)
Short summary
A fairy tale kingdom. A princess lived in a castle with twelve windows, each giving her increasingly powerful sight to see everything in her kingdom. She declared that she would only marry someone who could hide from her completely. Anyone who failed would be executed, and ninety-seven men had already lost their heads.
Three brothers arrived to try their luck. The first two hid in a lime-pit and palace cellar but were easily discovered and executed. The youngest brother asked for three attempts and one day to prepare.
While hunting, he spared a raven, a fish, and a fox who each promised to help him. For his first attempt, the raven hid him inside an egg in its nest. The princess found him from the eleventh window. For the second attempt, the fish swallowed him and went to the lake bottom. She discovered him from the twelfth window. On the final attempt, the fox transformed them both using magic spring water - the fox became a merchant and the youth became a sea-hare. The princess bought the creature and the merchant told it to hide in her hair. When she searched from all windows and couldn't find him,
she was full of anxiety and anger, and shut it down with such violence that the glass in every window shivered into a thousand pieces, and the whole castle shook
She discovered the sea-hare in her hair and threw it away. The youth and fox returned to their true forms. The princess accepted her defeat and married the young man, who became king.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The princess with twelve windows and her deadly challenge
A princess lived in a castle with a special apartment high under the battlements, featuring twelve windows that looked out in every direction. From these windows, her sight grew progressively keener - from the first window she could see better than any human, from the second even more clearly, and so on until the twelfth window, from which she could observe everything above and below the earth. Nothing could be kept secret from her supernatural vision.
Being haughty and unwilling to submit to anyone, she wished to keep dominion for herself alone. She proclaimed a deadly challenge:
she caused it to be proclaimed that no one should ever be her husband who could not conceal himself from her so effectually, that it should be quite impossible for her to find him
Those who failed would be executed and their heads mounted on posts.
Three acts of kindness: helping the raven, fish, and fox
Ninety-seven posts with the heads of dead men were already standing before the castle, and no one had come forward for a long time. The princess was delighted
Then three brothers appeared before her. The eldest hid in a lime-pit but was discovered from the first window and executed.
The second brother hid in the palace cellar but met the same fate.
The youngest brother, being handsome and earnest, convinced the princess to grant him three attempts. He went hunting and encountered three animals in distress. When he aimed at a raven, it cried out for mercy. He spared it and continued, meeting a large fish that also begged for its life. Finally, he found a lame fox and removed a thorn from its foot instead of killing it.
For his first hiding attempt, the youth sought help from the raven. The bird thought carefully, then fetched an egg from its nest, cut it in two, shut the youth inside, made it whole again, and sat upon it. The princess searched from her windows but could not find him until she looked from the eleventh window.
She ordered the raven to be shot, and the egg to be brought and broken, and the youth was forced to come out. She said, 'For once thou art excused, but if thou dost not do better than this, thou art lost!'
The first attempt had failed, but the youth was granted a second chance.
Second attempt: concealed in the fishs belly
For his second attempt, the youth went to the lake and called upon the fish he had spared. The fish swallowed him and went to the bottom of the lake. Again, the princess could not see him from the first ten windows, nor even from the eleventh, which alarmed her. But from the twelfth window, she spotted him.
She ordered the fish to be caught and killed, and then the youth appeared. Everyone can imagine what a state of mind he was in. She said, 'Twice thou art forgiven, but be sure that thy head will be set on the hundredth post.'
With only one chance remaining, the youth faced certain death if he failed again.
Final success: the sea-hare transformation and wedding
On the final day, the youth approached the fox with a heavy heart. The fox devised the cleverest plan: they went to a spring where the fox transformed into a merchant and animal dealer, while the youth became a small sea-hare.
The merchant took the sea-hare to town and displayed it in the market. The princess arrived and, delighted with the animal, purchased it. Before handing it over, the merchant instructed the sea-hare to hide under the braids of her hair when she went to the windows. When the princess searched from all twelve windows, she could not find him anywhere. In her fury, she shattered all the windows. Only then did she discover the sea-hare in her hair. The youth returned to his true form, and they were married. He became king and never revealed how he had succeeded in the final attempt.