On my tenth birthday, my nurse showed me a little basket that was hidden between the sheets of my cradle. It had egg shells in it. She said that my mother wanted me to know a secret. I didn’t remember my mother. She died when I was only two. The old nurse told me a...
I left home many years ago, and my younger brother stayed with my father. He died at a ripe old age and left great riches behind. My brother spent our father’s wealth freely and never imagined that I would return. One day, I walked into the hall of my...
It was me who brought the queen to the fairy palace. Me! I introduced her to the fairies who granted her wish to have a child. They gave her a posy of jeweled flowers and told her that she could invoke the fairies at any time by speaking the flowers’ names. When...
The beginning of my son’s life was the end of mine. I had hardly anything to give to him. We lived in a small hut on the edge of a plain. I had worked hard all my life, and when I became deathly ill, I asked my wife to summon my son to my bedside. “Come...
A rich man I once knew became poor, and when he was poor, he and his wife had a little boy. Since nobody was willing to stand as a godfather for the child, the man set off to look for one in a neighboring village. On the way he met me, standing by the road. I asked...
I learned the trade of a locksmith from my father, and when I was ready to go and seek my fortune, he gave me some money for my journey. I found some work, but after a time, I decided to look for another trade. I liked to hunt in the forest, so one day, in my rambles,...
I’ll admit it. Little men have quick wits and giants aren’t too swift. Me and my two brothers had inherited a sword that cuts off many heads at once, a cloak that makes a person invisible, and a pair of boots that will transport a person anywhere he wants...
There are things I tell people, and there are things I don’t tell. I tell people I got lost in a fog at sea. I don’t tell people that I spent those three days with a mermaid, and that she’s responsible for the fortune that keeps washing up on my...
My father was so rich that he could have paved the whole street in silver, but he devised another way of spending his money. He invested it and turned shillings into florins. When he died, he couldn’t take it with him, so his money went to me. I spent it all on...
My two elder sons are clever and self-assured, but my third is a different sort of chap altogether. Very good-hearted, but simple. I’m not sure which of my sons is meant to be king. I’ll throw three feathers to the wind and let the wind decide. See which...
