The Golden Goose 2 (English)

The Golden Goose

Most people who saw the young man and the three girls thought that it was inappropriate for the girls to run after a young man like that. But when they tried to stop the three girls, four of them also got magically stuck. When the young man finally arrived in a city, he got seven people attached to his golden goose.

The city was ruled by a king who had a daughter who seemed to be sad all the time.  No one could make her laugh. That is why the king issued a decree that whoever would make the princess laugh should have her in marriage.

When the young man heard this, he ran in front of the princess, and the whole seven attached to his golden goose followed after him. The sight was so ridiculous that the moment the princess saw it she burst into a violent fit of laughter and they thought she would never stop.

After this, the young man went to the king. He demanded his daughter in marriage. But the king did not quite like to have the young man for a son-in-law. So the king said that, before he could marry his daughter, the young man must bring him a man who could drink all the wine in the king's storage.

The young man quickly went into the forest. He thought, "If anyone can help me, it is the gray old man with his magic." When he arrived at the place where he had cut down the old tree, he met a man with a very sad face.

The young man asked him why he looked so sad.

"Oh," he said, "I am very very thirsty and nothing seems able to quench it. And I cannot simply drink cold water. I have already emptied a cask of wine, but it was just like a drop of water on a hot stone."

"I can help you," said the young man. "Come with me, and you shall have your fill, I promise you."

Upon this he led the man into the king’s wine storage, where he opened the casks one after another, and drank and drank till his back ached. Before the end of the day he had quite emptied the king’s wine storage.

Again the young man asked for his bride. But the king did not like the thought of giving his daughter to such a common fellow. To get rid of the young man he made another condition. The king said that to marry his daughter, first he must find someone that's able to eat up a whole mountain of bread.

Just like before, the young man went back to the forest. And there in the same place sat a man binding himself round tightly with a belt, and making the most horrible faces. As the young man approached, he cried, "I have eaten a whole ovenfull of rolls, but it has not satisfied me a bit; I am as hungry as ever, and my stomach feels so empty that I am obliged to bind it round tightly, or I should die of hunger."

The young man could hardly contain himself for joy when he heard this. "Get up," he exclaimed, "and come with me, and I will give you plenty to eat, I’ll warrant."

So he led him to the king’s court, where his majesty had ordered all the flour in the kingdom to be made into bread, and piled up in a huge mountain. The hungry man placed himself before the bread, and began to eat, and before evening the whole pile had disappeared.

Then the young man went a third time to the king, and asked for his bride, but the king made several excuses, and at last said that if he could bring him a ship that would travel as well by land as by water, then he should, without any further conditions, marry his daughter.

The young man went at once straight to the forest, and saw the same old gray man to whom he had given his cake. "Ah," he said, as the young man approached, "I was the one who sent the men to eat and drink, and I will also give you a ship that can travel by land or by sea, because when you thought I was poor you were kind-hearted, and gave me food and drink."

The young man took the ship, and when the king saw it he was really surprised. But the king could not any longer refuse to give him his daughter in marriage. The wedding was celebrated with great ceremony, and after the king’s death the simple wood-cutter inherited the whole kingdom, and lived happily with his wife.