The Golden Stag©
Once upon a time, long, long ago, an old man lived with an old woman and his two children from his first wife. The children, a boy and a girl, were hated by their stepmother and beaten and starved by her. The old woman was known throughout all of the neighboring villages for being as clever as she was wicked and cruel. The old woman hated the children and decided to finally get rid of them once and for all.
The old woman went to the old man and told him that he must get rid of the children or she would never again eat with him or speak to him. She instructed him to take them to the forest and kill them, or leave them, or whatever else he wanted to do with them just as long as he never brought them home again. The old man was completely distraught and begged his wife to relent and allow the children to stay but she would not be swayed. Finally, the old man agreed to carry-out the terrible plan because he was so besotted with his wife he felt he could do nothing that risked losing her.
Soon the old man went looking for his children and found them playing happily in the garden. He told his children that he wanted them to go into the woods with him and help him find sticks and twigs for firewood. The children responded with delight because they thought that it was something of an adventure to go into the big woods.
But things did not go as the old man and the old woman had planned. The children were covered in the ashes that they had been playing with in the garden. As they walked, the ashes made a trail behind them and marked the way that they had come from home. The old man had decided that he could not possibly kill his children and planned to lose them in the woods. Accordingly, as soon as they had gone deep into the dark woods,
the old man slipped away while their backs were turned and hid from them.
The children ran about calling for their father in a panic and then sat down on a fallen log to cry their eyes out. But, the little girl finally looked up and saw the trail of ashes and they followed it home at a run. Once they arrived home and realized that their father wasn't there yet, they decided to hide because they feared their stepmother would be cross at them for losing their father in the woods. As night came on, the air grew chill and the two scrambled up onto the roof of their family's small mud hut and curled-up close to the warm chimney. They dozed there and did not notice when their unhappy father finally arrived home from his terrible deed.
The old woman was very pleased to be rid of the children and decided that she would torment her husband a little more over his loss. After their dinner, she asked him: "Well, where are your children? Why do they not come to the table for the bones?". Upon hearing her voice rise through the chimney, the children woke and answered loudly: "Here we are mother. We are coming for our dinner." They quickly slid off of the low roof and ran into the hut. The old woman nearly burst with suppressed rage.
As soon as the children were asleep, the old woman turned her harsh tongue on the old man and called him all sorts of cruel names. She berated him for his incompetence and ordered him to try again. The old man promised that the next day he would take the children so deeply into the woods that they would never again find their way home.
The old man was more successful the next day and did lose his poor children deep in the woods. The children were terrified and clung to each other. They cried until they had no more tears left and then they cried a little more. The wild beasts howled in the woods all around them and the children did not know what to do. They remained that way for quite a while before they began to gather their senses about them and look for food. The only thing they could find to eat were roots but eating these only made them thirsty.
They looked for water but could not find a spring anywhere. Finally, they found rainwater pooled in the tracks of a fox.
The boy dropped to the ground to drink but was stopped by the girl who said: "brother, if you drink that water, you'll turn into a fox and there will be no one to look after me." The boy loved his sister dearly and did not drink the water. Soon, they came upon rainwater collected in the tracks of a big bear. The boy was nearly delirious with thirst but the little girl warned him: "brother, do not drink that water or you will become a bear and kill me.". The boy again did not drink. Later, they came upon rainwater pooled in the tracks of a stag and the boy could not be persuaded to not drink the water. He dropped to his knees and drank.
As soon as he drank the water, he was turned into a magnificent golden stag. His body was all shining gold and he had gems sparkling at the tips of his antlers. He was so beautiful that the wind stopped blowing because it was awed at the sight of him.
There was a cradle of silken thread strung between the stag's antlers and the former boy knelt before his disbelieving sister with big tears in his eyes and told her to climb into the cradle. The girl did so and off they went together to make their home in the dark woods. The stag built a nest for his little sister up high in a tree to keep her safe from animals and men. They lived that way for many years until a King's son went hunting in the woods for birds and spied a marvelously beautiful maiden high up in the trees. The little girl had grown up into a maiden whose beauty surpassed even the Fairy Queen's. She had shining black hair and big black eyes and the prince's heart was lost to her from the moment he first saw her perched high in her nest.
The prince abandoned the hunt and returned home to his kingdom immediately. Once there, he sent word to all of the wise women that he would pay a very handsome reward to the one who won for him the hand of the beautiful girl hidden in the forest tree. The wisest of all the wise women of the kingdom went to the prince and pledged that she would bring him this girl as his bride. Off went the wise woman to the woods to seek the girl.
The wise woman soon arrived near the tree where the girl lived and settled down to watch the girl from a hiding place. Soon, the girl's brother arrived and the old woman was amazed to see the beautiful golden stag bringing the tree-top maiden roots to eat. After the girl had eaten, the stag helped her down from her tree and off they went together for a walk in the woods. When the two returned to the tree, the girl kissed the stag and he helped her climb again into the safety of her tree-top home. From her hidden vantage point the wise woman watched this routine carried out for many days and still did not know what to think of it all.
The wise woman thought and thought for many days about how she could woo the girl for the love-struck prince. She could not speak the strange language of the golden stag, so she decided it would be best to lure the girl down from the safety of her tree. Once decided upon a plan, the wise woman returned to the prince's kingdom to ask the King for the things she needed to carry-out her plan.
She asked for and received two horses, a cart, a trivet, a bucket, and a jug of water, and then set off for the woods. Upon arriving at the woods, she left the cart and carried her supplies to the base of the girl's tree. Once there, she lit a small fire and placed the trivet upon it upside down. The girl was watching the wise woman and called down to her to tell her that she had placed the trivet the wrong way around. The wise woman kept placing the trivet the wrong way despite the girl's helpful instructions until she finally had it right. The girl was much amazed that such an old woman would not know how to do such a simple task.
Next the wise woman placed the bucket upside down on the trivet and poured the water on it. The wise woman despaired aloud that she would ever get her water boiled and the girl was quick to offer her help from the top of her tree. She told the old woman to turn the bucket the other way around but it took many instructions before the old woman got it right. This time the girl asked the old woman how it was that she should have lived so long but still did not know how to do such a simple thing as boiling water. The wise woman lied and said that she had been a wealthy woman whose servants had done everything for her but that now she was poor and all of her belongings were burned into ash and she had to live in the woods and fend for herself.
Well, upon hearing this woeful tale, the girl felt very sorry for the old woman and offered to climb down from the safety of her tree to boil the water for the wise woman. This was exactly what the wise woman had planned. As soon as the girl's feet touched the ground, the wise woman grabbed her and put a gag on her mouth. Then she called to the groom who had accompanied her and they carried the frightened girl to the cart and drove off to the prince's kingdom.
When they arrived at the palace, the prince was overjoyed at seeing the girl and asked her to marry him immediately. The girl was quite shocked by the whole turn of events but found herself pleased with the handsome and earnest young man. She accepted his proposal and the betrothal was celebrated lavishly that very night with the wedding to occur very soon afterwards.
Meanwhile, the stag had discovered that his beloved sister was missing and he went about crying for her so pitifully that all who heard him felt a deep sympathy for his plight. However, the stag soon noticed the footprints and the marks of a scuffle on the ground. He followed the footprints until he came to wheel marks and then he followed them to the palace gate. There he began to cry again and the girl heard her brother's voice and ran to him. She told the prince that this wondrous golden stag with the jeweled horns was her brother and the prince invited him to live in a beautiful gilt stable and feed on the sweetest grasses in the kingdom.
All were happy now because the prince and the girl had fallen deeply in love and the stag and his sister were able to be together and safe. Or so they thought, but they did not count on the machinations of a certain spurned evil sorceress. This evil sorceress hated the new princess because she had been the prince's sweetheart before his marriage. Now that the prince was in love and married, he had no interest in his former favorite and the evil sorceress decided to kill the girl in order to get revenge.
The evil sorceress bided her time. One day both the stag and the prince were away and the evil sorceress knew that this might be her only chance to rid herself of the hated princess. She approached the girl and invited her to go pick wild flowers in the woods. The girl was very pleased with the suggestion and off they went together. Once the girl had become thirsty, the evil sorceress offered her a cup of water into which she had placed a terrible sleeping potion that would make the girl sleep so deeply that she would seem to be dead. The girl did not suspect that the evil sorceress meant her any harm and drank the water gratefully. As soon as she had drunken it, she fell to the ground in deepest slumber and her face was turned yellow. The evil sorceress planned to let the animals of the forest kill and eat the poor girl while she returned to the prince and assumed the girl's identity.
The evil sorceress took the princess' beautiful clothes and put them on herself and then made herself look like the poor girl. She returned to the palace and pretended to be the princess. Since she had made-up her face so cleverly and since she disguised her voice, no one suspected anything. Only the stag knew that the evil sorceress was an imposter and that his sister was missing. He butted her and stamped his hooves whenever she came near him. This made the evil sorceress nervous and she tried to convince the prince that the stag was sick and needed to be killed.
The prince did not relish the idea of destroying his brother-in-law and did not agree to kill the stag. The stag, realizing that no one else suspected that this girl was not his sister, set off into the woods to find her by himself. He found her quickly enough and set off for the palace to get help in reviving her. He ran up to the prince and ran off again and kept doing this repeatedly in order to get the prince to follow him to his true wife. Because the stag looked at him so piteously, the prince finally followed him along with some of his men.
When they came to the spot where the girl lay sleeping, the prince thought she was dead. He was nearly mad with grief and bade his men to transport his beloved home to the palace as fast as possible. Once there, he called all of the doctors and wizards in the kingdom to the palace to try to bring her back to life. One of them realized right away that the princess was only sleeping and he revived her with little trouble. Once the girl was awake, she was able to tell her husband what had happened. The prince ordered the evil sorceress stoned to death for trying to murder his wife and the prince, princess and stag lived happily ever after.
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