Donkey skin

A poetic tale begins with a description of the happy life of the brilliant king, his beautiful and faithful wife, and their lovely little daughter. They lived in a magnificent palace, in a rich and flourishing country. In the royal stable next to the frisky horses, "a fat donkey hung peacefully ears." "The Lord adjusted his womb so much that if he sometimes spoiled it, so did gold and silver."

But "in the heyday of magnificent years, the wife of the ruler was suddenly defeated by an ailment." Dying, she asks her husband "to go a second time to the crown only with that chosen one, who will finally be more beautiful and worthy of me." The husband “swore to her across the river of tears of the insane in all that she had expected ... Among the widowers he was one of the noisiest! So cried, sobbed ... "However," not a year has passed since the shameless matchmaking is at stake. " But only her own daughter surpasses the deceased in beauty, and the father, inflamed with a criminal passion, decides to marry the princess. She desperately goes to her godmother, a good fairy, who lives "in the wilderness of forests, in the cave darkness, between shells, coral, mother of pearl." To upset a terrible wedding, the godmother advises the girl to demand from her father a wedding outfit of a shade of clear days. "The task is tricky - not feasible." But the king “tailors clicked the craftsmen and ordered from high throne chairs that he should have a present ready for tomorrow — otherwise he would hang them for an hour!” And in the morning they carry “tailors a wonderful gift”. Then the fairy advises the goddaughter to demand silk "lunar, unusual - he can not get it." The king calls for gold seamstresses - and in four days the dress is ready. The princess almost surrenders to her father in delight, but, “forced by her godmother,” she asks for an outfit of “wonderful sunny flowers”. The king threatens the jeweler with terrible torture - and in less than a week he creates a "porphyry from porphyry." - What is unseen - new things! - the fairy whispers contemptuously and orders to demand from the sovereign the skin of a precious donkey. But the king’s passion is stronger than stinginess - and the princess is immediately brought to the skin.

Here, “the cruel godmother found that disgust is inappropriate on the paths of good,” and on the advice of the fairy the princess promises the king to marry him, and herself, throwing a nasty skin on her shoulders and smearing her face with soot, she runs from the palace. The girl puts wonderful dresses in a casket. The fairy gives the goddaughter a magic twig: "As long as he is in your hand, the casket will crawl behind you in the distance, like a mole hiding underground."

Royal messengers in vain seek a fugitive across the country. The courtiers in despair: "no wedding, then no feasts, no cakes, then no cakes ... The chaplain was all the more upset: he had no time to have a bite in the morning and said goodbye to the wedding."

And the princess, dressed as a beggar woman, wanders along the road, looking for “even places for a poultry house, even pigs even. But the poor beggars themselves spit after. ” Finally, the farmer takes the unfortunate as a servant - “clean pork stalls and wash greasy rags. Now in the closet behind the kitchen is the princess’s courtyard. ” The impudent rural and “peasant disgusting her”, and even taunt the poor thing. She has only joys that, having locked herself in her closet on Sunday, wash herself, dress up in one or another marvelous dress and turn in front of the mirror. “Ah, the moonlight slightly pallows her, and the sun a little fills ... All better than a blue dress!”

And in these parts "the king kept a brilliant poultry yard luxurious and omnipotent." A prince with a crowd of courtiers often visited this park. "The princess from afar already fell in love with him." Ah, if he loved girls in donkey skin! - sighed the beauty. And the prince - “a heroic appearance, a fighting grip” - somehow came across at dawn on a poor hut and saw a beautiful princess in a wonderful outfit in a crack. Struck by her noble appearance, the young man did not dare to enter the shack, but, returning to the palace, “did not eat, did not drink, did not dance; to the hunt, opera, fun and girlfriends, he got cold "- and thought only of the mysterious beauty. He was told that a dirty beggar, Donkey Skin, lives in a squalid hut. The prince does not believe. “He is crying bitterly, he is sobbing” - and demands that the Donkey Skin bake a pie for him. The loving queen mother does not reread to her son, and the princess, “hearing these news”, is in a hurry to knead the dough. “They say: working extraordinarily, she ... very, very random! “I dropped the ring into the dough.” But "my opinion - there was her calculation." After all, she saw how the prince looked at her in the crack!

Having received the pie, the patient "devoured it with such a passion, greedy that, right, it seems pretty good luck that he did not swallow the ring." Since the young man in those days "lost weight terribly ... the doctors decided unanimously: the prince is dying of love." Everyone begs him to marry - but he agrees to marry only the one who can put on his finger a tiny ring with an emerald. All damsels and widows are taken to thin their fingers.

However, neither the noble nobles, nor the cute grisettes, nor the cooks and laborers, the ring did not fit. But now "a cam appeared under the donkey skin, resembling a lily." The laughter falls silent. Everyone is shocked. The princess sets off to change her clothes - and an hour later she appears in the palace, shining with dazzling beauty and luxurious outfit. The king and queen are happy, the prince is happy. Masters from all over the world convene at the wedding. The educated father of the princess, seeing her daughter, cries with joy. The prince is delighted: "what a fortunate occasion that his father-in-law is such a powerful ruler." “A sudden thunder ... The Queen of the fairies, the misfortunes of the past witness, descends her goddaughter forever to glorify virtue ..."

Moral: "It is better to endure terrible suffering than a duty of honor to change." Indeed, "with a crust of bread and water, youth can quench, while she has an outfit in a golden casket."

Blue Beard

Once upon a time there lived a very rich man who had a blue beard. She mutilated him so that, seeing this man, all the women scattered in fear. His neighbor, a noble lady, had two daughters of marvelous beauty. He asked to marry any of these girls. But none of them wanted to have a spouse with a blue beard. They did not like the fact that this man had already been married several times and no one knew what fate befell his wives.

Bluebeard invited the girls, their mother, friends and girlfriends to one of their luxurious country houses, where they had fun all week. And the youngest daughter began to think that the beard of the owner of the house is not so blue, and he himself is a very respectable man. Soon the wedding was decided.

A month later, Bluebeard told his wife that he was leaving for six weeks on business. He asked her not to be bored, have fun, call her friends, gave her the keys to all the chambers, pantries, chests and chests - and forbade her to enter only one small room.

The wife promised to obey him, and he left. Immediately, without waiting for the messengers, girlfriends came running. They could not wait to see all the riches of Bluebeard, but with him they were afraid to come. Now, admiring the house full of priceless treasures, the guests enviously extolled the newlywed's happiness, but she could only think of a small room ...

Finally, the woman left the guests and scooted headlong down the secret staircase, almost turning her neck. Curiosity conquered fear - and the beauty unlocked the door with trepidation ... In the dark room the floor was covered with gore, and on the walls hung the bodies of the former Bluebeard wives whom he had killed. In horror, the newlywed dropped the key. Raising it, she locked the door and, trembling, rushed to her room. There, a woman noticed that the key was stained with blood. The unfortunate woman cleaned the stain for a long time, but the key was magical, and the blood, wiped from one side, appeared on the other ...

That evening, Bluebeard returned. His wife greeted him with ostentatious enthusiasm. The next day he demanded from the poor thing keys. Her hands were trembling so much that he immediately guessed everything and asked: “And where is the key to the small room?” After various excuses, a blurred key had to be brought. “Why is he in the blood? Asked Bluebeard. “Did you enter a small room?” Well, ma'am, you will now remain there. ”

The woman, sobbing, rushed to her husband's legs. Beautiful and sad, she would even have softened the stone, but Bluebeard's heart was harder than the stone. "Allow me to at least pray before death," the poor thing asked. " “I give you seven minutes!” - the villain answered. Left alone, the woman called her sister and told her: “Sister Anna, look, are my brothers coming?” They promised to visit me today. ” The girl went up to the tower and from time to time said unhappy: "You can’t see anything, only the sun is burning and the grass is shining in the sun." And Bluebeard, clutching a large knife in his hand, shouted: “Come here!” - “Just a moment!” - answered the poor thing and kept asking her sister Anna if she could see the brothers? The girl noticed clouds of dust in the distance - but it was a herd of sheep. Finally she spotted two horsemen on the horizon ...

Then Bluebeard roared all over the house. A trembling wife came to him, and, grabbing her by the hair, he already wanted to cut off her head, but at that moment dragoons and a musketeer burst into the house. Having snatched the swords, they rushed to the villain. He tried to escape, but the beautiful brothers pierced him with steel blades.

The wife inherited all the wealth of Bluebeard. She gave a dowry to her sister Anna when she married a young nobleman who had long loved her; Each of the brothers, a young widow helped to achieve captain's rank, and then she married a good man who helped her forget about the horrors of her first marriage.

Moral: “Yes, curiosity is a scourge. It bothers everyone; it is born on a mountain to mortals. ”

Rike with a crest

One queen had such an ugly son that the courtiers for a long time doubted whether he was a man. But the good fairy assured that he will be very smart and will be able to endow with his mind that person whom he loves. Indeed, barely learning how to babble, the child began to say nice things. He had a small crest on his head, so the prince was nicknamed: Rike with a crest.

Seven years later, the queen of a neighboring country gave birth to two daughters; seeing the first - beautiful as day - the mother was so happy that she almost felt ill, the second girl turned out to be extremely ugly. But the same fairy predicted that the ugly girl would be very smart, and the beauty would be stupid and awkward, but she could give the beauty to someone she liked.

Girls grew up - and the beauty always had much less success than her smart sister. And then one day in the forest, where the fool went to mourn her bitter share, the unfortunate woman met the freak Rike. Having fallen in love with her in portraits, he came to the neighboring kingdom ... The girl told Rika about her trouble, and he said that if the princess decided to marry him in a year, she would become wiser right away. The beautiful woman foolishly agreed - and immediately spoke so wittily and gracefully that Rike wondered if he had given her more mind than he had left for himself? ..

The girl returned to the palace, amazed everyone with her mind and soon became the main adviser to her father; all the fans turned away from her ugly sister, and the fame of the beautiful and wise princess thundered around the world. Many princes wooed the beauty, but she tricked them all, until finally one rich, handsome and clever prince appeared ...

Walking through the woods and thinking about the choice of the groom, the girl suddenly heard a dull noise under her feet. At that moment, the earth opened, and the princess saw people preparing a sumptuous feast. “This is for Rike, tomorrow is his wedding,” they explained to the beauty. And then the shocked princess remembered that exactly one year had passed since the day she met the freak.

And soon Rick himself appeared in a magnificent wedding attire. However, the smarter princess flatly refused to marry such an ugly man. And then Rike revealed to her that she could endow her chosen one with beauty. The Princess sincerely wished that Rike became the most beautiful and gracious prince in the world - and a miracle happened!

True, others argue that the point here is not in magic, but in love. The princess, admired by the mind and loyalty of her admirer, ceased to notice his disgrace. The hump began to attach special importance to the prince's posture, a terrible limp turned into a way to lean slightly to one side, slanting eyes became captivating, and a large red nose seemed mysterious and even heroic.

The king gladly agreed to marry his daughter for such a wise prince, and the next day they played a wedding, for which smart Rike was already ready.