The Lazy Threesome

An old king, with death approaching, remembered that he had not yet decided to which of his three sons he would leave his kingdom. As he thought about this, he realised that there was only one thing which they knew how to do well, and that was nothing! So he decided he would leave his throne on the son who was best of all at doing nothing. He called the three princes to him and began to question them.

‘I am so lazy,’ said the first, ‘what if a grain of dust lands in my eye while I am falling asleep, rather than go to the effort of getting it out, I prefer to forget about sleeping and remain all night with my eyes open,’

‘Ah but if I,’ said the second prince, ‘should sit near the fire to warm myself, why, rather than tax myself by moving my feet, I let them get burnt by the flames.’

‘I am so lazy,’ boasted the third prince at this point, ‘that if I were being hung and I was given a knife to cut the rope, I would let myself strangle to death, rather than make the effort of raising my hand.’

‘That really is astonishing!’ thought the old king. ‘You couldn’t get lazier that that! The throne is yours!’ he said, turning to the third and laziest of the three princes.

The Magic Fish Bone

Once upon a time there was a man who had twelve children, but was not able to give them enough to eat. Alice, the obedient and hard working eldest daughter, became very thin, and it was, perhaps, for this reason that the Sea Fairy took pity on her and brought her a gift of a sardine, telling her to be sure to keep the bone after she had eaten the fish. ‘It is a magic fish bone,’ the Sea Fairy told Alice, ‘and it will grant you one wish, but only one. So be sure to use it wisely.’

Alice was tempted on many occasions to use her magic fish bon; when one of her brothers was ill; when her sister was lost; but he always managed to put she always managed to put things right by herself, without resorting to the magic.

One day, however, Alice found her father in desperate poverty: he had no money left at all. ‘Is there no way to find any money?’ she asked, worriedly. ‘No, I have already done every thing possible!’ her father replied, sadly. ‘Well, then, if there really is no other answer….,’ and the young girl put her hand in her pocket and stroked the fish bone.

The Sea Fairy appeared and at once set about resolving all their problems: she even managed to find a handsome young man who married Alice, so that she never again felt the need to use the services of a magic fish bone!

The Wolf and the Shepherd

A certain wolf got into the habit of following a flock of sheep without ever attacking any of them. As a result, after some time the shepherd began to think of the wolf as more of a guardian than an enemy. One day the shepherd had to go to the city on business, and it seemed natural for him to leave his flock in the care of the wolf.

When he returned that evening, every single one of his sheep had been killed. The shepherd thought long and hard over what had happened, and, in the end, realised that it was completely his own fault: whoever puts his faith in wicked friends should expect no better.

The Lucky Snowdrop

Somehow a ray of sunlight penetrated the snow on the ground and the flower, hidden underneath, thought that the spring had come. It stretched up, lengthening its stem as far as it could, and made a little hole in the icy roof, so that it could peek out at the world.

Oh dear! It had made a terrible mistake. It was still winter. Everyone laughed at the silly snowdrop, which would have died from the cold if a little boy had not picked it and taken it home. The snowdrop was put in a vase of water in a warm room, and it felt like a king.

Not long after, the little boy’s big sister took the flower from the vase and put it in an envelope with a letter. The snowdrop would not read, but it somehow knew that the words in the letter were beautiful. After a long and uncomfortable journey in a bag with other letters and packages, the snowdrop found itself lifted gently out of the envelop by a young man who put the flower to his lips and gave it a loving kiss.

The young man became a great poet who remembered the lovely snowdrop in his poems, and it became famous. So, even though it might have been rather silly, it was still a lucky snowdrop

The Lute-Playing Queen

During the Crusades, the tsar was taken prisoner by the Turks. He wrote at once to his wife, asking her to pay the ransom demanded for his freedom, but he heard nothing.

One day, sometime later, a lute-player arrived at the sultan’s palace. He played so brilliantly that the sultan insisted he stay at the palace as a quest, and the finally offered him anything in his kingdom as payment. The lute-player asked to take away the tsar as his leave, and the sultan kept his promise.

They journeyed a long way, and when at last they were near the capital city of the whole of Russia, the lute-player suddenly freed his new slave and, without saying another word, disappeared.

At court, the unexpected return of the tsar caused great joy and excitement. The only unhappy aspect was that the tsar refused to see his wife. ‘She didn’t even bother to pay the ransom to free me from captivity.’ He sighed.

The tsar was about to condemn his uncaring queen to death, when he heard the gentle strains of a lute and the mysterious musician reappeared. At last, the tsar recognised his queen in her disguise, and realised that her cunning had freed him. Thus it was a day of great rejoicing for everyone.

The Cockerel and the Weathercock

Fixed to the roof of the farmhouse was one of those metal cocks which show which way the wind is blowing. This weathercock, so high above the other farmyard animals, was in a very good position to crow. Instead, he never made a sound.

The farmyard cockerel, on the other hand, was very proud of his red crest and his loud ‘cock-a-doodle-doos’. In fact, he liked boasting so much to the hens and the little chickens that he sometimes told very big lies.

‘Cockerel can lay eggs as well, you know,’ he said one day to the hens.

‘But they only ever lay one egg in their whole lives, Hah, but that one egg contains a dragon which is so terrifying that men die as soon as they set eyes on it. So you see, humans are very scared of us, and the real masters of the world are us cockerels, not men at all.’

Naturally the weathercock heard every word of this. He merely snorted. He had seen so many things and heard so many empty words in his long life that noting surprised him anymore. He knew very well that the cockerel’s boasts were nothing but hot air, but he felt so superior that he did not even bother to contradict him.

And, in the end, whether the cockerel of the weathercock was more important is a difficult question.

The Great Issumboshi

Issuboshi was a tiny Japanese man who was so small that he was really of no use at all at working in the fields. For this reason, his grandfather decided to send him to the city so that he might learn to become a valiant samurai warrior. As he was leaving, his grandfather gave him a wooden cup as a gift, to use a boat, his mother gave him two long grains of rice, to use as oars, and his father gave him a pin, to use as a sword.

The journey was full of dangers, especially when you consider that a frog was the size of an elephant next to little Issumboshi. However, the young man soon learnt how to look after himself, and, because of his great courage and intelligence, the arrived at the city safe and sound.

He found the streets deserted; everybody was cowering indoors for fear of a fierce giant who was terrorising the city. Issumboshi did not hesitate for a moment, and strode straight out to face this terrible enemy. Small as he was, he found it easy to avoid the monster’s clumsy blows. And he found it just as easy to sink his sword into the huge body, until the giant finally crashed to the ground, in agony from thousands of tiny wounds.

‘What a mighty warrior,’ shouted onlookers joyfully. Issumboshi felt taller than the giant.

The Lazy Girl and the Three Spinning Women

There was once a young girl who was so lazy that one day, in sheer desperation, her mother began to beat her. At that very moment, the queen happened to pass by and, hearing the commotion, she went in to see what the cause was. The mother was so ashamed of the truth of the matter that what she finally said was the exact opposite: ‘My daughter insists on working day and night on her spinning wheel, but I can’t afford the flax.’

The queen had always been very impressed by people who worked hard, and so she look the young woman to the palace and left her with three huge chambers full of flax, ‘When you have spun this flax,’ said the queen, ‘you shall marry my son.’

The young girl obviously did not even know where to begin. Luckily her three cousins came to her aid, and they were all highly skilled spinners. Unfortunately, as a result of acquiring this skill, one had an enormous foot from constantly working the pedal to make the wheel turn; the second had a thumb which was horribly swollen from twisting the flax, and the third, from constantly wetting the flax, had a grotesquely wetting the flax, had q grotesquely large bottom lip.

When the queen’s son, the prince, saw the three cousins, he at once ordered his wife-to-be never go to near a spinning wheel again.

The fox and the Cockerel

A hungry fox was out looking for dinner one day when he came across a plump cockerel. The cockerel, however, was very quick in getting to the safety of a branch high in a tree. The fox pretended that he was hurt by such mistrustful actions.

‘Why have you run away?’ he complained. ‘I only wanted to give you a brotherly embrace.’

‘I am not so stupid as to believe that.’ replied the cockerel.

‘Ah, so you still haven’t heard the news?’ said the fox.

‘And what exactly should I have heard?’ asked the cockerel.

‘Peace throughout the world has been proclaimed between all animals,’ announced the fox. ‘And now that we’re all brothers, ‘he went on, ‘come down here so that we can show our love and goodwill.’

‘Well, I would never have believed it’ said the cockerel, pretending to be absolutely delighted. ‘In that case it would, without a doubt, be best of all to wait for that pack of hounds that I can see over there. They’ll certainly want to show you their affection.’

The fox looked very uncomfortable. He looked up at the cockerel and said: ‘It’s not that I’m not telling you the truth, It’s just that I can’t be sure they’ve heard the good news yet.’ ‘And he ran off as fast as he could.

The Flowers from the Moon

High in the mountains lived a prince whose great wish was to journey to the moon, because he loved its gentle glow. His dream finally came true. When he reached the moon he discovered its light came from the moon king’s beautiful daughter.

The two young people soon fell in love, but the worlds they came from were just too different and soon they had a part. As a sign of her great love, the moon king’s daughter gave the prince one of the smooth and lovely flowers that covered the moon like snow and this was how the first alpine flower was brought to earth.

The Fly and the Ant

A fly and an ant got into an argument over a silly question as to who had right of way. Then fly, which has always been one of the rudest insects, said all sorts of horrible things to the unassuming ant.

‘You are such a tiny, insignificant creature,’ it said. ‘How dare you compare yourself to me, a daughter of the air? I go to the places of the greatest lords, and eat out of the plates of bishops. If I choose to, I can even walk about on the crown on the king’s head!’

Then ant waited patiently for the fly to finish, and then he answered carefully: ‘Yes I know that you can land on heads, but you are not even capable of distinguishing between the head of a king and the head of an ass. Furthermore, it is not as if you are welcomed in places….. But why am I wasting my time with you when I should be off gathering supplies for the winter? Although ants may be tiny, we are wise, and the cold doesn’t kill us. You flies can fly up high….but when the first cold comes, but fall to the ground, along with the dry leaves, and what good to you are your wings then!’

The Hole in the Water

A young man who was alone in the world decided to get married. He was handsome and rich, but it seemed that in the whole land there was not the right wife for him: either they were too young, or too old, or already betrothed. There remained just one lovely young maiden, whom he had met at the well, but she seemed to be a bit mad. Not only did she say that her stepmother was a fairy, but she also insisted that her stepmother would only allow her to marry a man who could perform a certain very difficult task. ‘What is that?’ asked the young man. ‘He has to make a hole in the water.’

‘That’s impossible,’ exclaimed the young man. ‘You will never find a husband.’

‘Yes, I will find one,’ replied the young girl. ‘My stepmother says that when someone is truly in love, they can even work miracles.’

The young man was truly in love, but he had no idea how to slove the problem. He sighed and suffered for a long time but he did not give up. Then one day he found that the well had frozen over. Suddenly he understood. Seizing a stout stick, he made a hole in the frozen surface…..and so he was able to marry the beautiful maiden.

The Little Piggy Bank

The little piggy bank was so full of coins that it did not even rattle when it was shaken. It stood on the highest shelf in the playroom, and it must be said that it looked very handsome indeed, being made for shiny porcelain and painted with little blue flowers.

Because of its great wealth, the piggy bank was much respected, by all the other toys. Often, at night, the theatrical puppets would perform just of its pleasure, and the doll spent all her time singing or sighing in the hope that the piggy bank would notice her and ask her to marry it. The little tin soldiers marched endlessly to and fro in front of the shelves to ensure that no thief ever tried to rob the piggy bank.

One day, however, on of the children of the house tried to push another coin in through the slot on the piggy bank’s back, but it was no full already that it simply shattered into thousands of pieces.

Somebody gathered up the coins and swept up the pieces and a new piggy bank was bought to replace the old one. It was still empty and so it did not rattle either, and in this respect it was not so very different from the old one.

The Frightened Cake

Once there was a mother who was always baking cakes for her children. One day she prepared a cake with so much love that when she took it out of the oven, even her spoilt children’s mouths watered.

‘Dear mother, kind mother,’ her greedy and impatient children begged her, ‘hurry up and give us a slice.’

‘wait until it cools down and you can eat it all.’ was the reply.

But when the cake heard the fate that was in store for it, it was terrified. The cake jumped out of the dish, rolled off like a wheel, out of the door, and then disappeared down the road.

The Seven Wives of Bluebeard

In a distant town lived a very rich man with a sinister reputation. It was widely known that he had already been married six times and, on account of his beard, which was a fearful blue shade, it was whispered that he was really an ogre. He became known as ‘Bluebeard’.

One day another maiden accepted his proposal of marriage, and at first everything seemed to go well. The husband gave every key he had to his new wife. What is more, he told her she could do anything she wished, forbidding her only to open one small room in the house.

This one strange order made the new wife very curious, and one day, as soon as Bluebeard had gone out, she ran to open the door to the little room….She almost died of fright; in the room she found the bodies of the other six wives of Bluebeard. The seventh wife, still shaking with fear, had scarcely close the door when Bluebeard stomped in.

‘Now,’ shrieked the ogre, ‘you’ll go back into that little room, and this time you’ll stay there with the other six that you should never have seen.’

But, by good fortune, the seventh wife did not suffer the same fate as the others. At that very moment, her two brothers, who were valiant soldiers, arrived and slew her evil husband, to save her from a horrible end.

The Wedding of the Mice

The dream fairy woke up young Johnny, ‘Hurry,’ she urged, ‘urged, ‘there are two mice about to be married underneath the floorboards and we’ve been invited. It’ll be a splendid occasion.’

Even though he was really still asleep, Johnny rose from his bed in as instant. ‘I’d love to go.’ He said excitedly, ‘but how will I ever get down that tiny hole?’

The dream fairy waved her magic wand and Johnny became so small that he was able to put on a uniform that a tin soldier was king enough to lend him. A thimble was the perfect size for a carriage drawn by a small mouse. The banquet hall was crowded. All the guests were licking the walls, which were made of lard, and the tables were made of slabs of real cheese. The bride and bridegroom were sitting in a hollow dug in a large piece of cheese and were embracing happily. Every so often they threw pumpkin seeds over the quests.

Johnny had a wonderful time, until finally the dream fairy told him that it was time to go home and he was suddenly back in bed, sound asleep as before.