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Tale Summary

Once upon a time, a woman gave birth to a son who was still wrapped in his caul, and because such a thing is good luck, it was prophesied that he would marry the daughter of the king when he was fourteen years old. The king heard of this child with good luck, and convinced his parents to let him raise him, only to put the boy in a box that he tossed in the river as to get rid of a potential suitor for his daughter. The box floated on to a mill, where he was found and brought to the miller and his wife to raise. One day, when the child was fourteen years old, there was a thunderstorm and the king happened by the mill and heard the story of how the millers came about having their son and knew exactly who he was. He requested that he have the boy send a letter to the queen for him and they consented, but on the paper he wrote instructions for his wife to kill the boy. The child set out and became lost in the forest, and was very tired when he found an old woman outside of a little hut. He told her about his quest and asked to spend the night, but she warned that it was a den of thieves and he would be murdered when they came home. The boy said he was too tired to care and fell asleep. Soon after, the robbers came by, and the old woman explained that he was an innocent child that was delivering a letter to the queen. They tore open the note and read it, and saw that the boy would be killed as soon as he arrived at the castle. They felt sorry for him and wrote a new letter, which said that as soon as the boy arrived he should be married to the princess, and so after he delivered the note, there was a splendid wedding celebration. When the king arrived home, he was furious, and told the boy that if he were able to pluck three golden hairs from the devil’s head he would be able to stay with his daughter, hoping to be rid of him. He set out on his journey and came to a big town, where a watchman asked if he knew why the well in the marketplace that used to flow with wine had dried up, and the boy replied that he would tell him on his way back. The child came to another town, where another watchman asked if he knew why the town’s golden apples no longer bore fruit, and the boy replied that he would tell him on his way back. He came to another town and had to cross a river, and the ferryman asked why he was stuck rowing to and fro with no help, and the child said he would tell him on his way back. On the other side of the river the boy went through the entrance to hell and found that the devil was not home, but his grandmother was The old woman took a liking to him when he explained his situation, and turned him into an ant to hide in the folds of her skirt, and instructed him to pay close attention to what the devil said to her. Later that night, the devil laid his head on his grandmother’s lap and asked her to scratch his head for lice, and then dozed off. The old woman plucked one hair from his head and told the devil, who woke up angry, that she did it because she had a nightmare. She said that she dreamed that a well that used to overflow with wine had dried up and wondered why, and the devil said it was because a toad sat under the well, and if the creature was killed the well would flow again. He went back to sleep and she plucked another hair and again explained that she had a nightmare, this time about the golden apple tree which no longer bore fruit. He told her that there was a mouse that chewed on the roots that would need to be killed, and fell back to sleep. The old woman plucked one last hair and said she did it because she had a nightmare about a ferryman who could only row to and fro with no relief, and he told her that the solution for him would be to give the next passenger a pole so that the other would be stuck rowing forever instead. The next morning the devil left and the grandmother gave the three hairs to the boy, who thanked him and went on his way. When he traveled back through the three towns he gave the answers he had heard from the devil, and was rewarded with donkeys pulling carts full of gold. When he arrived back at the castle, the king was delighted by the gold and agreed to let him stay as his son-in-law, and asked where the treasures came from. The boy told him that across the river he had traveled, gold lay on the shore instead of sand, and the greedy king immediately set out to take some. When he got to the boat, the ferryman freed himself by giving the king an oar so that he instead would be stuck rowing to and from forever as a punishment for his sins.

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