Free The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics) by Franz Xaver von Schonwerth Page B

bolt toward a fire-breathing dragon guarding the prisoners, and he rescued them and won the battle.
    The king was so pleased that he would have been happy to give Lousehead one of his daughters in marriage, but none of them wanted to marry him. And so he went back to the garden and carried out his many chores there. One day the sun wasbeating down so hard on his back that he could barely stand it anymore. He tore the cap off his head and dragged himself into the shade. A beautiful pair of eyes was following his every movement.
    After a time the king became ill, and the doctors were unable to help him. It was proclaimed that the person who could heal him would receive the hand of one of the princesses. Many suitors appeared but they were unappealing. The young gardener answered the call as well. He wanted to do something to make the king feel better, and he decided to give him some medicinal roots, which just happened to work. The king rose up from his bed, summoned his daughters, and said: “Which one of you wants to marry Lousehead?” The two eldest remained silent, but the youngest smiled, gave him her hand, and then took off his cap. Everyone could now see that he had golden locks rather than an itchy scalp.

SEVEN WITH ONE BLOW!
    A tailor went out into the world one day, sword by his side. After a while, he was exhausted and took a nap, falling asleep right on top of his hat. When he woke up, red flies were buzzing all over some cow dung in the road. He found them so annoying that he took out his sword and killed seven of them. Then he pulled out the chalk he used in his trade and wrote on his hat: “Seven with one blow!”
    A kitchen boy working for a count happened to be walking in the same direction as the tailor and read the words on his hat. He rushed ahead to let the count know about this fellow. The count was eager to see the brave tailor as soon as possible, and he sent several men out to request an audience.
    The count told him: “There are three giants terrorizing my lands. If you can defeat them, you will win my castle, my lands, and the hand of my daughter.” The count’s huntsmen took the tailor deep into the forest and left him there to fend for himself.
    The tailor was terrified and climbed up a tree to take a look around. Just then some giants were gathering right beneath the tree in which he was perched. They made a fire, ate, drank, and went to sleep. The tailor took some stones and let one drop on the chest of the shortest giant, then another on the fellow sleeping next to him, and finally he dropped one on the tallest. The giants started quarreling among themselves, and each one was sure that the other had been trying to disturb his sleep. The tallest of the three rose up and grabbed the two others by the throat, choking them until they dropped dead.
    The tailor climbed down the tree, chopped off the heads ofall three, and skewered their tongues with his sword. He took everything to the count and said: “I’ve now rid the land of those three oafs for you, and it was really no trouble at all.”
    The lady of the castle was insulted that her beautiful, proud daughter would have to marry a tailor. She persuaded the count to send the good-natured lad into the woods to do battle with a dangerous unicorn. Once again the count’s men took the tailor into the woods and left him there completely on his own. Before long the unicorn came galloping through the woods. The tailor quickly hid behind a tall aspen tree. The wild beast charged the tree, and its horn got stuck in the tree trunk. The unicorn was unable to move.
    The tailor returned to the count to let him know that he had caught that old “billy goat” out in the woods, and the count’s men could bring him back whenever they wanted.
    The count’s wife still didn’t want to have anything to do with the tailor. The count himself had to ask the tailor to fight his enemies, who were making rapid advances on his territory. He told the tailor to