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[ This, of course, is absurd, as each was equally interested in the business; but it seems to indicate a vague reminiscence of the adventures of the Princes in the story of The Envious Sisters.]
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[ There is a naivete about this that is particularly refreshing.]
420 ([return])
[ This recalls the fairy Meliora, in the romance of Partenopex de Blois. who "knew of ancient tales a countless store.">[
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[ In a Norwegian folk-tale the hero receives from a dwarf a magic ship that could enlarge itself so as to contain any number of men, yet could be earned m the pocket.]
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[ The Water of Life, the Water of Immortality, the Fountain of Youth—a favourite and wide-spread myth during the Middle Ages. In the romance of Sir Huon of Bordeaux the hero boldly encounters a griffin, and after a desperate fight, in which he is sorely wounded, slays the monster. Close at hand he discovers a clear fountain, at the bottom of which is a gravel of precious stones. "Then he dyde of his helme and dranke of the water his fyll, and he had no sooner dranke therof but incontynent he was hole of all his woundys." Nothing more frequently occurs in folk tales than for the hero to be required to perform three difficult and dangerous tasks—sometimes impossible, without supernatural assistance.]