KING GRISLY-BEARD
RETOLD FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM
Once there was a great King who had a daughter that was very beautiful, but so haughty and vain she thought none of the Princes who came to ask her in marriage were good enough for her, and she made sport of them.
One day the King, her father, held a great feast, and invited all the Princes at once. They sat in a row, according to their rank—Kings and Princes and Dukes and Earls. Then the Princess came in, and passed down the line by them all; but she had something disagreeable to say to every one. The first was too fat. “He’s as round as a tub!” she said. The next one was too tall. “What a flag-pole!” she declared. The next was too short. “What a dumpling!” was her comment. The fourth was too pale, and so she called him “Wall-face.” The fifth was too red, and was named “Coxcomb.”
Thus she had some joke upon every one, but she laughed more than all at a good King who was there. “Look at him,” said she; “his beard is like an old mop. I call him ‘Grisly-Beard.’” So after that the good King got the nickname of “Grisly-Beard.”
Now the old King, her father, was very angry when he saw how badly his daughter behaved, and how she treated all his friends. So he said that, willing or unwilling, she should marry the first beggar that came to the door! All the Kings and Nobles heard him say this.
Two days afterward a traveling singer came by. When he began to sing and beg alms the King heard him and said: “Let him come in.” So they brought in a dirty-looking fellow, and he sang before the King and the Princess. When he begged a gift the King said: “You have sung so well that I will give you my daughter for your wife.”
“you have sung so well i will give you my daughter for your wife”
The Princess begged for mercy, but her father said: “I shall keep my word.” So the parson was sent for, and she was married to the singer. Then the King said: “You must get ready; you can’t stay here any longer; you must travel on with your husband.”