Once there was a mother with three daughters, poorer than ever. So much that one day, one of these three girls said: “Listen, rather than stay here and suffer, I want to leave for the world to see if I find my fortune.” And so he took and left.
She walked and walked until she came across a building. She saw the door open and said: “I’ll go up and see if you need a servant.” She went up and said:” Hey, at home! “ Nobody answered her. So she went into the kitchen, and saw that there was a boiling pot. Opened a sideboard and saw that there was bread, there was rice, there were bottles of wine, there was everything, and said: “ There’s everything here, I’m hungry so I’m immediately making a nice soup .
While she was saying these words, she saw two hands setting the table. The hands put a plate of rice on the table, and the girl said, “Then I eat,” and immediately started to eat. Eaten the rice, the hands brought a chicken, and the girl ate everything. “ Oh yes, “ she said “ I was really weak, but now I’m a bit better.”
Went around the building and saw a beautiful reception room, a dining room, a bedroom with a canopy.
“Look at that beautiful bed! Now I lie down! ” In fact, she slept there all night.
In the morning, as soon as she woke up, the usual two hands appeared with the coffee tray. She drank the coffee, and those hands took the cup away from the tray. She got dressed and went into a large room, where there was a large closet full of clothes, shawls, skirts and all the display that can be worn. The girl stripped off all her miseries and dressed like a great Queen. If before she was beautiful, dressed like that she was beyond beautiful.
There was a pergola and the beauty looked out: just in that moment, a King was passing by. This King saw the beautiful young woman and asked her how he could talk to her because he really liked her at first. The girl replied that he had neither a father nor a mother, but that if he went over again, she would have given him an answer. The King made many bows and went away with his carriage.
The girl returned to the house , went to the fireplace, and started to say: “Dear Sir, I found myself in this palace without seeing anyone, and now I would have this King who has an inclination: what should I tell him when he comes to hear an answer?”
From the hearth, she heard a voice replying to her: “Ah, be blessed, how beautiful you are and more and more beautiful you will become! Tell him that you have a poor, sick and lonely grandfather, who is happy to marry you, as long as you do not wait so long for the wedding. Now go, how beautiful you are and more and more beautiful you will become “. And the girl became ever more beautiful.
The next day, she went to the balcony and in that moment the King passed by: as soon as he saw her, he asked for his answer. She replied that she couldn’t let him in because she has her poor sick grandfather. But his grandfather was happy that they get married, as long as they did it soon, and in the meantime they will make love by talking on the balcony. The King was all cheerful.
They made love from the balcony for eight days. After eight days, the girl went under the fireplace and said:” Grandfather, we have been making love for eight days. What does you say?”
The grandfather replied to her: “Take it as a groom, and start taking away all the stuff from home. What I recommend is that you do not leave me anything: remember it well, mind: you have to take away everything! And now go, how beautiful you are and the more beautiful you will become”. And she became ever more beautiful.
She went to the balcony and as soon as she saw the King she told him to prepare the wedding and in the meantime he should have made carriages and horses come to take away everything in the building. Eight days went by to take away stuff. And the king said to his father: “Look, dad, what a beautiful thing this bride has. not even us who are Kings own such beautiful things. And you’ll see, then, what a beautiful girl!”
In the meantime, the girlfriend had swept the whole building, and threw away brooms and trash. Now everything was empty. There was only one gold necklace, which she wanted to put on when she went out, and left it hanging on a nail. Meanwhile, from the balcony, she saw the King coming with his coach, then she went to the fireplace and said, “Grandfather, look, I’m going away, because my husband came to get me.
Do not worry, I took everything away and even swept the building”.
“Brava, – said the grandfather, – I thank you: you are beautiful and the more beautiful you will become.”
More and more beautiful, the girl climbed into the carriage, embraced by the King and so they left. Halfway she touched the neck and exclaimed: “ Ah, poor thing, I forgot my gold necklace … Fast, let’s go back!”
The King said:” Eh, leave it there, we’ll make another one even more beautiful!”
But she wanted to go back at all costs. She dismounted from the couch and climbed into the palace while the King waited for her down.
The girl went to the fireplace and said: “ Grandpa?”
“What do you want?”
“For heaven’s sake, forgive me, for I have forgotten my golden necklace,” and so saying she removed it from the nail.
“ Go away from here!” shouted the voice from the chimney “ Go away, ugly bearded! I told you so much to take everything away and not forget anything! Go away, ugly bearded!”
At that moment, the girl was putting on her necklace, and she felt some fur under her fingers. She looked at herself in the mirror: she had a long beard up to half his chest.
When she got off the stairs, the groom put his hands in his hair. “I told you not to go back! Now how do I tell my father that you were so beautiful? I can not take you home anymore.
Here I have a cottage in the woods and I will keep you there.”
So he did, and every day he went to visit her, because he still loved her, and did not miss anything. The thing went on for a while, until it reached the King’s ear that his son made love with a bearded man. Then the king called his son and said to him: “How do you think a king can make love with a woman with a beard? The dignity of the Crown vanish! Either you abandon her, or I let her die!”
The young man went to the girl and said, “Look, I have something to tell you. My father came to know that I make love with a bearded woman and told me that if I do not abandon you, they will send you to death. Tell me where you want us to run away.”
“You only have to do me this pleasure,” said the girl “ make me a black veil and a black velvet dress, and take me to my grandfather, who we will ask for help. The Prince brought the dress and the veil and so dressed and muffled, got into the carriage and went to the palace.
She went under the fireplace and said: “Grandfather?”
“Who is there?”
“It’s me, grandpa!”
“What do you want, ugly bearded?”
“Blessed grandfather, listen, I’m condemned to death because of you …”
“Because of me? Did I not tell you to take everything away and do not forget anything? If you did not forget the golden necklace, I would be freed from my spell, and instead I had to start my condemnation from the beginning!”
“Grandpa, “ said the girl, “ I do not ask for the beauty I had in this building, but I would at least like the face of when I arrived. So, grandfather, give me charity, I’ll do it again as I was before.”
“Well,” said the grandfather, “have you forgotten anything?
“No, no,” she said to a girl, “I hold the gold necklace I had left hanging on a nail.
“So,” said her grandfather, “put it round your neck, how beautiful you are, the more beautiful you will become.”
The girl put the gold necklace around her neck and the beard suddenly disappeared
“ Grandpa! Thank you! and Goodbye!”
“Go ahead,” said the grandfather, “how beautiful you are, the more beautiful you will become.” And the girl had become so beautiful that she looked like the sun.
She ran down the stairs and went to the groom’s carriage. He, seeing her as beautiful as before and even more than before, gladly embraced her and said: “Now my father will not condemn you to death; and he will not even say that to make love with you goes with the dignity of the Crown!”
In fact, when he arrived at the royal palace, his father appeared:
“Here,” said the son, “the ugly bearded woman with whom I make love.
“Ah,” said the old King, “my son, you are right; more beautiful than everything”
He embraced her, and gave orders for the wedding, and in the meantime he wanted her to go to the balcony, so that she could have been seen by all the people. Immediately, under the balcony gathered so many people, and when they saw the beautiful young woman, they shouted “Long live the new Queen!”
After a few days, they married with marmots in jam, peeled rats, skinned cats, monkeys in a pan; they ate it that day and got enough for days to come; last of all it was a branch of rosemary, and they did not even say: “take a glass of wine”.