Illustration from The Queen Bee, a Grimm fairy tale about kindness to animals and a prince who succeeds through compassion.
This is a traditional tale collected by the Brothers Grimm.
The story is presented here in its original form.
Two king’s sons once went out into the world to seek their fortunes, but they fell into a wild, disorderly way of living, so that they never came home again. The youngest, who was called Simpleton, set out to seek his brothers, but when at last he found them, they laughed at him, and said it was useless for him, who was so simple, to try to make his way in the world, when they had failed.
However, they all three went on together, and came to an ant-hill. The two eldest wanted to break it open, to see the little ants running about in their terror and carrying their eggs away. But Simpleton said, “Leave the creatures in peace; I will not allow you to disturb them.”
Then they went further and came to a lake, where many, many ducks were swimming. The two brothers wanted to catch a couple and roast them, but Simpleton would not allow it, and said, “Leave the creatures in peace; I will not allow you to kill them.”
At last they came to a bees’ nest, where there was so much honey that it ran down the trunk of the tree. The two wanted to make a fire beneath the tree and suffocate the bees, so that they might take the honey. But Simpleton again held them back and said, “Leave the creatures in peace; I will not allow you to burn them.”
The three brothers at last came to a castle, where many stone horses stood in the stables, and no living being was to be seen, and they went through all the halls until they came to a door at the end of which were three locks. But in the middle of the door there was a little pane, through which they could see into the room. There they saw a little grey man sitting at a table.
They called to him once, twice, but he did not hear them. At last they called for the third time, and he rose, opened the locks, and came out. But he said nothing, and led them to a richly spread table, and when they had eaten and drunk, he showed each of them to a bedroom.
The next morning the little grey man came to the eldest, beckoned to him, and led him to a stone tablet on which were written three tasks, by the performance of which the castle could be delivered.
The first was this: in the forest beneath the moss lay the pearls belonging to the king’s daughter, a thousand in number, and they must all be found; and if by sunset one were missing, he who had sought them should be turned into stone.
The eldest went and sought all day, but when evening came, he had found only a hundred, and it happened as was written on the tablet—he was turned into stone.
The next day the second brother undertook the adventure, but it fared no better with him; he did not find more than two hundred pearls, and was turned into stone.
At last it came to Simpleton’s turn. He sought the pearls in the moss, but it was so difficult to find them, and it went so slowly, that he sat down on a stone and wept. While he was sitting there, the king of the ants, whose life he had once saved, came with five thousand ants, and it was not long before the little creatures had found all the pearls and laid them in a heap.
The second task was to fetch the key of the princess’s bedchamber out of the lake. When Simpleton came to the lake, the ducks which he had saved swam towards him, dived down, and brought up the key from the bottom.
The third task was the hardest of all: of the three sleeping daughters of the king, the youngest and loveliest was to be chosen. But they were exactly alike, and had nothing to distinguish them except that before they went to sleep they had eaten different sweetmeats—the eldest a piece of sugar, the second a little syrup, and the youngest a spoonful of honey.
Then the queen of the bees, whom Simpleton had protected from the fire, came and tasted the lips of all three, and at last she remained sitting on the lips of her who had eaten the honey, and so the prince knew the right one.
Then the enchantment was at an end; everything was delivered from sleep, and those who had been turned into stone awoke and returned to life.
Simpleton married the youngest and sweetest princess, and after the king’s death he inherited the kingdom, and his two brothers married the other two sisters.