The Crystal Ball

There was once an enchantress, who had three sons who loved each other
as brothers, but the old woman did not trust them, and thought they
wanted to steal her power from her. So she changed the eldest into an
eagle, which was forced to dwell in the rocky mountains, and was often
seen sweeping in great circles in the sky. The second, she changed into
a whale, which lived in the deep sea, and all that was seen of it was
that it sometimes spouted up a great jet of water in the air. Each of
them only bore his human form for only two hours daily. The third son,
who was afraid she might change him into a raging wild beast a bear
perhaps, or a wolf, went secretly away. He had heard that a King's
daughter who was bewitched, was imprisoned in the Castle of the Golden
Sun, and was waiting for deliverance. Those, however, who tried to free
her risked their lives; three-and-twenty youths had already died a
miserable death, and now only one other might make the attempt, after
which no more must come. And as his heart was without fear, he caught
at the idea of seeking out the Castle of the Golden Sun. He had already
travelled about for a long time without being able to find it, when he
came by chance into a great forest, and did not know the way out of it.
All at once he saw in the distance two giants, who made a sign to him
with their hands, and when he came to them they said, "We are
quarrelling about a cap, and which of us it is to belong to, and as we
are equally strong, neither of us can get the better of the other. The
small men are cleverer than we are, so we will leave the decision to
thee." "How can you dispute about an old cap?" said the youth. "Thou
dost not know what properties it has! It is a wishing-cap; whosoever
puts it on, can wish himself away wherever he likes, and in an instant
he will be there." "Give me the cap," said the youth, "I will go a
short distance off, and when I call you, you must run a race, and the
cap shall belong to the one who gets first to me." He put it on and
went away, and thought of the King's daughter, forgot the giants, and
walked continually onward. At length he sighed from the very bottom of
his heart, and cried, "Ah, if I were but at the Castle of the Golden
Sun," and hardly had the words passed his lips than he was standing on
a high mountain before the gate of the castle.

He entered and went through all the rooms, until in the last he found
the King's daughter. But how shocked he was when he saw her. She had an
ashen-gray face full of wrinkles, blear eyes, and red hair. "Are you
the King's daughter, whose beauty the whole world praises?" cried he.
"Ah," she answered, "this is not my form; human eyes can only see me in
this state of ugliness, but that thou mayst know what I am like, look
in the mirror it does not let itself be misled it will show thee my
image as it is in truth." She gave him the mirror in his hand, and he
saw therein the likeness of the most beautiful maiden on earth, and
saw, too, how the tears were rolling down her cheeks with grief. Then
said he, "How canst thou be set free? I fear no danger." She said, "He
who gets the crystal ball, and holds it before the enchanter, will
destroy his power with it, and I shall resume my true shape. Ah," she
added, "so many have already gone to meet death for this, and thou art
so young; I grieve that thou shouldst encounter such great danger."
"Nothing can keep me from doing it," said he, "but tell me what I must
do." "Thou shalt know everything," said the King's daughter; "when thou
descendest the mountain on which the castle stands, a wild bull will
stand below by a spring, and thou must fight with it, and if thou hast
the luck to kill it, a fiery bird will spring out of it, which bears in
its body a burning egg, and in the egg the crystal ball lies like a
yolk. The bird will not, however, let the egg fall until forced to do
so, and if it falls on the ground, it will flame up and burn everything
that is near, and melt even ice itself, and with it the crystal ball,
and then all thy trouble will have been in vain."

The youth went down to the spring, where the bull snorted and bellowed
at him. After a long struggle he plunged his sword in the animal's
body, and it fell down. Instantly a fiery bird arose from it, and was
about to fly away, but the young man's brother, the eagle, who was
passing between the clouds, swooped down, hunted it away to the sea,
and struck it with his beak until, in its extremity, it let the egg
fall. The egg did not, however, fall into the sea, but on a fisherman's
hut which stood on the shore and the hut began at once to smoke and was
about to break out in flames. Then arose in the sea waves as high as a
house, they streamed over the hut, and subdued the fire. The other
brother, the whale, had come swimming to them, and had driven the water
up on high. When the fire was extinguished, the youth sought for the
egg and happily found it; it was not yet melted, but the shell was
broken by being so suddenly cooled with the water, and he could take
out the crystal ball unhurt.

When the youth went to the enchanter and held it before him, the latter
said, "My power is destroyed, and from this time forth thou art the
King of the Castle of the Golden Sun. With this canst thou likewise
give back to thy brothers their human form." Then the youth hastened to
the King's daughter, and when he entered the room, she was standing
there in the full splendour of her beauty, and joyfully they exchanged
rings with each other.
