Introduction: The Queen Bee is folklore from The Grimm Fairy Tales.
Grimm fairy tales are German tales that were passed down through oral tradition of the story teller.
The German lore was not meant for children to hear as the oral tales were very dark and scary.
The Grimm brothers interviewed the folk in order to write down the German folk tales.
Today we enjoy these folk tales in book form thanks to the Brothers Grimm.
Sit back and relax as I retell this honey of a tale The Queen Bee….
One day two sons of a king decided to embark, in search of new adventures. The two princes began to lead a rambunctious lifestyle and they never returned home.
The youngest brother was named Simpleton decided to journey out to seek his brothers. His two arrogant older brothers thought Simpleton was well, simple!
They believed Simpleton’s outlook on life was too naive. Only they had the capability to handle life situations the best way.
The three brothers journeyed out and stumbled upon an ant hill. The two elder brothers desired to demolish it and watch the small ants scatter about in panic, racing to save their unhatched eggs.
Simpleton having much compassion for the tiny ants said, “Leave the creatures in peace; I will not allow you to destroy them.”
Next, their journey took them to a lake. There the two older spotted a flock of ducks enjoying the water.This time, the two elder brothers wanted to snatch a couple of ducks and roast them to eat. Simpleton shouted, “Leave the creatures in peace; I will not allow you to harm them.”
Once again, the brothers encountered a bee’s nest that had an abundant amount of honey. There was so much honey it leaked out of the middle of the tree trunk.
This time, the older brothers wished to set a fire under the bee hive to smoke out and suffocate the bees in order to steal their honey. Simpleton stopped them again and warned, “Leave the creatures in peace, I will not allow you to burn them.”
Finally, the two brother’s journey lead them to a castle where stone horses stood still in their stables.
No human was found on the grounds of the castle. They journeyed down several halls with many doors. The door at the very end was secured with three locks. In the center of the door was a small window where they could peer into the room and spot a small grey man, lounging at the table.
The brothers called to the tiny grey man once, then twice, the man still didn’t hear them. Then they shouted at him a third time and the little grey man rose up and unlocked the door. He was quiet and ushered them to a dinner table with lots of food and drink. Once the brothers were full, the small grey man escorted each of them to their bedrooms for the night.
The next morning, the little man woke the eldest brother and explained how the castle was enchanted. The man lead the brother to a stone table that had a carved inscription on it. The inscription described the three tasks that had to be accomplished in order for the spell to be broken. The first task took the eldest brother to the forest where the princess’s pearls, at least a thousand of them were scattered beneath the tree and lay hidden under the moss. The oldest brother had till sunset to collect each pearl or he would be turned to stone. The older brother went thither, spending his whole day gathering the lost pearls. Unfortunately, he missed a mere hundred of them and by dusk he was turned to stone.
The next day, the second oldest brother was told of the castle being placed under the enchantment and he too spent the day gathering the lost pearls of the princess. He only found two hundred pearls and by the days end, he too became a stone statue.
The third day was Simpleton’s turn to find the lost pearls under the moss that lay beneath the shady tree. He tried his best alas, he was too slow.
He grew frustrated and sat on a large rock and wept. He knew he’d never finish the task by himself. Just then the king of the ants, that had once been saved by Simpleton, brought his army of five thousand ants to retrieve the lost pearls buried beneath the moss. They returned the pearls and placed them neatly in a heap at Simpleton’s feet.
The next task was to fish out the key to the King’s daughter’s bed-chamber.
When Simpleton arrived at the lake the ducks which he once saved, swam up to him and dived down and recovered the key out of the lake returning it to Simpleton.
The third task was very difficult. He had to seek out the King’s youngest daughter. The three sisters looked identical and all lay fast asleep in their beds. The only way one could distinguish any difference was from the sweetmeats each had eaten before the spell was cast. Only a trace amount from their lips could reveal the difference. The eldest a bit of sugar; the second a bit of syrup and the youngest ate a spoonful of honey.
The Queen bee whom Simpleton had protected from being burned by his brother offered to return the favor by helping Simpleton identify the youngest sleeping princess. The queen of the bees tasted all three girl’s lips and discovered a bit of honey on the youngest daughter’s lips so she sat there till Simpleton identified the youngest daughter he sought after in order to break the enchantment.
Finally, the spell on the castle and the princesses was broken! Everyone was delivered from the sleep spell. Those who had been turned into stone received their natural forms back. Simpleton married the youngest princess. He became the new King after the princess’s father eventually died. His two brothers received the princess’s two other sisters.
The End.
Source:
The Brothers Grimm
Folk tale of The Queen Bee.
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