The Goose Girl (tale)

## Story

A magician queen promised her  daughter in marriage to the prince of a nearby country. The princess had to go with the escort of her servant, and on her magical horse who could speak, Falada. Her mother feared it would not be enough to protect her, and gave her daughter a handkerchief stained with three drops of her blood, as a talisman.

While on the trip, the chambermaid refused to serve her mistress, and while she was thirsty, the princess had to lean over a river in order to drink. She inclined too much, and the handkerchief fell into water. When the servant saw that her mistress had loose her protection talisman, she decided to take her place, whether she demanded it directly or waited that the princess was sleeping to exchange clothes, and take Falada to finish the trip.

While having to wear chambermaid's clothes, the princess arrived to the kingdom, where she was mistaken for the actual servant. The prince have never seen his bride before, so he believed the chambermaid was her and married her. The "princess" talked to her "servant" and made her swear, in order to stay alive, to never tell the truth to any living creature.

The true princess was then sent to keep goose (hence her nickname). She seemed to have magic powers her too, as while she was combing her hair, the other shepherd, a little boy named Conrad, tried to touch it. The princess sing a song to make the wind blow, take Conrad's hat away, and make him run after.

Meanwhile, the chambermaid sent Falada to be killed, fearing he would talk. The princess begged the slaughterer to nail Falada's head to a doorway. Every morning, she would lament to it, and the head answered to her. Also, she sang the wind song trice, and all this events caused Conrad to panic; he begged the king to not let him go to work with a "witch" any more.

The king was intrigued by this story, and asked the goose girl to go to the palace, and then questioned her on who she actually was. The princess refused to tell him because of her promise. Thus, the king leaded her to a room that contained an old stove. He told her to tell her story to the stove, which wasn't a living creature, and leave her alone.

The princess told her secret, which was an heavy burden. She did not know that, upstairs, the king and his son were listening to the extremity of the stove's pipe.

At the dinner, that night, the king asked the chambermaid: "What would you do to a traitor who deceived his master?" . She incautiously answered that such a person should be put naked in a barrel garnished with nails then thrown across the streets until death. The king answered that she pronounced her own condamnation. After that, the true princess and the prince got married.

## Variants

-The chambermaid's fate is quite cruel, and is sometimes changed for modern audiences. Her punishment can be a banishment, while stripped to her petticoat and chased by the goose. Or she is put in a dungeon with the key thrown away, or is still put in a barrel, but the later is thrown simply in a river. In even rarer instances, the prince grown attached to his wife, and kept her despite she was an impostor. The true princess, free from engagement, go back to her mother's kingdom and marries whoever she wants. But that kind of ending is rare, because it let the vilainess unpunished.

-In some instances, Falada resurrect, the fact his head could talk prove that he is actually immortal.

-This story was sometimes told about historical characters, such as Bertha, mother of Charles the Great. The legend tell that she was a princess of Hungary, and arrived in France accompanied of her lady in waiting Aliste, her mother Margiste, and the squire Tibert. The three servants forced her to switch her clothes with Aliste, who looked like her, and asked two henchmen to take Bertha to the forest and kill her. She begged for her life, promising she will never been heard of again, and ran to the hut of a woodcutter and his family.

Meanwhile, king Pepin the short married Aliste, thinking she was Bertha. Aliste became a cruel queen, hated by her subjects, and her two sons, Heudri and Lanfroy, were just like her. Seven years later, queen Blanchefleur of Hungary heard of the bad reputation of her "daughter" and came for a visit in France. Aliste pretended to be ill, but Blanchefleur insisted to see her. She noticed Aliste has the two feet of the same size, unlike Bertha who was nicknamed "Broadfoot". Aliste was sent in a convent, her mother burnt alive, and Tibert hanged. Pepin searched for Bertha in Mans forest, followed a white little bird that leaded him to the woodcutter 's house. Pepin asked queen Blanchefleur and king Flore of Hungary to recognize their daughter; they did, and Pepin and Bertha get married.

Actually, Bertrada (her real name) was the daughter of a count of Laon.