“Old Rinkrank”
There once was a king who made a glass
mountain. Anyone who could cross the mountain without falling would have the
princess as a bride. A man and the princess were in love, so he set out to
cross the glass mountain, and the princess went with him to catch him if he
should fall.
Well, the princess slipped and the
mountain opened up and swallowed her. It closed again, and the man and the king
tried to break open the mountain but they couldn’t find the princess.
The princess fell into a cave below the
mountain and met an old man with a long beard. He said that if she served him,
she would live, otherwise he would kill her. So she did all he told her to do.
The man would take a ladder out of his
pocket to climb out of the cave. Once out, he would pull the ladder up after
him. When he returned, he always had gold and silver.
They lived that way for several years. He
called her Mother Mansrot, and she called him Old Rinkrank.
So one day he was out and she locked all
the doors and windows, except one small window. He called for her to let him
in, but she said “No.”
He went around and saw the small window
was open. He tried to look in, but couldn’t get his head all the way in. So he
first put his beard in through the window, and the princess came and shut the
window, catching his beard.
He begged her to let him go, but she
wouldn’t until he gave her the ladder. She set the ladder up, and tied a string
to the window. Once she was at the top of the ladder, she pulled the string and
opened the window.
The princess ran to her father who was
overjoyed. The dug up the mountain, put Old Rinkrank to death, and took all his
gold and silver. And she and her betrothed were married.
#
I guess I can see setting up an obstacle
course for people wanting to marry your daughter, but a glass mountain?
Is that a ladder in your pocket ….
Wait, there’s a cave with windows? Huh? I
guess there must have been a house in the cave.
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