“The Queen Bee”
A king had three sons. The oldest two set off to make their way in
the world, but fell into a reckless life.
The youngest son, Witling, set off to find them. He found them, but they laughed at his
simpleness and thinking that he could succeed where they had failed. But the three set off together, and came
across an anthill. The two older ones
wished to stir it up to watch the ants race about, but Witling wouldn’t let them.
They went on to a lake with some
ducks. The older two wanted to catch a
couple to eat, but Witling said no. Then
they came to a bees nest overflowing with honey. The two older ones wanted to smoke out the
bees to get the honey, but Witling said no.
They went on until they came to a
castle. In the stables all the horses
were of stone. They went through the
castle rooms until they found a door with three locks. There was a hole in the door and inside they
could see a little man sitting at a table.
They called to him, and he opened the locks and came out.
The man, without saying anything, took
them to a table with food and drink.
Afterwards, they all went to sleep.
The next morning, the man took the oldest brother to a stone table with
instructions on breaking the enchantment on the castle. The first was to find the thousand pearls of
the princess, lost in the woods. If even
one was missing by nightfall, he would be turned to stone. The oldest brother only found one hundred,
and was turned to stone. The middle
brother didn’t fare any better.
But when Witling was searching, the ant
king marched in with thousands of his ants and they found all the pearls for
him.
The second task was to get the key to the
princess’s chamber from the bottom of the lake.
The ducks found it for him.
The final task was to figure out which of
three, sleeping princesses was the youngest.
They all looked alike, but before sleeping they had each eaten something
different. The youngest had a spoonful
of honey. The queen bee that Witling had
saved from the smoke checked the lips of all three for honey, and found the
youngest. This broke the spell and
everyone woke up, or stopped being stone.
Witling married the youngest princess and became king after her father
died. His older brothers just had the
other princesses.
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Why is this “The Queen Bee?” Why not,
“Three Sleeping Princesses,” or “Don’t be a jerk to insects?” Or why not “Witling’s
Adventures?” It’s rare for someone to actually get a name in these things.
Stirring up anthills, high entertainment
in the olden days.
So Witling doesn’t want to hurt any
animals. What did he eat?
So his two older brothers made fun of him
for thinking he could go out into the world, but they listen to him when he tells
them not to do things?
Why specifically were there three locks on
the door?
Why didn’t the man speak? Was it part of the spell?
Who put the castle and the princesses
under a spell? What was the point? Why didn’t they do something when Witling
messed it up?
How fortunate that the three animals
Witling passed were the ones best suited to help him. What would have happened if, instead of the
ducks, they had come across a deer?
Would the deer then have to swim down to find the key?
The last line of the story is “But his two
brothers had to put up with the two other sisters.” It makes it sound like a terrible
thing, but why? I’m going to dick around
for a while, but then I’ll marry a beautiful princess but not have the burden
of being king. I’ll sign up for that.
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