In a faraway kingdom, a wise king ruled. He also had a wise queen who always gave him the right advice, and so the people in that kingdom prospered. One day, however, the king decided that it was time to hand over the rule to his son, Prince Aldric. The prince wanted to marry a princess, but he couldn’t decide which one. The king did not know how to advise the prince which princess would be the best, so he decided to go to an old wizard for advice.
The wizard was very old indeed, and his hut was covered with moss. Moreover, he was already a bit hard of hearing, so the king decided to bang on the door with his fist so that the wizard could hear him. The old door creaked and then fell to the ground. Dust rose into the air.
“Excuse me,” the king apologized and began to fix the door.
“It’s all right, Your Highness. What brings you here?” The wizard asked.
“You see, I need my son to be a good king.”
“Yes. You need my bun to be cooking,” repeated the mishearing wizard.
“Oh, no. My son will reign,” the king tried another way.
“Oh, sure. Mice run in the rain.”
“Oh, no!” the king clutched at his head and tugged at his hair in despair. “My son, he is a prince. And I will give him the crown.”
“Oh, so your bun is a print? And you will give him a crayon? Interesting.”
“Oh, no. Why don’t I write it down on a piece of paper?” the king asked.
“Why don’t you bite a clown on a greasy wafer?” The wizard frowned at the king.
The king had run out of patience. He grabbed a piece of paper and a quill and began to write. The wizard read it, smiled and said: “I can help you, I know how to find a suitable princess. One thing that will help you, I’ll give you that.”
“Then speak,” urged the king.
“This necklace will help you find out which is the right one. See? At the end of the necklace is a magical heart pendant. Now it seems like an ordinary crystal. But when worn around the neck of the prince’s chosen one, it will glow red. But be careful, if it’s worn by someone with evil intentions. It will glow white and burn with flame.”
The king did not leave the wizard until morning. The conversation with him was very long, but he was rewarded with a magic necklace. Now it looked perfectly ordinary. But tomorrow there will be a ball, and the king will be able to test whether the jewel is really magical.
The next day was the ball. Prince Aldric looked carefully at each princess. They were all beautiful, yes. But he didn’t like any of them enough to want to propose to her. Nevertheless, he decided to test them all.
First, the prince introduced himself to the princess in the golden dress. She wore so much gold jewelry that she shone in the light more than a Christmas tree. And the prince asked her, “Princess, what do you like best of all?”
“Gold. I love gold, and I long to have more. You get everything you want for it,” was the reply.
“But gold will not fill your stomach, my dear princess. Nor will it bring you happiness,” said the prince, shaking his head and turning to the other princess.
The other princess seemed to have forgotten to dress for the ball. She came in all dirty, her dress was hairy and the straw was sticking out of her hair.
“Princess, what do you like best of all?”
“My pack of wild dogs,” said the princess. “I am always with them and live like a dog. And I know they love me back.”
Prince Aldric sighed. “So this princess likes dogs better than people, and she wouldn’t like me better either.”
The third princess came all in black. Her nose was turned up to the ceiling, how haughty she was.
“And what do you like best of all, Princess?”
“You, Prince, and your whole kingdom,” she answered truthfully.
“That’s nice. And what do you think our people need most?” the prince asked next.
“Strictness. Paying taxes. And to serve their queen, whom they will fear, or else she will punish them with magic.”
The prince just shook his head. That offended the princess.
“So you reject me? That will cost you dearly. I will take revenge on you,” the princess said angrily and walked away from the ball.
The last princess looked very different from those before her. She seemed modest, wise and friendly. But the prince wanted to test her anyway.
“What is your favourite thing in the world, Princess?”
“Love and understanding, for people and nature,” she said sweetly.
The prince smiled and shook his head. That was the signal for the king to pin the necklace on the princess. The heart pendant glowed red. This was the right princess. The king immediately set about planning the wedding.
The princess returned the necklace to the king, and before the king and the prince planned the wedding, she said she would go for a walk in the garden to admire the plants. When she returned, however, she was behaving very differently. Suddenly she began to insist that the wedding be tonight, and she didn’t care about the plants at all. She wanted to see a map of how big the kingdom was and how much gold the king had saved in his treasury.
“Father, it’s not her,” said the prince.
“Somehow I don’t think so either,” agreed the king, taking the necklace and following the princess. “Princess Jasmine, I would be honored if you would wear this necklace to your wedding today.”
“No, thank you, King, it doesn’t match my dress,” the princess refused.
“Actually, it’s a tradition in our country,” the king thought to himself.
“I’m sorry, but no. I don’t want it,” she said firmly.
But the king was not to be put off. When the princess didn’t expect it, he approached her from behind and simply held the necklace to her neck.
At that moment the pendant turned white in colour, and it began to burn, and smoke was rising from it. The evil that was inside the person melted the whole pendant. The smoke from it showed what the princess was really like. She was a witch!
“Excuse me,” the old wizard who had been invited to the wedding pushed the king away and cast a spell on the evil princess.
The evil princess turned to stone. The stone also remained as black as night and as heavy as the witch’s evil deeds and intentions. The king ordered the stone to be thrown into the deepest lake in the land, which then also turned black.
But where was the right princess? Princess Jasmine was laying in the garden, sleeping. Just a few drops of water and she woke up again. The wedding could go on with the right princess.
And so the kingdom had a new wise king and a wise queen. The old king was so proud that his son had chosen the right princess that he had the wall of his throne room painted. He had the whole story of what happened there painted on it, so that anyone who came to their castle would see that evil deeds are always discovered and punished justly.
