The powerful king had an only son, and his father decided to marry him to the most noble and rich princess that could be found in this world. And so that his son would not accidentally fall in love with a girl of low rank, the king imprisoned the prince in a tower and strictly ordered him not to leave it anywhere. And he ordered the guards not to let a single peasant woman or commoner come close to the castle.
Once the king went to war, and assigned his servant to his son and ordered him to watch over the young prince’s eyes. And it was summer time, the days were hot, and the prince was dying to wander through the forests and meadows, to breathe the free air. He begged the old servant to let him out of the tower for a while and went into the forest. Here he wanders along the forest paths, he can’t get enough of the flowers, he can’t get enough of the birdsong.
And suddenly he sees some girl grazing goats in a clearing. That girl was so good that the prince fell in love with her at first sight, and he decided to woo her. He came closer and said:
-Who are you, beauty?
“I am the peasant daughter Margit,” the girl answers.
“Will you marry me, the king’s son?”
- And that’s what the old father will say. That's his will.
-Where is your father?
- Yes, it’s nearby, in a forest hut.
The prince came to the old peasant and began to woo his daughter for himself. And the peasant answers him:
- No, your grace. My daughter is no match for you, and my consent will not be given to that.
With that the prince left him. And the next day I couldn’t stand it and again went into the forest to visit the old peasant. He arrived and saw Margit sitting behind a lock of hair, and her father weaving a basket from willow twigs.
The prince wooed Margit again, and the old father answered him:
- No, your grace. I will not give my daughter for you. She needs a simple, hard-working man who knows a trade. And the princes are all slackers.
And again the prince left with nothing. He returned to the royal castle - he fell seriously ill and began to melt day by day. The king returned from the war, and his son was barely alive. His father summoned the wisest doctors from all over the world to him. The doctors examined the prince and said to the king:
“If your son doesn’t marry the girl he loves, then he won’t live long in the world.”
There was nothing to do, the king had to humble his pride, and he went to the forest hut to marry the peasant daughter Margit to his son.
But the peasant does not agree at all. The king began to tearfully beg the old man and told him that his son was suffering from a mortal illness.
Then only the peasant gave his consent, but only on the condition that the prince learn his craft.
And this peasant was known as a skilled basket maker, he wove baskets from willow twigs, and there was no better craftsman in the whole kingdom. The king had to submit here too. The prince got engaged to Margit and began to visit the forest hut every day. He studies his craft diligently, but in between, he doesn’t even have a word with his bride. And soon he began to weave baskets so skillfully that even the basket maker himself could not compete with him.
And soon the wedding day arrived. The royal son had a noble wedding. What kind of eminent guests the king did not call to his castle - dukes, counts, and princes. Everyone is dressed in silk, brocade and velvet, hung with pearls. All with rich gifts for the bride and groom. Only at the wedding the most beautiful of all were the royal son and his young bride Margit.
Suddenly, in the midst of the fun, an unknown skipper with a rich retinue appeared at the feast. Nobody had ever heard of him before. They only knew that he sailed to distant seas and became immensely rich. The skipper places unprecedented overseas jewelry and semi-precious stones at the feet of the bride and groom and says with a bow:
“I arrived by sea from distant countries and ask the prince and princess to come to my schooner. Everything is ready for the feast there.
The young couple went with the skipper to the schooner, went into his cabin, richly decorated, and sat down to feast. And when it was time for them to return home, they went out onto the decks and saw that the schooner was sailing into the open sea with all sails. The skipper laughed evilly and said:
- Now you are in my hands. I will have the prince drowned in the sea and marry the princess myself.
And that skipper was a terrible sea robber, a murderer. He liked Margit, and therefore he lured the young people onto his robber schooner and decided to drive the prince away from the world.
Margit began to cry bitterly, threw herself on her knees in front of the villain and began to ask him to spare the prince.
“Okay,” says the robber. “I’m a good man, I won’t drink the prince, but I’ll tie him to a board and let him go into the sea.”
And then let him blame his fate.
They tied the prince with ropes to a board and threw him into the water. The schooner left, but the prince remained on the open sea. The board floated on the waves for a long time, and in the end it washed up on some shore. And on that bank there stood a miserable hut, and an old beggar woman lived in it. The old woman picked up the prince, came out and loved him like her own son. They began to live together. The prince wove baskets, and the old woman sold them in the city market. That's how they fed. Once the old woman took baskets for sale to a rich estate, and that same sea robber lived there with the princess, and everything was ready for the wedding there.
Margit saw the baskets that the old woman had brought, sighed heavily and said:
“Only two people in the whole world can weave such baskets—my father and my husband.” The father is alive, but the robber drowned the husband in the sea. Tell me, grandma, where did you get these baskets?
Then the old woman told her everything. Margit realized that her husband had been saved from death. But she didn’t show it and said to the old woman:
- Ask your named son to come to the wedding tomorrow.
The wedding day has arrived. Many noble guests came to the robber, and the king himself came to congratulate the young people. After all, everyone thought that he was not a robber, but an honest shipowner. And the prince also came to the wedding. Only he was dressed in a beggar's dress, and the robber did not recognize him.
And as the wedding began, the guests see that the bride is somehow sad. He doesn’t answer the pastor’s questions, he just sighs heavily. The king realized then that things were wrong, and asked Margit:
“I see that the beautiful bride is saddened by something.” Reveal what's on your soul.
And the princess answered him:
- I'll tell you a fairy tale. In a distant kingdom, a young prince fell in love with a peasant girl and married her. And the villain, a sea robber, tricked them into joining his schooner and took them out to the open sea. He threw the prince into the waves, and planned to marry someone else’s wife by force. Your Majesty will say, how would you punish such a villain?
“I would have put him on a stake and ordered his head to be cut off,” says the king.
Then Margit pointed to the skipper and said:
- Here he is - a sea robber. And over there my man claims that he was saved from death by a miracle.
She took the prince by the hand and led him out into the middle of the hall. And the robber turned white as a wall, his arms and legs trembled, and he began to beg for mercy. But nothing helped. The guards grabbed him, impaled him, and then cut off his heads.
And the prince and princess said goodbye to the king and went home.
From that time on, they lived amicably and cheerfully, and were never separated for a day. And Margit’s father, the old basket maker, is held in high esteem among them. After all, if the old prince had not taught his craft, it may have turned out that Margit would never have seen her husband again.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru