Once upon a time, there was a king with a green beard, in seventeen countries, even beyond where the little pig with the short tail roams. That green-bearded king once took himself on a wander.
He had been wandering for a long time, he must have walked the length of a hundred needles, only to find that it was seventeen years since he had left home.
He was very tired from all the walking and climbing, he got thirsty and sat down on the bank of a stream. Then he went down to the water's edge to have a drink. No sooner had he taken a sip or two than someone grabbed his beard. He would have pulled it back, but he couldn't. He shouted into the water:
- Do you hear, you ignorant one, let go my beard while you're still pretty!
But they pulled even harder. He was already grumbling about it, because they were pulling him in so hard that he was choking. Someone once said in the water:
- If you give me what you don't know in your country, I'll let go of your beard.
- What could I not know in my country? "I know every last needle!" said the king with the green beard.
- But just promise me that what you can't do in your country, I can do in mine! - said the king of the devils in the water, because he was.
- Very well, have it! You can't bake bread from it anyway, which I can't do in my country! - said the king with the green beard.
But he was already very uncomfortable lying on his stomach when the king of the devils let him go. Then he set off for home, wondering what it was that he did not know at home in his own country.
When she gets home, a big handsome boy runs up to her, jumps on her neck and kisses her.
- Oh, dear father, you have left us so long, but it is good to have you home at last!
The King just looked. Then he pushed the child away.
- Whose father am I? Whose son are you? I don't know you!
But inside, his wife told him that it was his child! He's just as old as he was when he left home.
Only then did the green-bearded king wise up. He remembered that he had promised the king of the devils something that he could not promise his country. Well, it was this handsome bachelor he didn't know about. Then he ate himself. He even thought that it would be good not to give the child away, but the next minute he was afraid that the king of the devils himself would come for him.
He called his son to him. He told him everything as it was. And the lad was not only frightened, but he himself assured him that it would be all right, he was going. The next day he prepared himself and went.
In the water swam a beautiful seven golden duck, And on the bank a shirt fluttered in the wind. He bends down, picks up the shirt, and was about to stuff it into his purse, when one of the seven golden ducks turns into a beautiful, shining girl, and says to the prince:
- Handsome prince, I know who you are and where you're going! Thou art the son of the King with the green beard, and art come to my father, for he has won thee from thy father. Give me my shirt, and in place of good deed expect good.
The prince gave it to her. The girl dressed, took a gold ring off her finger and gave it to the prince.
- Well, take this! You can enter twelve castle gates without anyone noticing. Just turn the ring and the gate will open by itself. And once you're in, my father will tell you things that even if you're an angel you can't do. I'll be your helper. At eight o'clock in the evening I'll be there in the shape of a bumblebee at your window, you let me in, and then don't be afraid.
He put the ring on his finger, said goodbye to the girl, and went towards the palace of the king of the devils. Twelve castle gates stood in his way, but when he turned the ring they all opened of their own accord. The last door of the palace opened, and then the king of the devils stood before him.
- Sire King, grace to my head, I am here before you!
- "Well, if you're here, all right," said the king. "But you speak very boldly, don't you know who you're here to see?
- "I know," said the prince, "you're no better than my father, he's a king, you're a king, and then you're a king!
The king became very angry.
- Wait, you have three tasks to complete; if you can master them, good, if not, your life is over! Here's this cabbage leaf, take it! Now I'll lock you in a room, if you don't make a crane-feather hat out of it by tomorrow morning, you can pray!
They went into a room with him. They slammed the door on the prince on all three sides, and put food and drink in to keep him from getting bored. When he was left alone, he was very sad.
- "Oh, that your mother may mourn for you, king of devils," he said to himself, "you have given up something that, while the world lasts, I can never do.
He would have grieved and thought even longer, but he heard a banging at the window. Then he remembered the beautiful girl. She went over and heard the bongo say:
Let me in, pigeon,
I want some game!
He opened the window in a moment. The bumblebee flew in and became a beautiful girl.
- Well, my sweet heart, my fair love, tell me, what can I do for you?
John says that he is scared because he has to make a crane feather hat out of cabbage leaves!
- Is that the only problem?" said the girl. "Then there is no problem! Where is the cabbage leaf?
- Here it is.
- Look at that! - And at that moment there was a hat on the table with crane feathers so beautiful that even Franz Joska might not have worn one!
The lad then looked out his eyes, he looked. He had never seen anything like it in his life! Then the girl says:
- I'll come tomorrow evening, but don't keep me waiting as long as you did today. When you hear my bell, just let me in. I'm going now, open the window.
At that moment, it became a little bumblebee and flew away. And the prince went to bed in peace, knowing that the king of the devils would have a look when he saw it.
The next day, early in the morning, old Drômo left. No sooner had he opened the door than he saw the beautiful crane-feather hat on the table. He says to the lad:
- Well, you've done a good job!
- And me too! - said the lad in a great rashness.
- Well, if you're so proud, I'll give you something that you really can't do!
Then the king of the devils went out, bringing a cup of cabbage soup.
- Well, if you don't turn this into a silver spur by tomorrow morning, your life is over!
The lad just shrugged his shoulders at that.
- Well, we'll have that too, if God helps us!
The king went out, and the prince was left alone. "Cabbage juice and silver spurs! Well, that'll be nothing indeed. But the king is a fool to think up such a thing!" - he thought to himself.
He waited for the evening, for eight o'clock. The little bumblebee came.
Let me in, pigeon,
I want some game!
He let her in, and she was again the beautiful girl he had seen by the brook. She told him what her father had commanded her. But to her it was as nothing. She wound a silver spur from the cabbage patch that anyone could have seen.
But the prince was happy! He embraced her and kissed her, as his heart's desire wished. Then the girl shook again, became a little bumblebee, and flew away.
The next day, the king of the devils almost fell over when he saw the beautiful silver spur. But he couldn't rest, he wanted to throw it away. He brought in a pitcher of filtered water.
- Well, if you don't make a copperhead out of this by tomorrow morning, you can write your will in advance!
The prince said nothing. He waited for the evening, thinking that if everything had gone well so far, it would go well again. But when the little bumblebee turned into a beautiful girl and heard the order, he shook his head: he couldn't do it either!
- "You know what," he said to the prince, "we're going to get out of here, because none of us are going to get on well here. I'll hit you with my wand, you'll turn into a golden ring, my pretty little pej horse into a golden apple, and I'll turn into a bird, and we'll go.
As you said, it was. The prince became a golden ring, the pretty pej horse became a golden apple, and the girl became a bird, and she put the ring in her mouth and the apple in her foot, and went, went, like a thought.
The next morning his father noticed that he was neither a girl nor a prince. He knew right away that they were blowing a rock. He says to his servant:
- Go after them, if you can, bring them back!
Even running away like that servant did! He went like lightning. Once the bird says to the ring:
- Oh, the wind is blowing at my back! They are coming after us! - Which he was right about.
He saw a dense bush and got right into the middle of it.
The servant was soon on their trail, but he searched and searched in vain, finding nothing. He goes home, he says to the king:
- My king, I have not seen so much of them as the black of my fingernail. There was but one bush in the wilderness, and a little bird in the midst of it.
- "That was it, you ass!" said the king. "I see now that I must go myself, for even you cannot be trusted with this.
But even if one had seen a wounded man go, he would have seen the king of devils! And the little bird pushed on, but it would have been useless, if it hadn't been for the border of the country, and he would have been caught. But so the power of the king of the devils went only as far as the border of his own country, no further. When he saw that they had crossed the border, he was so angry with them that he was about to burst.
The little bird has turned into a beautiful girl, the ring into a prince, and the golden apple into a beautiful pej horse. They both got on the horse and went home to the land of the green-bearded king.
They got married at home, they had a wedding party, I was there as a bass player, I was so full of sausages and sausages that I didn't even need food the next day. I'll be a bandit if it's not true! They're still alive, if they're not dead.
(Ágnes Kovács: Folk tales for kindergarten children)
