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Green Peter (Hungarian folk tale)

Author: I'll tell you

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Once upon a time, beyond the seven-seven countries, beyond even where the pig with the short tail roams, there was a big farm. In that farm lived a family, the parents and two children, a boy and a girl. So when the wife died, the man remarried to have someone to raise the children.

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But the new woman could not stand the two children and put poison in their food. When the children went to lunch, a white dove landed on the window and said:

- Children, don't eat this soup because it is poisonous, but go where you can see with your eyes.

Then the children started crying and left hungry. Peter Green and his sister were walking along, and suddenly they heard someone shouting:

- Green Peter, Green Peter, come here!

Well, there was one fish left out of the sea on the dry land, and it was quite lost.

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- Take thee up, Green Peter, and cast thee into the sea, and expect good for thy good deed.

The lad was very happy to do it. He went, he walked. Then one day he hears someone shouting again:

- Green Peter, Green Peter, come here!

A little bird called Peter Green. He was separated from the other birds, begging him:

- Green Peter, put me up on the branch so I can continue to fly with the other birds!

Peter Green put it on the branch, and the little bird said to him:

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- Thank you, expect good things for your good deed.

Then it went on again. He walked, he walked, and again he hears some shouting:

- Green Peter, Green Peter, come here!

Then a rose bush called. It was all dried up. He asked her to water it, and she did.

- Well, Green Peter, expect good for your good deed.

So then Peter Green set off, went again, entered a town. When he arrived at the royal gate, he was told:

- Come on, Green Peter, come on, because with ninety-nine heads on a spike, you'll be the hundredth!

Peter Green was scared, but he went in anyway. He found out that the princess wanted to marry, but to a boy who would hide from her so that she would never see him. Green Peter went in, had his supper, and was ordered to hide himself three mornings without the princess seeing him, or else he would be beheaded. But if he did not see her, he would have the princess and half the kingdom.

Well, the first morning was worth it for Green Peter, he was off. He cried, he cried, and he thought, my God, he's just run away from his stepmother, and now what has he got! Where should he hide?

Well, the fish was coming.

- Why are you crying, Green Peter?

- "I weep," he says, "because the king said that if I did not hide myself away at three in the morning without his daughter seeing me, he would have my head.

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The fish opened its mouth and said to Green Peter:

- Get in here, Green Peter.

Green Peter crawled in, and the fish crawled to the bottom of the sea, even burrowing into the sand.

The princess stood in the corridor, wiped her eyes and said:

- Come forth, Peter the Green, from the mouth of the fish, from the bottom of the sea, buried in the sand.

He saw.

So Peter the Green came out, went ashore, and got out of the fish's belly with a great sadness, and went to the royal palace.

The next morning he went off again with great sorrow, and said:

- Where shall I hide, where shall I hide?

The little bird stood in front of him.

- Why are you crying, Green Peter?

- How can I weep, if I do not hide myself in the morning, lest the king's daughter should see me, and my head be taken.

So the little bird spread its wings and said:

- Come under my wing.

He flew up behind the sun.

And the princess came out into the corridor, wiped her eyes, and saw him.

- Come out, Green Peter, from behind the back of the sun, from under the wing of the bird.

The bird landed and let Green Peter out from under its wing. Green Peter went home again sadly, and the next morning he set off again. But even then he was crying very hard:

- Well, I kind of hid these two mornings, but now I can't hide anymore. Oh, oh, oh, oh, what will become of me?!

The rose bush came in front of him.

- Why are you crying, Green Peter? Don't be sad, I'll hide you well.

They went to the front of the royal palace, just before the corridor where the princess comes out, and the rose bush settled there, and said to Peter the Green:

- Get in my middle - and it opened up so much that it was brighter than the sun.

The princess comes out in the morning, wipes her eyes, and watches the seas, the countries, the skies, and sees Peter Green nowhere.

- Well, Father, Peter Green is so hidden that I can't see him anywhere.

- "Wipe your eyes, girl," says the king, "you want to get married, don't you?

Again the princess watches, wipes her eyes, watches, but in vain. Suddenly she got tired of looking, she couldn't see him, she started shouting:

- Come out, Green Peter, come out, wherever you are, I can't see you.

And then at last Green Peter came out of the rose bush, and the wedding was soon held. He got half the kingdom, and the wedding lasted three days. I was there, I had a good time, I got a big bone, the lasagna nearly hit me.

(Ágnes Kovács: Folk tales for kindergarten children)

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