Learn English Through Story: An audio reading of Grimm's Fairy Tales
The Queen Bee by the Brothers Grimm
Two King’s sons once went out in search of adventures, and fell into a wild, disorderly
way of living, so that they never came home again.
The youngest, who was called Simpleton, set out to seek his brothers.
When at length he found them, they mocked him for thinking that he with his simplicity
could get through the world, when they two could not make their way, and yet were so
much cleverer.
They all three traveled away together and came to an ant-hill.
The two elder wanted to destroy it, to see the little ants creeping about in their terror,
carrying their eggs away, but Simpleton said, “Leave the creatures in peace.
I will not allow you to disturb them.”
Then they went farther and came to a lake, on which a great number of ducks were swimming.
The two brothers wanted to catch a couple and roast them, but Simpleton would not permit
it, and said, “Leave the creatures in peace.
I will not suffer you to kill them.”
At length, they came to a bee’s nest, in which there was so much honey, that it ran
out of the trunk of the tree where it was.
The two wanted to make a fire under the tree, and suffocate the bees in order to take away
the honey, but Simpleton again stopped them and said, “Leave the creatures in peace.
I will not allow you to burn them.”
At last, the two brothers arrived at a castle where stone horses were standing in the stables,
and no human being was to be seen.
They went through all the halls until they came to a door in which were three locks.
In the middle of the door, there was a little pane through which they could see into the
room.
There they saw a little Gray Man sitting at a table.
They called him, once, twice, but he did not hear.
Then they called him for the third time, when he got up, opened the locks, and came out.
He said nothing but led them to a handsomely-spread table; and when they had eaten and drunk,
he took each of them to a bedroom.
Next morning, the little Gray Man came to the eldest, beckoned to him, and conducted
him to a stone table, on which were inscribed three tasks, by the doing of which the castle
could be delivered.
The first was that in the forest, beneath the moss, lay the Princess’s pearls, a thousand
in number, which must be picked up.
And if by sunset one single pearl was wanting he who had looked for them would be turned
to stone.
The eldest went thither and sought the whole day, but when it came to an end he had found
only one hundred, and what was written on the table came to pass, he was changed into
stone.
Next day, the second brother undertook the adventure.
It did not, however, fare much better with him than with the eldest.
He did not find more than two hundred pearls and was changed to stone.
At last, the turn came to Simpleton, who sought in the moss.
But it was so hard to find the pearls, and he got on so slowly, that he seated himself
on a stone and wept.
And while he was thus sitting, the King of the Ants, whose life he had once saved, came
with five thousand ants, and before long the little creatures had got all the pearls together
and laid them in a heap.
The second task was to fetch out of the lake the key of the King’s Daughter’s bedchamber.
When Simpleton came to the lake, the ducks which he had saved swam up to him, dived down,
and brought the key out of the water.
But the third task was the most difficult.
From amongst the three sleeping daughters of the King, the youngest and dearest was
to be sought out.
They resembled each other exactly and were only to be distinguished by their having eaten
different sweetmeats before they fell asleep: the eldest a bit of sugar, the second a little
syrup, and the youngest a spoonful of honey.
Then the Queen of the Bees, which Simpleton had protected from the fire, came and tasted
the lips of all three.
At last, she remained sitting on the mouth which had eaten honey; and thus the King’s
Son recognized the right Princess.
Then the enchantment was at an end.
Everything was released from sleep, and those who had been turned to stone received once
more their natural forms.
Simpleton married the youngest and sweetest princess, and after her father’s death became
King, while his two brothers received the two other sisters.