Storytelling Week 14: The Curse

The Curse

Once upon a time there was a very greedy count. He went by the name of Richard. He lived in the forest with his wife. The countess, Regina, and him lived a happy life with their three daughters.

Now the count had a problem though, he had gambled all of the family’s wealth away. Regina was very upset about this and told him that he needed to set out to the forest to gather food. So the next morning Richard set out to the forest to hunt for food.

He arrived just as the sun had come up. It was still a bit chilly out and the birds had just begun chirping. He wandered and wandered deeper in to the forest and before he knew it, the day was coming to an end. All of a sudden a wolf jumped out of a bush and scared the count! He explained he would only let him live if the count promised him his eldest daughter. The count was so spooked that he agreed. Days later a chariot arrived and the eldest daughter was taken away.

The following week the count went out hunting again. He once again found himself to have gotten lost and turned around. He looked around for help as he noticed that nightfall was just around the corner. All of a sudden a hawk came spiraling down at him! The hawk told the count that he would only spare him his life if he let him have his second daughter. Out of fear once again the count agreed and the hawk set off to fetch the daughter.

The next day the count went out hunting again. To no ones surprise he got lost in the woods one more time. This time a giant salmon popped out of the water and promised to help him out of the forest if he would give him his third daughter. The count agreed and she was his.

Now Regina was so depressed that her three daughters were gone so they decided to have another baby. To their surprise they had a boy. He grew to be a strong brave warrior. He knew the only thing that would ever truly make his parents happy again is to find his three sisters.

He set out and found them all within the same day! Each of the husbands offered the brother a symbol of them to help him whenever he was in danger. The bother faced many dangers but with the help of his sister’s husbands he found and destroyed the golden egg. Now this egg was what was controlling a spell that had been placed on each of the husbands. They changed at once in to handsome princes. All was well in the kingdom once again.

Source: Flickr

 Author’s Note: This week I am retelling the story of The Bear, the Eagle and the Fish. I really enjoyed this story just the way it was so I decided not to change any of the major details from the original. One of the only things I changed were to give both the count and countess names. The other thing I changed was what each of the animals was. The wolf was originally a bear, the hawk was an eagle and the fish was just a fish but I made him a salmon.

Bibliography: Czech Folktales Josef Baudis (1922). The Bear, the Eagle and the Fish