The Water of Life (German fairy tale)

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The Water of Life (German: Das Wasser des Lebens) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 97.^[1]

It is Aarne-Thompson type 551.^[2]

John Francis Campbell noted it as a parallel of the Scottish fairy tale, The Brown Bear of the Green Glen.^[3]

[edit] Synopsis

A king was dying. An old man told his sons that the water of life would save him. Each one set out in turn. The two older ones, setting out in hopes of being the heir, were rude to a dwarf on the way and became trapped in ravines. When the youngest son went, the dwarf asked where he was going, and he told him. The dwarf told him it was in a castle, and gave him an iron wand to open the gates and two loaves to feed to the lions inside. Then he had to get the water before the clock struck twelve, when the gates would shut again.

He opened the gate with the wand and fed the lions the bread. Then he came to a hall where there were sleeping princes, and he took rings from their fingers, and some bread and sword from the table. He went on and found a beautiful princess, who kissed him, told him he had freed her, and promised to marry him if he returned within a year. Then she told him where the spring was. He went on, but saw a bed and lay down to sleep. When he woke, it was quarter to twelve. He sprang up, got the water, and escaped, with the closing gate taking off the heel of his boot.

He met the dwarf who told him what happened to his brothers and, at his imploring, freed them. They came to a kingdom plagued with war and famine, and the prince killed their foes with the sword and fed them with the loaf. Then they came to two more kingdoms in the same situation, and they did the same. Then they got on a ship to cross the sea and come home. The older brothers stole the water of life and filled his bottle with sea water.

The king was sickened by the sea water; the older brothers accused the youngest of trying to poison him and gave him the water of life. The king decided to have his youngest son secretly killed. He sent a huntsman with him, into the woods, but the huntsman told the prince, and the prince fled.

Treasure arrived, from the three kingdoms the youngest prince had saved, and the king wondered about his guilt. The huntsman confessed that he had not killed him, and the king issued a proclamation that he could freely return.

The princess in the castle had made a golden road to it and told her people to admit no one who did not ride straight up it. The two older princes saw it and thought it would be a shame to harm it, so they rode alongside, and the servants did not admit them. The youngest thought so constantly of the princess that he did not notice it, so he rode up it and was admitted. They married. The prince went back to his father and told the true story. The king wished to punish the older brothers, but they fled at sea and never returned.