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Main > Norway folktales > Fairy tale "The Twelve Wild Ducks"

The Twelve Wild Ducks

The Princess began to pluck the thistledown and gather it in her bag. Soon she became aware of a host of wicked faces staring at her through the thistles, and what was even more frightening, long skinny arms stretching out toward her. Her heart stood still and she grew icy cold, but never a sound did she utter. She just kept plucking and gathering, faster and faster, until her bag was full. When she got home at break of day, she set to work carding and spinning yarn from the down to make her cloth.

So she went on for a long, long time, picking thistledown on the witches' moor, trying not to notice the wicked faces and the long, skinny arms, then taking it back to the hut, carding and spinning and making more cloth. All the while she was careful never to talk, nor to laugh, nor to weep.

In the evening her brothers came home, flapping and whirring like wild ducks, yet becoming young men as they passed through the threshold. In the morning, the moment her brothers stepped outside the house, off they flew again and became wild ducks for the whole day.

One night, when the Princess was picking thistledown at the moor, the young King who ruled that land was out hunting. He had become separated from his companions and had lost his way. Now, as he came riding across the moor, he saw her. He stopped his horse and stared at her, wondering who the lovely lady could be who walked alone on the moor, picking thistledown in the dead of night. He asked her for her name. Getting no answer, he was still more astonished. But he liked her so much, and was so charmed by her graceful movements, that at last nothing would do but to take her home to his castle and to marry her. So he lifted her upon his horse. The princess wrung her hands and made signs to him and pointed to the bags in which her work was, and when the King saw she wished to have them with her, he took the bags and gently tied them securely behind her.

When that was done, the Princess saw that the King was as gentle and kind to her as a mother, and that he was a wise as well as a handsome king.

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