collected by the Brothers Grimm, told by Julie McCord
Once upon a time, there was a King who had three sons. The two elder brothers were brave and adventurous, but they could sometimes be rough and mean. The youngest brother was quiet and gentle, and because of this, the other two sometimes made fun of him. They called him names like Pansy.
One day, the King told his sons that it was time for them to make their own way in the world, and he sent them out to find their fortunes. The two elder brothers laughed, and said that the youngest brother would never be able to make his own way. "You'd better just come with us, so we can take care of you!" they said. The youngest brother agreed, and they all set off together.
As they were walking, they came to an anthill. "Let's stir up the hill with a stick!" said the elder brothers. "We can watch the ants run!" But the youngest said, "No! That would be cruel. Let's go." The elder brothers sneered at the youngest and called him Pansy, but they left the anthill alone.
After a while they passed a pond, and saw ducks swimming there. "Let's catch them and strangle them!" said the elder brothers. "We can have them for dinner." But Pansy said, "No! I don't want to kill anything, and we can just as easily buy our dinner later. Let's go." The elder brothers sneered at Pansy and called him more names, but they left the ducks alone.
Soon they passed a beehive in a tree, and the one brother said, "Let's throw rocks at the hive!" and the second brother said, "No, let's make a torch and smoke the bees to death!" They started to argue over which plan was better, but Pansy stopped them and said, "No! Let's not do either, and please stop being so mean to all these harmless creatures. Let's go." The elder brothers sneered at Pansy and called him even more names, but they left the bees alone.
After they had walked for some days they came to a castle, and they went in the gate to see who lived there, and if they might, possibly, have a pretty daughter for one of the brothers to marry. But all they found were statues of people and animals. Finally, they came to a table with a note on it. The brothers picked up the note and read:
"This castle is under an Enchantment. All its people and animals have been turned to stone, except for the three princesses, who are fast asleep. He who would free them and the castle must do three things."
"I'll do it," said the eldest brother. "Then there'll be brides for all of us, and a new kingdom to share." The others agreed, and the eldest brother read the first task:
"First, you must go to the edge of the wood. There, in the moss, are a thousand pearls belonging to the princesses. You must find all the pearls and bring them back to the castle. If the sun sets before every pearl has been found, you will be turned to stone like the rest."
"It's early yet," said the eldest brother, "so I'll go now." And he set out for the wood. He found the moss quickly, but the pearls were harder work, and he had only found a hundred when the sun set. So he never came back, but was turned into a statue.
The next day the second brother went to take his turn. He did better, but still, he had only found two hundred pearls when the sun set; so like his brother, he turned to stone.
On the third day it was Pansy's turn, and he went like the others to the mossy place at the edge of the wood. He was nervous, crouching in the shadows of two statues that used to be his brothers, but still, he started to gather the pearls. The day went on, and he began to lose hope, when he saw a long line of ants coming toward him. The ants walked into the moss, and each picked up one of the pearls and brought it to Pansy's basket. With their help the work went much faster, and Pansy had all the pearls gathered before sundown. Happily, he carried them back, and looked at the note for the next task.
"Second, you must go to the lake, in which is the key to the princess' bedroom. You must find it and bring it back."
Now Pansy went to the lake, but he had no idea how he was going to get the key. There was no lake in his kingdom, so he had never learned to swim. But as he was thinking this, he saw that some ducks were flying overhead. They landed in the lake and began to dive. After a little while, one of them swam right up to him with a key in its beak, and dropped it on the ground right in front of him. Happily, Pansy took the key back to the castle and read the rest of the note.
"Third, you must go to where the princesses are sleeping and wake them; but you must wake the youngest first, or the spell will not be broken and you will turn to stone. The three sisters look alike and are alike, except for this: the youngest ate a bit of honey before she went to sleep."
This didn't sound very promising, but Pansy explored the castle until he found the door that his key opened, and saw the three sleeping princesses. They were all very lovely, and all, as the note had said, looked very much alike. He smelled their breath to see if he could tell which had eaten honey, but that didn't help. As he wondered what to do next, in through a window flew a Queen bee. She lit for a moment on the lips of each girl, and then returned to one of them and perched on her forehead.
By now Pansy had realized that the animals he had saved from his brothers were helping him. Thinking that a bee must know honey better than anyone, Pansy went to the princess the bee perched on, and kissed her gently.
The lovely girl awoke, and after her both sisters also stirred. Then all around the palace came the sounds of people and animals coming to life again.
When the brothers found Pansy, they were very grateful for being saved, and they apologized for every name they had ever called him. When he told them the story, they were also sorry they had been so mean to the animals, and vowed to become gentler in the future.
The three brothers married the three princesses, and they all lived in their new kingdom very happily.
So you see, it is not such a bad thing to be a Pansy.