A Riddling Tale

There was once a king’s son who traveled about for a long time. After he had traveled enough to make many friends about the land, he came to a town in which there was a beautiful but proud princess, who proclaimed that whosoever could set her a riddle she could not guess shall be her husband; but if she guessed it within three days, his head be cut off. She was so clever that she always found the answer. Before the king’s son arrived to the town, nine suitors had already perished in this manner, but he was so blinded by her great beauty, he was willing to stake his life for it.

He went to her and laid a riddle to her, recalling his many adventures. “What lives in any place, any time, sees all things, and from the window right now is peeping.”

She did not know what that was, she thought and thought, but she could not find out, she opened her riddle books, but it was not in them - in short, her wisdom was at an end.

As she did not know how to help herself, she ordered whoever was creeping at the window into the her sleeping-chamber, to her dreams, and thought that they would perhaps speak to her in her sleep and thus discover the riddle. But king’s son placed himself in the bed instead, and when the princess came there, he tore off the pane from the mantle in which the window laid, and was chased out by the princess into the night. The second night the King’s daughter sent in her maid-in-waiting, to see if she she could succeed in dream listening, but drove her servant out away again when she believed herself the master. Now the King’s son believed himself safe on third night, and lay down in his own bed.

Then came the princess herself, and she had put on a misty-grey mantle, and seated herself near him. And when she thought he was asleep and dreaming, she spoke to him, and hoped that he would give the answer in his sleep, as so many do, but through the night he was awake, and understood and heard everything quite well.

Then she asked, “What lives any place, and at any time, what is that?” He replied, “The wizard’s bird, which is always listening, and is peeping at the window right now.” He answered, “his bird could come from tomorrow morning, and land on the window tonight.” And suddenly the wizard’s bird flew from the window’s mantle.

When she knew the answer to the riddle she wanted to steal it away, but he held her mantle so fast that she was forced to leave it behind her. Next morning, the King’s daughter announced that she had guessed the riddle, and sent for the judges to expound him before her. But the King’s son begged for a proper hearing, and said, “She stole it into the night, otherwise she could not have discovered it.” The judges said, “Bring us a proof of this.” Then there were the window curtain’s and rods brought thither by the servant, and when the judges saw that, they said, “Let the window be embroidered with gold and silver and white, and then it will be your wedding-mantle.”