School: Páirc an Iarla (roll number 9303)

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1. Grimmer's Fairy Tales (continued)

   

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   the brothers wanted to light a fire under the tree and kill the bees in order to get the honey. But the dwarf held back. At length they came to a castle and their was no one inside, so the went through the rooms, and at last they saw an old grey man, and arose and came to them. He said nothing but brought them to a table covered with good things to eat and drink and when they had finished he showed them a bedch?. The next morning he came to the eldest brother and showed him three tablets which contained an account of the means by which the castle which was cursed might be disenchanted. The first tablet said: " In the would, under the moss lie the thousand pearls belonging to the King's daughter; they must be found; it said that if one is one was missing before sunset, he who does not seek them will be turned into a stone." But by the evening the first brother hadn't got the first hundred, so he was turned into a stone; and the second brother took the task and failed to find the second hundred, so he was turned into a stone as well. The came the dwarfs turn. He nearly gave it up, and King of the Ants ( whose life he had saved). He brought five thousands ants to help search for the pearls; and it was not long before every single was found, and they laid them in a heap. The second tablet said:" They key of the Princess's bed - chamber must fished up out of the lake." As the dwarf came to the brink of it hesaw the two ducks whose lives he had saved, and

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Folktales index

   AT0554: The Grateful Animals

   Language

   English

   Informant

   Margaret Murray

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   60

   Occupation

   Farmer's wife

   Address

   Rathpeak, Co. Roscommon