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012 - The Three Suitors · Serbian Fairy Tales

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  Speaker 1: Section twelve of Serbian fairy Tales. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read
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  Speaker 1: by Dale Berkley. Serbian fairy Tales, translated by Ilode Miyatovitch.
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  Speaker 1: The three suitors. In a very remote country. There formerly
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  Speaker 1: lived a king who had only one child, an exceedingly
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  Speaker 1: beautiful daughter. The princess had a great number of suitors,
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  Speaker 1: and amongst them were three young noblemen, whom the king
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  Speaker 1: loved much as However, the king liked the three nobles
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  Speaker 1: equally well, he could not decide to which of the
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  Speaker 1: three he should give his daughter as a wife. One day, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: he called the three young noblemen to him, and said,
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  Speaker 1: go all of you and travel about the world. The
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  Speaker 1: one of you who brings home the most remarkable thing
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  Speaker 1: shall become my son in law. The three suitors started
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  Speaker 1: at once on their travels, each of them taking opposite
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  Speaker 1: ways and going in search of remarkable things into distant
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  Speaker 1: and different countries. A long time had not passed before
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  Speaker 1: one of the young nobles found a wonderful carpet which
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  Speaker 1: would carry rapidly through the air whoever sat upon it.
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  Speaker 1: Another of them found a marvelous telescope, through which he
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  Speaker 1: could see everybody and everything in the world, and even
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  Speaker 1: the many colored sands at the bottom of the great
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  Speaker 1: deep sea. The third found a wonder working ointment which
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  Speaker 1: could cure every disease in the world, and even bring
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  Speaker 1: dead people back to life again. Now, the three noble
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  Speaker 1: travelers were far distant from each other when they found
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  Speaker 1: these wonderful things. But when the young man who had
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  Speaker 1: found the telescope looked through it, he saw one of
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  Speaker 1: his former friends and present rivals, walking with a carpet
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  Speaker 1: on his shoulder, and so he set out to join him.
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  Speaker 1: As he could always see by means of his marvelous
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  Speaker 1: telescope where the other nobleman was. He had no great
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  Speaker 1: difficulty in finding him, and when the two had met,
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  Speaker 1: they sat side by side on the wonderful carpet, and
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  Speaker 1: it carried them through the air until they had joined
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  Speaker 1: the third traveler. One day, when each of them had
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  Speaker 1: been telling of the remarkable things he had seen in
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  Speaker 1: his travels, one of them exclaimed, suddenly, now let's see
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  Speaker 1: what the beautiful princess is doing. And where she is.
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  Speaker 1: Then the noble who had found the telescope looked through
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  Speaker 1: it and saw, to his great surprise and dismay, that
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  Speaker 1: the king's daughter was lying very sick and at the
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  Speaker 1: point of death. He told this to his two friends
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  Speaker 1: and rivals, and they too were as thunder struck at
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  Speaker 1: the bad news, and till the one who had found
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  Speaker 1: the wonder working ointment, remembering it, suddenly exclaimed, I am
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  Speaker 1: sure I could cure her if I could only reach
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  Speaker 1: the palace soon enough. On hearing this, the noble who
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  Speaker 1: had found the wonderful carpet cried out, let us sit
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  Speaker 1: down on my carpet, and it will quickly carry us
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  Speaker 1: to the King's palace. Thereupon the three nobles gently placed
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  Speaker 1: themselves on the carpet, which rose instantly in the air
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  Speaker 1: and carried them direct to the king's palace. The king
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  Speaker 1: received them immediately, but sat very sadly. I am sorry
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  Speaker 1: for you, for all your travels have been in vain.
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  Speaker 1: My daughter is just dying so she can marry none
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  Speaker 1: of you. But the nobleman who possessed the wonder working
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  Speaker 1: ointment said, respectfully, do not fear, sire. The princess will
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  Speaker 1: not die, and on being permitted to enter the apartment
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  Speaker 1: where she lay sick, he placed the ointment so that
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  Speaker 1: she could smell it. In a few moments, the princess revived,
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  Speaker 1: and when her waiting women had rubbed a little of
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  Speaker 1: the ointment on her skin, she recovered so quickly that
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  Speaker 1: in a few days she was better than she had
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  Speaker 1: been before she was taken ill. The king was so
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  Speaker 1: glad to have his daughter given back to him as
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  Speaker 1: he thought from the grave, that he declared that she
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  Speaker 1: should marry no one but the young nobleman, whose wonderful
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  Speaker 1: ointment had cured her. But now a great dispute arose
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  Speaker 1: between the three young nobles. The one who possessed the
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  Speaker 1: ointment affirmed that had he not found it, the princess
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  Speaker 1: would have died, and could not therefore have married anyone.
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  Speaker 1: The noble who owned the telescope declared that had he
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  Speaker 1: not found the wonderful telescope, they would never have known
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  Speaker 1: that the princess was dying, and so his friend would
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  Speaker 1: not have brought the ointment to cure her. Whilst the
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  Speaker 1: third noble proved to them that had he not found
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  Speaker 1: the wonderful carpet, neither the finding of the ointment nor
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  Speaker 1: the telescope would have helped the princess, since they could
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  Speaker 1: not have traveled such a great distance in time to
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  Speaker 1: save her. The King, overhearing this dispute, called the young
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  Speaker 1: nobleman to him and said to them, my lords, from
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  Speaker 1: what you have said, I see that I cannot with
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  Speaker 1: justice give my daughter to any of you. Therefore I
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  Speaker 1: pray you to give up altogether the idea of marrying her,
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  Speaker 1: and that you continue friends as he always were before
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  Speaker 1: you became rivals. The three young nobles saw that the
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  Speaker 1: king had decided justly, so they all left their native
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  Speaker 1: country and went into a far off desert to live
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  Speaker 1: like hermits, and the king gave the princess to another
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  Speaker 1: of his great nobles. Many many years had passed away
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  Speaker 1: since the marriage of the princess. When her husband was
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  Speaker 1: sent by her father to a distant country with which
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  Speaker 1: the king was waging war. The nobleman took his wife
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  Speaker 1: the princess, with him, as he was uncertain how long
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  Speaker 1: he might be forced to remain abroad. Now, it happened
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  Speaker 1: that a violent storm arose just as the vessel in
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  Speaker 1: which the princess and her husband were was approaching a
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  Speaker 1: strange coast, and in the height of the great tempest,
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  Speaker 1: the ship dashed on some rocks and went to pieces instantly.
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  Speaker 1: All the people on board perished in the waves, excepting
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  Speaker 1: only the princess, who clung very fast to a boat
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  Speaker 1: and was carried by the wind and the tide to
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  Speaker 1: the sea shore. There she found what seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: an uninhabited country, and, finding a small cave in a rock,
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  Speaker 1: she lived in it alone three years, feeding on wild
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  Speaker 1: herbs and fruits. She searched every day to find some
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  Speaker 1: way out of the forest which surrounded her cave, but
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  Speaker 1: could find none. One day, however, when she had wandered
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  Speaker 1: farther than usual from the cave where she lived, she
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  Speaker 1: came suddenly on another cave, which had, to her great astonishment,
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  Speaker 1: a small door. She tried over and over again to
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  Speaker 1: open the door, thinking she would pass the night in
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  Speaker 1: the cave, but all her efforts were unavailing. It was
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  Speaker 1: shut so fast. At length, however, a deep voice from
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  Speaker 1: within the cave called out, who is at the door.
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  Speaker 1: At this the princess was so surprised that she could
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  Speaker 1: not answer for some moments. When, however, she had recovered
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  Speaker 1: a little she said, open me the door. Immediately the
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  Speaker 1: door was opened from within, and she saw with sudden
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  Speaker 1: terror an old man with a thick gray beard reaching
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  Speaker 1: below his waist, and long white hair flowing over his shoulders.
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  Speaker 1: What frightened the princess the more was her finding a
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  Speaker 1: man living here in the same desert where she had
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  Speaker 1: lived herself three years without seeing a single soul. The
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  Speaker 1: hermit and the princess looked at each other long and earnestly,
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  Speaker 1: without saying a word. At length, however, the old man said,
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  Speaker 1: tell me, are you an angel or a daughter of
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  Speaker 1: this world? Then the princess answered, old man, let me
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  Speaker 1: rest a moment, and then I will tell you all
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  Speaker 1: about myself and what brought me here. So the hermit
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  Speaker 1: brought out some wild pears, and when the princes had
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  Speaker 1: taken some of them, she began to tell him who
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  Speaker 1: she was and how she came in that desert. She said,
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  Speaker 1: I am a king's daughter, and once many years ago,
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  Speaker 1: three young nobles in my father's court asked the king
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  Speaker 1: for my hand in marriage. Now the king had such
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  Speaker 1: an equal affection for all these three young men that
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  Speaker 1: he was unwilling to give pain to any of them.
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  Speaker 1: So he sent them to travel into distant countries, and
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  Speaker 1: promised to decide between them when they returned. The three
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  Speaker 1: noblemen remained a long time away, and whilst they were
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  Speaker 1: still abroad somewhere I felt dangerously ill. I was just
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  Speaker 1: at the point of death when they all three returned suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: one of them bringing a wonderful ointment, which cured me
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  Speaker 1: at once. The two others brought each equally remarkable things,
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  Speaker 1: a carpet that would carry whoever sat on it through
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  Speaker 1: the air, and a telescope with which one could see
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  Speaker 1: everybody and everything in the world, even to the sands
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  Speaker 1: at the bottom of the sea. The princess had gone
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  Speaker 1: on thus far with her story when the hermit suddenly
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  Speaker 1: interrupted her, saying, all that happened afterwards, I know as
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  Speaker 1: well as you can tell me. Look at me, my daughter,
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  Speaker 1: I am one of those noblemen who sought to win
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  Speaker 1: your hand. And here is the wonderful telescope. And the
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  Speaker 1: hermit brought out the instrument from a recess in the
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  Speaker 1: side of his cave. Before he continued. My two friends
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  Speaker 1: and rivals came with me to this desert. We parted, however, immediately,
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  Speaker 1: and have never met since. I know not whether they
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  Speaker 1: are living or dead, but I will look for them.
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  Speaker 1: Then the hermit looked through his telescope and saw that
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  Speaker 1: the other two noblemen were living in caves like his,
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  Speaker 1: in different parts of the same desert. Having found this out,
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  Speaker 1: he took the princess by the hand and led her
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  Speaker 1: on until they found the other hermits. When all were reunited,
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  Speaker 1: the princess related her adventures since the ship in which
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  Speaker 1: her husband was had gone down and she alone had
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  Speaker 1: been saved. The three noble hermits were pleased to see
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  Speaker 1: her alive once again, but at once decided they ought
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  Speaker 1: to send her back to the King her father. Then
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  Speaker 1: they made the princess a present of the wonderful telescope
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  Speaker 1: and the wonder working ointment, and placed her on the
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  Speaker 1: wonderful carpet, which carried her and her treasures quickly and
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  Speaker 1: safely to her father's palace. As for the three noblemen,
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  Speaker 1: they remained still living like hermits in the desert. Only
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  Speaker 1: they visited each other now and then, so that the
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  Speaker 1: years seemed no longer so tedious to them, for they
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  Speaker 1: had many adventures to relate to each other. The king
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  Speaker 1: was exceedingly glad to receive his only child back safely,
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  Speaker 1: and the princes lived with their father many years, and
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  Speaker 1: neither the king nor his daughter could entirely forget the
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  Speaker 1: three noble friends who, for her sake lived like hermits
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  Speaker 1: in a wild desert in a far off land. End
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  Speaker 1: of Section twelve. Read by Dale Barkley, Tucson, Arizona, February third,
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  Speaker 1: two thousand, twenty two.