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Author
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Comment
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Melanie
Unregistered User
(4/12/02 6:07:44 am)
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talking horse, boy with golden hair
I remember a fairy tale about a servant who goes into a room he shouldn't & drink from a fountain that turns his hair gold; he has a magical horse (a prince) that speaks and takes him into battle 3 times, changing color every time. But I can't remember the title or the author.
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Terri
Registered User
(4/12/02 6:38:12 am)
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Re: talking horse, boy with golden hair
Darn, I can't remember the title either -- but I remember the Kay Nielsen illustration of the young man (who has become a gardener in the king's court, if I remembering the same tale...?) lying on the floor in the princess's bedroom with his golden hair covered with a cloth. Is that the same one?
Does anyone here have their Peacock Press edition of Kay Nielsen's art handy to look up the title of the tale?
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Jess
Unregistered User
(4/12/02 11:07:14 am)
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Iron Hans?
I think this the name of the Grimms' version of the tale you are looking for. At least it has some of the elements - the different colored knights, gilded haired boy, etc., but it has a wild man rather than a talking horse. Anyone else come up with something different?
Jess
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Rebecca
Unregistered User
(4/13/02 6:23:03 am)
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Re: talking horse, boy with golden hair
In the collection of fairy tales, East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North, there is a tale called The Widow's Son that also sounds remarkably like the one you're looking for, although not exactly... I tried to find it online but could not, so here's the basic storyline.
A poor widow's son goes to work for a troll. When the troll leaves on a trip he forbids the boy from entering four rooms--but of course, the boy enters them anyway. In the third room is a bubbling cauldron that he sticks his finger in, and when he removes it, it is gilded (connection to the golden hair?); later he bathes completely in the cauldron and becomes strong and handsome. In the fourth room is the talking horse, who tells him where to find some armor and then helps him escape from the troll. When they come to the king's palace, the horse tells the boy to put his rags back on and to make a wig out of moss to disguise his loveliness. He becomes the king's gardener. The princess sees him bathing one day, and insists that he sleep by her bed (the collection I have has the Nielsen illustration); she pulls off his wig and discovers how beautiful he is, but the king is enraged that the gardener is sleeping in his daughter's room so he throws him into prison. The boy convinces the guards to let him out when the king goes to battle against a neighboring kingdom. He goes into battle three times (but the story doesn't say his horse changes color), and finally the king discovers who he is, and the boy marries the princess. At the end of the story, the horse insists that the boy cut off his head, and when he does the horse becomes a prince.
Hope this is of some help, anyway.
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Nova
Unregistered User
(4/16/02 10:10:45 am)
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RE: name
I always recall this story being called something along the lines of 'The Golden Apple." The Grimm's version does have a wild man instead of a horse. The boy goes to work for the king as a gardner and always wears a hat to hde his golden hair. One day the wind snatches the hat away and it goes flying. The princess sees his hair and falls in love. When it comes time for her to chose her husband or show favor on the knights of the country, she throws the golden apple (the method of choice, and a rather poor one if you ask me- what if she had bad aim or he had no hand-eye coordination) to the gardening boy. This happens three times because the King can't believe she wants to honor the gardener. I don't remember the rest of it. Sorry. But I think it's called The Golden Apple.
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Melanie
Unregistered User
(4/16/02 8:58:28 pm)
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It's The Widow's Son
Thank you everyone--from the descriptions, all sound close, but The Widow's Son is definitely it. I had not mentioned the need to cover up the hair or how the horse had insisted on having his head cut off so he could become a prince again. I had also forgotten the details about being the king's gardener and how the princess fell in love with his beauty--but it's all come back to me. I think it's just a very close version of that, even if not from the same volume. Thank you!
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