114. The Dragon Prince (El Príncipe Dragón)
Once upon a time there was a very well-off farmhouse where a very pretty and sharp-witted girl was employed as a cowherd[ess]. One day, while she was watching over the oxen, she heard shrieks and loud groans coming from the forest, as if someone had been wounded. Fearing that a wolf had attacked someone, and moved by an empathetic sentiment, she ran to that place where the groans came from and found a dragon there, moaning and howling at the same time.
The fearful cowherd at first thought only of running away, but then she did not dare to leave because the dragon was gazing at her with a look that begged for compassion. The girl, little by little, lost her fear and approached the ferocious animal, which had claws that seemed like spearheads and was covered in a skin as hard as the shell of a turtle.
When she finally got to his side, she saw that he had a large wound on one leg. The cowherdess healed him as best as she knew how, cleaned up the blood, put some beneficial herbs on the wound, and with her own apron, she bandaged the leg as best she could.
When the cowherdess returned to the meadow where she was keeping watch on the oxen, she found no trace for any of them. In desperation, she returned to the farmhouse and explained what had happened to her. The owner scolded her, and even beat her, and he told her that, from this hour onward, instead of taking care of the oxen she would take care of the lamb and sheep.
Just a year after the theft of the oxen, the girl was in the field shepherding the lambs; and again she heard such pitiful groans and howls that she could not resist the temptation to go and see who was suffering in this way. And lo and behold, she again encountered the same dragon, who looked at her with sorrowful eyes that was sad to look at, and who was wounded in the thigh. The shepherdess, more confident than she had been the first time, approached him, treated him, put [medicinal] herbs on his wound and again bandaged him with her apron. And the same thing happened [to her] like before, on returning to the meadow where she left her lambs and oxen, she found none as they had [simply] disappeared.
The shepherdess, being very sad, returned to the farmhouse to tell the owner what had happened; the owner was infuriated, [he] scolded her, and hit her, and sent her to look after the pigs.
And just a year after the theft of the lambs and sheep, the swineherdess, who was in the field with her pigs, again heard the same groans and howls [as] from the previous times and went to see what were there this time. And there was the same dragon, [being] badly wounded and mistreated, bleeding from the many wounds all over the body. The swineherdess treated [his wounds] as best she could, cleaned the wounds and applied beneficial herbs to all the damaged [body] parts and later bandaged them with shreds of her apron. Then she went back to search for her pigs and saw that they too were stolen and there remained no trace of them.
This time she was so afraid of the owner’s fury that she dared not return to the house and [instead] went off wandering into the woods.
When the night was upon her, she searched for a tree and climbed as high as she could to sleep. After a while, she felt some footsteps and saw a fine-looking young gentleman coming [this way], one such as she had never seen before in her life. The young man went to a nearby rock, leaned his pinky on it and the rock opened up, revealing the mouth of a cave through which the handsome young man entered. The following morning, when dawn barely broke, the door to the cave again opened and out came from it a ferocious dragon which the girl immediately recognized as the one that she had cured in the three [prior] occasions.
The girl, though weakened by hunger, was very curious to see what was inside that cave, so she climbed down from the tree and put her pinky on the rock, which immediately opened and freed up the entrance. The girl stepped inside and saw that it was a great palace, [ornamented] in gold and crystals, with many enormous rooms filled with flowers and light. The girl got to the dining room, where there was a large table perfectly set with exquisite delicacies and wines of all kinds. The girl, who was starving, ate everything until she satisfied her hunger.
Then she began to sweep and clean the entire palace, and [once] exhausted, she laid down to sleep on a bed of [filled with] peacock feathers. Then, well fed and rested, she returned to her hiding place on the tree.
The gentleman returned in the evening, entered the cave, and the next morning a dragon came out [of it] again. The dragon looked and looked at all the surroundings as if he were looking for someone or something, but as he did not look up the tree, he did not see the girl and went off into the forest.
Again, the girl got down from the tree and entered the cave to eat, clean, and sleep. Once she had done all this, she went back to the tree top and, as on the previous evening, the gentleman returned to the cave and the ferocious dragon appeared the next morning.
The girl did this for seven days until, wishing to clear up the mystery, she decided on the eighth day to remain in the cave instead of returning to the tree. That evening, when the gentleman entered and found her, he told her that he had already guessed that it was her, the one who had healed him when he was injured. The young man told her that he was a prince who was enchanted by a giant, and the enchantment was that at night he would be able to have his human form, but in the day he was the dragon that she had seen.
Then he told her that it had been the giant who had injured him and that, furious on seeing that she had healed him, it had stolen the livestock that she was tending to so that the owner would get mad and punish her. The girl asked him what she could do to remove the enchantment, and he told her that what had to be done was almost impossible, as it was a matter of cutting the golden braid of a princess, spinning the hair, weaving a very fine cloth and making a suit out of this for the giant, who was so vain that, in exchange for that suit, he would disenchant [the curse on] the prince.
The girl decided to free the prince from the enchantment and set out for the king’s city to go to the palace to see if she could obtain the braid of a princess. The girl went all over the city, up above and down below, announcing:
Who wants a maid? Who wants a maid?
Quite a few people came forward to take her as a servant, but [since] she only wanted to work in the palace of the king, she kept making the announcement until one of the king’s housekeepers heard it and agreed to take her [as a servant]. The girl behaved as well as she knew how and soon caught the attention of the princess, who took her as her maid. [And] that was what the girl was longing for.
The princess had long braids so blonde they looked as if they were made from gold threads [themselves], and they were so thick and long that they reached the ground. The servant, who began to comb them, told the princess that she liked her braids so much that she would like to ask for permission to cut one of them off. The princess said no, that under no circumstances [would she do this], as she too liked them very much and did not want to part with any of them. She would only let someone cut it if that person could promise to marry her to a prince. The servant told her that, if she let her cut it, she would marry her to a prince. So then the princess consented [to the request].
The girl immediately spun and wove a cloth, [then] cut and sewed a magnificent suit [out of it], and as soon as she had finished, she headed back to the cave where the prince was to show it to him. The prince asked her to take it to the giant, who lived in a formidable castle at the peak of a close by mountain, but long before she got there, she [must] announce that she had brought the suit, for otherwise the giant would eat her as soon as he saw her appeared. The girl did this, and the giant thought the suit looked gorgeous, but it was a little short and he could not put it on.
In desperation, the girl returned to the king’s palace to wait for the princess to let her comb her hair again. That day finally arrived and she again asked her for another braid, but the princess told her that under no circumstances would she give it to her; the girl again promised the princess that she would marry her to a prince and she insisted so, so much that the princess, at last, accepted.
Once more the girl spun, wove, cut and sewed, and with the suit remade, she presented herself to the giant; but this time, although the giant found the suit to be long enough, it was quite narrow and did not fit him either. Again in desperation, the girl returned to the palace and waited for an[other] opportunity to comb the princess’s hair; and when this arrived, she begged her to let her cut her hair, and of course, the princess refused because her hair was her greatest attraction, and if she [was to] cut it, no prince would take notice of her. But the girl insisted so, so much that, in the end, the princess agreed.
Once more the girl remade the suit with the new fabric that she had woven and again she went to see the giant. This time, the giant thought the suit was perfect, decided to keep it and gave her his thanks. Then the girl told him that what she wanted was for him to disenchant the prince, and the giant said that this was not possible in any way. She cried and begged in such manner that finally, and considered that he liked the suit more and more [each time he looked at it], he agreed to disenchant the prince and told her the following:
To disenchant the prince you’ll have to take [hold of] the dragon and kill it with one stab. Once it’s dead, you will have to cut its body into small pieces and throw them into the fire; and from the smoke that will form, the prince will emerge disenchanted and free. But, of course, you will have to be careful not to lose a [single] drop of [its] blood nor a piece of [its] flesh because, if not, he would also be missing [the same thing] in his human form.
The poor girl, filled with fear, went to see the dragon and explained to it what the giant had said to her. She did not want to kill it because she feared the giant was tricking her; she was afraid that, after doing all that he had told her to do, the prince would [still] not be brought back to life. The dragon, however, asked her to do everything that the giant had said and with much care and attention so that it would come out well. At last the poor girl, with a faint heart, killed the dragon, chopped it up and threw everything into a large fire she had prepared [started]; but, in doing so, a small drop of blood fell on the ground.
Immediately, a great smoke rose from the fire, which, little by little, began to take the form of a charming gentleman until, at last, it transformed into the most gallant and handsome prince that none had seen before, though with a mole on the tip of the nose, which was the drop of blood that the girl had let fallen.
The young prince embraced his savior and told her that he wanted to marry her, but the girl replied that this could not be because, in order to save him, she had promised the princess who had given the girl her hair that she would marry her to him. The prince told her that he did not see why that was a reason for the two of them to not be able to get married, and they went [together] to the prince’s palace.
When they arrived at the palace, the girl found to her great surprise that it was the same palace where she had been a servant, and that the princess who had let her cut her braids so that she could marry a prince was the sister of the prince that she had saved from the enchantment.
The dragon prince and the girl got married and celebrated a great wedding, at which they invited all the kings and princes from [all over] the known world. The princess’s hair soon grew long and she once again had [her] golden braids, which caught the admiration from all who gazed at them, so that all the princes who came to the wedding yearned to marry her. In this way, she [the princess] was able to choose the one she liked best and also got married herself.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Aclarar – (to make clear) to clarify, to explain, to make clear, to clear up; (to dilute) to thin
Acudir – (to attend) to go to; (to consult) to turn to; (to occur to) to come
Agotado – (tired) exhausted; (unavailable) sold out
Aguardar – (to be in a state of expectation) to wait for, to await, to expect;
Alarido – (cry) shriek, howl, yell
Ama de llaves – (occupation) housekeeper
Apenado – (saddened) sorry, sad; (abashed) (Latin America) ashamed, embarrassed
Apoyar – (to uphold) to support, to back; (to lay) to rest, to lean, to put; (to ground) to base; (to confirm) to support;
Aullar – (to bay) to howl (animal); (to shout) to howl (person); (to roar) to howl (wind)
Avispado – sharp, quick-witted, bright
Barrer – (to clean with broom) to sweep; (to carry away) to sweep; (to search) to sweep
Boyeriza – ox-stall, ox-house, cowhouse, a stand for oxen
Buena planta – fine-looking
Caparazón – (animal cover) shell; (bird skeleton) thoracic skeleton
Cima – (geography) summit, top; (high point) peak, height; (botany) top
Comprobar – (to verify) to check; (to demonstrate) to prove; (to notice) to realize
Contemplar – (to observe) to gaze at, to contemplate, to study; (to examine) to consider, to look at
Cordero – lamb
Coser – (to stitch together) to sew; (medicine) to stitch;
Delantal – (culinary) apron; (protective clothing) apron, smock
Desfallecido – weak
Desprenderse – (to be removed) to come off, to become detached, to come away; (to dispose of) to get rid of;
Emprender – (to take up) to undertake; (to initiate) to start (work), to start up (a business), to embark (on a journey)
Engañar – (to lie to) to deceive
Espeluznarse – to have the hair dishevelled, or set on end with fear
Estrecho – (of small width) narrow; (close-fitting) tight; (intimate) close; (puritanical) prudish
Galán – (attractive man) handsome man, heartthrob; (man who enjoys flirting with women) ladies’ man; (theater) leading man, lead, hero; (beau) boyfriend
Ganado – (group of animals) livestock, stock
Garras – (power) clutches; garra – (of an animal) claw, talon (of a bird of prey)
Gemir – (to express suffering) to moan, to groan; (to howl) to whine;
Hilar – (sewing) to spin; (to connect) to string together; (said of spiders and insects) to spin
Humareda – cloud of smoke
Jirón – (tear) shred, rag, tatters (plural); (fragment) bit, shred
Lastimero – (pathetic) pitiful
Lunar – (anatomy) mole; (design) polka dot, spot; (defect) flaw, blemish
Maltratado – (beaten) battered; (mistreated) abused
Manjar – (pleasing food) delicacy; delicious (adjective); (delight) food
Masía – (farmhouse) farm; (mansion in the country) country house
Meñique – (anatomy) little finger, pinky
Muslo – (anatomy) thigh; (culinary) thigh, drumstick, leg
Nariz – nose
Pavo – (animal) turkey; (colloquial) (naive) silly
Porquero – (occupation) swineherd
Pregón – (public notice) proclamation, announcement; (commerce) cry
Pregonar – (to declare) to proclaim, to announce; (to make public) to spread around; (to announce products) to hawk
Provenir – (used with “de”) to come from, to stem from
Puñalada – (act of stabbing) stab; (medicine) stab wound, knife wound
Recorrer – (to trek across) to travel around, to traverse; (to travel) to cover, to do; (to inspect) to look around
Recubierto – covered
Reñir – (to reprimand) to tell off, to scold, to chew out; (to fight) to wage; (to disagree) to argue, to fight, to have a falling-out, to quarrel, to row (UK)
Roca – (geology) rock
Rogar – (to implore) to beg
Saciarse – (to fill oneself) to sate oneself; (to be gratified) to have one’s fill; to quench, to satisfy
Suspirar – (to exhale) to sigh, to give a sigh; (to long for) to yearn for
Tejer – (to sew with yarn) to knit (with two needles), to crochet (with one needle), to weave
Tela – (textile) fabric, cloth, material; (fine arts) canvas; (spider’s construction) web;
Tentación – (impulse) temptation; (something tempting) temptation
Tortuga – (reptile) turtle, tortoise, terrapin; (slow person) slowpoke, slowcoach
Tratarse de – (to refer to) to be about; (to amount to) to be a question of, to be a matter of, to be
Trenza – (hairstyle) braid; (interweaving) plait (of leather or straw), braid (in sewing)
Tupido – (compact) thick, dense, closely woven
Vanidoso – (smug) vain, conceited
Vendar – (to cover a wound) to bandage, to dress; (to cover the eyes) to blindfold
Ventura – (joy) happiness; (fortuity) luck, fortune; (fate) chance, luck