042. The Sleeping Princess (La Princesa Dormida)
A princess lived in a palace of her father, the king. Every evening she would go out for a walk in the company of some of her ladies, and [in] one of those evenings she happened to pass in front of a humble house at whose door an old woman was spinning [yarns] with a distaff. The princess, who saw the spinner, thought that she, too, could entertain herself by spinning [yarns] and she asked the old woman to sell her the distaff. As the old woman was very poor and the princess had set her mind on obtaining it, she sold her the distaff and the spindle for a good sum of money, much more than what they cost, with the intention of [re-]buying other spinning tools herself and pocket the money that she had left over.
The princess joyfully returned to the palace and, as soon as she got back, she wanted to begin spinning [right away]. But she did not know how to spin, as no one had taught her [before], and in her haste she was nicked in the finger with a small splinter from the distaff and was left lifeless.
Then the old woman ran away from her house and was never seen [by anyone else] again.
When the king saw his poor daughter [lying] dead, he felt so grief-stricken that he would not let anyone near the princess and mourned her for a whole day. At the end of the day, the king told everyone that his daughter seemed more asleep than dead, and because of that, he gave orders to erect in a clearing of his favorite forest a glass mansion, and instructed to place in it the casket wherein lie the princess in her white dress adorned with silver bells.
So there the princess stayed, and with time the forest grew thicker and thicker [all] around the mansion until it was lost from human sight.
But it so happened that a count who had just recovered from a long sickness was out on a walk with his servants one day and, while hunting [for games], they entered the forest and lost their way. On seeing that they were lost, they began to search for a way out and got more and more entangled until one of them sighted the glass mansion [in the distance]. The count was struck by the existence of that beautiful glass mansion in the middle of the thick and wild forest, and he noticed that no one seemed to be occupying it. As such, he decided to enter the mansion to see if it was truly abandoned, and he explored it thoroughly.
The count was walking from one room to another when he entered the one where the dead princess was lying in, and he approached her full of curiosity, but as soon as he saw her [face], who seemed to be asleep and not dead, he fell madly in love with her.
The count ordered his servants to leave him alone with her. And he gazed at her for hours [on end], [being] more and more in love [with the passing hours]. And then he noticed that a small splinter was stuck in a finger of her hand and, with great care, he extracted it. And at that very moment, the princess opened her eyes and looked at him with [great] tenderness.
Needless to say how joyous the count felt upon seeing that wonder and how the princess sat up and embraced him, for he had brought her back to life. Then the princess told him her story and they saw that so much time had passed since then that, of all those who were known to the princess, none was still alive.
So she was all alone [by herself] in the world. Then the count told her that he would stay to live with her. To that end, he sent his servants back to his castle with the order to bring him everything which he would need to live there [at the mansion] with the princess, but he ordered them to say nothing to the countess, his wife, of what they had seen, except for that he would remain away from the castle for some time, at a place where the climate was very suitable for him to recuperate from his illness.
[Nguyen: I see bad omens all over with lying to your wife and tricking another woman into living with you…]
So that the count and the princess stayed together in the glass mansion and had twin daughters [as a result].
Much time had passed when the count saw the need to send his servants to replenish the provisions needed to continue the life at the mansion. The servants returned to the castle to complete their order, but there the countess saw them, had them arrested and threatened them with death if they did not reveal the place where her husband, the count, was staying [at]. The servants, who knew her well, saw immediately that she would carry out her threat and told her what they knew:
The count, your husband, lives in a glass mansion hidden in a dense forest with a most beautiful princess by whom he has twin daughters.
When she heard this, the countess flew into a rage and swore to take revenge in a most atrocious manner. Then she warned the servants to not say a single word of what had happened and ordered them to carry out what their master had tasked them to do. And the servants departed with the provisions, knowing that if they opened their mouth, the countess would hang them from the tower.
Some time passed and the count told the princess that he was thinking about returning to the castle for a short time to see how his personal matters were being handled, and the princess made him see that he was leaving her alone with two little girls and that anything might happen to them during his absence. But the count insisted [on leaving] and promised that he would return very soon, so the princess was resigned [to the situation] and let him leave.
The count then gathered his servants and went back to the castle. But as bad luck would have it, he suffered a fall from his horse, which left him disabled and was [thus] obligated to remain in bed until his bones had fully healed. In this way he had to remain in his castle for a long period of time and the countess knew that the time for her vengeance had arrived.
So she called for one of the servants and asked him to go to the mansion in the forest and bring back one of the count’s daughters, with him being ordered to do so because the count could not bear not seeing her for a long time. The servant obeyed [her orders] without any doubts and went away to fetch the girl, and the princess entrusted him with one of her two daughters. And upon returning with her, the countess told him that she herself would take her to the count, who was already waiting for her.
But instead of [doing] that, the countess, [who was] filled with devilish joy at the success of her ruse, took the child, carried her to a secret room in the tower and there she entertained herself: first, in torturing the poor child, and then she killed her, chopped her up, stewed her as if she was a suckling lamb, and at lunchtime she presented the dish to the count and waited for him to eat in front of her. And while he ate, the countess hummed under her breath:
The first, you are eating,
The second, you will be eating.
And the father, without knowing it, ate his beloved daughter.
[Nguyen: this is wrong on so many levels…. The count was having an extramarital affairs, which led to a jealous countess, which led to the murder of an innocent child….]
The countess let only one week passed by before she again called for the servant to bring her the second daughter. Everything went the same way as the previous time and she did the same to the second daughter, and again presented the dish to the husband, and seeing him eat, she hummed under her breath:
To the first you have already eaten,
And the second you are now eating.
So pleased was the countess with her horrible success that she decided to seize the princess herself this time [around]. And to this end, she sent a servant to the mansion in the forest to tell her that the count was asking for her. The princess wished to hear nothing more than this, as she was already completely alone by herself and was longing for the count and their two daughters. So that she was ready in a moment notice and went with the servant to the castle. And there the countess was waiting for her, who ordered the guard to seize her at once and to put her in a cell in the lowest basement in the tower, where no one would search for her, and that they would only give her a ration of bread and water each day.
There came a day when the count was finally able to get out of bed and started walking [around], but as he was still recuperating, he could only take short walks, which he did around the castle every morning. And on one of those mornings he happened to pass in front of the tower and heard a sound of little bells, which immediately reminded him of the little bells from his beloved’s dress. So he then began to look and investigate until he found a small window from the basement and realized with joy that it was indeed the princess. And he said on seeing her:
My dear princess, who has locked you in there?
And she, [being] surprised [at his question], answered him:
Was it not you, my beloved count, who has sent for me and ordered me to be locked up here [to survive] on only bread and water [each day]?
The count then ran to the basement, followed by the guard, and freed the princess from the cell. And when she inquired about their daughters, the count was even more surprised, and after listening to the princess, he said that he had never sent for her nor for their daughters. In this way he sent [his servants] to bring the countess into his presence and asked her about their daughters. And the countess, with perverse joy, replied:
It was I who ordered them brought here to the castle, and I tortured them and killed them and cooked them for you, which you [then] ate your own daughters in front of me, don’t you remember? Well, this is my revenge and so the princess will remain alone forever.
On hearing this, the princess fainted without anyone being able to help her regain consciousness, and so she remained under the care and vigil of the count for ten days and ten nights. And on the eleventh night, the count, in despair, said to her:
Little princess of my soul, don’t leave me here by myself!
On hearing these words, the princess opened her eyes and looked at him with [great] tenderness. And as she was young and sturdy, her constitution was stronger than the pain [caused to her] and she recovered and lived forever [from then on] with her beloved count.
The countess was stoned by the count’s order and thrown to the bottom of a well so that she would never do evil again to anyone.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Abrazarse – to hug one another
Acabar de – just; (to complete) to finish
Acertar a – to be able to, to manage to; to get right, to guess correctly; (to discover) to find
Al cabo del día – at the end of the day
Almuerzo – lunch
Amado/a – lover, beloved
Amenazar – to threaten, to menace
Apoderarse – to seize, to take possession of
Ardid – ruse, trick
Arrojar – to throw
Astilla – fragment, chip, splinter
Avistar – to sight; to catch sight of
Caja – box, crate, container
Campanita – little bells
Canturrear – to sing to oneself, to sing softly
Castillo – castle, fort
Celda – cell
Claro – (space in the woods) clearing
Clavarse – to force, to hammer, to pin; to get, to stick
Comprobar – to verify, to check
Conseguir – to get, to obtain
Contemplar – to gaze at, to consider
Convaleciente – convalescent, recovering
Corderillo – lambskin
De cuanto – of how much
De modo que – so that
Desmayar – to lose heart, to be disheartened
Desprendido/a – detached; detached from; released; off
Dolencia – (sickness) ailment
Dulzura – sweetness
Encaprichado/a – to fix one’s mind on; to insist on; to be infatuated
Enredarse – to get tangled, to get complicated
En torno a – around
Espesar – to thicken
Guisar – to cook
Hilandero/a – spinner
Hilar – (sewing) to spin
Hueso – bone
Humilde – humble, modest
Huso – spindle
Incorporarse – to sit up
Indagar – to investigate, to inquire into
Internarse – (to penetrate into) to advance deep, to go into
Lapidar – to stone
Lechal – sucking, sucking lamb; suckling
Martirizar – to torture, to torment
Naturaleza – nature
Ni que decir tiene que – needless to say
Obedecer – to obey
Ocupar – (to seize) to confiscate
Ocuparse – (to look after) to take care of
Ocuparse de – (to tackle) to deal with
Palacete – mansion; small palace
Pasear – to go for a walk
Por entero – entirely
Portento – marvel, wonder
Pozo – well
Precipitación – haste, hurry, rush
Prender – to arrest, to apprehend
Propósito – (resolve) resolution; (aim) purpose, intention, intent
Provecho – (merit) benefit; (gain) profit
Recelo – doubts, suspicion
Recomponer – to mend, to repair
Reponer – to replenish (provision)
Reponerse – to recover
Rueca – spinning wheel; distaff
Salvaje – wild, untame
Sobrar – to be left over, to remain
Solía – used to; soler – to use to
Sótano – basement, cellar
Torreón – tower, turret
Traje – (clothing) suit, dress
Tratarse de – (to refer to) to be about; (to amount to) to be
Tullido – lame, disabled, paralyzed
Undécimo – eleventh
Vela – candle
Venganza – revenge
Ventanuco/nico – windows
Vestido – dress, clothes
Volver en sí – to regain consciousness; to come to, to come around
Yacer – to lie, to be buried; to reside, to lie