049. The Three Lions (Los Tres Leones)
A married couple had three sons and the father unfortunately fell ill with malignant (high) fevers that, despite the care lavished on him by his wife, he went to the grave in a short period of time. And when he died, his wife found out that she was expecting [once more (e.g. pregnant)].
The months passed by, and before the due date of the birth, the three sons went to see their mother and said to her:
Mother, now is the time for us to leave this house; there is nothing left for us to do here and, moreover, we cannot stay with you forever. When you give birth, see if our [baby] sibling is a boy or a girl; if he is a boy, [he would] send for us, for we will come to his side; but if she is a girl then you will not [get to] see us again, because in this case a great misfortune will befall us from which only she will be able to save us when she grows up.
No matter how much the mother cried and begged, she could not prevent her sons from leaving. And their departure caused her the greatest of pain.
A short time later, the nine months were over and a baby girl was born. And the birth of the girl only caused her grief, because she knew that now she would never [get to] see her three sons again. And from such grief, the wife fell ill and joined her husband in a few days, leaving the girl to the care of a neighbor.
The neighbor was a good woman, [forever] loving and cheerful, who raised the girl as if she was her own daughter. And the girl took on the neighbor’s character and grew up to be so beautiful that everyone in the world praised her.The neighbor had another daughter, born to her, who was prone to envy and bad-tempered and was very jealous of her mother’s goddaughter. And although her mother reproached her, she treated the girl terribly, for this daughter said that if the girl was not living in the house she would have money to buy new clothes, and for that she hated her even more. And so harsh and cruel was the daughter to her that the girl resolved to leave the house discreetly, without telling even the kind woman who had taken her in.
She started walking just for the sake of walking and soon found herself in an unknown forest, and there the night fell upon her. The girl felt lost and alone and began to turn around, with distress growing [more and more] in her body; in one of her going to and fro, she discovered a castle and began to run towards it to see if they could give her shelter there and, if not, to let her stay even if it was at the gates. But no matter how many times she circled around the castle, she did not see any door and could only weep for her bad luck.
At the moment when she began to cry, a hole in the wall of the castle opened up, a hole the size of a person, and without any hesitation she quickly went through it and the hole closed behind her.
She got to a very large courtyard surrounded by trees and with a beautiful fountain in the center, and she stood there in awe because she had never seen anything like it in her life. Later she crossed the courtyard and entered some splendidly decorated halls and arrived at a dining room where, on a large table, a dinner is being served with all the delicacies that she could have imagined. The girl went from one side to another not knowing what to admire more, and she was being so entertained seeing all of this that, without realizing it, suddenly found herself in front of three fearsome-looking lions who were glaring at her intently. Such a great fear took over her that she ran away to hide herself and, on seeing her running away, the lions furiously rushed after her. She thought that she was done for when she suddenly heard a voice which said:
Be gentle to the girl, for she is your sister.
And the three lions immediately turned into three very handsome, young men, who excitedly threw themselves into her arms; right away they asked her to tell them how she had been able to reach them [there], for the castle had no doors and the girl told them about her life and how she had gotten there, and what had happened to her outside the castle. Then they told her to not be sad, for if she was to follow their instructions, then she would not have anything to fear and could live happily for ever after in that castle.
And there she stayed, taking care of the castle and spending her time happily and contentedly; and when there was nothing left for her to do, she would sew by the highest window in the castle, and from there she would watch the lions traveling far afield to the other mountains and forests; and when they returned, the lions transformed themselves into human form and remained so until the next morning, when they again transformed back into lions and left the castle. The girl sometimes felt like wanting to travel to the outside world that she saw [from the window], but she preferred life [in the castle] with her brothers.
That was how things were when one fine day she heard the sound of hunting horns and soon after many horsemen appeared, going after the trail of a wild boar. During their chase, the hunters approached the castle and among them rode the king’s son, who immediately got the attention of the girl because of his good looks. The prince, on seeing that beautiful young woman leaning out from the window, abandoned the hunt and tried to enter the castle, but when he saw that there were no doors [to it] he asked for a ladder, threw it up and climbed on it until he reached the window. At first the young woman was intimidated by the prince, but the prince immediately reassured her, and later he confessed that he was in love with her the very moment that he saw her, and he wanted to take her back to his palace to marry her.
The girl was happy in her castle, but she also wanted to leave and see the world, and moreover, she also had fallen in love with the prince, so she agreed to marry him. Then the prince asked her to tell him what she was doing in that strange castle; and she was ready to tell him her story when she heard a voice which said to her:
For three years you must not talk about the matter, or [else] you will die and your brothers will remain as lions forever.
As soon as she heard this, the poor girl closed her mouth and, no matter how much the prince questioned her or tried to make her speak, she remained tight lipped on the matter. Then she looked above the prince’s head and, in the far distance, she saw the three lions gesturing to her, wagging their tails affectionately.
The prince thought something odd had happened to the girl, but whatever it was, he insisted that even if she could not speak, he was determined to take her back to his palace and make her his wife. Then she looked once more at the lions and saw that they, with [a nod of] their heads, were saying yes, that she should accept, so then she finally gave her consent to the prince[‘s proposal].
They went together to the prince’s palace and there he presented her to his parents, explaining how he had found her, as well as the odd turn of event when she suddenly became mute, but he again repeated that he wanted to marry her and his father, who was already old and thinking about the succession, gave him his approval. The queen, on the other hand, did not look favorably on the wedding, for it meant that her son would become king, but the queen would be her daughter-in-law and not her.
And she said:
Perhaps you do not realize the danger in marrying this woman? It may well be that your children will also be mute, and one of them will [eventually] rule as a mute [when his time comes]. [And] Who has seen a mute king anywhere in the world? Moreover, she is unknown among us, which is [truly] an offense to all the beautiful girls in this kingdom.
And the prince said:
Don’t you worry, for she is not a mute but her muteness is due to an accident from which she will heal, because I had spoken to her and heard her speak to me. But even if she was mute from birth, I would still marry her [all the same].
And the appointed day came and they wedded against the queen’s wishes, who thus saw her privileges taken away.
The king died soon after, with the prince succeeding him and the girl becoming queen. Everyone was very happy with the new queen because she was so modest and caring, so that she had made them forget about her defect [e.g. of being mute]. And shortly after, the queen became pregnant, which made the young king happy to the brim. However, news soon arrived that there had been an uprising in one of the corners of the kingdom and the people there had been pressed into service of a neighboring king, so that in this way the young king’s territory was being threatened. So, rushing through things, he had to lead his troops to the border to fight [back the neighbor’s aggression].
Before leaving, he entrusted his mother of taking special care of his wife and the unborn child, and the mother told him to leave without worries.
The king was still away from the palace when the queen gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. But the queen distrusted the king’s mother so much that, as soon as he was born, she cut off the little toe of one of his feet and put it away [in a safe place].
She was not without reason, for shortly after his birth, the mother ordered a trusted servant to kidnap the child and make him disappear by throwing him into the sea in a closed box. But the queen’s maid was well acquainted with the servant, who was interested in her, and she astutely managed to find out where he was going to throw the child [into the sea] and followed behind them. When they had thrown him into the sea, she took a small boat that she had prepared in that very place, paddled after the box, picked it up and returned to land with it. Then she handed him to an aunt of hers to raise him in secret.
The king, although he was at war, asked for news of his wife and the mother sent a letter to her son saying that the queen had had a stillborn child and that, after this [turn of event], had indulged in all sort of reckless acts, of which urgent, exemplary punishments should be used [on her].
The king did not like the news he received, but he decided that nothing should be done until his return, for he knew of the ill will that his mother had shown to his wife.
The war, which had lasted for two long years, finally ended, and the king returned [to his palace]. Then the mother stepped forward to welcome him back and told him the one thousand and one horrors of his wife’s conduct during his absence, going so far as to say that she had had affairs with various palace servants of the worst reputation. She was confident that the queen would not be able to defend herself since she could not speak, and thus took advantage of this circumstance. Moreover, she had bribed several witnesses to give false testimony supporting what she had said and presented them to her son. In short, everyone in the palace was very fearful of the king’s mother that no one dared to refute her. The king went to speak with his wife and ask her about what he had heard, but the poor queen could do nothing but shake her head and cry with sorrow.
The plot schemed up by the mother was so involved that, at last, the queen was taken to court to be tried and as no one came forward to defend her, she was condemned to death for adultery.
She was carried to the scaffold where the sentence was to be carried out on the day in which it would have been three years since she left the castle without doors to marry the prince. And the queen hoped that twelve o’clock would strike before she was put to death, for then the promise she made to save her life and the enchantment of her brothers would be fulfilled, and she could then speak and tell everything. And the people around the scaffold looked sad, and the king himself was sad as well, for he still could not believe that the queen had deceived him as they had told him.
When she reached the top of the scaffold, the queen looked in the distance and there she could make out the castle without doors and in the merlon were the three lions. Then she waved a handkerchief to see if she could speak, but the three lions, wagging their tails, told her that it was still not the time [to do so].
The king’s mother, in view of the slowness of the act and the sympathy of the people, urged the executioner to take action as soon as possible, and the poor queen, being mute as always, looked in the direction of the king with such deep sadness that the king, being touched by it, gave order to delay the execution until he ordered it, for at the bottom of his heart he was reluctant to carry out the sentence. And the mother was about to prod him on again when, suddenly, a great confusion arose among the attendants, with some running in one direction and others in another in great fear and it was seen that three ferocious lions had appeared that, in four jumps, [they had] climbed [up] the scaffold and surrounded the queen in a posture of defending her.
The king’s guards had scarcely recovered when the bell tower began to strike twelve o’clock. And at the last bell sound, the three lions transformed into three handsome young men who freed the queen from the scaffold and went to where the king was; and the oldest among them said to him:
This here is our sister, as chaste as [she was] the day you took her away from the castle to make her your wife. A three-year silence was imposed on her when she left the castle, for both her life and ours were dependent on this; she had fulfilled her promise and now we are free from the enchantment which had turned us into lions and bound us to the castle without doors, and now we have come to serve as her witnesses and to defend her life against the slanders of your mother.
The king embraced the queen with undisguised joy and his mother began to attack the queen again. The king then faced his wife and said to her:
Now that your promise has been fulfilled and you can speak [freely], so do tell us your [side of the] story.
The first thing that the queen did was to ask for her son, born two years prior, and the king’s mother then said that, as he was stillborn, he was [already] buried.
Then the queen called for her maid, who came running in with the child, who looked just like his father. And she asked the maid to relate [to everyone] what had happened and, after she had done so, she took off the boy’s shoes and showed the little foot to the king so that he could see it was missing one of the toes. And she asked the maid for her bag, opened it, and said:
This is the missing toe, which I had cut off and safeguarded here so I could recognize it if need to, for I feared that your mother would take the child from me due to the hatred that she had for me.
Then the king, being mad with joy, embraced his wife and son and condemned his mother to death, but the queen intervened and managed [to convince him] to get her banished to a place where she could never return. And so the fate of the girl and her brothers were sealed, as they remained to live in the palace in the service of the king.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Acabar – to finish, to end
Acaso – perhaps
Acoger – to provide refuge for, to take in; (to welcome) to receive
Acontecer – to take place, to happen, to occur
Actitud – attitude, posture
Actuar – to act
Agitar – to wave, to shake
Ahijada – goddaughter
Ajusticiar – to execute
A la buena de dios – in trouble; high and dry
Alejarse – to move away, to go far from
Almenas – battlements
Apostura – elegance; good looks
Aprobación – approval, endorsement
Astucia – astuteness, cleverness
Atado – fastened, tied
A veces – sometimes
Barquito/a – little ship / boat / vessel
Bondadoso/a – kind, kind-hearted
Cacería – hunt, shoot
Cajón – (big box) crate; (furniture) drawer
Cariñoso/a – affectionate, loving, warm
Carrera – (activity) dash, run; (path) route, course, journey
Castigo – punishment, penalty
Celos – envy, jealousy
Colmar – (to overfill) to fill to the brim; (to satisfy) to fulfill, to realize
Compromiso – commitment, engagement
Condenar – to condemn, to sentence
Confiar en – to trust, to be confident with
Conmiseración – commiseration, sympathy
Cuanto antes – as soon as possible
Dar cuenta de – to give an account of, to report, to explain about; (to spend) to get through
De modo que – so that
De pronto – suddenly
Descalzar – to take off someone’s shoes
Desconsuelo – grief, distress
Desmentir – to deny, to refute, to contradict
Desterrar – to banish, to exile
Disponerse a – to prepare, to get ready
Divisar – (to detect) to make out, to spot, to spy, to sight
Doncella – maid
Dura – hard, tough, harsh
Embarazada – pregnant; pregnant woman
Engañar – to deceive, to trick, to fool
En pos de – in pursuit of
Enterarse – to find out
Enterrar – to bury
Entrar – to begin to feel, to get, to feel
Entregarse a – to give in, to succumb to; (to dedicate oneself) to devote oneself
Entretenido/a – entertaining, enjoyable; (occupied) busy; (laborious) painstaking
Envidioso/a – envious, jealous
Escala – ladder
Evitar – to avoid, to prevent
Fiebre – fever
Fijamente – intently, fixedly
Fijarse – to pay attention; to notice
Furibundo – furious, frenzy
Ganas de salir – desire to leave, feel like going out
Gruesa – (twelve groups of twelve) twelve dozen, gross; grueso – thick, stout
Hembra – female, woman
Hueco – hole, hollow, opening
Imponer – to impose, to force
Instar – to urge, to press
Jabalí – wild boar
Jinete – rider; horseman
Justo – (precise) exact, right
Juzgar – to judge, to try
Lanzarse – to pounce on
Lejos – far away, far, far off
Lentitud – slowness, slowly
Ligereza – (reckless act) rashness; (flimsiness) lightness; (quickness) agility, nimbleness, speed
Mandar – to order, to tell, to command; to send
Manjar – (pleasing food) delicacy, delicious
Montería – (the chase) hunting, art of hunting; hunting party
Mudez – muteness; inability to speak; dumbness
Mudo/a – speech-impaired, mute
Muralla – fortification, wall, city wall, rampart
No hay cuidado – fear not; have no care
Nuera – daughter-in-law
Odiar – to hate
Patíbulo – scaffold, gallows
Pegarse – (to catch) to pick up; to hit each other; to hit oneself
Pena – sadness, sorrow
Penar – (to be in pain) to suffer
Perentorio – urgent, pressing; (authoritarian) peremptory
Permanecer – to stay, to remain
Piececito – little foot
Plazo – (period of time) period, term
Ponerse al frente – take charge, be at the forefront, lead
Por encima de – over; above
Por más que – no matter how; much as
Pretender – (to expect) to intend, to want; (to court) to woo
Prodigar – to lavish, to be generous with; to squander
Puesto que – given that, since, because, as
Raptar – to kidnap, to abduct
Rastro – trace, sign
Recelar – to suspect, to fear, to distrust
Reclamar – (to ask for) to demand, to claim; (to have need of) to require, to demand
Recriminar – to reproach
Rehacerse – to recover from, to get over
Repentino/a – sudden
Requerir – (to ask for) to request, to ask; (to call on) to summon, to send for; (to be necessary) to require
Rescatar – to rescue, to save, to free
Retrasar – to postpone
Saludar – to say hello to; saludarse – to greet one another
Sencillo – simple, easy
Sobornar – to bribe, to suborn (formal)
Sublevación – uprising, revolt
Suplicar – (to beseech) to beg, to plead, to implore
Susto – scare, fright
Tal y tan – such and so
Tamaño – size
Tan honda – so deep
Temible – (frightening) fearsome, fearful, scary
Tender – to extend, to stretch out; to reach, to approach
Testigo – witness
Torre – tower, spire
Trama – plot, conspiracy
Tranquilizarse – to calm down
Tranquilo – calm, relaxed
Trompa – trunk (of elephants); French horns
Tumba – grave, tomb
Urdir – (to scheme) to plot; (weaving) to warp
Varón – male, man, boy
Verdugo – executioner, hangman