• A king tried to steal a wife
• The quest for a handsome bride
• Making a stubborn donkey go
• Shorthand Thoughts

The tales are referred to by AT numbers, which are explained here: [Link]. AT numbers have been suppleanted by ATU numbers after 2004. AT numbers and ATU numbers do not always match. In most cases they do, though.

A King Tried to Steal a Poor Man's Wife

A wicked king desired a fisherman's pretty wife. Calling the poor man to the palace, he commanded him to produce twelve fierce lions or to forfeit his wife.

The wife gave her husband a seal, which he was to strike on a certain rock. He followed her instructions, and the twelve magic lions appeared.

The king gave him other difficult tasks as well, but the magic seal always rescued him.

Finally the king commanded him to capture the sister of the seven giants. The fisherman succeeded in this too, and on their return, the giantess killed the king.

Now the fisherman became king, and no one tried to take his pretty wife from him again.

(AT 465 - Many tales that are numbered 465 A, contain the motif of a man persecuted for his pretty wife.)

The Quest for a Handsome Bride

The Ashlad observed that three girls that were dressed like swans soared through the air and landed. Taking off their feathers, they danced about the meadow. He silently took their feathery robes, and then told the girls that he would return them only if one of them would marry him. The youngest agreed.

Then the swan-girls disappeared into the air. The Ashlad made preparations for his wedding, but he soon learned that he would have to fetch his bride from a castle that was south of the sun, west of the moon and in the centre of the earth. Undaunted he set forth. On the way he came into the possession of a hat that made him invisible, boots that would carry him a hundred miles with each step, and a knife that would kill any enemy. With the help of these magic items, the Ashlad found his bride and killed the witch.

(AT 400).

Making a Stubborn Donkey Go

A man put a dime's worth of stinging salve on his donkey's tail to make it go. Then he had to get twenty cent's worth for himself, in order to catch his runaway donkey.

(AT 1682*)

Shorthand Thoughts

Killing the kind bird that saved your life and realising it a little too late makes a strong impression. (AT 178)

Every fairy tale ends, and every romance too. (AT 444D*)

Let a fairy tale speak if you are able to listen in to it. If an apple speaks, the outcome might depend a lot on the listener (AT 707).

In Scotland, one day an apple transmitted thoughts to one of the three founders of Findhorn, which is now a large, successful alternative community. The Findhorn co-founder Dorothy Maclean wrote down "apple words," she writes. [◦Findhorn, Scotland].

Apple Talk

That from a fragile, scarcely-colored and short-lived bloom a sturdy rosy apple appears, is but one of God's miracles enacted many times over for all to observe . . .

From the seed idea a pattern of force issues forth from the Center, passed on by silent ranks of angels, silent and still because that idea is still too unformed and unfixed to endure any but the most exacting care. Down and out it comes, growing in strength and size, becoming brighter in pattern until eventually it scintillates and sounds, still in the care of the outmost great angel. Its force-field is steady and brilliant.

Then the pattern is passed to the makers of form, the elements, who come up and give of themselves and clothe that pattern. Remember this is a process . . . held by the angels and made manifest beyond time by the energy of the elements through the ministration of the elementals at the appropriate opportunity, and eventually appearing in time and place in the beauty of the blossom and the succulence of the fruit.

This is the Word made flesh . . . held in balance by great layers of life of which your conscious mind is unaware . . . You need to go beyond words.

The fruits of the earth are produced through the unsung and dedicated service of these many forms of life . . . happy in their work! You . . . have the fruits, although you do little of the work. So it is.

(Findhorn Community 2008, 84-85; Maclean 2007, 56; cf. Maclean 2008, 63).