Jewish Fairy Tales

Once there was a king who had six sons and one daughter. His daughter was very dear to him, but one day when he was with her he became angry for a moment, and an evil word escaped his lips. That night the princess went to her chamber, as usual, to sleep, but in the morning she was not anywhere to be found. And when her father, the king, realized she was missing, he was filled with sorrow and remorse, and he began to search for her everywhere. Then the king's minister, seeing that the king was in sorrow, asked to be given a servant and a horse and enough silver for expenses, in order that he might undertake the search. So it was that the minister traveled through all of the realm in search of the lost princess, across deserts and mountains, through forests and fields. He searched for her for many years. One day, as he was traveling in a desert, he glimpsed a path he had never seen, and he said to himself: Since I have been searching for the princess in this desert such a long time,

In a faraway kingdom there lived a king and queen whose palace had been built by the shore of the sea. This king had a daughter by his first wife, who had since died, and he had remarried, but his second wife was an evil woman, who despised the princess because of her great beauty. This king loved above all to lead his army in conquests, so he was rarely home, and he was so bewitched by the new queen that he left all decisions concerning the princess to this jealous woman. Now the queen was determined that the princess should not marry, because if she did she might have a son who could come to challenge the queen's right to rule should the king die. So she found fault with every suitor who showed an interest in the princess, and saw to it that the princess remained within the palace at all times. Yet despite the best efforts of the evil queen, it happened one day that a young man was walking along the seashore and looked up and saw the princess in the balcony of the palace tower. A

Long ago there was a wealthy merchant who had only one son, whom he instructed in the Torah and all of the other sacred books. Now his son grew older and married, and the merchant saw his son's children in his own lifetime. And when the merchant lay on his deathbed he called his son to him and said: Know that I possess great riches, and I am leaving all of these to you on one condition—that you swear never to sail across the sea. For I have made my fortune through sea voyages, and I have learned all too well the dangers lurking at sea. Therefore, if you should break the vow, then I bequeath all my property to heaven instead. Then the son solemnly swore that he would never undertake a voyage at sea, and shortly after that his father passed away from the world. A year or two later a ship reached the harbor of that town, loaded with gold, silver, and many precious gems. When the men of that ship had disembarked, they tried to seek out the rich merchant, and when they discovered that h