THE THREE ORANGE APPLES
The middle son left. For seven weeks he walked from dawn to midnight. Finally, he arrived in the land of orange apples. In this country, there is a beautiful garden, where it never snows or ice. In this beautiful garden, there is an orange apple tree all white with flowers, where seven hundred wild nightingales sing, where seven hundred wild nightingales sing night and day. On this orange apple tree, there were six apples as red as gold.
The youngest picked three orange apples, red as gold, put them in his basket, and left. At the end of his journey, he rested under a large tree, near a clear fountain. At the edge of the clear fountain sat a woman, black as the hearth, and old as a trail.
“My friend, what are you carrying in your basket?"
"Three snakes."
"Three snakes, it is."
Before sunset, the cadet arrived at the king's castle.
“King, here are the three orange apples. Now give me your daughter in marriage."
Quickly, the king opened the basket.
“Insolent, they are three snakes. Executioner, take this worthless thing and hang him."
The executioner obeys.
The next day, the youngest of the three boys said to his mother:
“Mother, you know what the town drummer shouted. Give me a basket. I'm leaving for the land of orange apples. When I return, you will have some money."
The youngest of the three boys left. For seven weeks he walked from dawn to midnight. Finally, he arrived in the land of orange apples. In this country, there is a beautiful garden, where it never snows or ice. In this beautiful garden, there is an orange apple tree all white with flowers, where seven hundred wild nightingales sing, where seven hundred wild nightingales sing night and day. On this orange apple tree, there were three apples as red as gold.
The boy picked the three apples as red as gold, put them in his basket, and left. At the end of his journey, he rested under a large tree, near a clear fountain. At the edge of the clear fountain sat a woman, black as the hearth, and old as a trail.
“My friend, what are you carrying in your basket?"
"Brave woman, I carry three apples of orange."
"Three apples of orange, it is. My friend, fill my pitcher from the clear fountain."
"With pleasure, brave woman."
"Thank you, my friend. Tell me. What do you want to do with these three orange apples?"
"Brave woman, I want to take them to the king, to heal his daughter. The king promised her in marriage to the one who would give her this present. But I'm too poor to marry the princess. Perhaps the king will give me a little money for my old mother, who can no longer work."
"My friend, you will marry the king's daughter. But you are not at the end of your trials. Listen. The king will first command you to drive away all the flies from the land. Here, take this whip. Just by hearing it click, all the flies will leave for seven leagues around, never to return, ever. Then, the king will order you to keep three hundred hares in the countryside for a whole week and to bring them back to the stable every evening at sunset. Here, take this silver whistle. You just have to whistle. Immediately, the three hundred hares will run from all sides and follow you like dogs. Then the king will ask you for one of these hares. Give it to him, but on condition. Hold. Here is a gold ring. Say to the king: “Choose your hare. In payment, I ask that we put this gold ring on your daughter's finger." As soon as this is done, the golden ring will become one with the flesh and will squeeze the finger so hard, so hard, that the king's daughter will cry: "Father, I am dying if you do not marry me to the boy who brought back the three apples of orange."
"Brave woman, you will be obeyed."
Source: Les trois pommes d’orange, from the French book Contes populaires de la Gascogne, tome 2, published in 1886
Hello, my name is Vincent Celier.
I am writing translations of folk tales that I found in public domain French books, so that people who do not understand French may enjoy them too.
As I expected, the middle son made the same mistake as his elder brother: he lied to the old woman, who, I understand now, is a fairy.
If this were not a folk tale but real life, two things would have happened:
first, there would be many boys that would try to get the orange apples, not just the three brothers.
second, the eldest brother would have taken the nine orange apples to prevent anybody else from getting three of them.
Several weeks ago, a woman from Kati's family gave her some small plants, without telling her anything about them. She had no idea what they were. So, she planted them in a spot where there was some cow manure.
The plants grew up. Among them, there were green and yellow zucchini. Today, she asked me to collect two of the yellow zucchini.
So, now we have seven zucchini, six yellow, and one green.
She will cook them tomorrow in a way that makes them crispy. I really like them this way.
-- Vincent Celier