Once upon a time, two princesses lived in a mighty castle, one five years old, the other three years old. The biggest sister was ugly, the little one was beautiful. Since beauty was valued above everything else in the royal family, their parents decided to lock up their biggest daughter in a tower nearby, to avoid embarrassment. After their parents died, the little sister became queen, and she decided to release her sister from captivity. But, instead of showing gratitude, the bigger sister, who had spent all her childhood learning magics, cast a spell on her little sister.
“I lost my childhood”, she said, ”but my darling little sister will never bear a child”.
Desperate, the beautiful queen went from sorcerers and magicians to doctors and nobody could help her. Then one day a Hairdresser came to the palace. She said she would cure the curse, and the queen could finally bear a child.
“All the doctors and magicians of this world couldn’t help me”, said the queen,” and you think you can?”
“I can, your majesty, and I will help you”, said the Hairdresser.
“Alright”, said the queen,” if you can really make me pregnant, I will give you the mountain of gold and silver that is on the main hall”.
“Keep the mountain of gold and silver for later, your majesty, because you gone a need it” , said the Hairdresser, and she took three beans, one white, one blue, one yellow.
“The white bean, because the child’s skin will be white, the blue bean because the child will be of blue blood, and the yellow bean, because the child’s hair will be yellow”.
The Hairdresser hid the beans inside the hair of the queen. Then she made a bun with the hair and tied up the bun with a red ribbon.
”Keep the bun for nine months”, said the Hairdresser,” and after nine months I will return,I will untie the ribbon, and we will celebrate the birth of your child”.
After saying these words, the Hairdresser quickly disappeared. The queen, thinking the Hairdresser was making fun of her, ordered the guards to find her and cut off her head. Then she tried to untie the red ribbon, but the ribbon was so strongly tied, that neither she nor her guards could untie it. When one of the guards tried to cut the ribbon with his knife, the knife itself was transformed into a ribbon. So the queen gave up and decided to wait nine months, just like the Hairdresser had told her. That same night, while the queen and her servants had fallen asleep, and her guards were napping in front of the doors, the bad witch broke in, and she approached the bun and hid a black bean inside.
“Black, like the destiny of this child “, said the witch.
As the days passed, the bun grew bigger and bigger, and after nine-months, the Hairdresser suddenly appeared again, like from nowhere. Upon seeing her, the queen’s guards draw their swords, but the queen ordered them to stand by. The Hairdresser approached the queen, untied the ribbon, and a child came out of the bun. It was a little girl, with white skin and yellow hair tied up to her mother’s hair. The queen, who wanted to see the child, asked the Hairdresser to cut the hair, and separate the child from her.
“Don’t you ever cut your hair, your majesty”, said the Hairdresser,” because the bad witch has cast a spell on both of you. Your hair is one single hair now like your life is one single life. If you cut the hair, you will both die, and if one day one of you dies, the other one will also die”.
Since the queen couldn’t take care of her child, she appointed the Hairdresser as her royal babysitter and ordered the guards to tie both her legs with a rope, so that she won’t disappear. With no way of escape, the Hairdresser decided to stay with the queen and take care of her newborn princess. As the princess grew, the hair also grew, and now the princess could reach the door of the room. Then the hair grew even longer, and the princess could now travel to the front door of the palace, but no further. Then one day the queen fell ill, and she lied in the royal bed.
“I’m dying,” said the queen to the Hairdresser”, can you separate the child from me, so that she can live”?
“I don’t have the power to do that, your majesty,” said the Hairdresser, “But there is something that might break the curse. Its called the waterfall of life. My mother used to say that the water comes directly from heaven, and it can cure any curses and illnesses. All your little girl has to do is go under the waterfall, and the water that falls will cut the hair in half, and the spell will be broken, and you will both stay alive”.
The hair was now long enough and so the little princess took the road, determined to find the waterfall of life. She traveled for three days, and finally, when she saw the waterfall, she runs towards it, but three meters away from the water, she was suddenly driven back. The princess, believing the hair was stuck somewhere, traveled back and saw that someone had tied up the hair into a tree branch. Of course that someone was none else than the bad witch itself. The little girl tried to reach the branch and untie the hair but it was so high that she just couldn’t reach it. So she decided to stay there and when the night came she covered herself with her hair and slept. The next day, a woodcutter who had followed the hair, found the little girl.
“Who are you “, said the woodcutter,” what are you doing all alone in the forest?”
“I am a princess”, she replied,” I was searching for the waterfall of life, and I found it, but I can’t reach it now, because someone has tied my hair into this tree branch. If you help me I will give you gold and silver”.
Upon hearing the words gold and silver, the woodcutter put out his ax, cut the tree and the hair was released. The princess runs to the waterfall, but the bad witch had frozen the water.
“The waterfall is frozen”, said the little girl,” What I am going to do now”?
The woodcutter took his knife and cut a piece of ice, and he made it sharp. Then he gave it to the little girl, and she cut her hair with it. The girl didn’t die, and the spell was broken, but the hair quickly disappeared.
“Oh no”, said the little girl, “the hair disappeared. How will I find the way home now?”
“Don’t worry little girl”, said the woodcutter,” you can come with me at my home, and live there as long as you want”.
So the little girl went to live with the woodcutter. He had a boy at home, and the boy loved the princess. Many years passed, and the little princess became a handsome young woman. She had long forgotten everything about her past and had married the son of the woodcutter.
One day, the Hairdresser, who had searched everywhere for the little girl, came near the cottage. She saw a young woman cleaning the clothes and immediately recognized the princess in her, but said nothing. When the young woman saw the old lady, she thought she was tired, and invited her to rest in the cottage.
“Thank you”, said the Hairdresser, “you are a goodhearted young lady. If you allow me to stay here tonight, I will give you gold and silver”.
When the woodcutter and his son returned from the forest, the girl told them everything, and since it was about gold and silver, they allowed the old lady to stay with them until morning. During dinner, the Hairdresser hid a knife inside the bread, and when the girl split the bread in two, the knife cut her hand, and blue blood came out. The girl was terrified, but the woodcutter calmed her down and then told her the whole story. So the princess and the Hairdresser returned at the palace, but when they reached the gates, the Hairdresser, scared that the queen would once more tie her legs, disappeared. So the girl entered the palace alone. In the main hall, she saw a mountain of gold and silver, and nearby it another mountain,one with young girls tied to one another. They were the girls who had lied to the queen, saying they where her lost daughter. The guards of the palace took the little girl and brought her in front of the queen.
“Many girls have come here claiming to be my lost daughter, but none of them was my daughter”, said the queen”.I have imprissoned them all in the main hall,near the gold and and silver they so much wanted.You are the last one to come,and I will cut your flesh, and if blue blood comes out of it, and you are my daughter,I will release them all. But,if your blood is red, that means you are a fraud, and I will order my guards to cut off your head first,and then the heads of all the other girls”.
So she ordered the doctor to cut her flesh. Blue blood came out of it. But the doctor, who was none else than the bad witch itself, drop the blue blood and filled the bottle with red blood. Then she gave the bottle of red blood to the queen, and she ordered the guards to cut the head of the girl. But, since it was Christmas, the execution was postponed.
When the day of the execution came, all the people gathered at the castle square. The executioner raised his ax on the princesses neck, but suddenly the Hairdresser slipped through the crowd, approached, and she took a knife and cut the head of the executioner. Immediately he was transformed into the bad witch. Then she cut the flesh of the girl, and blue blood came out. Everyone recognized the lost princess and they were happy she had been found. The queen jumped from her throne and quickly embraced her daughter, and she ordered the servants to prepare a giant banquet, where everyone was invited.She then ordered the guards to release all the girls,and give them the mountain of gold and silver.
Of course, the princess didn’t forget about the son of the woodcutter. She went back to the cottage with her guards, put a crown on his head, and appointed her husband as the new prince. Then she ordered the guards to dismantle the old cottage, and send it to the royal palace since the old woodcutter couldn’t separate himself from his house. They rebuilt the cottage in an angle of the royal gardens, and the Hairdresser went to live with the old woodcutter. And they all lived happily ever after.
