Golden-Tree and Silver-Tree
(Scotland’s Snow White)
A long time ago there was this king who had a
wife named Silver-Tree and a daughter named Golden-Tree. One day
they both went to this well and in this well there was a trout.
“Troutie, bonny little fellow, am not I the
most beautiful queen in the world?”
“Oh! Indeed you are not.”
“Who them?”
“Why Golden-Tree, your daughter.”
They both went home and Silver-Tree fell ill.
The king asked her if there was anything that he could do to make her feel
better. He would do anything for her. Silver-Tree told him
that if she ate the heart and liver of their daughter she would feel better.
Lucky for Golden-Tree a prince from another land came to marry her.
Her father agreed to this. Golden-Tree and the prince fled away.
The king gave Silver-Tree the heart and liver
of a goat to eat. She then felt better. After this she went
back to the same well and asked the trout the same question. And the trout
answered her in the same way. This angered her because she thought
that her daughter was dead. She rushed home and begged her husband
to take her to see her Golden-Tree.
They set sail, and Golden-Tree found out and
got scared. She told her servants that her mother would kill her.
Her servants locked her in a room so her mother could not get to her.
Silver-Tree went to the door and asked her to put her finger through the
keyhole so she could kiss it. When Golden-Tree did this her mother
stabbed her with a poisoned pin. She then fell dead.
The prince found her dead and locked her in
a room. The prince remarried. One day his second wife went
into the room. She found the most beautiful women and she noticed
that she had a pin in her finger. The second wife pulled it our and
Golden-Tree came alive.
When the prince saw Golden-Tree he rejoiced.
He decided to keep both wives.
In one year Silver-Tree went to the trout
and asked the same question and got the same answer. She then asked
to go visit her daughter. Golden-Tree was scared but the second wife
reassured her that it would be okay. They met Silver-Tree at the
beach. Silver-Tree said that she had a drink for her daughter.
The second wife told her that it was custom that who ever offers the drink
takes the first drink. Silver-Tree put it to her lips, and then the
second wife hit her so she swallowed some of it. Then she fell dead.
“The prince had his two wives were long alive after this, pleased
and peaceful.”
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