The Brothers Grimm’s “The King of the Golden Mountain”

A wealthy merchant loses his ships, and a dwarf appears to him with an offer: sacrifice the first thing that touches you when you come home, and I will help you exceed your previous riches. He is dismayed, however, when his son runs up to him, and twelve years later, that son belongs to the dwarf.

He is clever, however, and negotiates with the little man, who lets him be sent off into the river by his father. The boat capsizes, and his father goes away, grieving. The boy survived, however, and eventually makes his way to a dark castle, where he meets a princess in the form of a snake. He endures torture a few nights and has his head cut off, and so frees her from her spell. She gets the water of life and revives him, and he is now King of the Mountain.

He lives happily with her and has a son, but he desires to go back and visit her parents. She gives him a ring that can whisk him anywhere, but she warns him not to transport her to his parents.’ When he goes home, he is unrecognized, first for his rich garments and then for his borrowed shepherd’s cloak. He then brings his wife via magic to prove his story, but his wife leaves him with the child, and he only has her slipper.

He makes his way to a mountain with three giants fighting over their magical inheritance: a sword, a cloak, and a pair of shoes. He swindles the giants out of these items and makes his way back to the Golden Mountain, where he finds his wife is to be remarried. Made invisible by the cloak, he takes his wife’s food before she can eat it at the banquet. She leaves, and he curses her for her betrayal in her room, and going down to the hall, tells the assembled bigwigs to leave. When they try to seize him, he decapitates them all with the sword. He alone is now master, and again King of the Golden Mountain.

(From a discussion on “The King of the Golden Mountain,” by the Brothers Grimm)

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Compare: Von Schonwerth’s “The Scorned Princess:” https://youtu.be/F6gC0Sk9qJQ

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