Once upon a time, there lived a princess who never lent anything to anyone and never hosted anyone. She was capricious, rude and impolite in conversation.
One night, there was a knock at the castle gates. The guard who was watching the entrance asked:
— Who’s there?
A voice from below reached the guards’ ears:
— Open up for the old woman and let her shelter from the approaching storm!
Then the guards said that they had orders from their mistress not to let anyone, absolutely anyone, into the castle, especially at night. If they broke this order, they would surely be executed!
The old woman replied:
— Fine, I’ll enter the castle anyway, and you will be turned into owls and bats!
Then she tapped the ground with her magic wand, and the heavy gates slowly opened before her. The angry fairy entered the castle, although the swarm of owls and bats bothered her greatly. Fending them off with her wand, she entered the royal chambers. Seeing the uninvited guest, the princess behaved in her usual rude manner. She called the woman a vagrant and threatened her with the guards. She also threatened the guards who had let the old woman into the castle. The old woman assured the princess that her servants had already been subdued, and then asked the young woman for a small corner to sleep in, where she could wait out the storm.
However, the princess was deaf to the woman’s pleas, so she ordered her servants to drive the old woman away. The fairy fell into a great rage. She slammed her magic wand on the floor and said:
— Be cursed for your wickedness and turn into dogs! And you, evil princess, remember that from this day forward, you will no longer be queen. For your evil deeds, your beard will grow down to the ground. You will be alone in this castle, you will repent there at night until someone frees you, and that will not happen soon…
Having cast a spell on the princess, she left the castle satisfied that she had repaid the evil people for their hospitality. From that day on, the country was left without a ruler, and the castle where the evil princess lived was terribly haunted. Seeing that there was no one to rule, the people called a great assembly and chose a king who was good and brave in battle.
Meanwhile, strange things were happening at night in the castle of the rude princess. Owls hooted, dogs howled, and giant bats flew around the castle. Inside the building itself, something terribly evil was disturbing the peace! Doors and windows opened and closed with a bang all by themselves, something rumbled and banged, and ceilings collapsed. In one of the chambers, the nasty princess with a long beard played cards by herself. Wherever she moved, a musty, corpse-like stench wafted from her, and the wind that accompanied her on her walks around the castle tugged at her rotten clothes.
Years and centuries passed in penance for the wicked princess’s deeds, and there was still no saviour. Finally, the new king announced to the world that he would give a lot of money and generously reward the man who would drive the fear out of the castle. There were many daredevils, but no one succeeded in defeating the evil.
Until one day, a wandering man was going on a quest for donations. He went to the king and said that he would drive away the evil. The king readily agreed, although he doubted that the brave man would succeed: so many had already tried and none had succeeded!
The traveller was stubborn, so they finally agreed:
— Well, tonight, said the potential saviour. Meanwhile, he went to mingle with the people to gather information. Some said terrible things, that they had seen the bearded princess playing cards by herself, others told of hordes of dogs howling on the porch, and still others of owls whose hooting could scare even a dead man.
When our wanderer had gathered some information, he went to the castle to see the king, took money from the king, took playing cards and holy water, and even took holy chalk. Thus prepared, he went to the terrible castle. He looked around the musty castle (no human had set foot there for many, many years). When he had seen everything, he returned to the queen’s chamber, drew a circle on the floor, placed an armchair in the circle and sat down in it. He sprinkled himself and the floor with holy water and decided to rest. He even dozed off a little, as sleep was already overtaking him. He did not know how long he slept. He woke up to a terrible noise. All hell broke loose: there was dust everywhere, plaster was falling off the walls, and the floor was buckling. On top of that, a terrible wind was blowing, opening windows and doors with a bang.
Suddenly, behind the table, opposite the wanderer, a hideous princess appeared. Her clothes were torn and hanging in shreds, her beard dragging on the ground. The apparition had sunken eyes and an emaciated face – a sheer skeleton! As soon as she saw him, she immediately cried out:
— Come, let’s play cards!
— All right, replied the man, but under one condition: if I beat you, you will leave here and never haunt this place again!
— Agreed! cried the apparition. But if I beat you, I will eat you, for I am very hungry and have not eaten for many years.
— All right then, let’s play!
They began playing for life and death. They played stubbornly! The princess was not doing well and was losing game after game. She greedily reached out her bony hands for her would-be victim, wanting to devour the daredevil (or at least bite off his nose or hand), but the chalk and holy water burned her terribly, so she failed.
They continued to play, over and over again, until finally the princess placed her last bet and lost it too. She then roared in an inhuman voice, stretching her arms towards her opponent, but… something incredible happened! The spell was broken and instead of a hideous creature, the man saw a beautiful princess. The time of penance was over… Suddenly, the maidservants, who had been transformed from dogs back into women, swarmed around him.
The astonished wanderer saw an old woman bent over, who explained the whole thing to him, concluding:
— Thanks to your courage, you have freed the princess. Now you can marry her.
The saviour listened to the whole story and, turning to the princess, asked her if she liked it and if she would marry him. The princess was very surprised, but immediately nodded her head. Soon a great wedding was held, and the wanderer received his reward and part of the country from the king. They still rule there to this day!
A fairy tale recorded in 1956 by Feliks Paczkowski from Włocławek, told by his neighbour Maria Nejman.
