The Story of Bensurdatu

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The Story of Bensurdatu is an Italian fairy tale collected by Laura Gonzenbach in Sicilianische Märchen. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book.

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A king and queen had three daughters, and did everything to make them happy. One day, the princesses asked to go on a picnic, and so they did. When they were done eating, the princesses wandered about the garden, but when they stepped across a fence, a dark cloud enveloped them. After a time, their parents called for them, and then searched for them. They had to go home without them, and the king proclaimed that whoever brought them back could marry one, and be king after him. Two generals set out in search, but ended up spending all they had brought and working as servants to repay an innkeeper for the food and drink they had had at his inn.

A royal servant, Bensurdatu, set out, despite the king's unwillingness to lose a faithful servant as well as his daughters and his generals. He found the inn with the generals and paid their debt. The three of them traveled together. In wilderness, they found a house and begged for a place for the night. The old woman there told them that the king's daughters were taken by a thick cloud, and that two were the prisoners of giants and the third of a serpent with seven heads, all at the bottom of a river. The generals wanted to return, but Bensurdatu was firm.

They went on until they reached the river. The older general insisted on going first, because he was the oldest. They lowered him on a rope, and gave him a bell to ring to be pulled back up; he quickly lost his courage and rang it. The second general fared the same. Then they lowered Bensurdatu. He came to a hall where a giant slept, and the princess stood before him. The princess had him hide, and told the giant that he did not smell a man when he stirred; then she had Bensurdatu cut off the giant's head. The princess gave Bensurdatu a golden crown. She showed him the door to the next giant, where he killed him as he had killed the first, and the princess also gave him a golden crown. He went on to the seven-headed serpent; he had to kill it while it was awake, but he took off its heads.

Then he brought the princesses to the rope and had them lifted up. The youngest wanted him to go before her, fearing the generals' treachery, but he refused; she pledged that she would marry no one else. Then the generals did not lower the rope for him and threatened the princesses, to make them say that they had rescued them. The king agreed to marry the two oldest to the generals

One morning, Bensurdatu noticed a purse. When he took it down, it asked him what demands he had. He had it bring him to the surface and give him a ship. He sailed to the king's city. The king wanted to marry him to his youngest, but she refused. He asked if she would say the same if he were Bensurdatu. She said nothing, and he told his story. The king exiled the generals and married Bensurdatu to his youngest daughter.