Synopsis

An old woman told her husband that he had to lose his two children, a son and a daughter, by his first marriage, in the woods

Enchanted forest

In literature, an enchanted forest is a forest under, or containing, enchantments. Such forests are described in the oldest folklore from regions where forests are common, and occur throughout the centuries to modern works of fantasy...

. The first time, the boy had been playing in the ashes, and the children came back, but the second time, the old man succeeded in losing them. They could not find water anywhere, until they came to the tracks of a fox where water was welling, but the sister warned her brother that drinking that would turn him into a fox. At the tracks of a bear, she warned him again. At the tracks of a stag, she warned him again, but he was too thirsty and drank. He became a golden stag. He carried off his sister in cradle in his antlers, and made a nest for her, up in a tree, where she grew up.

One day, a king's son saw her and fell in love. He promised a fortune to whoever wooed that girl for him. An old woman saw the golden stag and did not know how to address it, so she lured the girl down by pretending to be foolish with her cook fire, and carried her off to the prince. When the stag followed, the sister said that he was her brother, and the king's son gave him a fine stable with plenty to eat. They were all happy except a gypsy girl who had been the king's son's favorite. She lured the sister into the forest where she went to sleep. Then the gypsy dressed herself as the king's son's wife and disguised her face, but the stag knew her at once. The king's son and his men followed the stag and retrieved the girl; then he had the gypsy girl stoned to death.

Commentary

The method of luring the bride down from the tree is also found in Little Wildrose

Little Wildrose

Little Wildrose is a Romanian fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Crimson Fairy Book.-Synopsis:An old man went in search of a child, so someone would inherit his home. In a dark wood, he found a hermit, who gave him an apple, telling him to eat half and give his wife half. On the way...

. More commonly, as in Brother and Sister

Brother and Sister

Brother and Sister is a well-known European fairy tale which was, among others, written down by the Brothers Grimm in their collection of Children's and Household Tales ...

, The Six Swans

The Six Swans

The Six Swans is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. It is tale number 49. Andrew Lang included a variant in The Yellow Fairy Book. It is Aarne-Thompson type 451: the brothers who were turned into birds...

, or Mary's Child

Mary's Child

Mary's Child or Our Lady's Child is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales as tale number 3.The Brothers Grimm noted its similarity to the Italian The Goat-faced Girl and the Norwegian The Lassie and Her Godmother...

, the hero succeeds in luring her away himself.