The Crab Prince
Once upon a time, there lived a fisherman. No matter how much money he earned from his catch, he could never manage to feed his large family, not even with polenta. One day, as he was pulling his nets from the sea, he felt that they were unusually heavy. With great effort, he managed to haul them in. To his surprise, he found a crab—an enormous crab, so large that he could hardly take it all in with one glance.“Now this is a catch!” the fisherman exclaimed joyfully. “At last, I’ll be able to feed my little ones with polenta!”
He returned home and told his wife to put a pot on the fire, saying that soon there would be flour for polenta. Then he took the crab and headed to the king’s palace.
“Your Majesty,” he began, “please show me your kindness and buy this crab from me. My wife is already boiling water for polenta, but I have no money.”
“What do I need your crab for? Sell it to someone else,” the king replied.
But just then, the princess entered. “Oh, what a beautiful, marvelous crab! Daddy, dear, please buy the crab, buy it, I beg you! We’ll put it in the pool with the mullets and goldfish!”
The princess loved fish. She would spend hours sitting by the garden pool, watching the mullets and goldfish swim. And the king, who adored his daughter, of course granted her wish.
The fisherman released the crab into the pool with the fish and received a purse of gold. Now he could feed his children polenta for an entire month.
The princess loved watching the crab and would spend long hours by the pool. She soon learned all its habits and noticed that every day at noon, it would disappear for three hours. One day, as she sat by the pool admiring her crab, the sound of a bell rang out. The princess stepped onto the balcony and saw a beggar asking for alms. She threw him a purse of gold, but the beggar failed to catch it, and the purse fell into a deep, water-filled moat.
The beggar climbed down into the moat, hoping to retrieve the purse. He dove in and swam underwater. An underground channel led from the moat to the pool and beyond, though where it went was a mystery. As he continued swimming, the beggar found himself in a beautiful pond in the middle of a grand underground hall adorned with magnificent carpets. A table was set in the hall. The beggar climbed out of the water and hid behind a carpet. Exactly at noon, a mermaid appeared from the water, riding on the back of the enormous crab. The mermaid touched the crab with a magic wand, and at that moment, a handsome young man emerged from the crab’s shell. He sat at the table, and the mermaid touched the table with her wand, filling the dishes with all kinds of delicacies and the bottles with wine. After the meal, the young man returned to the crab’s shell; the mermaid touched him with her wand, climbed onto the crab’s back, and they both disappeared underwater.
The beggar emerged from behind the carpet and dove back into the pond, swimming underwater until he reached the princess’s pool. At that moment, she was admiring her fish. The princess saw the beggar and was utterly surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“Quiet, Princess, I’ll tell you an amazing story,” he said, climbing out of the pool and recounting everything he had seen.
“Now I know where my crab disappears for three hours every noon,” the princess said. “Very well, tomorrow at noon, we’ll go there together.”
The next day, through the underground channel, she and the beggar reached the hall with the pond and hid behind the carpet. Exactly at noon, the mermaid appeared on the crab. She touched the crab’s shell with her wand, and the handsome young man emerged, heading straight to the table. The princess had long admired the crab in her pool, but as soon as she saw the young man who emerged from the shell, she fell in love. She crept up to the shell and quietly climbed inside.
When the young man returned to the shell, he found the princess there.
“What have you done?” he whispered. “If the mermaid finds out, we’re both doomed.”
“I want to free you from this evil spell,” the princess whispered back. “Tell me how I can help!”
“I doubt you can help me. Only a girl who loves me more than life itself can break the spell.”
“I’m ready to do anything,” the princess said. While this conversation took place inside the shell, the mermaid climbed onto the crab, and it carried her through the underground channel out to the open sea. The mermaid had no idea that the king’s daughter was hidden inside the shell. The mermaid swam away, leaving the princess and the young man alone. Embracing tightly, they began their journey back. Along the way, the prince—for he was a real prince—told his beloved how to free him.
“Find a large rock by the seashore, stand on it, and sing and play the violin until a mermaid appears in the waves—she adores music. She’ll come out of the water and say, ‘Play, beauty, it makes me so happy!’ And you must reply, ‘I’ll play, but give me the flower in your hair.’ Once that flower is in your hands, I’ll be free—it holds my salvation.”
The crab returned to the pool and released the princess.
The beggar also returned from the underground hall to the pool and, not finding the princess, feared she was in trouble. But then the king’s daughter emerged from the pool, thanked the beggar, and rewarded him generously. She then went to her father and said she wished to learn music and singing. The king, who never denied his daughter anything, immediately summoned the best singers and musicians.
Once the princess had learned to sing and play, she told the king, “I want to go to the sea and play the violin while standing on a large rock.”
“On a rock, by the sea? Have you lost your mind?” the king exclaimed. But, as always, he granted her wish. He sent eight maids in white dresses to accompany her, and behind them, a troop of soldiers to guard against any unexpected danger, ordering them to keep a close eye on the princess.
The princess stood on the large rock, while her eight maids stood on eight rocks around her.
As soon as the sound of the violin rang out, a mermaid appeared in the waves.
“What marvelous music! Play, play, it makes me so happy!”
“I’ll play, but give me the flower in your hair. I love flowers more than anything in the world!”
“If you can retrieve the flower from where I throw it, it’s yours.”
“I’ll get it,” the princess said and began to sing and play again. When she finished, she said to the mermaid, “Now give me the flower.”
“Here,” the mermaid said and threw it far into the sea.
The princess dove into the water and swam toward the waves, where the beautiful flower floated.
“Princess! Princess! Help!” cried all eight maids from their rocks, their white dresses fluttering in the wind. But the princess swam on, disappearing and reappearing among the waves. Just as her strength began to fail, a wave swept the flower right into her hands. A voice rose from beneath the water:
“You’ve saved me. Now you shall be my wife. Don’t be afraid, I’ll help you. We’ll reach the shore soon. But tell no one, not even your father. Today I’ll bring joy to my parents, and tomorrow I’ll ask the king for your hand.”
“Yes, yes, of course!” the princess gasped, catching her breath. And the crab swam with her to the shore.
At home, the princess told the king only that she had had a wonderful time and said nothing more.
The next day, exactly at three o’clock, the sound of hooves, trumpets, and drums echoed outside the royal palace. A messenger from another kingdom announced that the son of their king requested an audience.
The prince asked the king for his daughter’s hand and then told the whole story. At first, the king was angry that everything had been kept from him, but then he called for his daughter. The princess threw herself into the prince’s arms.
“My beloved husband!”
And the king realized there was nothing left to do but hold a wedding.