Prevod

Once upon a time there was a sorceress who had three sons who loved one another dearly as brothers. But the old woman did not trust them and thought they meant to rob her of her power. So she turned the eldest into an eagle, who had to dwell among rocky mountains, and sometimes he could be seen soaring up and down in great circles in the sky. The second she turned into a whale, who lived in the deep sea, and all anyone ever saw of him was the mighty jet of water he sometimes spouted into the air. Each could take his human form for only two hours a day. The third son, fearing she might turn him too into a savage beast, a bear or a wolf, slipped away in secret. Now he had heard that in the Castle of the Golden Sun there lived an enchanted princess who was waiting to be freed. But anyone who tried must risk his life: twenty-three young men had already died a miserable death, and only one more might make the attempt; after that, no one else would be allowed to come. And since his heart knew no fear, he resolved to seek out the Castle of the Golden Sun. He had wandered for a long time without finding it when he came into a great forest and could not find his way out. Suddenly he caught sight of two giants in the distance, beckoning to him. When he reached them, they said, "We are quarrelling over a hat, and which of us it should belong to. Since we are equally strong, neither can overcome the other. You little people are cleverer than we are, so we will leave the decision to you." "How can you quarrel over an old hat?" said the young man. "You do not know its powers. It is a wishing hat: whoever puts it on can wish himself wherever he pleases, and in an instant he is there." "Give me the hat," said the young man. "I will walk a little way off, and when I call to you, you must race each other. Whoever reaches me first shall have it." He put on the hat and walked away, but his thoughts turned to the princess, and he forgot the giants and went farther and farther. At last he sighed from the depths of his heart and cried, "Oh, if only I were at the Castle of the Golden Sun!" Scarcely had the words passed his lips when he found himself on a high mountain before the castle gate.

He went inside and passed through all the rooms until, in the last, he found the princess. But how he recoiled at the sight of her! Her face was ashen grey and full of wrinkles, her eyes were dull, and her hair was red. "Are you the princess whose beauty the whole world praises?" he exclaimed. "Alas," she replied, "this is not my true form. Human eyes can see me only in this ugliness. But so that you may know what I really look like, gaze into this mirror. It cannot be deceived, and will show you my image as it truly is." She placed the mirror in his hand, and in it he saw the image of the most beautiful maiden in the world, with tears of sorrow rolling down her cheeks. Then he said, "How can you be freed? I fear no danger." She said, "Whoever obtains the crystal ball and holds it before the sorcerer will break his power, and I shall return to my true form. Alas," she added, "so many have already gone to their deaths in the attempt, and my heart aches for you, young as you are, if you venture into such terrible dangers." "Nothing can deter me," he said, "but tell me what I must do." "You shall know everything," said the princess. "If you go down the mountain on which the castle stands, you will find a wild aurochs beside a spring at its foot, and you must fight it. If you succeed in killing it, a fiery bird will rise from its body. Within that bird is a glowing egg, and inside the egg, in place of the yolk, lies the crystal ball. But the bird will not drop the egg unless it is forced to. If the egg falls to the ground, it will burst into flame and burn everything nearby, and the egg itself will melt, and the crystal ball with it, and all your efforts will have been in vain."

The young man went down to the spring, where the aurochs snorted and bellowed at him. After a long struggle, he thrust his sword into its body, and it sank to the ground. At once the fiery bird rose from it and tried to fly away, but the eagle, the young man's brother, who was soaring among the clouds, swooped down upon it, chased it towards the sea, and struck it with his beak until, in its distress, it let the egg fall. But the egg did not fall into the sea. Instead it landed on a fisherman's hut by the shore, which immediately began to smoke and was about to burst into flames. Then waves as high as houses rose from the sea, swept over the hut, and quenched the fire. The other brother, the whale, had swum up and driven the water into the air. When the fire was out, the young man searched for the egg and fortunately found it. It had not yet melted, but the sudden chill of the cold water had crumbled its shell, and he was able to take out the crystal ball unharmed.

When the young man went to the sorcerer and held the ball before him, the sorcerer said, "My power is broken, and from this day forth you are the king of the Castle of the Golden Sun. With it you can also restore your brothers to their human forms." Then the young man hurried to the princess, and when he entered her room, she stood before him in the full radiance of her beauty, and the two joyfully exchanged rings.