The girl with the long hair

There once was a king so greedy that he wanted to own the stars. One day he went out on his veranda and told his people: "The person who can give me the stars will be my heir." Among the people in the square below Frieda stood with her mother. "I want to be a princess," she shouted out loud. The king smiled and adjusted the crown. "That's fine," he said. "Come when you are ready and knock three times, so that I'll know it's you."

Frieda was pleased at hearing this. "Mummy, mummy, I'll become the princess," she said dancing along the pavement. Her mummy walked right behind her. "First you have to fetch the stars," she said. "How will you set about doing that?" Frieda stopped and looked at her mother. "Don't you know?" Her mother laughed, having no idea how one gets hold of the stars. But when she saw Frieda's disappointment, she stopped smiling.

"To get the stars you need really long hair like a princess," Frieda's mother said. Frieda's face shone with anticipation. "How do I get long hair then?" she asked. Her mother thought a bit before she answered. "To have long princess hair you must eat potatoes."

Frieda detested potatoes. She wrinkled her nose all the way up to her forehead just at the thought of eating potatoes. But her desire to be a princess was stronger than any distaste in the world, so she started eating potatoes right away. To her mother's surprise she ate potatoes for breakfast the next day, and for lunch, and for dinner. She ate mashed potatoes before she went to bed and drank potato water when she was thirsty.

Everything Frieda ate and drank had potatoes in it. After a month her hair hung all the way down to her knees. "Do you think I can catch the stars now?" she asked. Her mother looked at the long beautiful hair with a tingle of jealousy. "No, it has to be longer to become real princess hair."

So Frieda continued to eat potatoes. There wasn't an hour in any day when she didn't suck on a potato. A few weeks later her hair was so long that she could use it as a skipping rope at school. To carry it all she curled it up and had it in a backpack. At last it became so long that her mother used two whole days to plait it. Afterwards she had to walk for several hours to reach Frieda's head.

"Now your hair must surely be long enough," she said. "Go off to the king's castle, and good luck." Frieda put her hair in the backpack. When she was about to say goodbye, she saw tears in her mother's eyes. "Arn't you happy that I'm going to be a princess?" she asked. "No," her mother sobbed. "I love you so much, and don't want you to leave me." Frieda wiped her mother's eyes and gave her a big hug. "When I become princess, you will become queen," she said and set off.

When she reached the castle door she knocked three times. The king threw the door open when he heard the signal. "At last you are here. I'm really looking foreward to owning the stars" The king followed Frieda up the stairs and out on the veranda. In the sky above them thousands of stars shone brightly while the king hustled Frieda impatiently. "Come on, take them down to me."

Frieda unpacked her long hair from the backpack and threw it out from the veranda. "Look at the fine princess hair I've got," she said proudly. "Well, yes," the king replied. "But can you fetch the stars with it?" "Yes, so my mother told me," Frieda said and started to blow her hair to make it fly. Frieda blew, and the king blew, but it was far too heavy for them. After a while the king sat down disappointed. He was angry as well, being a spoiled king used to having everything his own way.

"They who can't deliver what they promise end up in the snake pit," he said. Curl up that stupid, useless hair of yours and prepare yourself for death." Frieda started to cry upon hearing this. "I've worked so hard for this long hair, and I brought it just so that you could get your stars." "I can't help that," the king said and whistled for his guards. "Make snake-food of her at once," he demanded. The guards took the sobbing girl with the long hair and threw her in the snake pit. And that's the end of the story.

Oh, sorry. There seems to be more.
The poisonous snakes hissed around her. But before they managed to bite her, Frieda had made a snake-net of her hair and caught them in it. Then she threw the hair-net with the snakes in up to the gallery, where the king and his guards stood.

When the snakes started to hiss at them, they all jumped down to Frieda in the snake pit. "You are a smart one," the king said brushing his knees. "But now we will drown you in the snakes drinking-water instead." The guards attacked Frieda, but she bent over and spun around so fast that they couldn't get hold of her. In the fight Frieda's hair rubbed against the guard's wool uniforms and became electric. Her hair sparkled and pricked the guard's faces so they had to escape - and then the hair rose up in the air.

Frieda's hair stretched up in the sky and spread towards all the stars. The king and his guards looked in disbelief as each and every hair attached itself to a star. "Do you still want to kill me, my king?" Frieda asked. "No, no, that was only a game, ha, ha." "Promise me then," Frieda said, "that if I bring you the stars, I will be your princess and my mother the queen over this country." The king looked eagerly up to the sky. "Yes, yes, I promise. Cross my heart."

Then Frieda started to pull the stars down. She pulled, and pulled. But the strange thing was that the stars didn't seem bigger even though they got closer. Finally they lay in the palm of her hand like a little heap of stardust. The king became furious. "Are they the stars?" "Yes," Frieda said and pointed at the empty sky. Then she reached out her other hand. "I want my princess crown, and the queen's crown for my mother," she demanded.

The king looked with disappointment at the stardust in Friedas hand. "Well, well, a promise is a promise," he sighed. "You will be princess and your mother queen. But you might as well hang up those stupid stars in the sky again." Frieda smiled and released her electric hair. It flew up in the sky and put every single star back in its proper place.

Afterwards she cut her hair short and promised herself never to eat potatoes again. Then she put her crown on, and carried the queen's crown home to give it to her mother.

© Martin Nygaard