“The Enchanted Quill.” The Turnip Princess: and other newly discovered fairy tales, Franz Xaver von Schönwerth, New York: Penguin Books, 2015, pp. 6-8.

Tale Summary

One day, a crow pecked at a horse whose rider had fallen fast asleep, waking him up from a slumber of three years. The crow asked, as a thank you, for one of his sisters’ hand in marriage. The man returned home with a little picture of the crow, at which the two eldest turned their noses up, but the youngest blushed and took the picture. The next day, a splendid carriage arrived, and the sisters ran out, thinking a prince might be calling, but out stepped the black crow. Only the youngest sister stayed to greet him, but the crow invited all three to visit his castle. They traveled through a gloomy forest until they reached a beautiful palace, when the crow warned the two older sisters not to get too curious about things, and took the youngest girl in a separate room. The two sisters peeked through the keyhole and saw a handsome young man. All at once everything disappeared, and all three women were standing under a fir tree, with the crow in the branches, scolding them, saying only the youngest could now save him by walking to the city in rags to accept whatever work she was offered. She did this, and was employed by a tailor to do cooking and cleaning, but it quickly became obvious that she had none of the skills she needed, and everyone made fun of her. She wept, and the crow appeared at the window, and told her to pluck out one of his feathers and use it to write down a wish, which would come true. The next day she wrote down the names of fine dishes with her quill and they appeared, and her employers were so pleased that they gave her an exquisite gown. She was beautiful, and soon the caretaker was enamored with her and ran into her room. While he was turning to close the door, she wrote a wish with the quill for him to spend all night opening and closing the door. The wish came true and he was humiliated. The next evening, the huntsman, also enamored with her, came into the girls room and bent down to take his boots off. She wrote down a wish that he would spend all night taking his boots off and on, and he left humiliated the next morning. On the third morning, one of the servers appeared to ask her for favors, but remembered he had left the door to the dovecote open. When he left to check on it, she wrote a wish that he would spend all night opening and closing the door. Her suitors wanted revenge, and made three whips to strike her with. When she heard of this, she wrote a wish for them to whip each other, and that is what happened. The crow then arrived as a prince, and took the princess to his castle to live with him.