70 ASHIEPATTLE: OR HANS SEEKS HIS LUCK 



requires a goose-girl for them. The " Kongs0nnen fra 



Engeland " marries this goose-girl. In Tro og Utro we 



find the king looking after his Gaard or farm ; he comes 



out to shoot the hawk which attacks his poultry, and 



he is keenly interested in the produce of his orchard. 



In Per og Paal og Esben AsJcelad, the Kongsgaard 



is described just like a farm. The king desires the 



removal of a hedge, and offers his daughter and half the 



kingdom to any one who will dig him a well with a 



supply of water all the year round, for "it is a shame 



that all his neighbours have such wells and he has not." 



That kings' daughters can be won by peasant lads and 



the sons of the people is, of course, the chief theme of 



the Mdrchen proper, and we may take as the typical 



illustration of it the king's daughter who, in Der 



arme Mullerbursch, comes down to the mill to carry 



off the miller's lad as her husband. Indeed, Askelad 



marries the king's daughter quite as frequently as 



Aschenputtel the king's son. 1 Nor must it be thought 



that it is matrimony only that brings the low and high 



together. Princesses not only undertake menial offices, 



but find themselves quite at home in farmstead and 



household duties. In Die wahre Braut, as in the Norse 



Kari Trcestak, the king's daughter tends the cattle ; 



in Die Gdnsehirtin am Brunnen and Die Gansemagd, 



she acts as goose-girl ; in De beiden Kiinigeskinner she 



seeks employment at the mill, and is at once noticed by 



1 Even among the Lapps, the princess is made to choose from the populace. 

 Thus in The Silkweaver and her Husband we read : "Once upon a time a poor 

 lad wooed a princess and the girl wanted to marry him, but the Emperor was 

 against the match. Nevertheless she took him at last, and they were wed 

 together." 



