There was a king who had twelve daughters, all as beautiful as flowers, and they all slept in the same room, twelve beds side by side, and at night when they went to bed, the door of the room was closed and locked. At one time, when they got up every morning, the king found that their shoes were worn out, as if they had danced all night. No one knew what had happened or where they had been.
So the king told the whole country that if someone could solve the secret and find out where these princesses danced all night, he could marry one of his favorite princesses and inherit the throne. But if this person does not find out the result after three days, he will be put to death.
Soon a prince came from a neighboring country and was received with great hospitality. In the evening he was taken to a room which was next to the bedrooms of the princesses. In order to hear and see everything that might happen, he sat down and left the door of the room open, and did not stop watching for a moment. But soon this prince fell asleep, and when he awoke the next morning, he could see that the princesses had still danced all night, for there were worn-out holes in the soles of their shoes. The same thing happened the next two nights, and the prince failed to solve the mystery. The king ordered his head to be cut off.
After him, several others came and tried, but their fate was the same as this prince's, they all lost their lives without finding out the result.
It happened that a veteran soldier passed through this king's domain, who had been wounded in action and could no longer fight. One day, while traveling through the woods, he met an old woman, who asked him where he was going, to which the veteran replied, "I don't know where I'm going or what I should do." Then, mockingly, he said, "Perhaps I should inquire where those princesses are dancing, so that I may be king in the future."
Upon hearing this, the old woman said, "Yes, yes! It's not difficult, just be careful not to drink the wine and other things that the princesses give you, and pretend that you are asleep when they are leaving."
Before she said goodbye, she gave him a cloak and said, "If you put this cloak around you, they won't be able to see you. Then you can follow the princesses wherever they go."
The old soldier listened to this advice and decided to try his luck. He came to the king and said that he was willing to accept this risky task. Like the others who had applied for the test, he was treated with great hospitality and the king ordered that he be given a beautiful royal gown to wear.
When evening came, he was taken to the outer room. On entering the room, he was just about to lie down when the king's great princess brought him a glass of wine, but the soldier quietly poured it all out without drinking a drop. Then he lay down on his bed, and soon snored loudly, as if he had slept very y. When the twelve princesses heard him snoring, they all laughed out loud with joy, and the eldest princess said, "This fellow could have done something a little wiser, and need not have come here to die." After saying this, they all got up and opened their drawers and chests and took out their beautiful clothes and dressed up in the mirror.
At this point, the youngest princess said, "I feel something is wrong, you guys are so excited, but I feel very uneasy, I think something unfortunate is going to happen to us."
"What a fool you are!" The Grand Princess said, "You are always worrying about this and that; have you forgotten that so many princes have tried to spy on us, and have ended up getting killed in vain? Look at this old soldier, even if I don't give him a sleeping pill, he'll still be huffing and puffing."
After the princesses had finished dressing up, they went to check on the soldier again, only to see that he was still snoring and sleeping in his bed, not moving a muscle. This being the case, they thought to themselves that no one knew and that they were quite safe. ◆Share a good article◆ The Great Princess went to her bed and clapped her hands, and the bed immediately sank inside the floor, and a floor door suddenly opened. The soldier saw the Grand Princess leading the way, and one by one they got through the floor door. Thinking that he could lose no more time, he jumped up at once, put on the cloak which the old woman had given him, and followed them.
On his way down the stairs, by accident, he stepped on the little princess's gown. She exclaimed to her sisters, "What's the matter, who caught my gown?"
The eldest princess said, "Don't be paranoid, it must have been hanging from a nail in the wall."
They went down into a delightful grove of trees whose leaves were all made of silver and shone beautifully. The soldier wanted to find an exhibit of having been in the place, so he broke a branch, which "click!" "Clatter!" It made a noise, and the little princess added, "I think it's a bit unusual, do you hear that sound? This sound has not been heard before."
The eldest princess said, "The sound must be from our princes, they are the only ones who would rejoice at our arrival."
Saying this, they went into another grove, this one with leaves made of gold. Further on, into a third grove, all the leaves were made of brilliant diamonds. At each grove the soldier broke off a branch to bear witness, and each time there was also a "click!" "Clatter!" This noise always made the little princess afraid, and the big princess always said it was the princes cheering.
They went on and on, and at last came to a great lake with twelve boats, each with a handsome prince, who seemed to have been waiting for the princesses. When they reached the shore, each princess got into a separate boat, and the soldiers followed the little princesses into the same boat.
As they were rowing the boats on the lake, the prince who was in the boat with the little princess and the soldier said, "How is it! It's as if this boat is especially heavy today; I'm rowing as hard as I can, but the boat isn't moving forward as fast as it usually does, and I'm exhausted."
The little princess said, "It's just that it's a little warmer, and I'm feeling very hot too."
On the other side of the lake stood a beautiful palace, which was brilliantly lighted, and from it came pleasant music, with the sound of pipes and trumpets and horns. They went ashore and entered the palace together, and all the twelve princes began to dance with the princesses. They never saw the soldier, who danced along with them. Whenever one of the princesses lifted the wine, the soldier always secretly went up and finished it. By the time the princess brought the glass to her mouth, the glass was empty. Seeing this situation, that little princess felt even more afraid, but the big princess always told her to keep quiet.
The dance went on until three o'clock in the morning, and all the shoes were worn out. The princes sent them across the lake in their boats again, and this time the soldiers got into the boat of the great princess. When they reached the shore of the lake, the princesses and the princes said goodbye to each other, and they promised to come back the next night.
When they returned to the stairway, the soldier immediately ran ahead of them and went to bed himself first. When the twelve sisters came up slowly, dragging their exhausted bodies, they immediately heard the snores coming from the soldier sleeping in his bed. They said, "Now you can rest easy." After saying this, they each undressed, took off their shoes, threw them under the bed, and all lay down to sleep.
When he rose in the morning, the soldier said nothing about what he had seen and heard during the night, and he wanted to see a few more of these strange encounters, so for the second and third night in succession he went again. Each time everything that happened was the same as the previous time, and the princesses did not return to their bedrooms until their shoes were through their eyes each time they danced. On the third night, however, the soldier took another golden cup as evidence that he had been there.
On the fourth day, the deadline for him to unlock this secret came, and he took the three branches and the golden cup and went before the king. At this time, all the twelve princesses stood behind the door with their ears open to hear what he actually said.
The king asked, "Where do my twelve daughters dance at night?"
The soldier replied, "They are dancing with the twelve princes in a palace underground." He then told the king what he had seen and what had happened, bringing out the three branches and the golden cup he had brought to show the king.
The king called the princesses all together and asked them if all that the soldier had said was true. They saw that everything had been discovered, and it was useless to deny what had happened, so they had to admit it all.
With the secret out of the way, the king asked the soldier which princess he would like to choose as his wife, to which he replied, "I'm not getting any younger, so you can betroth the eldest princess to me!"
So they were married that day, and the soldier was also chosen as heir to the throne.
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