Once upon a time, the king and the queen had an only son. When the young prince grew up, the king and queen held a great christening ceremony for him and cut his hair short, according to the national custom. They invited the most distinguished people in the country to attend the banquet. A thousand candles were reflected in the windows. Gold and silver jewels made the snow-white tent shine with color. In the evening, the girls danced the "Kolo"① in the garden, and the beautiful dance was a sight to behold. Beautiful maidens dancing, tender eyes can not leave the prince, almost with the eyes to eat him up at midnight, the guests have to leave home, the prince is not tired, walking into a small forest.
The forest looked mysterious - the thick trunk of the old linden tree cast dark shadows; the moonlight through the cracks of the branches and leaves, and on the ground painted strange patterns; the linden flower exudes a burst of fragrance, as if the church's divine fragrance. The prince was in a trance, strolling through the soft grass, and without realizing it he entered another wooded meadow. He saw standing on the grass, in the moonlight, a rather small, magical fairy. The fairy was dressed in a snow-white dress, with flowers embroidered in gold thread that sparkled. Her long hair fell over her shoulders, and she wore a glorious crown of gold studded with chief stones. This nymph was also really small, amounting only to a small puppet! The prince stood still, gazing at her without blinking. Suddenly, the fairy spoke, her voice clearer than a silver bell:
"Good Prince! I, too, had received the invitation, but had not the courage to come to the feast, for I was too small. The color of the moon at this moment is sunshine to me, and I will congratulate you in the midst of it!"
The sudden visit of this strange girl did not daunt the prince, who loved the tiny, delicate fairy. The prince went up to the little fairy and took her hand. But coldly, she broke away and disappeared invisibly. The prince's hand was left bare of one of the fairy's little gloves, which was so small that the prince had difficulty in putting it on his own little finger. He was so depressed that he went back into the palace and kept quiet before anyone about his strange encounter under the old linden tree.
The next night the prince went into the woods again, and wandered in the bright moonlight in search of the delicate nymphs.
But there was no sign of her anywhere. Full of sorrow, the prince took the little glove from his bosom and kissed it. In that instant, the little fairy had appeared in front of him. The prince was so surprised that he could not speak! The heart in his chest was pounding!
The two of them took a long walk in the moonlight, and spoke joyfully to each other. Strangely enough, while they were talking, the tiny fairy grew up visibly in the prince's eyes. By the time they parted, the fairy was twice as big as she had been the night before. In this way she could not fit into the little glove. She presented the little glove to the prince and said,
"Take the little glove and keep it as a token of love."
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she immediately became invisible again.
"I will treasure your little glove in my arms!" The prince shouted.
From then on, the prince and the fairy met every night under the old linden tree in the forest. In the daytime, when the sun shone, the prince was lost in thought, he thought of his beloved fairy every day, and when the twilight drew in, and the moon was in the middle of the sky, he always wondered: Will my fairy come tonight?
The prince's love for the tiny fairy grew more and more passionate, and the fairy grew bigger and bigger every night. On the ninth night, the moon was as full as a silver disk, and the fairy grew as tall as the prince.
"From now on, I will come to you every night as long as the moon is in the middle of the sky." The fairy said joyfully and tenderly.
"No, my dear! I cannot live without you! You shall be my wife, and I will make you queen!"
"My beloved!" The fairy replied, "I will be your wife, but you must promise me that you will love only me for the rest of your life!"
"I promise, promise!" Without thinking, the prince shouted offhandedly, "I promise to love you, always, and to look at no one else."
"Good, but remember not to forget - when you break your promise, I will no longer be your wife."
Three days later, the two were married. The guests were more than amazed by the fairy's beauty.
The prince and his young wife lived happily ever after. Seven years later, the aged king died suddenly, and many people attended the funeral. Some of the most beautiful and distinguished women in the country wept beside the coffin.
One of them, a beautiful woman with black eyes and brown hair, neither prayed to God nor wept for the dead king, but gazed at the young prince without turning her eyes away. And the prince found a beautiful woman with brown hair, and her eyes were always on him, and he felt a great pleasure in his heart.
When the funeral procession came to the tomb, the prince, who was walking arm-in-arm with his wife, looked three times at the beautiful woman with dark eyes. Suddenly, his wife tripped over the skirt of her dress and almost fell.
"Oh, look, I'm too long for this dress." She exclaimed.
Truly, the prince was also surprised to find that his wife had gotten a little shorter.
After burying the old and sickly king, the people returned to the palace. The beautiful woman with brown hair trailed the prince, always very close; and the prince secretly looked back again and again. In this way, the prince did not realize that his wife had become a tiny nymph again. As soon as they had gone under the linden tree, the little fairy disappeared from sight ......
The prince married the dark-eyed beauty with the brownish-yellow hair. Yet he and his new wife didn't even spend three days happily together. At first, the beautiful woman asked for a bed studded with diamonds. That was just the beginning. As soon as one request was met, she immediately asked for another one, which was more difficult and strange than anyone could think of. If the prince did not give her what she wanted, she burst into tears and snot, crying and cursing her husband. This beautiful woman was so insatiable that the prince could not bear to be pestered, and finally expelled her from the palace.
Not until then did the prince regret the mistake he had made. He was so sad that he missed the little nymph. Whenever the moon was in the middle of the sky, the prince still went into the grove and called out to his beloved, kind-hearted fairy under the linden tree.
The prince searched for his own little fairy, calling and expecting until his hair turned gray. But the delicate fairy never returned to him ......
①The Kolo is a mass ring dance popularized by certain ethnic groups in the Balkan Peninsula of Yugoslavia.