Household Tales · Chapter
The Peasant's Wise Daughter explained
A poor peasant and his daughter receive land from the King, but when the father finds a golden mortar and gives it to the King without the pestle, he is imprisoned.
What happens
A poor peasant and his daughter receive land from the King, but when the father finds a golden mortar and gives it to the King without the pestle, he is imprisoned. The daughter's wisdom helps her solve the King's riddle, leading to their marriage. Later, she uses her cleverness to help a peasant reclaim his foal, but when the King discovers her involvement, he banishes her. She takes the King himself as her dearest possession, and they reconcile.
Themes in this chapter
Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished
The wise daughter's cleverness and loyalty are rewarded with marriage and reconciliation, while the King's hasty judgment is corrected.
Promises and Their Consequences
The King's promise to let the Queen take her dearest possession leads to her taking him, fulfilling the condition and restoring their bond.
Characters to notice
- the peasant's wise daughter
The clever daughter who solves the King's riddle and later uses her wit to save her marriage.
- the King
The ruler who tests the daughter's wisdom, marries her, and later banishes her before being won back.
- the peasant
The poor father who finds the golden mortar and is imprisoned for not having the pestle.
- the peasant with horses
A peasant who loses his foal to a peasant with oxen and seeks the Queen's help.
Key passages
“Come to me not clothed, not naked, not riding, not walking, not in the road, and not out of the road, and if thou canst do that I will marry thee.”
The King challenges the daughter to appear before him in a paradoxical manner: neither clothed nor naked, neither riding nor walking, and neither on nor off the path.
This riddle tests the daughter's wisdom and is the key to her marriage.
“It is as easy for me to fish on dry land as it is for an ox to have a foal.”
The peasant, following the Queen's advice, uses a fishing net on dry ground to illustrate the absurdity of the King's earlier judgment that an ox could give birth to a foal.
This clever response exposes the injustice of the King's ruling and leads to the Queen's involvement being discovered.
“I have nothing more precious and dear than yourself, so I have brought you with me.”
The Queen explains to the waking King that she took him as her dearest possession, fulfilling his command to take only what was most precious to her.
This act of loyalty and cleverness reconciles the couple and restores their marriage.