Household Tales · Chapter
The Queen Bee explained
Two kings' sons go on adventures and fall into a disorderly life, but their youngest brother, Simpleton, sets out to find them.
What happens
Two kings' sons go on adventures and fall into a disorderly life, but their youngest brother, Simpleton, sets out to find them. Despite being mocked, he shows kindness to ants, ducks, and bees, sparing them from harm. They arrive at an enchanted castle where a little grey man sets three tasks to break the spell. Simpleton, aided by the grateful creatures, completes the tasks: gathering a thousand pearls with the ants, retrieving a key from a lake with the ducks, and identifying the youngest princess by the bee's choice. The enchantment ends, Simpleton marries the princess, and becomes king.
Themes in this chapter
Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished
Simpleton's compassion for the ants, ducks, and bees leads to their aid in completing the tasks, while his brothers' cruelty results in their petrification.
Transformation and Redemption
The enchanted castle and its inhabitants are freed from stone and sleep through Simpleton's successful completion of the tasks.
Characters to notice
- Simpleton
The youngest brother, kind-hearted and simple, who saves the ants, ducks, and bees, and completes the three tasks with their help.
- the young King
One of the two elder brothers who mocked Simpleton but later turned to stone after failing the first two tasks.
- the princess
The youngest and sweetest princess, identified by the bee because she ate honey before falling asleep.
- Unknown
The little grey man who appears in the castle, opens the locks, and sets the three tasks for the brothers.
Key passages
“The Queen of the bees, which Simpleton had protected from the fire, came and tasted the lips of all three, and at last she remained sitting on the mouth which had eaten honey, and thus the King’s son recognized the right princess.”
The bee queen, grateful for Simpleton's earlier protection, identified the youngest princess by tasting the honey on her lips.
This moment resolves the third task and breaks the enchantment.
“Simpleton married the youngest and sweetest princess, and after her father’s death became King, and his two brothers received the two other sisters.”
Simpleton wed the youngest princess and eventually became king, while his brothers married the other two princesses.
The happy ending rewards Simpleton's virtue and restores harmony.