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Overview

A king marries an eighty-year-old woman after her delicate hand and false account of her age deceive his envoy. She also invents a danger from light to prevent anyone seeing her face. When the king discovers her age, he throws her from a window; her clothing catches on a nail and leaves her suspended. Four fairies passing nearby recognize the woman who deceived him. One proposes tearing the dress and letting her fall, but the youngest opposes this and chooses a beneficial gift instead.

The four wishes give youth, beauty, prudence and a good heart. While they speak, the woman becomes a young maiden. The king has her lowered with ladders, apologizes and celebrates with her. Her older sister later asks how she changed. The transformed woman falsely says she had her old skin removed, leading the sister to demand a fatal operation from a barber. That death comes from imitation of a false explanation, not from the fairies granting a harmful fifth wish. The fairies’ bodies, individual names and later whereabouts are unspecified; their effective magic consists of the narrated spoken gifts.

Four distinct spoken giftsYoungest opposes harmful proposalImmediate youthful transformationNo stated animal disguise
01

Origins & earliest records

Crane, Italian Popular Tales (1885), XXV: The King who wanted a Beautiful Wife, pp. 97–100; selected from Laura Gonzenbach, no. 73.

02

Records & interpretation

The complete selected tale distinguishes the actual fairy gifts from the queen’s later false explanation. Crane’s comparative note separately mentions a frog-bride version, which is not the woman’s original form here.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Italian Popular Tales, XXV: The King who wanted a Beautiful Wife, pp. 97–100

    Thomas Frederick Crane; selected from Laura Gonzenbach, no. 73 · 1885

    Complete selected tale with comparative note 1; the physical operation belongs a fatal mistaken imitation, not the fairy transformation.

Family & connections

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References

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  1. Primary literary witnessCrane 1885: The King who wanted a Beautiful WifeResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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