This Portuguese folktale begins with a king learning about an argument between his son and a young nobleman on a tennis court. The prince spoke rudely to the noble, who lost his temper and hit him. Although the king is angrier with his son for not fighting back than the noble, hitting the prince is punishable by death. The only way the noble can save himself is to marry a very ugly, very old woman. As is often the case in folktales, there is a lot of magic around and some surprises are on the way for all involved.
Our source for the story was The Lilac Fairy Book, one of a series of twelve collections of folk and fairy tales for children edited by Andrew Lang. This is the last book in the series, and was first published in 1910. Lang doesn’t give his source for the story, simply saying that it was “adapted from the Portuguese”.
Original Text / PDF (2,786 words)