--- title: "King Thrushbeard" story_id: "721a3bf5-b29a-4f05-8b28-8375a3cd8bde" text_id: "ad19df57-d8b0-43d0-8061-28da4ec56856" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 1 part_count: 1 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/king-thrushbeard" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/king-thrushbeard" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # King Thrushbeard > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/king-thrushbeard) Version: Modernized In this German story collected by the Brothers Grimm, a princess mocks every man who asks to marry her. Her father decides that she must marry the first beggar who comes to his door. **Content warning:** A young woman is forced into marriage, humiliated and treated harshly by her husband. A King had a daughter who was beautiful beyond all measure, but so proud and haughty that no man who wanted to marry her was good enough. She sent away one after the other, and ridiculed them as well. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/df65a6d5-cc4c-42d7-9eb3-5f1d610fed01) Once the King made a great feast and invited all the young men who could marry her from far and near. They were all lined up according to their rank and standing; first came the kings, then the grand dukes, then the princes, the earls, the barons, and the other gentlemen. Then the King’s daughter was led through the ranks, but she found something wrong with every one of them; one was too fat, “The wine barrel,” she said. Another was too tall, “Long and thin, with little within.” The third was too short, “Short and thick is never quick.” The fourth was too pale, “As pale as death.” The fifth too red, “A fighting rooster.” The sixth was not straight enough, “A freshly cut log warped by drying behind the stove.” So she had something to say against every one, but she laughed especially hard at a good king who stood quite high up in the row, and whose chin had grown a little crooked. “Well,” she cried and laughed, “he has a chin like a thrush’s beak!” and from that time he got the name of King Thrushbeard. But the old King, when he saw that his daughter did nothing but mock the people, and despised all the suitors who were gathered there, was very angry, and swore that she should have for her husband the very first beggar that came to his doors. A few days afterwards a violin player came and sang beneath the windows, hoping for a small gift. When the King heard him he said, “Let him come up.” So the violin player came in, in his dirty, ragged clothes, and sang before the King and his daughter, and when he had ended he asked for a small gift. The King said, “Your song has pleased me so well that I will give you my daughter there as your wife.” The King’s daughter shuddered, but the King said, “I have sworn to give you to the very first beggar-man, and I will keep my promise.” Nothing she said made any difference; the priest was brought, and she had to marry the violin player then and there. When that was done the King said, “Now it is not proper for you, a beggar-woman, to stay any longer in my palace. You may just go away with your husband.” The beggar-man led her out by the hand, and she had to walk away with him. When they came to a large forest she asked, “Who owns that beautiful forest?” “It belongs to King Thrushbeard; if you had married him, it would have been yours.” “Ah, how unhappy I am, if only I had married King Thrushbeard!” Afterwards they came to a meadow, and she asked again, “Who owns this beautiful green meadow?” “It belongs to King Thrushbeard; if you had married him, it would have been yours.” “Ah, how unhappy I am, if only I had married King Thrushbeard!” Then they came to a large town, and she asked again, “Who owns this fine large town?” “It belongs to King Thrushbeard; if you had married him, it would have been yours.” “Ah, how unhappy I am, if only I had married King Thrushbeard!” “I don’t like it,” said the violin player, “to hear you always wishing for another husband; am I not good enough for you?” At last they came to a very little hut, and she said, “Oh goodness! what a small house; who owns this miserable, shabby hut?” The violin player answered, “That is my house and yours, where we’ll live together.” She had to bend down to get through the low door. “Where are the servants?” said the King’s daughter. “What servants?” answered the beggar-man; “if you want something done, you must do it yourself. Just make a fire at once, and put some water on to heat for my supper. I am quite tired.” But the King’s daughter knew nothing about lighting fires or cooking, and the beggar-man had to lend a hand himself to get anything done properly. When they had finished their small meal they went to bed; but he forced her to get up quite early in the morning in order to look after the house. For a few days they lived in this way as best they could, and used up all their food. Then the man said, “Wife, we cannot go on any longer eating and drinking here and earning nothing. You must weave baskets.” He went out, cut some willow branches, and brought them home. Then she began to weave, but the tough willow branches wounded her delicate hands. “I see that this will not do,” said the man; “you had better try making thread, perhaps you can do that better.” She sat down and tried to spin thread, but the hard thread soon cut her soft fingers until they bled. “See,” said the man, “you can’t do any kind of work; I have made a bad bargain by marrying you. Now I will try to start selling pots and clay dishes; you must sit in the market-place and sell them.” “Alas,” thought she, “if any of the people from my father’s kingdom come to the market and see me sitting there, selling, how they will mock me!” But it was of no use, she had to agree or starve. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/91a5cd8e-d351-4221-8fed-d53b40c186c7) At first she did well, for the people were glad to buy her pots and dishes because she was good-looking, and they paid her what she asked; many even gave her the money and left the pots with her as well. So they lived on what she had earned as long as it lasted, then the husband bought a lot of new crockery. With this she sat down at the corner of the market-place, and set it out round about her ready for sale. But suddenly there came a drunken soldier on horseback galloping along, and he rode right amongst the pots so that they were all broken into a thousand bits. She began to weep, and was so frightened she did not know what to do. “Alas! what will happen to me?” cried she; “what will my husband say to this?” She ran home and told him of the misfortune. “Who would seat herself at a corner of the market-place with crockery?” said the man; “Stop crying. I see very well that you cannot do any ordinary work, so I have been to our King’s palace to ask whether they need a kitchen-maid. They have promised to take you; you’ll get your meals in return for your work.” The King’s daughter was now a kitchen-maid, and had to be ready to do whatever the cook asked, and do the dirtiest work. In each of her pockets she fastened a little jar, in which she took home her share of the leftovers, and upon this they lived. The day came for the King’s eldest son to be married. The poor woman went upstairs and stood by the hall door to watch. The candles were all lit, and the guests came in, each more beautiful than the last. Surrounded by this grand display of wealth, she thought sadly of her fate. She cursed the pride and arrogance that had brought her so low and made her so poor. The smell of the delicious dishes which were being taken in and out reached her, and now and then the servants threw her a few mouthfuls of them: these she put in her jars to take home. All at once the King’s son entered, clothed in velvet and silk, with gold chains about his neck. And when he saw the beautiful woman standing by the door he seized her by the hand, and wanted to dance with her; but she refused and shrank with fear, for she saw that it was King Thrushbeard, the man she had mocked and refused to marry. Her struggles were useless; he drew her into the hall; but the string by which her pockets were hung broke, the pots fell down, the soup ran out, and the scraps were scattered all about. And when the people saw it, everyone began laughing and mocking her, and she was so ashamed that she would rather have been a mile below the ground. She sprang to the door and would have run away, but on the stairs a man caught her and brought her back; and when she looked at him it was King Thrushbeard again. He said to her kindly, “Do not be afraid. I am the violin player who has been living with you in that wretched hut. For love of you I disguised myself so; and I was also the cavalry soldier who rode through your crockery. This was all done to humble your proud spirit, and to punish you for the rudeness with which you mocked me.” Then she wept bitterly and said, “I have done great wrong, and am not worthy to be your wife.” But he said, “Don’t be upset; the bad days are over; now we will celebrate our wedding.” Then the ladies who attended her came and dressed her in the most splendid clothes, and her father and his whole court came and wished her happiness in her marriage with King Thrushbeard, and the joyful celebrations truly began. I wish you and I had been there too. ## Modernization notes - thousand fathoms → mile: A thousand fathoms is about 1.14 miles. The familiar rounded distance keeps her exaggerated wish to disappear. ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text Grimm’s Household Tales, with the Author’s Notes, volume 1, 1884, George Bell and Sons, London - author: Jacob Grimm - author: Wilhelm Grimm - translator: Margaret Hunt ## Illustration [Harry G. Theaker](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/df65a6d5-cc4c-42d7-9eb3-5f1d610fed01) — Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Ward, Lock & Co., London [Harry G. Theaker](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/91a5cd8e-d351-4221-8fed-d53b40c186c7) — Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Ward, Lock & Co., London ## Reading music Hungarian Dance No. 2 Johannes Brahms Caroline Goulding (violin) Shuai Wang (piano) Joseph Joachim (arranger) [Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (source)](https://www.gardnermuseum.org/experience/music) [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) ## Quiz ### What happens when clay is fired in a kiln? - It turns back into sand - It becomes ceramic (Correct answer) - It becomes metal A clay pot changes forever in the kiln. Before firing, clay can be soaked and reshaped; afterwards, it has become ceramic. [Victoria and Albert Museum — Ceramics, a risky business](https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/ceramics-a-risky-business) ### Which clay is used to make hard-paste porcelain? - Salt - Kaolin (Correct answer) - Wax Kaolin is a white clay. Mixed with other materials and fired at a very high temperature, it is used to make hard-paste porcelain. [Victoria and Albert Museum — An A–Z of ceramics](https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/a-z-of-ceramics) ### Which threads cross in weaving? - Warp and weft (Correct answer) - Root and leaf - Salt and sugar - Copper and iron Weft passes between warp threads. [Victoria and Albert Museum — What is tapestry?](https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/what-is-tapestry) ### Where are flax’s textile fibres found? - Flowers - Seeds - Stems (Correct answer) - Roots They are stem fibres. [Smithsonian — Untangling Indian hemp](https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/botany/news/plant-press/untangling-indian-hemp) ### What transformed spinning during the Industrial Revolution? - A return to scissors - Mechanisation (Correct answer) - The disappearance of fibres - Magic stones Machines moved much spinning into factories. [Smithsonian — Flax spinning wheel](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1200991) ## Other languages - [Français](https://www.openclassics.org/fr/stories/king-thrushbeard?format=markdown) - [简体中文](https://www.openclassics.org/zh/stories/king-thrushbeard?format=markdown) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)