"Kate Crackernuts" is a captivating Scottish fairy tale with a rich history. It was first collected by Andrew Lang in the Orkney Islands and published in Longman's Magazine in 1889. Later, Joseph Jacobs further popularized the tale by including it in his book "English Fairy Tales" in 1890. The story follows a courageous princess who embarks on a perilous journey to rescue her sister from an evil enchantment. Along the way, she also assists a prince suffering from a wasting sickness, a result of his nightly dancing with the fairies. Notably, this timeless tale has been adapted into a children's novel and a stage play, enchanting audiences across generations with its enduring themes of bravery, adventure, and magic.
Once upon a time, there was a king and a queen, as in many lands have been. The king had a daughter, Kate, and the queen had one too, but the king’s Kate was bonnier than the queen’s Kate, and the queen was jealous of her and cast about for a way to spoil her beauty. So she took counsel of the henwife, and the henwife told her to ‘send the lassie to me in the morn, fasting.’
So on the next morning, the queen sent the king’s Kate down to the henwife for eggs, but the lassie was hungry and snatched up a piece of bread before she went out. When she came to the henwife’s, she asked for the eggs as she’d been told to, and the henwife told her to ‘lift the lid of the pot there, and see.’ Well, the lassie lifted the lid, and up rose the steam, but nothing happened for all that. ‘Gae hame to your minnie, and tell her to keep her larder door better steekit,’ said the henwife. Then the queen knew that the lassie had had something to eat. The next morning she watched her and sent her out fast, but as the lassie went to the henwife’s she saw some country folk picking peas by the roadside and spoke to them, and they gave her a handful of the peas which she ate by the way. So once again when she lifted the lid of the pot and the steam rose, no harm came to her, and the henwife said, ‘Tell your Minnie the pot winna boil if there’s nae fire under it.’
On the third day, the queen takes the king’s Kate by the hand and herself leads her to the henwife. And now when the lassie lifts the lid of the pot and the steam rises, why, off jumps the princess’s ain bonnie head, and on jumps a sheep’s head!
Now the queen was quite satisfied and went home, but the queen’s daughter was angry. She took a fine linen cloth and wrapped it around her sister’s head, and took her by the hand, and out they gained to seek their fortune.
They gazed, and they gained far, and further than I can tell, till they came to a king’s castle. Kate rapped on the door and asked for a night’s lodging for myself and my sick sister.’
‘Aye, you shall have that,’ they said, ‘Will ye but only sit up this night wi’ the king’s sick son and watch o’er him, and if a’s right wi’ him in the morning, ye shall have a peck o' seller as well.’
Aye, Kate was well willing to sit by him, and all went fine till midnight. Then the prince rose like one in a dream, and dressed, and with Kate stealing after him he went down to the stables, saddled his horse, called his hound, and jumped into the saddle – and Kate jumped up behind. Away they rode through the greenwood and the hazel thickets, Kate picking nuts as they passed and filling her apron with them. They rode on and on till they came to a green hill. The prince drew rein and cried, ‘Open, open, green hill and let in the young prince with his horse and his hound,’ and Kate added, ‘and his lady him behind.’
At once the green hill opened and they passed to a great hall marvellously lit and full of dancers. Kate slipped off the horse and hid behind the door while a crowd of beautiful fairy women pulled the prince into the reel and made him dance and dance until he was faint with weariness, and at cock-crow he took his horse and rode home with Kate behind. Then he lay down in his bed and Kate sat by the fire and cracked her nuts and ate them. When the folk came in the morning, Kate told them the prince had slept well, so they said if she would another night with him, they would give her a peck of gold.
On the second night, the prince rose as before and took his horse, and Kate rode with him to the fairy hill. Sitting behind the door as the prince danced, she saw a fairy bairn playing with a silver wand, and she overheard one of the dancers say, ‘Three strikes o’ that wand would make Kate’s sick sister as bonnie as ever she was.’ So Kate rolled nuts to the fairy boy, and she kept rolling them till the bairn dropped the wand to run after them, Kate snatched it up hid it in her gown, and carried it with her when she rode back to the castle behind the prince. Then she tapped her sister three times with the wand and off flew the sheep’s head, and there she stood with her ain head on, bonnier than ever before, and when the brother to the sick prince saw her, he couldn't take his eyes off her. And Kate sat down by the fire and cracked nuts and ate them.
So they asked Kate to sit with the prince for a third night, and she said she would only do it if she could marry him. And when he rose at midnight she followed him a third time into the fairy hill, and this time she saw the bairnie playing with a little dead bird, and heard one of the dancers saying, ‘Three bites of that birdie would make the sick prince as well as ever he was.’ Then Kate rolled nuts to the bairnie and rolled and rolled them till he set down the birdie and ran after the nuts and Kate picked up the birdie and put it in her apron.
At cockcrow, they set off home again, but this time instead of cracking nuts, Kate plucked the bird and roasted it at the fire, and at the smell of the roasting the prince said, ‘I wish I had a bite o’ that birdie,’ so Kate gave him a bit of the birdie, and he rose on his elbow. By and by he cried out again, ‘Oh, if I had another bite o’ that birdie!’, so Kate gave him another bit and he sat up on his bed. Then he said again, ‘Oh! If I had a third bite o’ that birdie!’ So Kate gave him a third bit, and he rose, dressed himself, and sat down by the fire, quite well – and when the folk came in the morning, they found Kate and the young prince cracking nuts together.
So the sick son married the good sister, and the good son married the sick sister, and they all
Lived happy and they died happy,
And never drank out of a dry happy.
*****
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World Fairy Tales
De Todo"Fairy Tales: A Timeless Enchantment" Fairy tales have captivated audiences for centuries, igniting the spark of imagination in young minds and teaching valuable lessons about courage, kindness, and perseverance. They convey profound moral and ethic...
