Some years later, the six brothers were walking through the woods when they came across an old chest. The eldest brother turned to his brothers and said, “Look! There is a chest on the forest floor! Where did it come from?” they decided to take the chest and go with it to see their sister, the queen.
When the brothers arrived at the castle, they immediately went to see the queen. When the queen saw the chest, she stood up quickly and exclaimed “where did you find this?” the brothers answered “we found it in the woods! It was just lying there!” the queen looked thoughtful, then she looked at her brothers, “Do you know the story of the six maidens of the north?” the brothers shook their heads. “Go ask father about it, he knows much more than I!”
The brothers then went to their father and said “do you know the story of the six maidens from the north, Father?” “Why yes I do sons! Come take a seat I will begin!”
The six brothers sat down and the old king began. “up in the north, there lived a king and queen who had six beautiful daughters. Now one day, these beautiful daughters were out playing in the woods when all of a sudden there was a strange noise coming from further into the wood, so the daughters went to investigate what that noise was as they rounded the bend, to their horror they saw an old woman who was stirring a cauldren outside the house. The woman sensed their presence and looked up at them and smiled. “hello little girls, why don’t you come into my house and we can have something to eat, you must be hungry!” the girls were feeling peckish so they agreed and followed.
