Folk Tales from Gascony: Étienne the Clever.
ÉTIENNE THE CLEVER
Source
There once was a king who had a daughter as beautiful as the day. On her way to church one Sunday, she found a bedbug on her neck. She took it and locked it in a chest. Morning and evening, she fed it with her blood. So the bedbug grew and grew, and became as strong as a small dog. But it ended up dying. What did the princess do then? She skinned the beast and gave the skin to a tanner so that he could prepare it to cover the chest. This done, the king made it trumpet everywhere that he would give his daughter in marriage to the boy who knew what animal the skin that covered the chest was.
Three years were spent waiting. Many people showed up and returned without being able to guess. This was being talked about throughout the country, so much so that one day a boy, named Étienne the Clever, said to his assembled neighbors:
"Listen. I'm going to leave for the king's castle, and I take it upon myself to guess what skin the princess's chest is covered with."
Étienne the Clever set off alone, with five saddled and bridled horses. After seven leagues, he found a man listening with his ear to the ground.
“What are you doing here, my friend?”
"Sir, I am Jean Good-Ear. I listen to what people from the other world say."
"Jean Good-Ear, come with me. Soon I will need you, and you will be well rewarded."
Jean Good-Ear therefore mounted his horse, and they set off again. After seven leagues, they found, behind a hedge, a man firing a gun.
“What are you doing here, my friend?”
"Sir, I am Pierre Good-Aimer. I shoot at the wrens, which are over there, over there, on the mountain."
"Pierre Good-Aimer, come with me. Soon I will need you, and you will be well rewarded."
So Pierre Good-Aimer mounted his horse, and they set off again. After seven leagues, they found a man holding himself with ropes.
"What are you doing here, my friend?"
"Sir, I am the Greyhound-Dog. I bind myself with ropes to chase hares. If I didn't restrain myself, I would run too fast, and I would pass them by."
"Greyhound-Dog, come with me. Soon I will need you, and you will be well rewarded."
So Greyhound-Dog mounted his horse, and they set off again. After seven leagues, they found a man bending a hundred-year-old oak tree.
“What are you doing here, my friend?”
"Sir, I am Samson the Strong. I twist this hundred-year-old oak, to make a link, to bind a bundle."
"Samson the Strong, come with me. Soon I will need you, and you will be well rewarded."
So Samson the Strong mounted his horse, and they set off again. After seven leagues, they arrived at the king's castle. But Étienne the Clever could not guess with what skin the princess' chest was covered.
They had to return as they had come. After seven leagues, Jean Good-Ear said to Étienne the Clever:
“Sir, I hear the king chatting with the princess. They say: “This one too could not have guessed that the chest is covered with the skin of a fattened bedbug."
Immediately, all five of them set off again and arrived at the king's castle.
“King,” said Étienne the Clever, “your daughter’s chest is covered with the skin of a fattened bedbug. Now you have to give me the princess in marriage."
“Étienne the Clever,” replied the king, “I and you are related. You will not marry my daughter until you go to Rome to seek dispensations from the Pope."
Immediately, all five left for Rome. But the king secretly sent a messenger, with a letter, to beg the pope not to give the dispensations. After seven leagues, Jean Good-Ear said to Étienne the Clever:
“Sir, I hear the king say: “Étienne the Clever will not have my daughter in marriage. I sent a messenger to Rome with a letter, to beg the Pope not to give the dispensations. As soon as he has the answer, he will tie it to the neck of a pigeon, so that it comes to me faster."
Étienne the Clever quickly, quickly wrote a letter to the pope. Immediately Greyhound-Dog left for Rome. When the king's messenger arrived, the dispensations were given. What did the pope do then? He wrote a letter to the king to withdraw the dispensations. This letter left, tied to the neck of a pigeon. But Pierre Good-Aimer killed the pigeon on the fly, with a shot, and Greyhound-Dog arrived with the dispensations.
All five returned to the king's castle.
— “King,” said Étienne the Clever, “here are the dispensations of the pope. Now you have to give me the princess in marriage."
"Étienne the Clever, you won’t get it. But I will give you as much gold as a man can carry."
Étienne the Clever called Samson the Strong and charged him with a hundred quintals of gold, which weighed no more than a feather cushion. Then the king said:
“Étienne the Clever, give me back my gold. I give you my daughter in marriage."
Étienne the Clever and the princess married together. John Good-Ear, Pierre Good-Aimer, Greyhound-Dog, and Samson the Strong were invited to the wedding. They returned home the next day, each with their horse loaded with gold coins.
Source: Étienne l’Habile, from the French book Contes populaires de la Gascogne, tome 2, published in 1886
Previous Tale: The Ship Walking on Land
Next Tale: The Two Girls
Hello, my name is Vincent Celier.
I am writing translations of folk tales that I found in public domain French books, so that people who do not understand French may enjoy them too.
In this short tale too, the king promises his daughter in marriage to anybody that can guess something hard.
And the king also reneges on his promise when Étienne gives him the correct answer.
And Étienne was also helped by powerful friends he met while going to the king's castle.
In the future game that I am going to play, HOLOZING, the gamer will be a healer and will Play against the Environment (PvE) and will Play against other Players (PvP).
The game will use a token called ZING that is kept on the Hive Engine. It can be staked or not.
Before the launch of the game, there is currently a distribution of the ZING tokens. There are four ways to get staked ZING tokens:
- Keep ZINGs staked
- Delegate Hive Powers to @zingtoken
- Keep POSH tokens in your Hive Engine wallet
- Put ZING tokens and Hives in a liquidity pool.
I am currently getting staked ZING tokens using these four ways.
I delegated almost a month ago more than 200K Hive Powers to @zingtoken.
I keep most of my ZING tokens staked.
I do not sell my POSH tokens.
I have put some ZING tokens and Hives in the liquidity pool.
The result is that I am now the top contributor as I am the one, so far, who got the most ZING tokens.
-- Vincent Celier
Etienne The Clever was able to guess the animal whose skin covered the chest of the princess. But the King who threw the challenge was not so trustworthy as he refused to give his daughter to Etienne The Clever. But I guess he is called The Clever for a reason. As if he knew this was going to happen, he brought along four special men on his way who helped him make the King fulfil his promise. At last he married the princess. No wonder the Bible says that wisdom or cleverness is the principal thing. Possessing wisdom will help us overcome a lot of obstacles in life we won't otherwise overcome without it.
Thanks for sharing this intriguing story.
You have gotten quite the fortune on hive, especially the massive amount of Zing tokens you have acquired. Seems I am going to try out this token, it seems promising for the future. Also putting the Zing token and Hives in the liquidity pool is good for the Hive ecosystem.
God bless and Goodbye. May God be with you and your family.
This is another interesting tale for the day.
Etienne the clever is such a clever person.
The king was actually not serious about giving his daughter’s hand in marriage.
He just wanted to play with people’s heart.
I’m glad that Etienne the clever met John good- hear, Pierre good-Aimer, Greyhound-dog and Samson the strong on his way which they served different purposes for him.
Despite all what the king did,he ended up giving his daughter’s hand in marriage.
I’m glad the four men were invited for the wedding.
I’m glad they ended up happily
What a fascinating story! Étienne the Clever is a true hero.
Despite the obstacles he encountered along the way, he did not give up and showed great intelligence and cunning.
It is inspiring to see how he was able to overcome the king's disloyalty and find the support of his powerful friends.
This story teaches us the importance of perseverance and self-confidence.
We should never underestimate the power of the brilliant mind of someone like Étienne!
https://twitter.com/Edger_K/status/1727739592609055113
!HH
🚀 Henthusiast Tip Incoming! 🚀
1.0 $HH sent to:
@vcelier and @edgerik
@edgerik has used 1 of 1 tips today.
Wow! Short but interesting! I don't really know why all this king's don't like keeping to their promises. Well, thank God for Etienne The Clever who was clever enough as his name implies to take the four men he met on his way with him. Jean Good-Ear was really helpful to him as he was the one hearing everything underground. The king wanted to play him smart but thank God for Jean Good-Ear. The Jean Good-Ear and the other men really help Etienne The Clever in getting married to the princess. And I am glad that Etienne The Clever kept to his words and he rewarded the four men.
https://inleo.io/threads/tokutaro22/re-leothreads-2wmzhlhvq
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people ( tokutaro22 ) sharing the post on LeoThreads,LikeTu,dBuzz.
Étienne's ability to assemble a diverse team, each member bringing distinct skills to the table, reflects the notion that collective intelligence often surpasses individual capabilities. In essence, the tale celebrates the power of collaboration and highlights how individuals, with diverse talents, can complement each other to achieve common goals. In these days where individualism is on the rise, a story like this is a real soothe.
https://twitter.com/Kublai84638557/status/1727752113189441666
This episode again is about a king who yet reneges on his promise to marry off his daughter to whosoever could guess the animal skin used for the Princess' chest. Étienne the clever was able to give the correct answer because his friend, Jean good-ear could listen in on conversations of other people. His friends helped him get his heart's desire and I think somehow he knew he was going to be needing his talented friends. His friends helped him, he married the Princess, case closed. A beautiful story.
Delegating a whopping 200k hive is no mean feat so you deserve to be at the top. Congratulations!
Hahaha this story is somewhat funny but I will tell you why or how it made me laugh. Firstly, let me just guess that the princess loved animals so much for her to be feeding a bedbug and she even had to feed it for so long. It is even more surprising that she didn’t throw it away when it died. Instead, she chose to keep it on her chest and even covered it with something. I guess that is how much she loved the bedbug.
Also, I wonder if her father didn’t want her to get married at all because why will he give those young men the difficult task of having to guess the animal on the chest of his daughter before he finally gives her hand in marriage to whoever guesses it right
Etenne the clever is truly a clever man by inviting those young men to follow him to the palace so they could work hand in hand so as to guess the animal that the princess has on her chest. What made me laugh was the fact that all the efforts of the King to make sure that Etienne the clever does not get married ti his daughter was futile, lol
It was really funny but I’m happy with the way the story ended.
https://twitter.com/adenijiadeshin7/status/1727766994517135834?t=3DFmSWrMx5D2tIAucXYyyw&s=19
If the king daughter must have been so much beautiful as the day, I am quite imagining how beautiful the mother of the daughter will definitely be or handsome the king will be himself. Beauty must definetely run in the family for that course. She must really have so much are and affection for the bedbug to the extent that she was tendering it day by day every single time and how pathetic she must have really feel when the bedbug who she really loves and which have even grew to become a small dog suddenly died. That must have really been so much hard for her to take, so hard for her to take. The story actually tend to give us a picture of how the old days were which the king will offer their daughter to marriage just for any request or let me put it this way any requests that actually touches their heart.
A very weird princess and an untrustworthy King is what I would title this beautiful piece. Of all animals and insects, it has the blood sucking bedbug that she kept as a pet, even feeding it with her own blood. Hmmm....she must have really loved the insect to use its skin for her chest.
Étienne the clever really lived up to his name. He prepared for the journey adequately by making some very useful friends along the way. And these friends, helped him get the king to agree to his marriage to the Princess, even when the king tried to play a fast one on him. A short and beautiful story.
Holozing promises to be a very interesting game and I think your investing into the project is a very good deal. I wish you the best
https://twitter.com/evih_hive/status/1727789465412743227
https://twitter.com/jewellery_all/status/1727790012467650646
A short story and above all very interesting, the man was getting men along the way, however, he knew what would happen on the way, or ask what was the reason to take five horses, when he left for the kingdom, that's a good question, anyway as I said in another publication, kings are cheaters offer their daughters after they comply with the rules, they put new rules that is unfair.
But a forewarned man is worth 2, this time it was worth 5.
That's great. You played games on hive. Thanks for sharing information with us about this game. It proves to be useful while playing.
If we talk about that new story, I think these all stories somewhere related like here, king announced that he will give his daughter in marriage to the person who reveal the secret.
But he new the secret so why he wants to reveals that by others.
Stephen was his other name? You called stephen the clever!
He was clever that's why he took these powerful peoples in his company so that he could easily got theír help.
Through all of his friends, he will take help and fulfill the orders of king.
At the end king forcefully has to give his daughter in marriage.
This tale is interesting. Who could have believed the king's daughter would keep a bedbug so tight to her next all in the name of of feeding it? The bug becomes so big that it eventually dies. It is not surprising to see that the king's daughter covers her chest with its skin.
No doubt, the King never believes that someone could guess correctly the animal skin that his daughter has used to cover her neck. No man could guess correctly when the king promised to marry off his daughter to any man who could answer.
The clever boy did try his best although he failed to get the answer. He is assisted by his friends whom he has called. The King refused to give his daughter out giving excuses. At least the clever boy is able to win over the king"a daughter after getting over all the adversity of the king with the help of his friends.
Good to see you are getting along with your gaming adventure and your commitment to see this to the very last end.
https://twitter.com/LovingGirlHive/status/1727998460086161833
Last story story was also interesting and I enjoyed reading all the things and today's story is also very good as we all know that a king is so kind to his daughter. She looks for a husband who will spend her whole life in a good way and with her happily. That is why the king also said here that whoever is a servant, if he brings something in front of me in this way, which any other human being will do.
If I can't take it, then I will marry my daughter to her and here a servant liked the daughter of king and he was also very intelligent because his friends were also very intelligent and his After that he took the advice of all these people and fulfilled all the things that the king had said and after that we saw that in the end the king got his daughter married to him here with this happiness.
I'm thinking the same thing now that I restart the games I stopped playing so that I can play them in peace.
https://twitter.com/lee19389/status/1728083332469039483
#hive #posh
Etienne The Clever was indeed a clever boy just as his name. The king after making a promise to the people that anyone who guesses the name of the animal skin that covers the chest will get his daughter's hand in marriage. When Etienne the clever was able to guess the animal skin that the chest was covered with the king refused to hand his daughter's hand in marriage. Etienne the clever was lucky enough with the men he picked on his way to the King's castle. They help him when the king was planning to play tricks on him.
Hmmm, People and not keeping to their words, well all thanks to Etienne's friends they really helped him.
Hello vcelier!
It's nice to let you know that your article will take 10th place.
Your post is among 15 Best articles voted 7 days ago by the @hive-lu | King Lucoin Curator by nuthman
You receive 🎖 0.7 unique LUBEST tokens as a reward. You can support Lu world and your curator, then he and you will receive 10x more of the winning token. There is a buyout offer waiting for him on the stock exchange. All you need to do is reblog Daily Report 126 with your winnings.
Buy Lu on the Hive-Engine exchange | World of Lu created by szejq
STOPor to resume write a wordSTART