The Battle of the Birds

The Battle of the Birds

Once upon a time, a little wren, the smallest of all the forest birds, decided to hire himself out to a farmer.

“You?” the farmer said in surprise. “Why, you’re lighter than a handful of straw. What work could you possibly do?”

“Let me try,” replied the bird. “Being small does not mean being helpless.”

The farmer smiled and allowed him to work in the barn where grain was being threshed.

The wren set to work. But the moment a single grain fell to the floor, a mouse darted out from behind a sack and snatched it up.

“Please don’t take the grain while I’m working,” said the little bird.

The next time, two grains fell. The mouse picked those up too.

“I asked you not to!”

“I need to eat as well,” replied the mouse.

One word led to another, and soon they were quarreling. Before long, each of them called for friends. Birds flew to the wren’s side, while forest and field animals gathered around the mouse. Instead of calmly finding a solution, both sides decided to prove which of them was more important.

News of the great Battle of the Birds spread far beyond the forest.

The son of the King of Tettertown heard about it and told his father:

“I’ll go and see how it ends. Perhaps I’ll come home with a good story.”

But the journey was long. By the time the prince reached the place, the clearing was empty. Only one last struggle continued beneath an old tree.

A great black raven was tangled with a snake. The raven held the snake in his beak, while the snake had wound itself around the bird’s wings. Both were so exhausted that they could barely move.

“That is enough!” cried the prince.

Using a long branch, he carefully lifted one coil of the snake, untangled it, and moved it aside. The snake hissed angrily, but when it saw a clear path, it crawled away. The raven spread his tired wings.

“You could have walked past,” he said. “Instead, you helped me. For that, I will show you something an ordinary traveler would never see.”

“What?”

“Climb onto my back and hold on tightly.”

The raven beat his wings.

They flew over nine mountains, nine valleys, and nine broad wastelands. That evening, the raven showed the prince a little house.

“My sister lives there. Tell her you are my guest.”

Inside, the prince was given food, warm water to wash with, and a soft bed for the night.

The next morning, the raven returned. This time, they flew over six mountains, six valleys, and six wastelands. Another of the raven’s sisters welcomed the traveler just as warmly.

On the third day, they crossed three mountains, three valleys, and three wastelands.

The following morning, the prince stepped outside and could not see the raven anywhere.

Instead, a young man with golden rings in his hair stood on the path holding a small bundle.

“Have you seen a large black raven?” the prince asked.

The young man smiled.

“Every morning in the mirror, until you helped me in that clearing.”

The prince stared at him.

“That was you?”

“A grim druid enchanted me. I was to remain a raven until someone helped me not for a reward, but simply because they saw another creature in trouble. Your kindness broke the spell.”

The young man held out the bundle.

“Take this. Open it only in the place where you truly wish to live. Not before.”

The prince thanked him and set out for home along the same road.

For a long time, he kept the bundle safely tied. But near his father’s kingdom, while passing through a dense forest, he noticed that the parcel seemed to have become heavier.

“I’ll only take one little look,” he thought.

The moment he untied the knot, the trees drew apart.

A magnificent castle rose in the clearing. Around it spread a garden filled with apple and pear trees, berries, herbs, and flowers. Lights shone in the windows, and fountains began to sing.

“Oh, what have I done?” said the prince. “I wanted this castle to stand in the green valley near home.”

Suddenly, the ground trembled gently.

A giant appeared between the trees.

“Fine castle,” he said. “Poor choice of place.”

“I know,” replied the prince. “But I cannot fold it back into the bundle.”

“I can.”

“What would you ask in return?”

The giant thought for a while.

“If you ever have a son, let him come to my home when he is seven years old and stay for a time. He will learn to see another part of the world, work with his hands, and keep his word. After that, he may decide for himself where he wants to live.”

The prince hesitated. It was a strange promise. But he badly wanted to correct his mistake.

“Very well,” he said. “But the child must be safe.”

“No guest is harmed in my home if he deals honestly with me,” replied the giant.

He clapped his hands, and the castle, garden, fountains, and paths folded themselves back into the little bundle.

Several days later, the prince reached the green valley opposite his father’s home. There he opened the bundle a second time.

The castle appeared exactly where it should.

Inside, the prince met a kind young woman who watched over the magic of the place. In time, they fell in love and made a family together.

Seven years passed. Their son was growing into a curious, courageous boy who loved hearing his father’s stories.

One day, the giant came to the gates.

The prince remembered his old promise at once.

This time, he hid nothing. He told his wife and son the whole story from beginning to end.

The boy listened and asked:

“Father, did you give your word?”

“I did. But now I understand that no one should decide a child’s future for him.”

The giant, who had heard the conversation, nodded.

“That is wiser than what you said in the forest years ago. So I will ask the boy himself. Would you like to come to my home as a student and a guest? If you decide you want to return, I will bring you back.”

The boy thought for a little while.

“I would like to see the world beyond the nine mountains. But I’ll write home.”

“Agreed,” said the giant.

And so the prince’s son set out on a new journey.

The giant kept his word. The boy lived well in his home and learned to care for animals, work in the garden, read the stars, and notice things other people passed without seeing.

The years went by, and the boy became a young man.

One evening, he heard marvelous music coming from an upstairs room. There he found the giant’s youngest daughter, Mary, who had chestnut-colored hair.

They became friends. Mary was cheerful and clever, and she was not at all afraid to tell her father what she thought.

When the giant realized that the young man and Mary wished to be together, he frowned.

“First prove that you can do more than talk about courage. Complete three tasks.”

“Name them,” replied the young man.

The first task seemed nearly impossible: clean in a single day an enormous cowshed that no one had managed to put in order for years.

The young man worked until noon, but the mountain of work did not seem any smaller.

Mary came to him.

“You are trying to defeat a mountain one grain of sand at a time,” she said. “Rest and trust me.”

She whistled three times. Little household spirits came running from every direction. Brooms rustled, buckets clattered, and by evening the floor was so clean that a golden apple could roll from one door to the other without picking up a speck of dirt.

The giant came, looked around, and muttered:

“Someone helped you.”

“Real strength often comes with friends,” replied the young man.

The next day, the giant ordered him to cover the roof with bird feathers so that no two neighboring feathers were alike.

The young man was already preparing to chase birds through the forest when Mary stopped him.

“There is no need to chase them. We will ask.”

She carried a bowl of grain into the yard and sang a quiet song.

Thrushes, tits, jays, doves, larks, ducks, and even a tiny wren flew down. Each bird left one naturally shed feather. By evening, the roof shimmered in dozens of shades.

The giant stroked his beard.

“Again, you did not do it alone.”

“And who said every great thing has to be done alone?” Mary asked.

The third task was the hardest.

Beside the lake grew an enormous fir tree with a trunk as smooth as glass. At the very top was a magpie’s nest holding five eggs.

“Bring them to me unbroken,” said the giant.

The young man tried to climb, but kept sliding down.

Mary brought him a long silvery ribbon.

“This is no ordinary ribbon. It remembers every knot tied in it. As you climb, make loops. They will become steps.”

The young man climbed higher and higher, carefully took the five eggs, and came down without cracking a single one.

As a memory of the third task, Mary tied a short green thread from the silver ribbon around his wrist.

The giant accepted the eggs and finally said:

“The three tasks are done. I gave my word, and I will not stand in your way.”

But when evening came, his heart grew stubborn again.

“Mary is my youngest daughter,” he muttered. “Why should she go so far away?”

Mary understood that her father might change his mind.

“We should leave now,” she told the young man. “When he has calmed down, he will understand that we cannot be kept here by command.”

They mounted a grey mare. Before leaving, Mary laid nine pieces of apple beside the door and whispered a spell over them.

During the night, the giant woke.

“Are you still there?” he called.

“Still here,” answered the first piece of apple.

Some time later, the giant called again.

“Still here,” answered the second.

And so it continued. When the last piece beside the gate answered him, the giant finally understood that he had been tricked.

He rushed after them.

Mary heard the thunder of his footsteps.

“Look in the bag beside the saddle.”

The young man found a small thorn branch and threw it behind them. At once, a broad hedge sprang up. The giant had to find a way around it.

The second time, the young man took out a grey stone. Behind them rose a ridge of rock.

The third time, he found a tiny vessel of water. The drops touched the ground, and a great clear lake spread between the travelers and the giant.

The giant stopped on the shore.

For a long time, he watched them disappear into the distance. Then he sat heavily on a stone.

“What a daughter,” he muttered. “Exactly as stubborn as I am.”

And then, for the first time that night, he smiled.

“Let them go. If they managed my three tasks together, they can manage the road as well.”

The next day, the young man and Mary saw his father’s castle in the distance.

“Go ahead of me,” said Mary. “Tell your family about me. But be careful. An old spell of forgetting lies on the road before you. If someone greets you too wildly and touches your face, the memories of our journey may fall asleep.”

The young man promised to be careful.

At the castle, everyone rejoiced at his return. He had almost reached his parents when an old hound, which remembered him from childhood, burst from a room and joyfully licked his cheek.

At once, every memory of Mary disappeared.

The young man knew he had returned from a distant journey, but he could no longer remember who had traveled beside him.

Mary waited near a well outside the town. One day passed, then another.

A shoemaker lived nearby. Seeing the lonely traveler, he invited her into his modest home.

“We do not have much room,” he said, “but there is enough bread for one more person.”

Mary thanked him and stayed.

Meanwhile, people at the palace decided that the prince should begin thinking about his future, and guests from neighboring lands were invited to a gathering where he might meet other young nobles.

The shoemaker was bringing a pair of new shoes to the palace and took Mary with him.

In the great hall, someone offered her a cup of water. The moment she touched it, a golden light flashed above the cup, and two magical doves flew into the air, one gold and one silver.

Three grains fell to the floor.

The silver dove immediately ate them.

The golden dove said:

“If you remembered who helped clean the great cowshed, you would have shared.”

Something stirred in the prince’s memory.

Three more grains fell.

Again, the silver dove rushed to them first.

“If you remembered the roof covered in many-colored feathers,” said the golden dove, “you would not have forgotten your friend.”

The prince pressed a hand to his forehead.

The grains fell a third time.

“And if you remembered the silver ribbon beside the glass-smooth fir tree,” said the golden dove, “you would recognize the green thread around your wrist.”

The prince looked at his hand.

Beneath his sleeve was the old green thread.

And all his memories returned at once: Mary, the three tasks, the grey mare, the thorn hedge, the ridge of stone, the lake, and his promise to come back for her.

“Mary!” he cried.

She smiled.

The gathering fell silent. The prince told everyone what had happened.

The people who had come to meet him were not offended. One young guest even laughed.

“It is a good thing you remembered today, rather than after we had arranged a wedding.”

Several days later, a wedding truly was held at the castle, for the prince and Mary.

Some time after that, the giant came to the gates.

Everyone grew wary, but he was carrying nothing more dangerous than an enormous basket of apples.

“I thought about it,” he told his daughter, “and nine pieces of one apple were far too small a supper for such a long journey.”

Mary embraced her father.

From then on, the giant often came to visit, and the prince never again opened a magical bundle before the proper time.

And whenever people in the kingdom began arguing about who was strongest, the prince remembered the tiny wren, the mouse, the raven, and the snake and said:

“The most interesting part does not begin when someone wins a battle. It begins when someone finds a way to stop one and help the person beside them.”

“The most interesting part does not begin when someone wins a battle. It begins when someone finds a way to stop one and help the person beside them.”