# The Golden Bird _Brothers Grimm_ · 10 min read · ages 6-10 A king’s youngest son sets out after a golden bird and, with the help of a fox whose advice he keeps ignoring, wins the bird, a golden horse, and a princess. His brothers leave him in a dry well, but he reaches his father’s palace in rags, marries the princess, and at last frees the fox from a spell. --- Once upon a time a king had a tree behind his palace that bore golden apples. When the apples were nearly ripe, one went missing every night, so the king ordered a watch to be kept under the tree. He had three sons. The eldest kept watch first and fell asleep at midnight, and the second did no better. The king trusted the youngest least of all, but at last he let him try. The youngest stayed wide awake, and when the clock struck twelve, a bird came flying through the moonlight, its feathers shining all over with gold. Just as it pecked off an apple, he shot an arrow at it. The bird escaped, but one golden feather drifted down. The king’s council declared that such a feather was worth more than the whole kingdom. “Then one feather is not enough for me,” said the king. “I must have the whole bird!” The eldest son set out first. At the edge of a forest he saw a fox and raised his gun. “Don’t shoot me!” cried the fox. “I’ll give you good advice instead. Tonight you will reach a village with two inns. Don’t go into the bright, merry one. Go into the other, even if it looks poor.” “What does a silly animal know?” thought the young man, and he fired. He missed, and the fox ran into the woods. That evening the eldest son chose the merry inn and forgot the bird, his father, and all good advice. Months later the second son set out and ignored the fox just the same. The eldest called to him from the window of the noisy inn, and in he went. Then the youngest son wanted to try his luck. “He’ll do even worse than his brothers,” said the king, but the youngest gave him no peace, and at last the king let him go. Once again the fox sat at the edge of the forest, begging for his life. “Don’t be afraid, little fox,” said the king’s son. “I won’t hurt you.” “You won’t be sorry,” said the fox. “Sit on my tail, and you’ll travel faster.” The fox stretched out his tail, the king’s son sat down on it, and away they went over hill and dale, so fast that the wind whistled through his hair. At the village he went into the little inn and spent a quiet night there. In the morning the fox was waiting. “Keep going straight ahead and you’ll come to a castle,” he said. “The soldiers there will be asleep and snoring. Walk past them to the room where the golden bird hangs in a wooden cage, beside an empty golden one. Don’t move the bird into the fine cage, or things will go badly for you.” The fox stretched out his tail, the king’s son sat down on it, and away they went over hill and dale, so fast that the wind whistled through his hair. Everything was just as the fox had said, but the king’s son thought, “It would be silly to leave such a beautiful bird in that ugly old cage.” He put it into the golden one, and at once the bird let out a piercing shriek. The soldiers woke and dragged him off, and he was sentenced to death. The king of the castle would spare him on one condition: he must bring back the golden horse that ran faster than the wind, and then he could keep the bird as well. The king’s son set off sighing, and soon found the fox sitting by the road. “You see what comes of not listening to me?” said the fox. “But cheer up. The golden horse stands in a stable straight ahead, and the grooms will be asleep. Put the plain saddle of wood and leather on the horse, not the golden one beside it, or things will go badly for you.” The fox stretched out his tail, the king’s son sat down on it, and away they went over hill and dale, so fast that the wind whistled through his hair. In the stable the king’s son thought, “Such a beautiful animal deserves a better saddle.” The golden saddle had barely touched its back when the horse began to neigh. The grooms woke, and again he was sentenced to death. This time the king promised him his life, and the horse too, if he brought back the beautiful princess from the golden castle. With a heavy heart he set out, and soon the fox was there again. “I ought to leave you to your bad luck,” said the fox, “but I feel sorry for you. Tonight the princess walks to the bathhouse. Run up and kiss her, and she will follow you. Only don’t let her say goodbye to her parents first, or things will go badly for you.” The fox stretched out his tail, the king’s son sat down on it, and away they went over hill and dale, so fast that the wind whistled through his hair. At midnight he kissed the princess on her way to the bathhouse, and she said she would gladly go with him. But she begged him, in tears, to let her say goodbye to her parents first. He refused, but when she fell weeping at his feet, he gave in. The moment she reached her father’s bed, the whole castle woke, and the king’s son was thrown into prison. “Your life is forfeit,” said the king of the golden castle the next morning. “But there is a mountain outside my windows that blocks my view. Take it away within eight days, and you shall have my daughter.” The king’s son dug and shoveled for seven days, barely made a dent, and lost all hope. That evening the fox appeared. “You don’t deserve my help,” he said, “but lie down and sleep. I’ll do the work.” In the morning the mountain was gone. Like it or not, the king had to keep his word and give the king’s son his daughter. As the two of them set off together, the fox joined them. “The golden horse belongs with the princess,” he said. “Take her to the king who sent you, and they will gladly bring out the horse. Mount it and shake hands with everyone, hers last. Then swing her up beside you and gallop off. No one can catch a horse that runs faster than the wind.” It all went as planned. Then, near the castle of the golden bird, the princess waited with the fox while the king’s son rode the golden horse into the yard. The people were so glad to see it that they brought out the bird, and with the cage in his hand he galloped back for her. Now he had all three treasures. “Reward me for my help,” said the fox. “When we reach those woods, shoot me dead and cut off my head and paws.” “That would be a fine way to thank you,” said the king’s son. “I could never do it.” “Then I must leave you,” said the fox. “But watch out for two things: buy no one off the gallows, and never sit on the edge of a well.” And he ran into the woods. “What a strange animal,” thought the king’s son. “Who would buy anyone off the gallows?” His road led back through the village where his brothers had stayed. Two men were about to be hanged there for their wicked tricks and for squandering everything they had, and they were his own brothers. “Why throw your money away on such wicked men?” said the people. But he paid to set them free, and they all traveled on together. In the cool forest where they had first met the fox, the brothers said, “Let’s rest by the well.” As they talked, the king’s son forgot the fox’s warning and sat on its edge. His brothers pushed him in backward, took the princess, the horse, and the bird, and went home to their father, claiming they had won everything themselves. They warned the princess that they would kill her if she told. There was great joy at court. But the horse would not eat, the bird would not sing, and the princess sat and wept. The well was dry, though, and the king’s son had landed on soft moss without a scratch. Even now the fox did not abandon him. He leaped down into the well and scolded the king’s son for not listening. Then he held out his tail, and the king’s son gripped it tight and was pulled out. “You aren’t safe yet,” said the fox. “Your brothers have posted guards in the forest to kill you if you show your face.” So the king’s son traded clothes with a poor man by the road and reached his father’s palace in rags. No one recognized him. But the bird began to sing, the horse began to eat, and the princess stopped weeping. “What does this mean?” asked the king. “I don’t know,” said the princess, “but I was so sad, and now I’m so happy. I feel as if my true bridegroom has come.” And in spite of the brothers’ threat, she told the king everything. The king had everyone in the palace brought before him. Among them stood the king’s son in his rags, and the princess knew him at once and threw her arms around his neck. The wicked brothers were put to death, and the king’s son married the princess and was named heir to the throne. But what became of the fox? Long afterward, he met the king’s son in the forest. “You have everything you could wish for,” said the fox, “but my misery never ends, and only you can set me free.” In tears, the fox begged the king’s son once more to shoot him and cut off his head and paws. This time the king’s son did it. No sooner was it done than the fox became a man: the princess’s own brother, freed at last from a spell. And from then on their happiness was complete for as long as they lived. --- - Read online: https://talerie.com/en/tales/the-golden-bird - Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q470012 - Tale type: ATU 550 (per Wikidata) - Source: Household Tales by Brothers Grimm, trans. Margaret Hunt (Project Gutenberg #5314) (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5314) - Public-domain basis: Talerie contemporary retelling (CC0 2026), based on: Household Tales by Brothers Grimm, trans. Margaret Hunt (Project Gutenberg #5314) — translation: author died 1859/1863 (+70 passed); translator Margaret Hunt died 1912 (+70 passed) - License: CC0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)