“The White Wolf.” The Grey Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1905, pp. 168-177.

Tale Summary

Once upon a time there was a king who had three daughters, the youngest being the loveliest. One day, he set out for a tour elsewhere in his kingdom, and had promised the girl to bring her back a wreath of wildflowers, but could not find any. On his journey home, he saw a white wolf with a wreath of wildflowers on his head, and commanded his coachman to retrieve it. The wolf overheard this, and promised the king the wreath if only he would give, in return, the first being he met on the way to his castle. The king agreed, but when his youngest daughter ran out to greet him, she became what he must give to the wolf in three day’s time. The queen came up with a plan, and dressed a servant girl like the princess, but when the wolf came to retrieve her, realized he was being fooled and demanded the real princess. She grabbed her wreath and went with him, and rode on his back until they came to a beautiful castle, where he shed his wolf skin and became a beautiful young man. After half a year, she got ready to leave for her eldest sister’s wedding, and the wolf instructed her that when she heard him whistle outside the gate, she must run back to him to head home. This she did, and in another half-year, left again for her second eldest sister’s wedding, this time with her husband. When they were alone together he shed his wolf skin, but the queen had hidden herself in the room and had it burned. The prince disappeared, returning alone to his palace, and the heart-broken princess could not find her way back to him. She roamed the woods for fourteen days, until she met the wind in a little house, and asked if he had seen the wolf. He had not, but gave her a pair of shoes that could cover a hundred miles with each step. She put these on and walked to a star, who gave her a pair of shoes that could cover two hundred miles with each step. She walked to the moon, who gave her a pair of shoes that could cover four hundred miles with each stride, and she used them to reach the sun. The sun had seen the white wolf, and told her that he was preparing for his wedding with another maiden, as he thought that the young princess had abandoned him. To help her, the sun gave her a pair of shoes which could walk on glass and ice to the steepest places, and a spinning wheel which could spin moss into silk. She came to a glass mountain, and used the shoes to climb to the top, where she found the wolf’s palace, where no one recognized her because she was disguised as an old woman. She took out her spinning wheel and began to spin moss into silk, and the new bride was quite taken with it when she saw what it could do. She promised the true bride, at her request, that she could sleep for one night outside the prince’s door, and so that night she whispered the whole story under the door to her wolf prince. The next day, the prince assembled all who had come for his wedding and asked their advice. He said that he lost the key of my treasure casket and had ordered a new one to be made, but had since found the original, and asked which key was the better. All the royal guests answered that the old key was better, and so the wolf declared that his former bride was better than his new one. He gave away the new bride to one of the princes who was present, and the true bride was led to sit beside him on his throne.