"King Goldenlocks"/"King Golden Hair" (German: König Goldhaar) is a German Fairy Tale collected by folklorist Franz Xaver von Schönwerth. It has been translated into English and published in The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales collection.
A king goes hunting and comes upon a giant wildman sleeping peacefully in the forest. The king has his men to capture and imprison the wildman, planning to show it off to his dinner guests. However, his good-natured, golden-haired son Goldenlocks sets the wildman free. When the king finds out, he orders several servants to take Goldenlocks to the woods, execute him, and bring back his little finger, eyes, and tongue as proof of his death. The king's servants do not want to kill their prince, but they reluctantly take him to the forest, where they run into a shepherd. Coming up with an idea to fake Goldenlocks' death, the servants ask the shepherd his little finger and his dog in exchange for the prince's expensive clothes. Then they let Goldenlocks go, and use the shepherd's finger and the dog's eyes and tongue to trick the king into believing that his son is dead.
Goldenlocks wraps a cloth around his head to hide his distinctive blonde hair and flees to another country, where he finds a job as a gardener's assistant. Every day Goldenlocks cuts flowers and makes bouquets for the king's three daughters, and since he ties the youngest princess' flowers with some strands of his golden hair, the king's daughter takes a liking to him. So, when the king sets out to marry their daughters off, their older children get married to princes, but his youngest daughter chooses to take the kind gardener as her husband and moves to his hut.
Not much later, the king contracts a severe disease, and it is told the only way to heal him is with golden apples of the Paradise. Goldenlocks finds the garden of Paradise and gathers several golden apples thanks to the wildman's help, but on his way back he runs into his brothers-in-law. Since the two princes want to have the apples, Goldenlocks agrees to hand them over if his brothers-in-law will get gallows tattooed on their backs.
Later, the king gets sick again, and this time it is told that some drops of snake's milk might be able to cure him. The wildman helps Goldenlocks get the cure, but Goldenlocks again runs into his brothers-in-law. Once again, he lets them have the drops in exchange for them getting racks tattooed on their backs.
The king makes a complete recovery, but a war breaks out. Goldenlocks' wife does not want him to join the army, but she will allow him to watch the battle from a distance. Goldenlocks takes advantage of it to meet up with the wildman. The wildman gives him an enchanted sword, a suit of armor and a horse, and Goldenlocks joins the battle as a masked, anonymous soldier. In the heat of battle, the king accidentally hurts Goldenlocks's foot. Once the battle is over, the king tears a strip of his own clothes and bandages Goldenlocks' wound. However, he does not recognize his son-in-law since his helmet covers his face fully.
Later, the king is going to host a banquet and wants to invite his three sons-in-law. When he goes over to Goldenlocks' hut, he accidentally sees the gardener bandaging his wounded foot with his torn strip of cloth. The king grows puzzled, but he invites Goldenlocks and his daughter without letting on that he saw his wound.
When the gardener arrives at the banquet hall, he is given a seat between his two brothers-in-law, but he declares he will not sit between two persons who have been branded with the rack and the gallows. Goldenlocks reveals everything, causing an uproar. It is decided both princes should be broken on the rack, but Goldenlocks pleads for mercy, and they are pardoned.
Nonetheless, the king wants to know why Goldenlocks is wounded, why he has bandanged his wound with his kerchief, and why he is always covering his head. Right then, foreign messengers arrive at the hall, and announce their king has died and they are looking for his son, Prince Goldenlocks, whose deeds have lifted the curse on the wild man. Goldenlocks blushes and takes off his do-rag, revealing his golden hair.
Whereupon, he and his wife are declared king and queen of both homelands.
"Prince Goldenlocks" has some points in common with The Brothers Grimm's "Iron Hans". In the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index, it is an ATU 314 "Goldener" and ATU 502 "The Wild Man".
Tropes:
- Agony of the Feet: Goldenlocks joins a battle as an anonymous soldier and gets wounded in the foot. Later, the king notices his injury and realizes that he is the nameless knight who saved his life.
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: Goldenlocks, a warrior prince, wears a white do-rag to hide his golden hair.
- Bringing Back Proof: The king's servants are commanded to bring Goldenlocks' little finger, eyes, and tongue as evidence of his death.
- Character Witness: The prince releases a peaceful giant who had been unjustly imprisoned. In return, the giant helps him find a cure for the king's sickness, and gives him a sword, an armour and a horse when the prince needs to fight a battle.
- Cool Gate: The giant tells Goldenlocks to strike a certain rock with a club and then walk into the crack to reach the garden of paradise. The giant also instructs him to go back quickly before the dimensional portal closes.
- Curse: The giant wildman is really a normal man transformed by a curse.
- Death Faked for You: The king's servants, who were supposed to execute Goldenlocks and bring back proof of his death, use a man's little finger and a dog's eyes and tongue to trick the king into believing they have followed his orders.
- Desecrating the Dead: Goldenlocks' father orders his servants to take his son to the woods, kill him and mutilate the body, expecting them to leave the corpse to rot on the spot.
- Dye or Die: The prince covers his head with a cloth to hide his distinctive golden locks.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Goldenlocks is condemned to death by his own father, flees his country after faking his demise, and becomes a gardener. By the end, his father is dead, his deeds have been acknowledged, and he rules over two countries.
- Faking the Dead: The king's servants take Goldenlocks to the woods as instructed, but then they set the prince free and use a shepherd's finger and a dog's eyes and tongue to make the king believe his son has been killed off.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Goldenlocks works as a gardener after fleeing his country.
- Fingore: The shepherd is offered expensive clothes in exchange for his little finger. He promptly bites his finger off.
- Forbidden Fruit: Goldenlocks releases a gentle giant, disobeying his father's orders, and must flee for his life.
- Forced Transformation: The wild man was an ordinary person turned into a giant by a curse.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Goldenlocks is given a magic sword, a suit of armor and a horse to fight a war.
- Merciful Minion: The king's servants take pity on Goldenlocks, so they let him run away and bring back a shepherd's little finger -traded willingly- and a dog's eyes and tongue.
- Nameless Narrative: Goldenlocks is the only named character, and often he is referred to as "the prince" or "the gardener".
- Noble Fugitive: The prince runs away from his kingdom when he is sentenced to death.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: The wild man who helps Goldenlocks is a peaceful, kind giant endowed with magical abilities. He was previously an ordinary man, transformed into a giant by a curse.
- Panacea: Golden apples of the Paradise and drops of snake's milk are the only known cures for the king's different illnesses.
- Punished for Sympathy: Goldenlocks sets an unjustly imprisoned wildman free, is sentenced to death for his "crime", and is forced to flee his country.
- Riches to Rags:
- The prince finds work as a gardener's assistant after fleeing his country.
- The youngest princess gets married to the gardener and moves to his hut.
- Rule of Three:
- The golden-haired prince flees to another country whose king has three daughters.
- The prince saves his father-in-law's life three times: he finds a cure for his illness twice, and he protects him during a battle.
- The giant gives the prince a magic sword, an armor and a war horse.
- Secret Identity: Goldenlocks appears as a Knight in Shining Armor during the war, while working in a menial position at the king's court.
- Shoot the Dog: Goldenlocks' servants cannot bring themselves to kill their innocent young prince, so they let Goldenlocks go, kill a dog and use its eyes and tongue to fake their prince's death.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The youngest princess turns down princess, nobles, merchants and artisans and gets married to the kingdom's nice gardener.
- Uptown Girl: Subverted. The princess chooses to get married to a gardener, unaware that he is a runaway prince.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The shepherd lets the king's soldiers kill and maim his dog in exchange for fancy clothes without a second thought.
- Youngest Child Wins: The youngest and most beautiful princess ends up married to King Goldenlocks.
