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Once upon a time there lived a king and a queen who had one son.
The king loved the boy very much, but the queen, who was a
wicked woman, hated the sight of him; and this was the more
unlucky for, when he was twelve years old, his father died, and he
was left alone in the world.
Now the queen was very angry because the people, who knew how
bad she was, seated her son on the throne instead of herself, and
she never rested till she had formed a plan to get him out of the
way. Fortunately, however, the young king was wise and prudent,
and knew her too well to trust her.
One day, when his mourning was over, he gave orders that
everything should be made ready for a grand hunt. The queen
pretended to be greatly delighted that he was going to amuse
himself once more, and declared that she would accompany him.
'No, mother, I cannot let you come,' he answered; 'the ground is
rough, and you are not strong.' But he might as well have spoken
to the winds: when the horn was sounded at daybreak the queen
was there with the rest.
All that day they rode, for game was plentiful, but towards evening
the mother and son found themselves alone in a part of the country
that was strange to them. They wandered on for some time,
without knowing where they were going, till they met with a man
whom they begged to give them shelter. 'Come with me,' said the
man gladly, for he was an ogre, and fed on human flesh; and the
king and his mother went with him, and he led them to his house.
When they got there they found to what a dreadful place they had
come, and, falling on their knees, they offered him great sums of
money, if he would only spare their lives. The ogre's heart was
moved at the sight of the queen's beauty, and he promised that he
would do her no harm; but he stabbed the boy at once, and binding
his body on a horse, turned him loose in the forest.
The ogre had happened to choose a horse which he had bought
only the day before, and he did not know it was a magician, or he
would not have been so foolish as to fix upon it on this occasion.
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Fairytales 
