The Witch’s Quandry

A cruel witch once kidnapped a little girl, a princess and, locked her within a tower and though the door of the tower was not locked, when she tried to leave her cell and climb down the spiral staircase to the bottom of the tower, the stairs seemed to go on for an eternity and she could never reach the bottom step no matter how long she walked for; furthermore, when she looked down from the window of her cell the ground appeared a million miles or more below even though the girl knew the tower to be only a few stories tall.

The witch explained to her that the tower was a magical tower, guarded by an evil dark magic that would never be lifted until the princess had solved a puzzle.

Then she gave the girl three baskets; a large blue one; a middle sized yellow one and a small pink one and she also gave the girl three jewels, a blue jewel; a yellow jewel and a pink jewel , then she said,

“Little girl. You may not put the pink jewel into the pink basket nor the yellow jewel into the yellow basket nor the blue jewel into the blue basket and yet you must put all three jewels into the same basket. If you can accomplish this then I will let you go”.

And so the girl tried but, to her dismay, she soon realised that what had at first seemed like an easy task was really an impossible one; for example, she tried at first swapping round all of the jewels; putting the pink jewel into the blue basket and the blue jewel into the yellow basket and the yellow jewel into the pink basket but they were not all in the same basket and the witch had said they must all be put into the same basket so she tried putting all three of the jewels into the pink basket but then she remembered that she was not allowed to put the pink jewel into the pink basket so she tried putting all three into the blue basket but then she remembered that she could not put the blue jewel into the blue basket either and when she tried putting them all into the yellow basket that was no good either because she could not put the yellow jewel into the yellow basket.

“It’s not possible”, she said to herself, finally, sobbing, “I’ll never do it. It’s some terrible kind of puzzle and it makes my brain hurt just thinking about it”.

And it was the same when she awoke the next day and the day after that and the day after that; every day and all day she struggled to solve the witch’s puzzle but she could not and at the end of every day, when the sun had set and the moon had risen, the witch, returning home would knock upon the door of her cell and ask, “Have you done it yet?”.

And the poor girl sobbing would have to admit, “No, I have not”.

“Then you must stay in my dungeon until you do”, the witch would then say.

In fact the girl spent years within the tower trying to solve the puzzle until eventually she decided that it was truly impossible and that she would never be free.

However, one day three brothers; one who was swift; one who was strong and one who was clever heard tell of the princess in the tower and made a bet as to who among them would be able to free her.

“I am the strongest”, said the strong brother, “When I get hold of the witch who is keeping that princess a Prisoner, why I’ll just use my strength to fight her”.

“But I am the swiftest”, said the swift brother, “And I will get there before all of you and if the witch chases me then I’ll simply outrun her”.

“Well”, said the clever brother, thoughtfully, “It’s not wise to speculate about what will happen but we shall see”.

Then all three brothers set out towards the tower where the princess was being kept prisoner.

And the first to reach the tower, because he could run the fastest, was the brother who was swift; in fact he reached the tower in only an hour in spite of the fact that it was many days walk from where the brothers lived.

But when he arrived at the tower and nimbly scaled its walls leaping in through the window, he was perplexed to see the princess kneeling in front of the three baskets and weeping.

“Can you help me to solve this puzzle?”, she asked.

“Puzzle?”, said the brother who is swift, “I don’t need to solve a puzzle. I am the swiftest man alive. I will just carry you out of here and in an hour I’ll have you back home in your kingdom”.

But when the swift brother picked up the princess in his arms and ran with her down the spiral staircase, no matter how fast or how far he ran, he could never seem to reach the bottom step and so he was forced to run back up again to her cell.

“It’s no good”, said the Princess, despairingly, “We’re both trapped because of the witch’s magic and the only way to break the spell is to solve the puzzle”.

And so the brother who was swift tried his best to solve the witch’s puzzle but, though he was swift of body, he was slow in intellect and he spent so long trying to solve the puzzle that he was still trying to solve it when the sun set and the moon rose and witch came home and when she saw the brother who was swift, though he was truly as swift as the wind, there was nowhere for him to run and with just an evil glare the witch turned him to quicksilver and he ran in a silver stream out of the door and down the spiral staircase.

But then, a day later, the brother who was strong arrived at the tower and with just a single leap, he leapt from the ground up into the air and in through the princess’s window and, picking her up and hoisting her upon his shoulder, he decided that he would leap back out of the window with her.

“Don’t worry, Princess”, he said, “You won’t get hurt because I’ll be carrying you”.

But then, looking out of the window, the brother who was strong saw that the ground looked a million miles or more below and started to feel afraid.

“Strong as I am”, he said, “I can’t jump that far. It would be like leaping off a mountain”.

Then the Princess explained to him about the magic spell that had been cast over the tower and how it could only be broken by solving the puzzle.

Unfortunately, the brother who was strong, though he was as strong as a giant was very weak in intellect and just looking at the puzzle made him feel dizzy.

In fact, he passed out from exhaustion of the brain while the Princess was trying to explain the puzzle to him and didn’t wake up till the sun had set and the witch had come home and, when she saw him; though he was as strong as a giant he wasn’t any match for her magic and with only a wicked smile she turned the brother who was strong into an ox that, when she beat it with her broom stick, went running down the spiral staircase and out of the tower.

But then, a day later, the clever brother arrived and instead of climbing up the tower or leaping in through the window, he called up to the princess in the tower, asking,

“Is this the tower where a young princess is being held a prisoner by an evil witch?”.

“It is”, replied the princess calling down from the tower.

“Then tell me all about your predicament and I shall think about it and try to find a solution using my mind”, he said.

So the Princess told him about the witch and the staircase without end and how, looking out of the window, the tower seemed a million miles high because of the witch’s spell and about the puzzle that was the only way to break the spell.

And when he heard the Princess describe the puzzle, all at once, because he was swift and strong in intellect its solution was clear to him.

“Do as I tell you”, he said to the Princess, “Place the pink jewel within the yellow basket; the blue jewel within the pink basket and the yellow jewel within the blue basket; then place the smallest basket within the middle sized basket and both baskets within the largest of the three. When you’ve done this, all the jewels shall be in different coloured baskets but all within one basket then you will have solved the puzzle”.

Hearing this, the princess was astonished but even more astonishing, when she did as the clever brother had said, suddenly, the tower began to grow shorter and it grew so short that the window of her cell eventually touched the ground becoming the door of the tower.

Then, whooping and whirling and dancing with joy, the princess ran out through the door and into the arms of the clever brother, embracing him tightly.

And, only a week afterwards the clever brother and the princess were married.

But the witch was angry when she discovered that the princess was gone and flying to the palace of the princess she threatened to turn both she and her new prince into rabbits, eat both of them in a stew and make what was left of them into a fur coat.

But the prince, who had anticipated her coming, set her a challenge.

The Prince put a row of four stepping stones upon the ground.

“I challenge you, while standing upon a stepping stone, to pick up all four and, if you cannot, to leave and never come back”.

Hearing this, the witch thought that it sounded like an easy task and so, laughing and thinking the Prince a fool, she accepted it without even a seconds thought.

But when she tried she realised that she just couldn’t do it for each time she stood upon one of the four stepping stones, because she was standing upon it, she couldn’t pick it up and so she could only pick up three of them.

“Bah!”, she said, eventually, "It’s impossible. No one could do it. It’s a trick"

And when the witch saw that she had been out smarted by the Prince, she just got angry and, raising up her wand, said that she would turn him and everyone in his palace into toadstools.

But then, before she could do this, the prince picked up one of the stepping stones and hurled it towards her and when the stone struck her head, as well as knocking her pointy hat off, it struck her dead.

Then, seeing that the witch was dead, the prince ordered that she be buried beneath the four stones and the Prince and Princess lived happily ever after.