Classic story

The Golden Bird

A German tale
3 chapters
about 15 min

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Read an excerpt

A king’s golden apples keep disappearing, so his youngest son sets out to find the magical Golden Bird that stole them. He meets a clever fox who offers helpful advice, but the son ignores it and fails, just like his older brothers did before him. The youngest son eventually listens to the fox and travels swiftly to a castle where he finds the bird in a wooden cage. However, he disobeys the fox’s warning by putting the bird into a golden cage, which alerts guards and gets him captured. To save his life, he must retrieve a magical golden horse that runs as fast as the wind. Again, he ignores the fox’s specific instructions about the saddle and is caught once more. The king demands he bring back a princess to win his freedom, so the fox guides him to kiss her at midnight. The son lets the princess say goodbye to her parents, breaking another rule of the fox’s advice, and is imprisoned again. With the fox’s help, he digs away a massive hill in one night to prove his worth to the king. After securing the princess, the horse, and the bird, he follows the fox’s final warnings to avoid two specific dangers. He foolishly rescues his treacherous brothers from hanging and sits by a river, violating the last piece of advice. His brothers betray him, stealing all his prizes and leaving him for dead in a dry riverbed. The fox pulls him out and helps him return to the king to expose his brothers' crimes. He wins back his bride and inherits the kingdom, later discovering the fox was actually a lost prince.

How it begins

A certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a tree which bore golden apples. These apples were always counted, and about the time when they began to grow ripe it was found that every night one of them was gone. The king became very angry at this, and ordered the gardener to keep watch all night under the tree. The gardener set his eldest son to watch; but about twelve o'clock he fell asleep, and in the morning another of the apples was missing. Then the second son was ordered to watch; and at midnight he too fell asleep, and in the morning another apple was gone. Then the third son offered to keep watch; but…

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The Golden Bird

How it begins

Every story, fully told

A voice for every character

The mood of every line

Pictures of every place

Read along

Your AI voice, for any character

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