Long, long ago there lived an old queen who was a sorceress, and her daughter was the most beautiful maiden under the sun. The old woman, however, thought of nothing but how to lure people to their doom.
When everything was ready, she dipped herself into a barrel of honey, cut open a bed, and rolled around in the feathers so she looked like a strange bird, and it was impossible to recognise her.
At the sight of this the daughter, who was with child, became so upset that she gave birth that very night to two babies who were not shaped like human beings but like apes.
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Notes:
1. Written in March 2020
2. Part of The New Brothers Grimm project
3. Assembled from Tale 134: The Six Servants; Tale 47: The Juniper Tree; Tale 147: The Rejuvenated Little Old Man