Once upon a time there lived a fisherman, Hakan, and his wife, Greta. Here is Greta’s story.
Hello! Greta here. The narrator has asked me to tell you the story of how my husband’s
and I’s story was told. Now, we were very, very poor and we lived in a dirty, disgusting ditch and I hated it. It was awful, smelly and messy. I tried to keep it clean, as best as I could but it was very hard, since there was dirt everywhere. One day when Hakan came home I asked him “What did you catch today?” And he answered “Nothing much, besides a flounder, who could strangely talk.” I replied “Well, what did the fish say?” “ He said ‘I am a prince turned fish, I do not taste very good. Let me go, it will do you no good to kill me.’ and so i let him go.” I said, “And you did not think to ask for something?” “What would I wish for?” he replied. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe a nice cottage, so we don’t have to live in this ditch?” I replied sarcastically. So Hakan went back the next day, and while he was out the ditch magically transformed into a nice clean, but small, cottage. I was very happy when Hakan came in and greeted me. He said, “Greta, isn’t this a nice cottage? Aren’t you glad we don’t live in a ditch anymore?”And I replied, “Yes, Hakan it is truly wonderful!” We lived in that cottage for a week, before I started to want more, I guess I got greedy, and I told Hakan “Go and tell the fish that you want to be king.” “But I do not want to be king.” “Then tell him I want to be king!” And Hakan left to ask the fish. Soon, once again the little cottage changed and then there I was, King, over all the land. I had guards, handmaidens and I was much more rich. Hakan soon came home. Apparently, when he got to the door The guards would not let him in and so I had to send a handmaiden to tell the guards to let him in. Soon, after I had been King for a week, I started wanting to be Emperor, I told Hakan “Go to the fish and tell him to make me emperor.” And Hakan replied, “Greta, are you not happy as King?” “No. I want to be Emperor.” I said scowling. “Fine.” Hakan said. He left to go tell the fish. Soon, after hakan had been gone for a while, I felt the change and then, all of a sudden, I was Emperor. I had more handmaidens than last time, and I had more guards, more clothes, and much, much more money. I even lived in a huge, beautiful castle. Hakan soon arrived. Once again I had to send a handmaiden to tell the guards to let him in. This was kind of getting annoying. Once more after a week had passed I was needing more things. I wanted to be Lord of the Sun and Moon. So I told Hakan to go tell the fish I wanted to be Lord of the Sun and Moon. Hakan just left without arguing, and went to tell the fish. Soon i felt the by now familiar change but instead of being lord of the sun and moon i was back in my ditch! Hakan came home and said, “Greta, you might as well be satisfied we’re not going to be rich anytime soon.” So I decided that being in a ditch was better than nothing at all. And we have lived in that ditch till this very day. So thank you for listening! Good Bye!