This is a composite tale, mostly of Type 468, with elements of types 554, 314, and 552A. The actions of this tale actually look very little like the Three Sisters as written by the Grimms, but it does contain a few of the same elements.
I.
-A king had a very large tree outside his castle and wanted to know what kind of tree it was.
-King offers daughter's hand in marraige as a reward.
-Many nobles try to climb the tree, but all fail.
-A poor swineherd offers to climb the tree if the king honors his requests.
-The king agrees, and gives the swineherd his climbing equipment and stool.
-The swineherd used the equipment to allow himself to sleep at night and climbs for nine days and seleeps for eight nights.
-He comes upon an old woman's cottage.
-She feeds him, tells him to work for another woman, and to pick a five-legged horse and filthy saddle as his payment, go to a castle and curry the horses.
-The Swineherd, Janos, obeys.
-Horses keep him awake while he is watching them.
-Janos takes the horse as a reward and goes to the castle.
-Janos curries the horses and has dinner with the princess.
-Janos misses the princess while at church. Each of three horses takes him there, each of three weeks. Princess wants to know who he is.
-Janos and the princess get married.
II.
-Princess leaves for church, leaving Janos with keys and orders to go in only 11 of 12 rooms.
-Janos goes into the twelfth room.
-A dragon asks Janos for wine, he gives him three glasses.
-Dragon carries off the Princess.
III. This section happens three times:
-Janos takes a horse and gets the princess.
-The dragon catches up to them and and takes her back.
IV. The rest happens once:
-Janos takes the five-legged horse and gets the princess.
-The dragon tries to catch up, and almost does, but the five legged horse convinces the dragon's horse to kill the dragon.
-Janos and his queen ride the two horses home.
-Janos and his queen use the two horses to steal the fruit of the tree from under the guard of fairies.
-They return to the ground and build a castle near that of the first king.
-The king comes and offers Janos his daughter.
-Janos refuses.
-The king eats the fruit and becomes 18 again.
Written by Beth Epstein and edited by Michele Nichols
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