A king had a daughter named Anne, and his queen had a daughter named Kate, who was less beautiful. (Jacobs' notes reveal that in the original story both girls were called Kate and that he had changed one's name to Anne.) The
queen was jealous of Anne, but Kate loved her. The queen consulted with a
henwife to ruin Anne's beauty, and after
three tries, they
enchanted Anne's head into a sheep's head. Kate wrapped Anne's head in a cloth, and they went out to seek their fortunes. They found a castle of a king who had two sons, one of whom was sickening. Whoever watched him at night mysteriously vanished (the original never mentions anyone else watching over him), so the king offered silver to anyone who would watch him. Kate asked for shelter for herself and her "sick" sister, and offered to watch him. At midnight, the sick prince rose and rode off. Kate sneaked onto his horse and collected nuts as they rode through the woods. A green hill where the
fairies were dancing opened to receive the prince, and Kate rode in with him unnoticed. The prince danced with the fairies until the morning before rushing back. Kate offered to watch the prince a second night for gold. The second night passed as the first but Kate found a fairy baby in the hill. It played with a wand, and she heard fairies say that three strokes of the wand would cure Anne. So she rolled nuts to distract the baby and got the wand, then cured her sister. The
third night, Kate said she would stay only if she could marry the prince, and that night, the baby played with a bird, three bites of which would cure the sick prince. She distracted the baby with the nuts again to get it. As soon as they returned to the castle, she cooked it, and the prince was cured by eating it. Meanwhile, his brother had seen Anne and fell in love with her, so they all married — the sick brother to the well sister, and the well brother to the sick sister. ==Commentary==