The Goose Girl

A princess, traveling to a distant kingdom to marry a prince she had never met, was accompanied only by her loyal maid and a magical talking horse named Falada, along with a handkerchief stained with three drops of her mother's blood, meant to protect her.

Along the journey, the maid, growing greedy and resentful of serving a princess, forced her mistress to switch clothes and roles entirely, threatening her into silence and taking her place as the bride-to-be, while the true princess was demoted to tending geese as a lowly servant girl.

The false bride, fearing Falada might reveal the truth, had the loyal horse killed — but the true princess arranged for its head to be nailed above a city gate she passed through daily, where it still spoke to her sorrowfully each morning. A young goose boy, overhearing these strange conversations and reporting them to the old king, grew suspicious and eventually uncovered the whole deception. The false bride, asked unknowingly to judge her own punishment for such a betrayal, condemned herself to a gruesome fate before the truth was revealed — and the real princess was restored to her rightful place and married the prince at last.