Reading Notes: "Gold Tree and Silver Tree"

The "Gold Tree and Silver Tree" is similar to the story of "Snow White." The king had a wife named Silver-tree and a daughter named Gold-tree. Silver-tree asks a trout if she is the most beautiful. The trout informs the queen that her daughter Gold-tree is the most beautiful. This enrages the queen and she wants to eat the heart and liver of Golden-tree in order to become the most beautiful. The king sent Gold-tree to marry his son and offered the queen the heart and liver of a goat. When the queen asked the trout again if she was most beautiful, the trout explained that Gold-tree was still the most beautiful. When the queen learned that her daughter was alive and married, she asked the king to go visit her. When Gold-tree saw her father's ship, she feared Silver-tree had come to kill her. As Gold-tree placed out her finger for her mother to kiss, the queen stabbed it with poison. Gold-tree fell to her death. The prince kept her body locked in a room and he kept the only key. The prince remarried and the new princess found Gold-tree. She removed the poisonous stab from her finger and she arose alive and well. The prince kept both wives, but the queen soon discovered Gold-tree was alive. She came for a second visit and offered her a poisonous drink. The prince's second wife told the queen it was custom to take the first drink when offering one to another person. The queen placed the cup to her mouth and the second wife tipped the cup, ensuring the queen got the poison in her mouth. Silver-tree died and was sent home to be buried. The prince and his two wives lived happily ever after...


Silver Tree
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Bibliography:
Celtic Farytales: "Gold Tree and Silver Tree" written by Joseph Jacobs

Gold Tree and Silver Tree