Allerleirauh (2012)

The widowed King Tobald is urged by his adviser to marry again so that the realm may have a queen. The adviser shows him pictures of three beautiful, eligible women. The king categorically refuses, explaining that he had firmly promised his late wife he would marry only someone who resembled her—and there simply was no one like her in the whole world. As he says this, his gaze falls through the window on his daughter Lotte, who is working in the courtyard, and from one moment to the next he is consumed by desire for her. He has it announced to his daughter and his court that he will marry her, his own daughter, because she is the only one who resembles his late wife in grace and beauty. His daughter rejects the proposal as contrary to God’s law. His adviser and the cook object as well. But the king invokes his authority. So the daughter agrees, provided her father fulfills her apparently impossible demands: she wants three dresses—one as golden as the sun, another as silver as the moon, and the third as radiant as the stars. She also demands a cloak made from a thousand kinds of fur and coarse animal pelts, with every animal in the kingdom contributing a piece of its hide. The king promises to grant all her wishes. The kingdom’s maidens weave sunlight and moonlight into the fabrics, while servants catch shooting stars to be woven into the third dress. All the kingdom’s hunters set out to kill one animal of every kind. The cloak is made as well. The king’s daughter thus has no grounds left to refuse her father. So, on the night before the planned wedding, she puts on a maid’s clothes, smears soot on her face and hands, throws the fur cloak over herself, and prepares to flee. By magic, the three marvelous dresses are hidden inside a walnut, which the girl takes with her. On her way out, she meets the cook, who wishes her luck and lets her go. The king’s daughter asks the cook whether her mother had really wanted her father to marry her. The cook says she had not: the queen had wished that her husband would find another woman with a heart of gold. So, in his grief, the king had mistaken outward appearance for inner beauty. At the queen’s behest, the cook gives the girl a ring, a small spinning wheel, and a little gold reel. These things are meant to help her find the man she loves. She flees the castle and her father’s realm. When she has reached the depths of the forest, she lies down to sleep. The next day, the young King Jakob holds a hunt there. The hunters find a strange “fur creature” and report it to the king. He orders them to bring it to the castle alive. When the hunters discover that it is a girl, the king decides she should help in the kitchen. The cook, Mathis, names the girl Allerleirauh and takes her on as a kitchen maid. All the while, the girl hides beneath her fur cloak. As a result, the king’s attendants—and the king himself—laugh at and humiliate her, but she bears it with pride. The cook asks her why she does not show herself to anyone. Hesitantly, she replies that once someone looked at her. The cook understands and asks her forgiveness. Rasmus, the king’s friend, urges him to marry soon and suggests holding a feast and inviting a wealthy princess. The young king thinks little of a marriage of convenience; he wants to marry for love or not at all. Nevertheless, he agrees to the feast. Allerleirauh asks the cook if she may watch the festivities. He allows her to do so for half an hour. Allerleirauh puts on the golden dress woven from sunlight and goes to the feast. The king is enchanted by her beauty, dances with her, and leaves the princess who was invited for him waiting. When the king asks who she is, she runs away. In her little room, she takes off the golden dress, puts her fur cloak back on, and returns to the kitchen. Because the cook also wants to watch some of the festivities, he tells Allerleirauh to make the king’s soup. As she prepares it, she throws her mother’s golden ring into the pot. When the king finds the ring in his soup, he summons the cook, who has to admit that the “little furry creature” made it. The king has the girl brought to him. When she pretends not to know anything, he sends her back. The king holds another feast, and Allerleirauh is again allowed to watch for half an hour. She puts on the silver dress woven from moonlight and dances with the king. He asks once more who she is. She gives her real name, Lotte, and flees after a kiss. Once again, she makes the king’s soup as the little furry creature, and this time throws in the little golden spinning wheel. The king finds it while eating and has Allerleirauh summoned. When she again reveals nothing, the king grows angry and throws her to the floor. Allerleirauh then wants to leave the court, but Mathis talks her out of it. Because she has come to love Mathis like a father, she stays. The next day, when the king encounters Allerleirauh in the courtyard, he asks her what a spinning wheel is for. She answers that it is used to spin the threads of love. When she runs off, the king—who has long felt inexplicably drawn to the girl—recognizes in her movements the beautiful stranger he has met. He then plans a third feast. Worried about Allerleirauh’s well-being, Mathis forbids her to go and locks her in the kitchen. But when she begs him earnestly and promises to take off the fur cloak for good after that evening, he lets her go. She puts on the star dress and appears at the feast. Before she can flee again after dancing with the king, he secretly slips a ring onto her finger. Once again, the soup served to the king after the feast contains a small golden object: a reel for winding up spun threads. The king has Allerleirauh brought to him and asks who she is. When she gives an evasive answer, he takes her hand, on which his ring is now sitting. Then he removes her fur cloak, beneath which she is still wearing the star dress. The two are united, and the king asks Lotte to tell him her whole story.