Die weiße Schlange (2015)

Endres, a poor farmer’s son, wants to make more of his life. His father thinks he is good for nothing, simply because he wants to learn to read and write and has little aptitude for a trade. Sent away from home, he comes to the king’s castle. The king soon recognizes Endres’s good nature and gives him the position of personal servant. His most important duty is to bring the king a golden bowl after every meal. In it is the flesh of a prepared white snake. Anyone who eats it can understand the language of animals. But only the king knows this, and no one else is allowed to see or know what is in the bowl. This secret enables the king to expose enemies and traitors among his subjects, and even to predict storms. It is the reason for his wisdom and foresight, known far and wide. Endres performs his new duties impeccably and feels at home at the king’s court. One day, after saving the king’s daughter’s favorite horse, he earns greater esteem at court and even catches Princess Leonora’s attention. She urges him to look inside the golden bowl, but Endres refuses because doing so is punishable by death. He also has a feeling that the king would know if he did anything wrong. So he is all the more surprised when the king accuses him of stealing the queen’s ring. Only through the princess’s intercession does he get the chance to prove his innocence; otherwise, he would be sent straight to the dungeon. In desperation, Endres looks inside the golden bowl, hoping to gain the king’s wisdom. When he sees the white snake flesh there, he eats some, and is now able to understand the animals. He listens in on the chickens, ducks, and pigeons in the castle courtyard and learns that a duck swallowed the ring. When the king hears about this, he suspects that Endres did not discover it by chance. Endres is now forced to leave the castle, and the princess gives him her horse. He flees into the forest, pursued by the king’s soldiers. With the horse’s help, he shakes off his pursuers and helps animals in distress. Grateful to him, they tell him that “all is not lost.” Meanwhile, thanks to a clue Endres had given her, Princess Leonora discovers a secret dungeon in the castle. Her father has kept her uncle Friedrich imprisoned there for years. He tells her that he was the one who discovered the magical white snake, and that his brother seized it because it understood every language. King Karl killed it to gain its abilities, despite having promised to protect it. Princess Leonora frees her uncle from his dungeon, and he urges her to search for and protect the second white snake before her father gets his hands on it, for he will not rest until it, too, is in his possession. The princess sets out to find the second snake and Endres, who is also searching for the white snake. Just as Leonora finds Endres, her father appears and demands that Endres bring him the snake. Endres joins forces with the clever animal, and together they defeat the king. From then on, Endres rules the kingdom kindly and justly as king, with Princess Leonora at his side. He reduces the farmers’ taxes and decrees that every child should have the opportunity to learn to read and write. He declares the forest where the white snake lives a protected forest, which may only be entered with its permission.