A King had three sons He wanted them to marry the Isle Princess So he send them on the quest To find her and marry her
So the three princes left together The path led them through a dark forest It was getting night They came to a little house, lights were on.
In the house lived an old man He gave them dinner and drinks And each a room with a bed Where they could sleep for the night
In the evening he woke up each Prince And talked to them individually He warned them of the Sea Serpent Who guards the Isle Princess
The only way to avoid death Is to paint their boats orange For the monster is blind to this color Only then would they reach the island safely
The next morning the old men directed them to the coast They decided the one to marry the Princess Would be the first to arrive at the island Each using their own boat
When they arrived in the harbour, each bought his ship The oldest two purchased the fastest ones in town They didn’t think much of the old man’s warning And thought it was best to cross the sea quickest
The youngest however had always been a good listener He instead purchased a bucket of orange paint And chose a mediocre boat and covered it in the color The remaining paint he showered on himself
His elder brothers laughed hard at him Not only would he be the slowest He would also arrive at the island Looking silly, stupid and orange
The next morning they raised their sails And the race was on The eldest brothers had such fast ships That it wasn’t even a match for the youngest
Neck and neck were the eldest They could see the Princess’ castle on the horizon Until they saw two big red glistening eyes from the deep And with one big splash, the two ships were never seen again
The youngest went slowly across the sea But was never bothered by the Serpent As it couldn’t see the color orange So the Prince arrived safely at the other side
There he kissed the Princess of the Isle and she said: ”210,000 times men have tried to marry me But they all died, as they couldn’t listen to simple advice from my father who lives in the woods.”
But not the youngest Prince, and he became the new King of the Island And the orange ship was put in a museum To teach the people to listen to good advice.
But they never went to the museum to learn the story, So they all died the same death as everybody before And this is how things have been going Since the beginning of time