Once there was a rich nobleman who lived in a castle with his kind wife and two lovely children, a son and a daughter. Unfortunately, his wife died and the nobleman married again.
His new wife was a wicked and cruel witch who hated the two children. One day, as they were playing in the garden, she watched them angrily and decided to get rid of them. She put a spell on the boy and turned him into a fish. She flung the fish into the moat around the castle. Then she turned the girl into a little lamb and drove her away into the meadow.
Happily returning to the castle, she put a spell on the noble man. So, he forgot all about his children!
One day, the witch invited her friends to a feast in the castle. She called the cook and told him to find the lamb in the meadow and roast it for dinner. The cook took his knife and set off to look for the lamb.
He found it crying near the moat and heard it speaking to a fish, saying, “O, my brother! How much I love you!”
And the fish called back, “O, my sister, I am so sad that I can’t help you at all!”
The cook recognized the voices of the two missing children and realised what must have happened. He quickly took the fish out and put him in a bucket. He crept to the stables at the back of the castle and hid the lamb and the bucket with the fish there.
Then he ran to the market and bought some meat at the butcher’s shop. That night, the wicked witch had a feast with her friends and thought her plan had succeeded.
But in the night, the cook crept out of the castle with the lamb and the bucket. He took them to a wise woman who lived in a cottage deep in the forest. He told her about the story of the children.
She broke the spell that held them and they were back to be their real selves. But it was too dangerous for them to go back to the castle. So, they stayed happily with the wise woman of the forest who taught them good magic.
