Keloglan and the Dove Fairy

Once upon a time, Keloglan worked as a gardener in a rich agha's garden. In the middle of the garden was a clear pool. One morning the agha saw that the flowers by the pool had been trampled: "Keloglan, someone is coming into my garden at night. Keep watch tonight and find out who it is."

That night Keloglan hid among the reeds. At midnight three white doves glided down from the sky and landed by the pool. The doves shook themselves and took off their feather cloaks, and out stepped three fairy maidens shining like the moon. The maidens went into the pool and bathed, laughing. The youngest was so beautiful that Keloglan could not take his eyes off her.

Keloglan crept closer, took the youngest maiden's feather cloak and hid it inside his shirt. Just before dawn the maidens came out of the water. The two older ones put on their cloaks, became doves and flew away. The youngest could not find her cloak and began to cry. Keloglan came out from the reeds: "Don't cry. I have your cloak."

The fairy maiden begged: "Give me back my cloak. My father, the Fairy King, is waiting for me." "I like you very much," said Keloglan. "Stay with me, and one day I'll give you back your cloak." The maiden had no choice but to stay. Keloglan took her to his mother's house. His mother loved her like her own daughter and taught her to spin wool and bake bread. And the fairy maiden taught them the songs of the fairy land.

But Keloglan saw that every evening the fairy maiden looked out of the window at the sky, lost in longing for faraway places. One day his mother said to him: "Son, a bird held by force is never happy in a cage. Give her back her cloak. If she truly loves you, she will come back." Keloglan was very sad, but he knew his mother was right.

That night he took the cloak out of the chest and held it out to the fairy maiden: "Take it. You're free. I'm sorry I kept you by force." The fairy maiden's eyes filled with tears. She put on her cloak, became a dove and flew out of the window. Keloglan cried until morning.

Days went by. One morning a white dove landed on Keloglan's windowsill. In its beak was a feather. The dove spoke: "Keloglan, my father wants to see you. Burn this feather and it will show you the way." When Keloglan burned the feather, its smoke carried him to the fairy land beyond seven mountains.

The Fairy King wanted to test Keloglan. "If you want my daughter, you must do three things for me. You must travel a forty-day road in one day, count all the leaves on the trees in the forest, and pick out my daughter from among forty identical girls." Secretly the fairy maiden helped Keloglan. For the forty-day road she gave him the horse of the wind; to count the leaves, she called the birds. For the last test forty girls stood in a row, all in the same dress and with the same face. Keloglan looked at their hands. On one girl's finger was a small callus from the wool spinning his mother had taught her. "This is the one," he said.

The Fairy King smiled: "You didn't keep my daughter by force; you set her free. That is why I give her to you." The wedding lasted forty days and forty nights. Keloglan and the fairy maiden lived half the year in his mother's village and half the year in the fairy land. Every spring three white doves landed on the village pool, and when the children saw them they shouted, "Keloglan's relatives are here!"

This tale tells us: love cannot be held by force. A heart that is set free comes back of its own accord. Three apples fell from the sky: one for the one who told this tale, one for the one who listened, and one for the dove fairy.