night, leaving a piece of wood in her place bound with a rope and which she begs to answer for her.
Helga first helps the cook of a king, then the tailor, where the king in spite of her hiding discovers her and then marries her. Her own father becomes here also, contrary to his promise, the winter guest of the king, kills her children and gets the king through cunning to order his wife to be killed. She is then saved in a wonderful way by magic, also the children, and later united with her husband while her persecuting father is annihilated.
In the "Vitæ Offæ" (Müllenhof, "Sagen, Märchen und Lieder der Herzogtümer Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg," Kiel, 1845, cited by Rittershaus) it is related according to an old Germanic saga, that the king Offa once while hunting came across a wonderfully beautiful maiden who was crying. She told him that her father wanted her to marry. Because she had not consented the servants have been commanded to kill her in the forest. The servants out of pity spared her life but left her there helpless.
King Offa took the young maiden home and married her. From the wars he sent a messenger to her who on the way accidentally happened on the bad father of the queen who exchanged the letter for another which he substituted for it according to which, on the command of her husband, the queen and her children were to be murdered. Through magic they were saved and later found their way back to the mourning king.
Straparola also deals with the same theme ("Les Facétieuses nuits," Paris, 1857, I Nacht, 4 Fabel, I. S., 58 ff., cited by Rittershaus). A prince wishes to marry his daughter. On the advice of a nurse she hides in a cupboard which is sold and is taken from the palace and finally comes into possession of the king of England who then marries her. There she is discovered by the father. He disguises himself as an astrologer and comes to the court. Here he kills his two grandchildren and trys by means of a bloody knife which he hides near the queen to attach suspicion to his daughter. For this she is to die a slow death. Her old nurse learns of her misfortune, arrives upon the scene and discloses the misdeeds of her father.
The "Peasant Daughter Helga" (Rittershaus, XL), a beautiful maiden, received an awl from her dying mother which could say "yes" when charged to. When one evening her father
