Once upon a time, there was a king whose wife was the most beautiful queen in all the world. They had a daughter who was just as lovely, with golden hair that shone like sunlight and eyes as blue as a summer sky. The king also possessed a most wonderful donkey. This was no ordinary animal — every morning, instead of straw, the stable boys would find gold coins scattered beneath the donkey's blanket. This magical creature made the kingdom the richest in all the land. But a great sadness fell upon the palace, for the queen became terribly ill. Before she died, she made the king promise something strange: he must only marry again if he found a princess more beautiful than she. The king was heartbroken. He searched every kingdom far and wide, but no princess could match the queen's beauty — until one day, he looked upon his own daughter and saw that she had grown more beautiful than her mother had ever been. And then the king had a terrible, foolish idea.
The princess was frightened and confused. She ran to her fairy godmother, a wise old fairy called the Lilac Fairy, who lived in a hidden grotto beyond the palace gardens. "Dear godmother, my father has lost his senses!" cried the princess. "He wishes me to do something I cannot bear. Please, tell me what to do!" The Lilac Fairy thought for a moment, then smiled. "Tell your father you will only agree if he first gives you a dress the color of the sky. No tailor in the world can make such a thing." The princess dried her tears and made the demand. But to her dismay, the very next day the king's finest tailors presented a gown as blue and luminous as a perfect summer sky, with clouds of white silk drifting across the fabric. The princess ran back to her godmother in a panic. "He has done it! The dress is more beautiful than the sky itself!" "Then ask for a dress the color of the moon," said the Lilac Fairy calmly. "Surely that is impossible."
But the king was determined. Within two days, his tailors delivered a dress that glowed like moonlight — silvery white with threads of pearl that shimmered as though lit from within. Once more the princess begged her godmother for help. The Lilac Fairy said, "Ask for a dress the color of the sun. No mortal hand can capture sunlight in cloth." Yet even this the king's tailors achieved. They wove a gown of pure gold thread, set with rubies and topazes, so dazzling that no one could look upon it without squinting. The princess wept. "Nothing is impossible for him! I am lost!" "There is one last thing," said the Lilac Fairy gravely. "Ask for the skin of his magical donkey — the very creature that fills his treasury with gold each morning. Surely he will never sacrifice his greatest treasure." The princess made her final demand, certain that this time her father would refuse.
But the king, mad with his foolish desire, ordered the donkey to be sacrificed, and the skin was brought to the princess on a golden tray. The princess stared at it in horror. "Now I truly have no choice," she whispered. The Lilac Fairy appeared beside her. "Listen carefully, child. You must wrap yourself in this donkey skin and flee the palace tonight. Take your three dresses — sky, moon, and sun — and hide them inside a chest small enough to carry. I will enchant it so that it follows you wherever you go, invisible to all but you. Tap the ground three times with this wand, and the chest will appear." That very night, with her face smeared in soot and the rough donkey skin pulled over her head, the princess slipped through the palace gates while the guards slept. She walked through the dark forest, leaving behind everything she had ever known. No one who saw her would have guessed she was a princess. She looked like nothing more than a poor, dirty peasant girl wearing a hideous animal skin.
The princess wandered far until she came to a great farmhouse in a neighboring kingdom. She begged for work, and the farmer's wife, taking pity on the wretched creature, set her to work in the kitchen washing dishes and scrubbing floors. Everyone called her "Donkeyskin" and laughed at her strange appearance. But every Sunday, when she was alone, the princess would lock herself in her tiny room, wash the soot from her face, and put on one of her magical dresses. She would stand before a small cracked mirror — dressed in sky, or moonlight, or sunlight — and remember who she truly was. One Sunday, while she wore the dress of the sun, the young prince of that kingdom happened to pass by her door. Through the keyhole, he caught a glimpse of the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, glowing in a gown of gold. "Who lives in this room?" he asked a servant. "Only Donkeyskin, Your Highness — the dirty kitchen girl. She is the ugliest creature on the farm." The prince could not believe it. He went away troubled, for he could not forget the radiant face he had seen.
The prince fell ill with longing. He would eat nothing and lay pale in his bed. "I will only eat a cake," he declared at last, "if it is baked by the kitchen girl they call Donkeyskin." The princess baked the cake with her own hands, and as she mixed the batter, her golden ring slipped from her finger and fell into the dough. When the prince bit into the cake, he found the tiny ring — so delicate and fine that it could only fit the most slender finger in the world. He declared that he would marry whoever could wear the ring. Every lady in the kingdom tried, from duchesses to dairy maids, but the ring fit no one. At last, Donkeyskin was brought forward. The court gasped as the dirty creature in the animal skin held out her hand — and the ring slid perfectly onto her finger. She let the donkey skin fall to the floor, and there stood the princess in her dress of sunlight, more beautiful than dawn itself. The prince took her hand, and they were married in the grandest celebration the kingdom had ever known. Even the princess's father came to the wedding, cured at last of his madness, and he wept with joy to see his daughter so happy. And they all lived happily ever after.
