The beautiful Princess Ilse, daughter of King Ilsing of Schloss
Ilsenburg, having ridden to the chase with her royal father, and her
lover the Ritter Ralf, lost her way on the wild mountains, and came
at nightfall to the gates of the fairy world, over which the Fairy
Queen of the mountains rules. The Queen met her with kindness, and
invited her to enter her gorgeous crystal palace.
Hesitating and with fear she followed the powerful sovereign; gnomes
and cobolds attended everywhere with homage.
Beautiful Ilse tarried a whole year in the richly adorned
subterranean world, witnessed the mysterious government, policy, and
life of the fairies, the creations and destructions by the king of
the giants, the hostile relations of the Fairy Queen to the Giant
King, the unhappy loves of her children Rumar and Romar, and what she
could not understand the amiable Queen explained to her, and
introduced her fully to the fairy world.
But all the splendour and glory of this fairy realm could not still
Ilse's longing for her beloved Ralf, and the light of the upper world.
She demanded her return, which her fairy Majesty granted, but
threatened her with destruction, should she ever reveal to mortal
what she had seen.
Princess Ilse returned to the friendly light of day and rejoiced in
the fidelity of her lover.
But he threatened her with the loss of his love if she did not tell
him where she had been so long a time, and what she had seen.
The two lovers seated themselves on the soft moss. Ilse laid her
lovely head upon Ralf's breast, and gazed up into his face with her
wonderful and faithful eyes; Ralf laid his hand upon her shoulder,
and beautiful Ilse began her tale.
With caresses she betrayed the secrets entrusted to her, and
described the magnificence of the Fairy Queen.
The new moon rose and the stars appeared one after another in the
dark-blue heavens; fair Ilse chatted on, related the legends of the
Harz--of the giants and dwarfs.
Ralf listened at first in silent astonishment, and hung enraptured on
the tales from her beautiful lips, then he began to dream and fancy,
and at last fell asleep.
In the grey of the morning, as he awoke, he heard still the murmuring
tones of the Princess, and as he turned to salute the princely
maiden, he saw, instead of Ilse, a crystal-clear bubbling spring
illuminated with the dawn.
The water sprang gaily out of the soft moss, and murmured ever in a
thousand leaps and tiny waterfalls over the moss-grown rocks adown
the vale.
Deepest despair seized Ralf's spirit; he knew now what he had done,
and what had become of Ilse through her betrayed secret, a clear pure
stream doomed for ever to ripple and murmur through the mountains.
Ralf built a cottage near the spring, and when the new moon rose Ilse
awaited him by the mossy bank, leaned her head caressingly on his
breast, and he heard her sweet prattle till the blushing dawn spread
her radiance over the silver ripplets, and then the fairy virgin
vanished in the blue air.