Once upon a time there was a princess who only ever wanted to sit in her room. She didn't have a friend, didn't want to go into the garden, but always just sat there and looked out of the window at the doves flying past. The king and queen tried to persuade the princess to go on a trip, but she said: "No, I don't feel like it." They wanted to invite young girls and throw a party, but again the princess said, "No, I don't want to."

So the years passed and the princess became a beautiful young woman. Once the queen went into her room and said: "Dear daughter, as you don't seem to like it so much with us, we have chosen a handsome prince for you. You can marry him and then go to his castle. Maybe you'll like it better there."

But the princess shouted: "I'm not getting married!". She closed the door to her room, sat down on the chair and looked out of the window. A dove flew onto the windowsill. The princess stroked soft feathers and the dove spoke: "Dear princess, if you love me, put a bowl of milk on the windowsill tomorrow."

The princess promised and the dove flew away. The next day, she put the bowl of milk out and waited. Soon twelve doves flew by. The twelfth bathed its feathers in the milk and grew into a handsome young man. The princess liked him so much that she immediately embraced and kissed him.

He said: "I am an enchanted prince and if you really love me and want to redeem me, you must not tell anyone who I am for three years."

The man took out two rings, both of which were exactly the same. He gave one to the princess and put the other on his finger. Then he dipped his hands in the milk, turned back into a dove and flew away. From that day on, the dove came to her every day, bathed in the milk and turned into a young man. The princess kept her promise and told no one.  But once the queen said: "But now you have to get married! You can't always sit in your room!"

The girl replied: "Oh mother, I already have a sweetheart, he's turned into a dove."

From that day on, the dove stopped coming and Princess cried from morning till night. Finally she said: "Let me make three pairs of shoes and a walking stick out of iron. I will go out into the world and look for my beloved."

She wandered around the world for three years and asked everywhere: "Have you seen twelve doves?", but no one could help her. So she returned even sadder and said: "Father, have a big bathhouse built. All people can take a bath there if they tell me a story first so that I forget my sorrow."

The king had the bathhouse built and soon people were coming from all over to tell the princess a story.

Not far from the palace lived a poor woman with her daughter. "Please mother," she said, "let me go to the bathhouse too."

"Very well, but first fetch me some water from the spring."

The daughter took a bucket and went to the spring. There she saw a rooster with slippers on his feet and carrying a basket. She saw him go to a house, fill a bowl with milk and then twelve doves flew in. They bathed in the milk and turned into young men, except for the twelfth.

"You see," said the men to the dove, "if the princess hadn't revealed the secret, you would have been saved."

The girl hurried away, forgetting to bring her mother the water, and went straight to the princess's castle, for she could hardly wait to tell her story. At last, it was her turn.

"I know a beautiful story," she said and told everything she had seen.

"Take me to this house," said the princess and the young woman led her there. The princess waited. Then she saw the twelve doves fly in. They bathed in the milk and eleven turned into young men. Only the twelfth dove sat apart. Then the princess jumped up, embraced the dove, it threw off its feathers, turned into the young prince and was finally redeemed. What a joy that was!

There was a great feast, the whole town joined in the celebrations and if the princess was once so sad and lonely, she now lives happily and contentedly to this day.

Version by Djamila Jaenike, based on:  J. G. von Hahn, Griechische und Albanesische Märchen 1-2. München/Berlin 1918. translated by Lysander Jaenike, © Mutabor Märchenstiftung