The price of beautiful apples

nce upon a time, there was a king of France who liked beautiful apples so much that he was called the apple king. He had only one daughter, a princess of remarkable beauty.
He made it known all over his kingdom, and even abroad, that he would give his daughter’s hand in marriage to the man, whether he was a prince or the son of a farmer, who would bring him a dozen apples of the most beautiful kind. And so, all the roads were crowded with all sort of people going to the court and carrying apples; kings, princes, dukes, counts, marquis and knights, but also mere farmers and gardeners. A good farmer, named Dagorn, who lived in the region of Tréguier, had superb apples in his orchards. No one in the country could compete with him when it came to apples.
He also had three sons, among which two healthy boys, good-looking and full of strength, and a third one, humbacked and sickly.
The eldest one, named Ervoan, asked his father to let him go to Paris too, with a dozen of his most beautiful apples. The old man didn’t care much for it, but Ervoan insisted so much that he finally said:
– Oh well! go ahead if you want it so much.

Extract from Tales from the folklore of lower Brittany vol. 1 by F.M. Luzel, 1887.