A young farmgirl named Gänseliesel herded geese for a count. The count had a handsome son and an ugly daughter, but his wife wanted her daughter to inherit instead. She tricked a witch into transforming the count's son into a goose. On St. Martin's day, when the geese were to be slaughtered, Gänseliesel was told she could save the goose by kissing it. At dinner, she kissed the goose with the white ribbon and he transformed back into the count's son. The countess was punished and the son married Gänseliesel.

1. Once upon a time there was a young farmgirl
who was called by everyone Gänseliesel. She
herded a count’s geese.
The count and his wife had two children, a
handsome son and an ugly daughter.
The count was loved by his people because he
was just.
But the countess only pretended to be loving and
kind, but she was hard-hearted and cold.
In the region of Göttingen they used to eat
geese for St. Martin’s day.
As time went by the count was getting older and
older and thought about who could be his
successor.
He talked about this with his wife, which
already was trying for quite a long time to settle
her daughter in.
But the count held against it that there was only
one successor to be installed – his son. His wife
got that furious about this that she went at
night into a forest to ask an old woman to help
her with her plans.
This woman wasn’t really wicked but the local
people were taking her for a witch.
The countess told the witch that her husband
were mentally ill . He feared his son would kill
him the very next day and that’s why he wanted
to have him hung before.
The witch was asked to transform the young
count into a goose which could live on the
meadow in front of the castle until the father
would be sane again. The Gänseliesel would care
for him as for her own child.
The witch did as asked and told the countess
that her son was wearing a white ribbon at his
right leg to be recogniseable.
The count was very sad as he noticed his son was
disappeared, but he needed a successor.
Pictures by Kani Sido

2. Thus he told that on St. Martin’s day his
daughter should be married to a local nobleman.
The night bevor St. Martin’s day Gänseliesel was
in the stable with the geese and was very sad,
because all of them should die soon. But then, as
she was fallen asleep, the witch came to her in
her dream and told her that the goose with the
white ribbon was the bewitched son of the
count. But she could save him by kissing him on
the beak during dinner.
As St. Martin’s day came the countess went to
meet Gänseliesel, pointed to the goose with the
white ribbon and said it should be the first one
to be slaughtered because it was the most
beautiful of them all.
For dinner every guest got his own goose but the
count. The countess angrily called for
Gänseliesel, which came with the bewitched
goose to the table, lifted the goose up and
kissed it on its beak.
Suddenly, the goose lost all of its feathers and
the young count mushroomed in front of his
father.
Now, the countess had to confess what she had
done und had to spend the rest of her life in
dungeon. The young count married Gänseliesel
and they all lived happily ever after.
(told after Hans-A. Piper, Theaterstraße 22,
37073 Göttingen)
Pictures by Kani Sido