First the tale tells of the eldest, that he went from one land to another, and from one city to another, in search of a precious thing, but found nowhere anything that at all suited his ideas.  At last the news came to his ears that there was a princess who had so fine a spy-glass that nothing so marvellous had ever been seen or heard of before.  In it one could see all over the world, every place, every city, every man, and every living being that moved on the face of the earth, and what every living thing in the world was doing.  Now the prince thought that surely there could be no more precious thing at all likely to turn up for him than this telescope; he therefore went to the princess, in order to buy the spy-glass if possible.  But by no means could he prevail upon the king’s daughter to part with her spy-glass, till he had told her his whole story and why he wanted it, and used all his powers of entreaty.  As might be expected, he paid for it well.  Having got it he returned home, glad at his luck, and hoping to wed the king’s daughter.

The story next turns to the second son.  He had to struggle with the same difficulties as his elder brother.  He travelled for a long while over the wide world without finding anything at all suitable, and thus for a time he saw no chance of his wishes being fulfilled.  Once he came into a very well-peopled city; and went about in search of precious things among the merchants, but neither did he find nor even see what he wanted.  He heard that there lived a short way from the town a dwarf, the cleverest maker of curious and cunning things.  He therefore resolved to go to the dwarf in order to try whether he could be persuaded to make him any costly thing.  The dwarf said that he had ceased to make things of that sort now and he must beg to be excused from making anything of the kind for the prince.  But he said that he had a piece of cloth, made in his younger days, with which however, he was very unwilling to part.  The king’s son asked the nature and use of the cloth The dwarf answered, “On this cloth one can go all over the world, as well through the air as on the water.  Runes are on it, which must be understood by him who uses it.”  Now the prince saw that a more precious thing than this could scarcely be found, and therefore asked the dwarf by all means to let him have the cloth.  And although the dwarf would not at first part with his cloth at all, yet at last, hearing what would happen if the king’s son did not get it, he sold it to him at a mighty high price.  The prince was truly glad to have got the cloth, for it was not only a cloth of great value, but also the greatest of treasures m other respects, having gold-seams and jewel-embroidery.  After this he returned home, hoping to get the best of his brothers in the contest for the damsel.