In a small town, off a small coast, there was a girl. Everything about this girl was pleasant and easy, but she secretly wished for more.
Every day, when her family sent her to fetch water, she would sing whenever she though noone could hear her. Her singing became lovely, and after many years she began to draw the attention of the birds and the bears and the foxes, who would come to the edge of the forest to hear her sing.
Now all this attention caught the ear of a prince of the wood, and he too came to hear her sing. Her song blew like the wind, warmed like summer wine, and shone like winter stars.
Instantly enamored, the prince burst from the forest, startling the girl, as he asked for her to come perform at his castle. Of course, at first she was afraid, but again she had secretly wished for something more. So she agreed, and he whipped her away through the trees to his fine white palace, cleverly hidden so that only the animals would find it.
The summons were sent, and over several days, the guests trickled in, being elves and sprites and animals and trees.
Eventually, it was her turn to perform, and she stepped to the stage in her dull gray shift. But she could not sing a note. Quickly, the prince relieved her from the stage, apologizing and delaying until tomorrow. However, on the following day, she could not say a word. And after that, she could not move her toe.
Obviously, the prince of the wood became very upset, and said that if she never performed, neither she nor the audience would ever return home.
Left now in her tower, she wept for her family and began to sing in mourning. But the prince had not yet departed, and as he heard her he crept up to hear her sing. If her voice had been iron before, it had turned to finest gold. And so, when the prince's frail elfin heart crossed the threshold of the door, he turned to stone at her song.
When she turned and saw the poor prince, she wept and sang even louder, so that the entire castle could hear, and they wept with her. Gently, she freed the gold rings from the prince's ears, and following the audience she found her way back home.
But when she returned, her parents had become old and grey, and noone remembered her name.
So she returned to the forest where she still sings, and sometimes, from far away, the prince hears and remembers.