Tonight, we’ll read the first part to “The Fairy of the Dawn,” a Romanian fairy tale by German author Mite Kremnitz. The other half of this story will air Wednesday.

This story features a prince who doesn’t seem likely at first to be as heroic as he turns out to be. He is more interested in singing and laughing than seeking adventure, fortune or battles as his brother’s do.

The author, Kremnitz, was born Marie von Bardeleben, and moved with her husband and children to Romania from Germany. There she became the maid of honor to the Romanian queen and fellow writer, Queen Elisabeth. Queen Elisabeth herself had a reputation for being an eccentric dreamer. They wrote several books together under pen names, and Kremnitz went on to publish many books of her own.