The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (31 page)

“If you succeed, you shall become my wife,” he said.

Then the little man came again and spoke: “I'll do everything for you one more time, but you must promise me your firstborn child that you have with the king.”

Out of desperation she promised him what he wanted, and when the king saw once again how the straw had been spun into gold, he took the miller's beautiful daughter for his wife.

Soon thereafter the queen gave birth, and the little man appeared before her and demanded the promised child. However, the queen offered the little man all that she could and all the treasures of the kingdom if he would let her keep her child, but it was all in vain. Then the little man said, “In three days I'll come again to fetch the child. But if you know my name by then, you shall keep your child.”

During the first and second nights the queen tried to think of the little man's name, but she wasn't able to come up with a name and became completely depressed. On the third day, however, the king returned home from hunting and told her, “I was out hunting the day before yesterday, and when I went deep into the dark forest, I came upon a small cottage, and in front of the house there was a ridiculous little man, hopping around as if he had only one leg and screeching:

“Today I'll brew, tomorrow I'll bake.

Soon I'll have the queen's namesake.

Oh, how hard it is to play my game,

for Rumpelstiltskin is my name!”

When the queen heard this, she rejoiced, and when the dangerous little man came, he asked, “What's my name, your Highness?” she responded first by guessing,

“Is your name Conrad?”

“No.”

“Is your name Henry?”

“No.”

“Is your name Rumpelstiltskin?”

“The devil told you that!” the little man screamed, and he ran off full of anger and never returned.

56

SWEETHEART ROLAND

Once upon a time there was a mother who had one daughter of her own and hated her stepdaughter because she was a thousand times more beautiful and better than her own. One time the stepdaughter wore a
beautiful apron that the other daughter liked and coveted so much out of envy that she told her mother she wanted the apron and insisted that she get it for her.

“Be quiet, my dear child,” said the mother. “You shall have it soon. Your stepsister has long since deserved to die, and tonight, I want you to get into the rear of the bed and push her toward the front. Then I'll come when she's asleep and chop off her head.”

But the stepdaughter had been standing in a corner and had overheard everything. So she let the wicked daughter climb into bed first so she could lie down on the far side. But after she fell asleep, the other beautiful sister pushed her toward the front and took her place in the rear of the bed. During the night the old woman crept into the room. She felt around to see if someone was actually lying up front. Then she gripped an axe with both hands and began chopping until she chopped off her own child's head.

After she had left the room, the maiden stood up and went to her sweetheart, whose name was Roland, and knocked at his door.

“Listen!” she cried out. “We must flee in haste. My stepmother killed her own daughter and thinks she actually killed me. When the sun rises and she sees what she's done, I'll be lost. So I've taken her magic wand to help ourselves along the way.”

Sweetheart Roland stood up, and before they left, they went first to take the dead head of the stepsister and let three drops of blood drip from it onto the floor, one in front of the bed, one in the kitchen, and one on the stairs. Then they ran off.

The next morning, when the mother got up, she called her daughter: “Come, you'll get the apron now.”

But the daughter didn't come.

“Where are you?”

“Here I am! On the stairs sweeping,” answered one of the drops of blood.

The old woman went out but saw no one.

“Where are you?”

“Here I am! In the kitchen warming myself,” the second drop of blood replied.

The old woman went into the kitchen, but she found no one there.

“Where are you?”

“Here I am! In bed sleeping.”

The old woman ran into the room, where she saw her own daughter on her bed swimming in blood. She was horrified and realized that she had been deceived. All at once she burst into anger and rushed to the window. Since she was a witch, she could see quite far into the world, and she spotted her stepdaughter fleeing with her sweetheart. They were already far away. So she put on her seven-league boots, and it didn't take her long before she had overtaken them. However, the maiden knew through the magic wand that they were being followed and turned herself into a lake and her sweetheart Roland into a duck that swam on it. When the stepmother arrived, she sat down on the bank of the lake and threw bread crumbs to lure the duck to shore. But it was all in vain, and by nightfall the old woman had to return home without having accomplished anything.

Meanwhile, the maiden and her sweetheart regained their natural forms and continued on their way. At daybreak, however, the witch pursued them once more. Then the maiden changed herself into a beautiful flower growing in the middle of a briar hedge, and her sweetheart was transformed into a fiddler. When the old woman arrived, she asked the fiddler whether she could pluck the beautiful flower.

“Of course,” he answered, “and I'll play a tune while you're doing it.”

So she crawled into the hedge to pluck it, and as she reached the middle of the hedge, he began to play a tune, and she was compelled to dance and dance without stopping so that the thorns tore the clothes from her body and scratched her so badly that blood flowed, and she died from the wounds.

Now they were both free, and Roland said to the maiden: “I want to go to my father and arrange for the wedding.”

“In the meantime I'll turn myself into a red stone and stay here and wait until you come back.”

Roland departed, and the maiden stood in the field as a red stone and waited for her sweetheart a long time, but he didn't return and had forgotten her. When he failed to come back, she grew sad, turned herself into a flower, and thought, “Someone will surely come along and trample me.”

But a shepherd found the flower, and since it was so beautiful, he took it with him and tucked it away in a chest. From that time on, amazing things began to happen in the shepherd's cottage. When he got up in the morning, all the work would already be done: the sweeping, dusting, a fire in the hearth. At noon when he came home, the food was cooked, and the table set, the meal served. He couldn't figure out how all this was happening, for he never saw a living soul in his cottage. Though it pleased him very much, he eventually became frightened and went to a wise woman for advice.

She told him that there was magic behind all this, and he should get up very early some morning and watch for anything that moved in the room. Then, if he saw something, he was to quickly throw a white cloth over it. The shepherd did as she told him, and on the following morning, he saw the chest open and the flower come out. Immediately he threw the white cloth over the flower, and suddenly the transformation came to an end and the beautiful maiden, whom her sweetheart Roland had forgotten, stood before him. The shepherd wanted to marry her, but she said, no, because she only wanted to serve him and clean his house. Soon thereafter she heard that Roland was about to hold a wedding and marry another maiden. It was customary at this event for every person who attended it to sing. So the faithful maiden also went, but she didn't want to sing until at last she was compelled to do so. As she began to sing, Roland recognized her right away, jumped up, and said that she was his true bride, and he didn't want anyone else but her. So he married her, and her sorrows came to an end while her joy began to thrive.

57

THE GOLDEN BIRD

A certain king had a pleasure garden, and in this garden there was a tree that bore golden apples. Soon after the apples became ripe, one was found missing the very first night. The king became furious and ordered his gardener to keep watch under the tree every night. So the gardener commanded his eldest son to guard the tree, but he fell asleep at midnight, and the next night another apple was missing. So the gardener had his second
son stand guard the following night, but he, too, fell asleep at midnight, and in the morning yet another apple was missing. Now the third son wanted to stand guard, but the gardener wasn't satisfied at first. Finally, he relented, and the third son lay down under the tree and watched and watched, and when the clock struck midnight, the air was filled with noise, and a bird came flying. It was made entirely out of gold, and just as it was about to peck off an apple with its beak, the gardener's son stood up and hurriedly shot an arrow at the bird. However, the arrow didn't harm the bird other than costing it a feather as it quickly flew away. The next morning the golden feather was brought to the king, who immediately assembled his councilors, and everyone declared unanimously that a feather like this was worth more than the entire kingdom.

“One feather alone won't help me,” said the king. “I want and must have the entire bird.”

So the king's eldest son set out and was certain he'd find the golden bird. After he had gone a short distance, he came to a forest, and on the edge of the forest sat a fox. So the prince grabbed his rifle and took aim. But the fox started speaking: “Don't shoot! I'll give you some good advice if you hold your fire. I already know where you want to go. You want to catch the golden bird. This evening you'll come to a village where you'll see two inns facing each other. One will be brightly lit, with a great deal of merrymaking inside. Don't go into that place. Instead, go into the other inn, even though it looks dismal.”

But the son thought, “How can an animal give me sensible advice?” and he took his rifle and pulled the trigger. However, his shot missed the fox, who stretched out his tail and dashed quickly into the forest. Then the eldest son continued his journey, and by evening he arrived at the village where the two inns were standing. In one of them there was singing and dancing, while the other appeared rather dismal and shabby. “I'd certainly be a fool,” he thought, “if I were to stay at that dismal-looking inn instead of staying at this beautiful one here.” So he went into the cheerful inn, lived to the hilt like a king, and forgot the bird and his home.

After some time had passed and the eldest son still hadn't returned home, the second son set out, and he, too, encountered the fox and received
good advice, but when he came to the two inns, he saw his brother at the window of the inn in which there were sounds of carousing. When his brother called out to him, he couldn't resist and wiled his time away in good cheer.

Some more months passed by, and now the youngest son also wanted to set out into the world, but his father refused to let him go. The king was most fond of him and was afraid that he would have a mishap and wouldn't return. However, his son wouldn't leave him in peace so that the king finally permitted his son to depart. At the edge of the forest, he, too, encountered the fox, who gave him the good advice. Since the young prince was good-natured and didn't attempt to harm the animal's life, the fox said: “Climb on my tail, and you'll get there more quickly.”

No sooner did the prince sit down on the fox's tail than the fox began to run. And the fox went over sticks and stones so swiftly that the wind whistled through the prince's hair. When they came to the village, the prince got off the tail, followed the fox's good advice, and, without looking around, entered the shabbier inn and spent a quiet night there. The next morning he found the fox on his way once again, and the fox said to him: “If you go straight ahead, you'll eventually come to a castle. In front of this castle there's a whole regiment of soldiers lying on the ground, but don't worry about them, for they'll all be snoring and sleeping. Enter the castle and proceed until you come to a chamber where the golden bird is hanging in a wooden cage. Nearby you'll also find a magnificent golden cage hanging just for decoration. But be careful not to take the bird out of its shabby cage and put it into the good one. Otherwise, you'll be in for trouble.”

Upon saying these words, the fox stretched out his tail again, and the prince sat down on it. The fox raced over sticks and stones so swiftly that the wind whistled through the prince's hair. When the young man arrived in front of the castle, everything was as the fox said it would be. He entered the last room, saw the golden bird sitting in its wooden cage and also a golden cage beside it. The three golden apples were lying about the room as well. The prince thought it would be ridiculous to leave the beautiful bird in the plain, ugly cage. So he opened the door, grabbed hold of the
bird, and put it into the golden cage. As soon as that happened, the bird uttered a dreadful cry that caused the soldiers to wake up, and soon they took the prince prisoner and led him to the king.

The next morning he was brought before the court, and after he confessed to everything, he was sentenced to death. However, the king said he would spare his life under one condition: the prince had to bring him the golden horse that ran faster than the wind. If he did, he would receive the golden bird as his reward.

The prince set out, but he was depressed and sighed. All of a sudden, however, the fox stood in front of him again and said: “You see, all this happened because you didn't listen to me. However, if you listen to me, I'll give you advice once again, this time how to get the golden horse. First, you must go straight ahead until you come to a castle where the horse is standing in the stable. There will be stable boys lying on the ground out front, but they'll be snoring and sleeping, and you'll be able to lead the golden horse out of its stall with ease. But make sure you put the poor wooden and leather saddle on the horse and not the golden one that's hanging nearby.”