The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (67 page)

Then they took off their beautiful clothes, put them away, placed the worn-out shoes under their beds, and lay down to sleep. The next morning the soldier decided not to say anything but rather to follow and observe their strange life for the next two nights. Everything happened just as it had on the first night: they danced each time until their shoes were worn out. However, the third time he took a beaker with him for evidence. When the time came for him to give his answer, he took along the three branches and beaker and went before the king. The twelve princesses stood behind the door and listened to what he would say. When the king asked, “Where
have my daughters spent the night wearing out their shoes,” he answered, “With twelve princes in an underground palace.” Then he told him everything and produced the evidence.

Immediately thereafter the king summoned his daughters and asked them whether the soldier had told the truth. When they saw that they had been exposed and that denying would not help, they had to confess everything. Finally, the king asked the soldier which princess he would like for his wife.

“I'm no longer so young,” he answered, “so I'll take the oldest.”

The wedding was held that same day, and the king promised to make him his successor to the kingdom after his death. The princes, however, were compelled to remain under a curse for as many nights as they had danced with the princesses.

48

THE SIX SERVANTS

An old queen, who was a sorceress, had a daughter, who was the most beautiful maiden under the sun. Whenever a suitor came to court her daughter, he would be given a task to perform, and if he failed, he had to kneel down, and his head would be cut off without mercy.

Now it so happened that there was a prince who wanted to court her, but his father refused to let him go and said: “No, if you go there, you won't return.”

Then the son withdrew to his bed and became deathly ill for seven years. When the king saw that he might die, he said: “Go there. Perhaps you'll be fortunate.”

As soon as he heard this, his son became well again. He got up from his bed and went on his way. As he was making his way across a forest, he saw a man lying on the ground. This man was enormously fat and actually seemed to be a small mountain. He called the prince over to him and asked him whether he wanted to have him as his servant.

“What can I do with such a fat man like you? How did you become so fat?”

“Oh, this is nothing. When I really want to expand, I'm three thousand times as fat.”

“Well then, come with me,” said the prince.

The two of them went farther and found another man, who was lying on the ground with his ear glued to the grass.

“What are you doing there?” asked the prince.

“Oh, I'm listening. I can hear the grass grow and everything that's happening in the world. That's why I'm called the listener.”

“Tell me what's happening right now at the old queen's palace?”

“A suitor's having his head cut off. I hear the swishing of a sword.”

“Come with me,” the prince said, and the three continued on their way. All at once they came upon a man who was lying on the ground and was so very long that they had to go a good distance from his feet to reach his head.

“How come you're so long?” asked the prince.

“Oh,” responded the tall man, “when I really stretch out my limbs, I'm three thousand times as long, taller than the highest mountain on earth.”

“Come with me,” said the prince.

So the four of them continued on their way and came across a blindfolded man sitting beside the road.

“Why are you wearing a blindfold?” the prince asked.

“Oh,” the man responded, “I shatter whatever I gaze upon with my eyes. That's why I don't dare take off the blindfold.”

“Come with me,” the prince said.

So the five of them continued on their way and came upon a man lying on the ground basking under the hot sun, but he was freezing and shivered so much that his entire body was shaking.

“How can you be freezing this way in the sunshine?” asked the prince.

“Ah,” answered the man, “the hotter it is, the more I freeze, and the colder it is, the hotter I am. In the middle of ice, I can't stand the heat, and in the middle of hot flames, I can't stand the cold.”

“Come with me,” said the prince, and the six of them continued on their way and came across a man standing there and looking around and over all the mountains.

“What are you looking at?” asked the prince.

“I have such sharp eyes,” the man said, “that I can see over all the forests and fields, valleys and mountains, and throughout the whole world.”

“Come with me,” said the prince, “I can still use someone like you.”

Now the seven of them entered the city where the beautiful and dangerous maiden lived, and the prince appeared before the old queen and told her that he wanted to court her daughter.

“All right,” she said. “I'll give you three tasks. If you perform each one, then the princess is yours. For your first task you must bring back a ring that I dropped in the Red Sea.”

“I shall perform this task,” the prince said, and he summoned his servant, Sharp Eyes, who looked into the bottom of the sea and saw the ring lying next to a stone. Then Fat Man came and set his mouth down at sea level and let the waves roll into his mouth until he had swallowed the entire sea that became as dry as a meadow. Then Tall Man bent over a bit and fetched the ring with his hand. So the prince brought it to the old woman, who was astonished and said: “Yes, that's the right ring. You've performed the first task, but now you must perform the second. Do you see the three hundred oxen grazing on the meadow in front of my castle? You must devour them, skin and bones, hair and horns. Then, down in my cellar there are three hundred barrels of wine that you must drink up as well and may only invite one guest to eat and drink with you. If one trace of hair is left from the oxen or one little drop from the wine, then your life will be forfeited to me.”

The prince replied: “I'll perform this task,” and he took Fat Man as his guest. Well, he ate the three hundred oxen without leaving a single hair and proceeded to drink the wine right out of the barrels without the use of a glass.

When the old sorceress saw that, she was astounded and said to the prince, “No one has ever gotten this far, but there's still one task left.” And she thought to herself, “I'll get you yet with my magic spell.” Then she said aloud: “Tonight I'm going to bring my daughter into your room, and you're to put your arms around her. While you sit there with her, be sure not to fall asleep. I shall come at midnight, and if she's no longer in your arms, you'll forfeit your life.”

“This task is easy,” the prince thought. “I'll certainly be able to keep my eyes open. However, it's best to be cautious.”

So when the beautiful maiden was brought to him in the evening, he summoned all his servants, and Tall Man had to embrace them with his arms while Fat Man had to block the door so that no living soul could enter. So they sat there, and the beautiful maiden didn't utter a word. However, the moon shone through the window on her face so that the prince could gaze at her marvelous beauty. They all kept watch together until eleven o'clock. Then the sorceress cast a spell on their eyes, and they fell into a slumber that they were unable ward off. So they slept soundly until a quarter of twelve. When they awoke, the maiden was gone and had been carried away by the old woman.

The prince and the servants moaned and groaned, but Listener said: “Be quiet!” And as he listened, he said: “She's being kept in a rock three hundred miles from here and is lamenting her fate.”

Then Tall Man said: “I want to help.”

All at once he lifted the blindfolded man Exploder onto his back, and in no time they were in front of the enchanted rock. As soon as Tall Man took off the blindfold, Exploder needed only to look around, and he shattered the rock into a thousand pieces. Tall Man lifted the maiden from the rock with his arms and carried her back in a split second. Just as the clock struck twelve, the old woman came, thinking that the prince would certainly be alone and deep in sleep. But there he was, in good spirits and with her daughter wrapped in his arms. Now, to be sure, the old woman had to keep quiet, but she was suffering, and the princess was also annoyed that someone like the prince was supposed to have won her. The next morning the sorceress had three hundred cords of wood gathered together and said to the prince that, even though he had performed the task, he couldn't have her daughter for his wife until someone was ready to sit in the middle of the woodpile and withstand the fire. She was convinced that none of his servants would let himself be burned for the prince's sake and that the prince would have to sacrifice himself on the woodpile out of love for her. Then the princess would be rid of him. But when the servants heard this, they said: “We've all done something with the exception of Frosty.”

So they picked Frosty up and placed him in the middle of the pile of wood and set fire to it. Once the fire got going, it burned for three days, and when it was extinguished, Frosty stood in the middle of the ashes trembling like an aspen leaf and said, “Never in my life have I endured such a frost, and if it had lasted much longer, I'd have been frozen stiff.”

Now the beautiful maiden had to marry the prince. Still, when they drove to the church, the old woman said, “I'll never give in,” and she sent her soldiers to massacre them and to bring back her daughter. However, Listener had his ears perked and had heard everything that the old woman had said. Then he told Fat Man, who spat on the ground once or twice and formed a huge lake that stopped the soldiers.

When the soldiers didn't return, the old woman sent her knights in armor, but Listener heard the rattling of the armor and undid the blindfold of Exploder, who took a piercing look at the enemy, and they shattered like glass. Thus the prince and his bride could continue on their way undisturbed, and after the couple had been wed and blessed in church, the six servants took their leave and set out to seek their fortune in the world.

Half an hour from the prince's castle was a village, and, outside the village a swineherd was tending his pigs. When the prince and his wife arrived there, he said to her, “Do you know who I really am? I'm not the son of a king but a swineherd, and the man with the pigs over there is my father. You and I must now get to work and help my father look after the pigs.”

The prince took lodgings at the inn and secretly told the innkeeper and his wife to take away his wife's royal clothes during the night. When she awoke the next morning, she had nothing to put on, and the innkeeper's wife gave her an old dress and a pair of woolen stockings. At the same time the woman acted as if she were giving the princess a grand gift. So the princess believed that the prince really was a swineherd and tended the pigs with him.

“I've deserved this because of my pride,” she remarked.

All this lasted a week, by which time she could no longer stand it. Her feet had become all sore. Then some people came and asked her whether she knew who her husband was.

“Yes,” she answered. “He's a swineherd, and he's gone out to do a little trading with ribbons.”

Then they asked her to go with them, and they brought her up to the castle.

When they entered the hall, the prince was standing there in his royal attire, but she didn't recognize him until he embraced and kissed her and said, “I suffered a great deal for you, and it was only right that you should also suffer for me.”

Now the wedding was truly celebrated, and the person who has told this tale would have liked to have been there, too.

49

THE WHITE BRIDE AND THE BLACK BRIDE

A woman was walking with her daughter and stepdaughter over the fields to cut fodder when the dear Lord came toward them in the guise of a poor man and asked, “Which is the way to the village?”

“Oh,” said the mother, “look for the way yourself.”

And her daughter added, “If you're worried about not finding it, then take a signpost with you.”

However, the stepdaughter said, “Poor man, I'll show you the way. Come with me.”

Since the mother and daughter had infuriated the dear Lord, he turned his back on them and cursed them so that they became black as night and ugly as sin. But God was gracious to the poor stepdaughter and went with her to the village. When they drew close to the village, he blessed her and said, “Choose three things for yourself, and I'll grant them to you.”

The maiden said, “I'd like to be as beautiful and pure as the sun,” and in no time she was as white and beautiful as the day.

“Then I'd like to have a money purse that is never empty,” and the dear Lord gave her that as well but said, “Don't forget the best thing of all.”

And she replied, “For my third wish, I want to live in the eternal kingdom of heaven after my death.”

This wish was also granted, and then the Lord separated from her.

When the stepmother arrived home with her daughter and discovered that they were both as black as coal and ugly, while the stepdaughter was white and beautiful, her heart turned even more evil, and she could think of nothing but how she might harm her stepdaughter. However, the step-daughter had a brother named Reginer, whom she loved very much, and she told him everything that had happened. One day Reginer said to her, “Dear sister, I want to paint your picture so that I may always see you before my eyes. My love for you is so great that I want to see you constantly.”

“All right,” she said, “but I beg of you not to let anyone else see the picture.”

So he painted a portrait of his sister and hung it in his room, which was in the royal castle because he served the king as coachman. Every day he stood in front of the portrait and thanked God for his dear sister's good fortune.