by Jacob Grimm
He rode on and after a little while it seemed to him as if he heard a voice in the sand at his feet. He listened and overheard the complaint of an ant king: “If only people with their clumsy animals would watch where they’re going! That dumb horse with its heavy hooves is mercilessly stomping my subjects to death!” Whereupon the sympathetic rider steered his horse down a side path, and the ant king called out to him, “We will remember and repay your kindness!”
The path led into a forest, and there he saw a raven father and raven mother perched beside their nest, flinging the baby birds out. “Away with you, you good-for-nothing brood,” they cried. “We can’t feed you any longer, and you’re big enough now to fend for yourselves!”
The poor little ones lay on the ground fluttering and flapping their downy wings and crying, “You want us helpless baby birds to fend for ourselves, and we don’t even know how to fly! What else can we do, but die of hunger?”
So the kindhearted youth dismounted, killed his horse with his dagger, and left its carcass to feed the baby ravens. They came hopping over, ate their fill, and cried, “We will remember and repay your kindness!”
Now he had to use his own two legs, and after walking a good long while he came to a big city. There was a hubbub and the streets were thronged with people, when a town crier came riding up and announced that the king’s daughter was seeking a husband, but whoever asks for her hand in marriage must first accomplish a difficult task, and if he does not succeed it will cost him his life. Many had already tried but lost their lives in the process. When the young man saw the princess, he was so bedazzled by her great beauty that he forgot all the perils involved and presented himself before the king as a suitor.
No sooner did he do so than he was ferried out to sea, and before his eyes a golden ring was tossed in. Then the king bid him fetch that ring from the bottom of the sea and added: “If you come back up without the ring you will be tossed in the sea again and again until you drown.”
Everyone pitied the handsome youth and left him alone on the beach. He stood by the shore and pondered what to do, when all of a sudden he saw three fishes come swimming over, and they were none others than the ones whose lives he had saved among the reeds. The middle fish held a mussel in its mouth, which it dropped in the sand at the young man’s feet, and when the young man picked it up and opened it, the golden ring lay there in the shell. Overjoyed, the youth took the ring to the king, expecting to be granted the promised reward.
But upon learning that he was not her equal by birth, the haughty princess spurned him and demanded that he would first have to accomplish a second task. She went out to the garden and herself strewed ten sacks of millet in the grass. “By sun-up tomorrow morning, he must have finished gathering it all up,” she said, “and not a grain may be missing.”
The young man sat himself down in the garden and pondered how in heaven’s name to fulfill such a charge, but he could think of nothing and so sat there sadly waiting for daybreak, when he would be led to his death. But when the first rays of sunlight fell on the garden, he saw the ten sacks of grain all lying stuffed side by side and not a grain was missing. The king of the ants had come with his army of thousands and thousands of ants and the grateful creatures had taken great pains to gather and bag all the grain. The princess herself came down to the garden and was stunned to see that the youth had accomplished the task he had been assigned, but she could not yet quell her proud heart and said, “Even though he managed to complete the two tasks, he will not become my husband until he brings me an apple from the tree of life.”
The youth did not know where to find the tree of life. He set off and wanted to keep walking as long as his legs held out, but he had no hope of finding it. After he had traversed three kingdoms and, come evening, arrived at a forest, he sat himself under a tree and wanted to sleep, when he heard a fluttering in the branches, and a golden apple fell into his hand. Whereupon three ravens flew down to him, sat themselves on his knees, and said, “We are the three young ravens you saved from the jaws of hunger. When we grew up and heard that you were searching for the golden apple, we flew over the sea to the end of the earth where the tree of life stands and fetched you an apple.”
Overjoyed, the young man made his way back to the city and brought the golden apple to the lovely princess, who now had no excuse to reject him. They shared the apple of life and both bit in and ate it, whereupon her heart was filled with love for him, and they found happiness and reached a ripe old age together.
THE QUEEN OF THE BEES
Once upon a time two princes went out in search of adventure and led such a wild and dissolute life that they couldn’t find their way home again. The third and youngest one, known as Simpleton, went in search of his brothers. But when he finally found them, they heaped him with scorn, saying that given his simplicity he shouldn’t even try to make his way in the world, seeing as the two of them who were much smarter couldn’t make it. So the three set out together and came to an anthill. The two elder brothers wanted to destroy it and watch the little ants running around in terror and carrying off their eggs, but Simpleton said, “Leave the creatures in peace. I can’t abide your bothering them.”
So they continued on their way and came to a lake in which many, many ducks were swimming around. The two elder brothers wanted to catch a few and roast them, but Simpleton wouldn’t hear of it and said, “Leave the creatures in peace. I can’t abide your killing them.”
Finally they came to a beehive in a tree full of so much honey that it dripped down the trunk. The two elder brothers wanted to light a fire in front of the tree so that they could suffocate the bees and take their honey. But Simpleton stopped them again and said, “Let the creatures be. I can’t abide your burning them.”
At last the three brothers came to a castle. In its stables stood stone horses and there was not a living soul in sight. They went through all the rooms and halls until at the end of a corridor they saw a door with two locks. But in the middle of the door there was a small slit, through which they could peak into the room. Seated at a table they spied a little gray man. They called to him once, twice, but he did not hear them; they called a third time and he finally stood up, opened the locks, and came out. He did not say a word but led them to a richly laden table, and once they had eaten and drunk their fill, he brought each of them to his own bedroom.
The next morning the little gray man came to the eldest brother, winked, and led him to a stone tablet on which three tasks were inscribed whose completion would lead to the spell on the castle being lifted. The first task was: In the woods beneath the moss lay the pearls of the princess, a thousand in number, which had to be gathered, and if, come dusk, even a single one was missing, he who searched for them would turn to stone. The eldest brother went to the woods and searched all day, but by sundown he had only gathered a hundred. Just as the tablet said, he was turned to stone.
The following day the second brother undertook the same task, but he didn’t do much better than the eldest. He found no more than two hundred pearls and was turned to stone.
At last it was Simpleton’s turn. He searched in the moss, but it was so difficult to find the pearls and so slow. He sat himself down on a stone and started crying. And as he sat there, the king of the ants, whose life he had once saved, came with five thousand of his kind, and it wasn’t long before the little creatures had found all the pearls and piled them in a heap.
The second task was to fetch the key to the princess’s bedroom from the bottom of the lake. When Simpleton came to the lake, the ducks whose lives he had once saved came swimming up, dove down, and fetched the key from the depths.
But the third task was the hardest: From among the three sleeping princesses he was to select the youngest and dearest. But they all looked alike and had no distinguishing features, except that before falling asleep they had each consumed different sweets: the eldest a bag of sugar, the second a little syrup, the youngest a spoonful of honey. Then the queen
of the bees whom Simpleton had saved from the fire came flying by and buzzed around the mouths of all three, but finally she landed on the mouth of the one who had eaten the honey, and so the prince recognized the right one. Whereupon the spell was lifted, all in the castle awakened from sleep, and whoever had been turned to stone came back to life. And Simpleton married the youngest and dearest and became king after her father’s death, but his two brothers wed the other two sisters.
THE DRUMMER
One evening, a young drummer went walking alone in a field and came to a lake, on the shore of which he saw three strips of white linen lying about. “What fine linen!” he said to himself and put one strip in his pocket. He went home, giving no further thought to his find, and feeling tired, lay down in his bed. But just as he was about to fall asleep it seemed to him as if someone called out to him by name.
He pricked up his ears and heard a quiet voice whispering to him, “Drummer, drummer, wake up!”
Dark as it was, he could not see anyone, but it seemed to him as if a presence wafted about his bed. “What do you want?” he asked.
“Give me back my chemise that you took from me yesterday evening by the lake,” the voice replied.
“You can have it,” said the drummer, “if you tell me who you are.”
“Oh,” said the voice, “I am the daughter of a mighty king, but I was taken captive by an evil witch who holds me in her thrall on Glass Mountain. Every day I must bathe in the lake with my two sisters, but without my chemise I cannot fly away again. My sisters escaped but I had to remain behind. I beg you to give me back my chemise.”
“Don’t worry, poor child,” said the drummer, “I’ll gladly give it back.”
He plucked it out of his pocket and handed it to her in the dark. She grabbed it from him and wanted to rush off.
“Wait a minute,” he said, “perhaps I can help you.”
“You can only help me if you climb Glass Mountain and free me from the witch’s spell. But you’ll never make it to Glass Mountain, and even if you manage to draw near, you won’t be able to climb it.”
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” said the drummer. “I feel for you and fear nothing. But I don’t know the way.”
“The way leads through the great forest in which the man-eating ogres live,” she replied. “More than that I may not tell.” Whereupon he heard her whisk away.
At daybreak the drummer awakened, hung his drum around his neck, and fearlessly entered the forest. Once he had walked for a while and encountered no giant, he thought to himself, Better wake that lazybones! Then he grabbed his drum and drumsticks and struck up such a storm that the birds flew out of the trees with a great caw. Not long after that, a giant who had been lying asleep in the grass got up, and he was as tall as a fir tree. “Miserable wretch,” he cried out, “why did you drum me out of the sweetest sleep?”
“I’m drumming,” he replied, “to signal the way to the thousands of soldiers following me.”
“What do they want in my forest?” asked the giant.
“They want to skin your hide and rid the forest of your monstrous lot.”
“Oho,” said the giant, “I’ll trample on you like I trample on ants.”
“You really think you can fight against thousands?” the drummer replied. “As soon as you grab for one he’ll leap aside and hide, but when you lie down and fall asleep they’ll creep out of the bushes, climb your sorry carcass, and make short shrift of you. Each soldier has a steel hammer dangling from his belt, and with it they’ll crack your skull.”
The giant grew sullen and thought, If I lock horns with that sly lot, things might turn out badly for me. Wolves and bears I can strangle, but I’m no match against those lowly earthworms. “Listen, little fellow,” he said, “go in peace, I promise not to mess with you and your kind in the future, and if you have a wish, tell it to me, for I’d like to do you a favor.”
“You’ve got long legs,” said the drummer, “and can run faster than me. Carry me to Glass Mountain, and I’ll send a signal to my troops to pull back, and they’ll leave you in peace this once.”
“Come here, worm,” said the giant, “sit yourself on my shoulder, and I’ll carry you wherever you wish.”
The giant stood upright, and from his perch on the giant’s shoulder the drummer drummed up a storm. The giant thought, That must be the signal for his troops to withdraw. After a while they met a second giant along the way, who took the drummer from the first giant and set him in his buttonhole. The drummer grabbed hold of the button that was as big as a key, held fast, and happily looked around. Then they came to a third giant, who plucked the drummer out of the buttonhole and plunked him on the rim of his hat. Up there the drummer went walking back and forth, and in the blue distance spotted a mountain over the treetops, and thought to himself, That must surely be Glass Mountain. Which it was indeed. The giant took another few steps, and they reached the foot of the mountain, where he dropped him off. The drummer insisted that he carry him all the way to the summit of Glass Mountain, but the giant shook his head, muttered something under his breath, and disappeared again in the forest.
Now the poor drummer stood in front of the mountain that was as high as three mountains stacked one on top of the other and as smooth as a mirror, and he had no idea how to get to the top. He started climbing, but to no avail – he always slipped back down again. If only I were a bird, he thought. But what good was it to wish it, he grew no wings. As he stood around at a loss for what to do, he spotted two men fighting not far away. He went toward them and saw that they were fighting over a saddle lying on the ground before them that each claimed as his own.
“What fools you are,” he said. “You’re fighting over a saddle and have no horse to ride.”
“The saddle is well worth fighting for,” one of the two men replied. “Whosoever sits on it and wishes to go anywhere, be it to the end of the world, once he’s spoken the wish, he’s transported there lickety-split. The saddle belongs to both of us and it’s my turn to ride it, but the other guy won’t let me.”
“I’ll settle your dispute this instant,” said the drummer, then walked a little distance and stuck a white stick into the earth. He came back and said, “Now run to the stick, and whoever gets there first, it’s his turn to ride.”
The two men dashed off, but no sooner had they run a few paces than the drummer swung himself into the saddle, wished himself to the top of Glass Mountain, and before he turned his hand around there he was. On top of the mountain there was a flat plateau, on it stood a stone house, in front of the house lay a big pond, and behind it a deep dark forest. There was neither man nor beast to be seen about, only the wind rustling in the trees and the clouds hanging low over his head. He went to the door and knocked. At the third knock the door was opened by an old woman with a brown face and red eyes. She wore glasses on the bridge of her long nose, and after giving him the once-over, asked what he wanted.
“Food and shelter for the night,” replied the drummer.
“That you may have,” said the old woman, “if in exchange you do three chores.”
“Why not?” he said. “I’m not afraid of work, however hard it is.”
The old woman let him in, and gave him something to eat and a bed to sleep in. In the morning, as soon as he woke up, she took a thimble from her bony finger, handed it to the drummer, and said, “Now get to work and drain the pond outside with this thimble – but you must be done with it before nightfall, and all of the fish in the water must be selected and placed side by side according to kind and size.”
“That’s an odd task,” said the drummer, but he went to the pond and got to work. He drained all morning, but how far can you get with a thimble in a big body of water, even if you keep draining for a thousand years? Come midday, he thought, It’s no use and all the same if I work or not. So he stopped and sat down.
A girl came out of the house, set before him a basket of food, and said, “You sit around with suc
h a sad expression. What’s troubling you?”
He looked at her and saw that she was very beautiful. “Oh,” he said, “if I cannot complete the first task, how will I ever manage with the other two? I went in search of a princess who is supposed to be living here, but I didn’t find her. I’d best be shoving off.”
“Stay here,” said the girl. “I will help you in your trouble. You look tired, lay your head on my lap and sleep. When you awaken the task will be done.”
The drummer didn’t need to be told a second time. As soon as he shut his eyes, she turned a wishing ring on her finger and said, “Water up, fish out.”
Whereupon, like a white fog, all the water rose out of the pond and wafted away with the other clouds, and the fish flipped about and leapt onto the shore and lay themselves neatly side by side, according to kind and size.
When the drummer woke up, he was stunned to see that the task had been accomplished.
The girl said, “One of the fishes isn’t lying beside its sort but is all alone. When the old woman comes this evening and sees that all was done as she instructed, she will ask you, ‘What is that fish doing there all alone?’ Then fling the fish in her face and say, ‘That one’s for you, old witch!’ “
That evening the old woman came by, and when she asked him the question, he flung the fish in her face. But she pretended not to take any notice, said nothing, and just scowled.