by Jacob Grimm
Now the mother thought about how she might provide her daughter with the same great fortune. So she sewed her a splendid fur coat and told her to go into the forest and ask the little men for a gift. But the men saw that she had a wicked heart, and instead of giving her good gifts, they gave her bad ones. The first wished that she would freeze in her fur coat as if it were made of paper. The second wished that she would grow uglier with each passing day. The third wished that she would die a miserable death.
The girl returned home shivering, as if her fur coat had been made of paper, and she told her mother what she had encountered, and when her mother saw that the curses of the three men were starting to take effect, she thought only of avenging herself. So she went to her stepdaughter, who was now the queen, and pretended to be friendly and charming. Consequently, she was welcomed and given her own apartment.
Shortly thereafter the queen gave birth to a prince, and one night, when she was alone and sick and weak, the wicked stepmother lifted her out of the bed with the help of her daughter, and they carried the queen outside to a river and threw her into it. The next morning they told the king that the queen had died during the night.
The following night the kitchen boy saw a duck swimming through the drain into the kitchen, and it asked:
“Are all my guests now sound asleep?”
Then the kitchen boy answered:
“Yes, indeed, you can’t hear a peep.”
“How about that baby of mine?”
“He’s asleep and doing just fine.”
Then the duck assumed the shape of the queen, went upstairs, suckled and nursed the baby, plumped up his little bed, covered him, and returned to the drain, where she swam away as a duck. This happened the next night too, and on the third night, she said to the kitchen boy, “Go and tell the king to take his sword and swing it three times over my head on the threshold.”
The kitchen boy ran and told the king, and when he swung the sword three times, his wife appeared before him alive and well. The duplicity of the stepmother and her daughter was now clear as day, and they were cast into the forest to be devoured by wild animals.
14
NASTY FLAX SPINNING
In olden times there lived a king who loved flax spinning more than anything else, and his daughters had to spin the entire day. If he didn’t hear the wheels humming, he became angry. One time he had to take a trip, and before he said his farewell, he gave a large casket of flax to the queen and said: “All this must be spun by the time I return.”
The princesses became distressed and wept.
“If we are to spin all of that flax, we’ll have to sit the entire day, and we won’t be able to get up at all.”
But the queen replied: “Console yourselves. I’ll certainly help you.” Now there were three especially ugly spinsters in the realm. The first had such a huge lower lip that it hung beneath her chin. The second had an index finger on her right hand that was so thick and wide that one could make three other fingers out of it. The third had a thick and wide flat foot that was as large as a kitchen board. The queen summoned the three spinsters to the castle, and on the day that the king was supposed to return home, she sat them down next to one another in her room, gave each of them a spinning wheel, and ordered them to spin. Moreover, she told each of them what to answer when the king questioned them. As soon as the king arrived, he heard the humming of the wheels from a distance and was so glad that he intended to praise his daughters. However, upon entering the room and seeing the horrible spinsters sitting there, he was at first startled. Then he stepped toward them and asked the first woman how she got the hideously large lower lip.
“From licking, from licking!”
Then he asked the second where she got her thick finger from.
“From turning the thread, from turning the thread and twining it!”
As she said this, she let the thread run around her finger a couple of times.
Finally, he asked the third one where she got her flat foot from.
“From stamping, from stamping!”
When the king heard all this, he commanded the queen and the princesses never ever to touch a spinning wheel again, and this is how they rid themselves of their agony.
15
HANSEL AND GRETEL
A poor woodcutter lived on the edge of a large forest. He didn’t have a bite to eat and barely provided the daily bread for his wife and two children, Hansel and Gretel. It reached a point when he couldn’t even provide that anymore. Indeed, he didn’t know how to solve this predicament.
One night as he was tossing and turning in bed because of his worries, his wife said to him, “Listen to me, husband, early tomorrow morning you’re to take both the children and give them each a piece of bread. Then lead them into the middle of the forest where it’s most dense. After you build a fire for them, go away and leave them there. We can no longer feed them.”
“No, wife,” the man said. “I don’t have the heart to take my own children and abandon them to wild beasts, for they’d soon come and tear them apart in the forest.”
“If you don’t do that,” his wife responded, “we shall all have to starve to death.”
She didn’t give him any peace until he said yes.
The two children were still awake because of their hunger, and they had heard everything that their mother said to their father. Gretel thought, “Now it’s all over for me,” and began to weep pitiful tears. But Hansel spoke: “Be quiet, Gretel. Don’t get upset. I’ll find a way to help us.”
Upon saying this, he got up, put on his little jacket, opened the bottom half of the door, and crept outside. The moon was shining very brightly, and the white pebbles glittered in front of the house like pure silver coins. Hansel stooped down to the ground and stuffed his pocket with as many pebbles as he could fit in. Then he went back into the house.
“Don’t worry, Gretel. Just sleep quietly.” And he lay down again in his bed and fell asleep.
Early the next morning, before the sun had even begun to rise, their mother came and woke the two children.
“Get up, children. We’re going into the forest. Here’s a piece of bread for each of you. But be smart and don’t eat it until noon.”
Gretel put the bread under her apron because Hansel had the pebbles in his pocket. Then they all set out together into the forest. After they had walked a while, Hansel stopped still and looked back at the house. He did this time and again until his father said, “Hansel, what are you looking at there and why are you dawdling? Pay attention and march along!”
“Oh, father,” said Hansel, “I’m looking at my little white cat that’s sitting up on the roof and wants to say good-bye to me.”
“You fool,” the mother said. “That’s not a cat. It’s the morning sun shining on the chimney.”
But Hansel had not been looking at the cat. Instead, he had been looking at the shiny pebbles from his pocket that he had been dropping on the ground. When they reached the middle of the forest, the father said, “Children, I want you to gather some wood. I’m going to make a fire so you won’t get cold.”
Hansel and Gretel gathered together some brushwood and built quite a nice little pile. The brushwood was soon kindled, and when the fire was ablaze, the mother said, “Now, children, lie down by the fire and sleep. We’re going into the forest to chop wood. When we’re finished, we’ll come back and get you.”
Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire, and when noon came, they kept eating their pieces of bread until evening. But their mother and father did not return. Nobody came to fetch them. When it became pitch dark, Gretel began to weep, but Hansel said, “Just wait awhile until the moon has risen.”
And when the full moon had risen, Hansel took Gretel by the hand. The pebbles glittered like newly minted silver coins and showed them the way. They walked the whole night long and arrived back at their father’s house at break of day. Their father rejoiced with all his heart when he saw his children again, for he had no
t liked the idea of abandoning them alone in the forest. Their mother also seemed to be delighted by their return, but secretly she was angry.
Not long after this, there was once again nothing to eat in the house, and one evening Gretel heard her mother say to their father: “The children found their way back one time, and I just let that go, but now there’s nothing left in the house except for a half loaf of bread. Tomorrow you must take them farther into the forest so they won’t find their way back home again. Otherwise, there’s no hope for us.”
All this saddened the father, and he thought, “It’d be much better to share your last bite to eat with your children.” But since he had given in the first time, he also had to yield a second.
Hansel and Gretel overheard their parents’ conversation. Then Hansel got up and intended to gather pebbles once again, but their parents had locked the door. Nevertheless, he comforted Gretel and said, “Just sleep, dear Gretel. The dear Lord will certainly help us.”
Early the next morning they each received little pieces of bread, but they were smaller than the last time. On the way into the forest Hansel crumbled the bread in his pocket and stopped as often as he could to throw the crumbs on the ground.
“Hansel, why are you always stopping and looking around?” asked the father. “Keep going!”
“Oh, I’m looking at my little pigeon that’s sitting on the roof and wants to say good-bye to me,” Hansel answered.
“You fool!” his mother said. “That’s not your little pigeon. It’s the morning sun shining on the chimney.”
Now their mother led the children even deeper into the forest until they came to a spot they had never been to before in their lives. Once again they were to sleep by a large fire, and their parents were to come and fetch them in the evening.
When noon came, Gretel shared her bread with Hansel because he had scattered his along the way. Noon went by and then evening passed, but no one came for the poor children. Hansel comforted Gretel and said, “Just wait until the moon has risen, Gretel. Then I’ll see the little bread crumbs that I scattered. They’ll show us the way back home.”
When the moon rose and Hansel looked for the bread crumbs, they were gone because the many thousands of birds that fly about the forest had found them and gobbled them up. Nevertheless, Hansel believed he could find the way home and pulled Gretel along with him, but they soon lost their way in the great wilderness. They walked the entire night and all the next day as well, from morning till night, until they fell asleep from exhaustion. Then they walked for one more day, but they didn’t find their way out of the forest. They were now also very hungry, for they had had nothing to eat except some berries that they had found growing on the ground.
On the third day they continued walking until noon. Then they came to a little house made of bread with cake for a roof and pure sugar for windows.
“Let’s sit down and eat until we’re full,” said Hansel. “I want to eat a piece of the roof. Gretel, you can have part of the window since it’s sweet.”
Hansel had already eaten a good piece of the roof and Gretel had devoured a couple of small round windows and was about to break off a new one when they heard a shrill voice cry from inside:
“Nibble, nibble, I hear a louse!
Who’s that nibbling on my house?”
Hansel and Gretel were so tremendously frightened that they dropped what they had in their hands, and immediately thereafter a small, ancient woman crept out of the door. She shook her head and said, “Well now, dear children, where’ve you come from? Come inside with me. You’ll have a good time.”
She took them both by the hand and led them into her little house. Then she served them a good meal of milk and pancakes with sugar and apples and nuts. Afterward she made up two beautiful beds, and when Hansel and Gretel lay down in them, they thought they were in heaven.
The old woman, however, was really a wicked witch on the lookout for children and had built the house made of bread only to lure them to her. As soon as she had any children in her power, she would kill, cook, and eat them. It would be like a feast day for her. Therefore, she was quite happy that Hansel and Gretel had come her way.
Early the next morning, before the children were awake, she got up and looked at the two of them sleeping so sweetly, and she was delighted and thought, “They’ll certainly be a tasty meal for you!”
Then she grabbed Hansel and stuck him into a small coop, and when he woke up, he was behind a wire mesh used to lock up chickens, and he couldn’t move about. Immediately after, she shook Gretel and yelled, “Get up, you lazybones! Fetch some water, and then go into the kitchen and cook something nice. Your brother’s sitting in a chicken coop. I want to fatten him up, and when he’s fat enough, I’m going to eat him. But now I want you to feed him.”
Gretel was frightened and wept, but she had to do what the witch demanded. So the very best food was cooked for poor Hansel so that he would become fat, while Gretel got nothing but crab shells. Every day the old woman came and called out, “Hansel, stick out your finger so I can feel whether you’re fat enough.”
However, Hansel stuck out a little bone, and the witch was continually puzzled that Hansel didn’t get any fatter.
One evening, after a month had passed, she said to Gretel, “Get a move on and fetch some water! I don’t care whether your little brother’s fat enough or not. He’s going to be slaughtered and boiled tomorrow. In the meantime I want to prepare the dough so that we can also bake.”
So Gretel went off with a sad heart and fetched the water in which Hansel was to be boiled. Early the next morning Gretel had to get up, light the fire, and hang up a kettle full of water.
“Make sure that it boils,” said the witch. “I’m going to light the fire in the oven and shove the bread inside.”
Gretel was standing in the kitchen and wept bloody tears and thought, “It would have been better if the wild animals in the forest had eaten us. Then we would have died together and wouldn’t have had to bear this sorrow, and I wouldn’t have to boil the water that will be the death of my dear brother. Oh dear God, help us poor children get out of this predicament!”
Then the old woman called: “Gretel, come right away over here to the oven!”
When Gretel came, she said, “Look inside and see if the bread is already nice and brown and well-done. My eyes are weak. I can no longer see so well from a distance, and if you can’t see, then sit down on the board, and I’ll shove you inside. Then you can get around inside and check everything.”
The witch wanted to shut the oven door once Gretel was inside, for she wanted to bake her in the hot oven and eat her, too. This is what the wicked witch had planned and why she had called the girl. But God inspired Gretel, and she said, “I don’t know how to do it. First you show it to me. Sit down on the board, and I’ll shove you inside.”
And so the old woman sat down on the board, and since she was light, Gretel shoved her inside as far as she could, and then she quickly shut the oven door and bolted it with an iron bar. The old woman began to scream and groan in the hot oven, but Gretel ran off, and the witch was miserably burned to death.
Meanwhile, Gretel went straight to Hansel and opened the door to the coop. After Hansel jumped out, they kissed each other and were glad. The entire house was full of jewels and pearls. So they filled their pockets with them. Then they went off and found their way home. Their father rejoiced when he saw them again. He hadn’t spent a single happy day since his children had been away. Now he was a rich man. However, the mother had died.
16
HERR FIX-IT-UP
Fix-It-Up had been a soldier for a long time. When the war came to an end, however, and there was nothing but the same old things to do every day, he resigned from the army and decided to become a servant for a great lord. There would be clothes trimmed with gold, a lot to do, and always new things happening. So he set out on his way and came to a foreign court, where he saw a lord taking a walk in the garden. Fix
-It-Up did not hesitate. He moved briskly over to the lord and said, “Sir, I’m looking for employment with a great lord. If Your Majesty is himself such a person, it would give me great pleasure to serve you. There’s nothing I don’t know or can’t do. I know just how to carry out orders, no matter how they are given.”
“Fine, my son,” the lord said. “I’d be pleased to have you. First tell me, what do I desire right now?”
Without answering, Fix-It-Up spun around, rushed away, and returned with a pipe and tobacco.
“Fine, my son. You are hired as my servant, but now I’m going to command you to get Princess Nomini, the most beautiful maiden in the world. I want to have her for my wife.”
“All right,” said Fix-It-Up. “That’s a trifle for me. Your Majesty shall soon have her. Just give me a coach drawn by six horses, a coachman, guards, couriers, servants, and a cook, all in full dress. I myself must have princely garments, and everyone must obey my commands.”
Soon they departed. Fix-It-Up, the servant, sat inside the coach, which headed straight toward the beautiful princess’s court. When the road came to an end, they drove into a field and soon reached the edge of a large forest filled with many thousands of birds. A boisterous song soared splendidly into the blue air.
“Stop! Stop!” exclaimed Fix-It-Up. “Don’t disturb the birds. They are praising their creator and will serve me some other time. Let’s go to the left.”
So the coachman had to turn and drive around the forest. Soon after, they came to a large field, where close to a thousand million ravens were sitting and crying shrilly for food.
“Stop! Stop!” exclaimed Fix-It-Up. “Untie one of the horses way up front. Lead it into the field and slaughter it so that the ravens can eat. I don’t want them to suffer from hunger.”
After the ravens had eaten, the journey continued, and they came to a pond with a fish in it that was moaning and groaning: “For God’s sake, I have nothing to eat in this terrible swamp. Throw me into a running river, and I’ll repay your deed one day.”