by Jacob Grimm
Simpleton went down the vault and came to a room glimmering and flickering with gold and jewels, but instead of a beautiful woman, there was a nasty frog sitting in the middle. The frog called out to him: “Embrace me, and immerse yourself!”
But he didn’t want to do this. So the frog called out a second time: “Embrace me, and immerse yourself!”
So Simpleton grabbed hold of the frog and carried it above to a pond where he jumped into the water with the frog. However, no sooner did they touch the water than he held the most beautiful woman in his arms. Then they climbed out of the water, and he brought her to his father, and she was a thousand times more beautiful than the women whom the other princes had brought with them. Once again the realm would have belonged to Simpleton, but the two brothers made a racket and demanded that whoever’s beautiful woman could jump up to the ring that was hanging in the middle of the hall should inherit the realm. The eldest son’s woman could jump only halfway; the second son’s woman jumped a bit higher; but the third son’s woman jumped right up to the ring. So the two elder brothers finally had to agree that Simpleton would inherit the realm after their father’s death, and when the father died, Simpleton became king and ruled with wisdom for a long time.
The Golden Goose
Once upon a time there was a man who had three sons. However, the youngest was a simpleton. One day the eldest son said: “Father, I want to go into the forest and chop wood.”
“Let it be,” the father said. “Otherwise you’ll come home with a bandaged arm.”
But the son didn’t pay attention to his father and thought he knew how to take care of himself. He put some cake in his pocket and went into the forest, where he met a little old gray man who said: “I’m so hungry. Give me a piece of the cake that you have in your pocket.”
However, the clever son responded: “Why should I give you a piece of my cake? Then I’ll have nothing for myself. Get out of here!”
The son went off with his axe and began to chop down a tree. It didn’t take long, however, for him to make a slip with the axe, and he cut himself in the arm. So he had to go home and have his arm bandaged. This was all because of the little old gray man.
Some time later the second son went into the forest, where the little man asked him for a piece of cake, too. He also refused and consequently struck himself in the leg so that he had to be carried back home. Finally, Simpleton went out into the forest, and the little man spoke to him just as he had to the others and asked for a piece of cake.
“You can have the entire thing,” said Simpleton and gave it to him.
Then the little man spoke: “Chop this tree down, and you’ll find something.”
Simpleton began hacking away, and when the tree fell, a golden goose was sitting there. He took the bird with him and went to an inn, where he wanted to spend the night. He didn’t want to stay in the large room. Rather, he wanted a room for himself alone. Once there he set the goose down in the middle of the room. The innkeeper’s daughters had seen the goose and were curious and would have liked to have had a feather from the goose. Then the eldest daughter said: “I’ll go upstairs, and if I don’t return soon, then come after me.”
Upon saying this she went to the goose, but no sooner did she touch the feather than she found herself attached to the goose. Now, since she didn’t come back downstairs, the second sister went to look after her, and as soon as she saw the goose, she couldn’t resist the desire to pluck a feather. The eldest sister tried her best to warn her not to do this, but nothing helped. Her sister grabbed hold of the goose and was soon attached to the feather. Now, after the third daughter had waited long enough below, she finally went upstairs, and her sisters called out to her and warned her for heaven’s sake not to come near the goose. However, she didn’t listen to them and was set on having one of the feathers and got stuck to it.
The next morning Simpleton took the goose in his arm and went off. The three daughters were tightly attached to the goose and had to follow him. When they came to a field, they met the parson, who cried out at them: “Phooey! Naughty girls! What are you doing running after this young fellow, in public no less? Shame on you!”
Upon saying this he grabbed one of the girls by the hand and tried to yank her away. However, as soon as he touched her, he became stuck to her and now had to run along behind them.
Shortly after this happened, the sexton came and cried out: “Hey, parson, where are you off to in such a hurry? We still have a christening today!”
The sexton ran up to him, grabbed him by the arm, and became attached. As the five of them marched one after the other after Simpleton, two farmers with their hoes came from the field. The parson called them over to help detach themselves, but no sooner did they touch the sexton than they got stuck, and so now there were seven who ran after Simpleton with the goose.
Soon he came to a city ruled by a king who had a daughter so serious that nobody could get her to laugh. Consequently, the king issued a decree declaring that whoever made the princess laugh would have her for his bride. When Simpleton heard this, he went to the king’s daughter and took along the goose with the group of people attached to the bird. As soon as the princess saw this parade, she began to laugh boisterously and couldn’t stop. Therefore, Simpleton demanded to have her for his bride, but the king made all kinds of excuses and said Simpleton would first have to bring him a man who could drink up all the wine in a cellar. So Simpleton went into the forest to the spot where he had chopped down the tree, and he saw a man sitting there with a sad face. So Simpleton asked him what had caused him to have such a heavy heart.
“Oh! I’m so thirsty and can’t get enough to drink. I’ve already emptied a barrel of wine, but that’s only a like a drop on a hot stone!”
“Well, I can help you,” Simpleton said. “Come with me. You’ll be able to drink until you are full.”
Simpleton led him to the king’s cellar, and the man set to work on the large barrels. He drank and drank until his lips began to hurt him, and before the day was over, he had drunk up everything in the cellar.
Now Simpleton demanded his bride, but the king was annoyed that a common fellow whom everyone called Simpleton should carry off his daughter, and so he set a new condition: Simpleton had to produce a man who could eat a mountain of bread. So Simpleton returned to the forest, and there was a man sitting at the spot of the tree that he had cut down, and this man was tightening a belt around his waist and making an awful face.
“I’ve eaten an oven full of coarse bread, but what good is that when I’m still enormously hungry? I don’t feel a thing in my body and must tighten my belt if I’m not to die of hunger.”
As soon as Simpleton heard this, he was cheerful and said: “Get up and come with me. You’ll eat until you’re full.”
Simpleton led the man to the king, who had all the flour of the entire kingdom gathered and baked into an enormous mountain, but the man from the forest took a place in front of it, and he caused the entire mountain to vanish in a day and a night. Once again, Simpleton asked for his bride, but the king sought a way out again and demanded a ship that could sail on water and on land. If he produced this ship, then he could have the princess right away. So Simpleton went into the forest once more and met the little gray man to whom he had given his cake.
“I’ve drunken and eaten for you,” the little man said, “and now I’ll give you the ship. I’m giving you all this because you were so kind and took pity on me.”
So he gave Simpleton the ship that sailed on land and on water, and when the king saw this, he could no longer prevent him from marrying his daughter. Then the wedding was celebrated, and Simpleton inherited the realm and lived a long time happily with his wife.
65
ALL FUR
Once upon a time there was a king who had the most beautiful wife in the world, and her hair was pure gold. They had a daughter together, and she was just as beautiful as her mother, and her hair was just as golden. One day the
queen became sick, and when she felt she was about to die, she called the king to her and made a request: if after her death he wanted to marry again, he should only take someone who was as beautiful as she was and who had golden hair like hers. Once the king promised her that, she died.
For a long time the king was so distressed that didn’t think about a second wife. Finally, his councilors urged him to remarry. So messengers were sent to all the princesses in the world, but none of them were as beautiful as the dead queen. Nor could they find such golden hair anywhere in the world.
Now one day the king cast his eyes on his daughter, and when he saw that her features were very similar to those of her mother and that she also had such golden hair, he thought, “Since you won’t find anyone as beautiful in the world, you must marry your daughter.” And right then he felt such a great love for her that he immediately informed his councilors and the princess of his decision.
The councilors wanted to talk him out of it, but it was in vain. The princess was totally horrified about his godless intention. However, since she was smart, she told the king that he first had to provide her with three dresses, one as golden as the sun, one as white as the moon, and one as bright as the stars and then a cloak made of a thousand kinds of pelts and furs, and each animal in the kingdom had to contribute a piece of its skin to it.
The king had such a passionate desire for her that everyone in his realm was ordered to work. His huntsmen had to catch all the animals and take a piece of their skin. Thus a cloak was made from their fur, and it didn’t take long before the king brought the princess what she had demanded.
Now the princess said that she would marry him the next day. However, during the night, she collected the gifts that she had received from her fiancé from another kingdom: a golden ring, a little golden spinning wheel, and a little golden reel, and the three dresses, all of which she put into a nutshell. Then she blackened her face and hands with soot, put on the cloak made of all kinds of fur, and departed. She walked the whole night until she reached a great forest, where she was safe. Since she was tired, she climbed into a hollow tree and fell asleep.
She continued to sleep until it became broad daylight. As it so happened, the king, her bridegroom,2 was out hunting in the forest. When his dogs came to the tree, they started to sniff and run around it. The king sent his huntsmen to see what kind of animal was hiding in the tree. When they returned to him, they said that there was a strange animal lying in it, and they had never seen anything like it in their lives. Its skin was made up of a thousand different kinds of fur, and it was lying there asleep. Then the king ordered them to catch it and tie it on the back of the wagon. The huntsmen did this, and as they pulled it from the tree, they saw it was a maiden. Then they tied her on the back of the wagon and drove home with her.
“All Fur,” they said, “you’ll do well to work in the kitchen. You can carry wood and water and sweep up the ashes.”
Then they gave her a little stall beneath the steps.
“You can live and sleep there.”
So she had to work in the kitchen, where she helped the cook, plucked the chickens, tended the fire, sorted the vegetables, and did all the dirty work. Since she did everything so diligently, the cook was good to her and sometimes called All Fur to him in the evening and gave her some of the leftovers to eat. Before the king went to bed, she had to go upstairs and pull off his boots, and as soon as she would pull one off, he would always throw it at her head. And so All Fur led a miserable life for a long time. Ah, you beautiful maiden, what shall become of you?
At one time a ball was held in the castle, and All Fur thought, “perhaps now I could see my dear bridegroom once again.” So she went to the cook and asked him to allow her to go upstairs for a while to see the splendor from the doorway.
2 Evidently the princess had never met her fiancé (bridegroom).
“Go ahead,” said the cook, “but you can’t stay longer than half an hour. You’ve got to sweep up the ashes tonight.”
So All Fur took her little oil lamp, went into her little stall, and washed the soot off her so that her beauty came to light again like flowers in springtime. Then she took off the fur cloak, opened the nut, and took out the dress that shone like the sun. When she was fully dressed, she went upstairs, and everyone made way for her, for they believed that she was nothing less than a distinguished princess who had just come into the ballroom. The king immediately offered her his hand and led her forth to dance. And as he was dancing with her, he thought, “this unknown princess resembles my dear bride,” and the longer he gazed at her, the more she resembled her so that he was almost certain it was her. When the dance ended, he wanted to ask her. However, as she finished the dance, she curtsied and disappeared before the king could begin to speak. Then he asked the guards, but nobody had seen the princess leave the castle. She had quickly run to her little stall, taken off her dress, blackened her face and hands, and put on the fur cloak once again. Then she went into the kitchen and started to sweep up the ashes.
“Let it be until morning,” the cook said. “I want to go upstairs and take a look at the dance. Make a soup for the king, but don’t let any hairs fall in, otherwise you’ll get nothing more to eat.”
All Fur cooked a bread soup for the king, and then at the end, she slipped the golden ring that the king had given to her as a present into the soup. When the ball came to an end, the king had his bread soup brought to him, and it tasted so good that he was convinced that he had never eaten one so good. However, when he had finished, he found the ring at the bottom of the bowl. As he looked at it carefully, he saw that it was his wedding ring and was puzzled.3
He couldn’t grasp how the ring came to be there, and so he had the cook summoned, and the cook became angry with All Fur.
“You must have certainly let a hair fall into the soup. If that’s true, you’ll get a beating!”
However, when the cook went upstairs, the king asked him who had cooked the soup because it had been better than usual. So the cook had to confess that All Fur had made it, and the king ordered him to send All Fur up to him. When she came, the king said: “Who are you and what are you doing in my castle? Where did you get the ring that was in the soup?”
Then she replied:
“I’m nothing but a poor child whose mother and father are dead
I am nothing and am good for nothing except for having boots thrown at my head.
I also know nothing about the ring.”
Upon saying that she ran away.
Some time later there was another ball, and once again All Fur asked the cook’s permission to go upstairs. The cook allowed her but only for half an hour, and then she was to return and cook the bread soup for the king. So, All Fur went to her little stall, washed herself clean, took out the dress as silvery as the moon and cleaner and more sparkling than fallen snow. When she appeared upstairs, the dance had already begun. The king offered his hand to her again and danced with her. He no longer doubted that she was his bride, for nobody in the world except her had such golden hair. However, when the dance was over, the princess had already departed once again, and despite all his efforts, the king couldn’t find her, and he hadn’t even spoken a single word with her.
Indeed, she was All Fur again with blackened hands and face. She stood in the kitchen and cooked the bread soup for the king while the cook went upstairs to watch the dance. When the soup was done, she put the golden spinning wheel into the bowl. The king ate the soup, and it seemed even better this time. When he found the golden spinning wheel at the bottom, he was even more astounded because he had at one time sent it to his bride as a present. The cook was summoned, and then All Fur, but once again she replied that she knew nothing about it, and that she was only there to have boots thrown at her head.
When the king held a ball for the third time, he hoped his bride would come again, and he wanted to make sure to hold on to her. All Fur asked the cook again to let her go upstairs, but he scolded her and
said: “You’re a witch. You always put something in the soup and can cook it better than I do.”
However, since she pleaded so passionately and promised to behave herself, he let her go upstairs again for half an hour. Thereupon she put on the dress that sparkled as bright as the stars in the night and went upstairs and danced with the king. He thought he had never seen her more beautiful. As they were dancing, however, he slipped a ring onto her finger and ordered the dance to last for a very long time. Nevertheless, he couldn’t hold onto her, nor could he speak a single word to her, for when the dance was over, she mingled with the people so quickly that she vanished before he turned around.
All Fur ran to her little stall, and since she had been away longer than half an hour, she undressed quickly. In her hurry she couldn’t blacken herself completely so that a finger remained white. When she went into the kitchen, the cook was already upstairs, and she quickly cooked the bread soup and put the golden reel into it.
Just as he had found the ring and the golden spinning wheel, the king also found the reel. Now he knew for sure that his bride was nearby, for nobody else could have possessed the presents. All Fur was summoned and wanted once again to avoid the king and run away. However, as she tried to run off, the king caught sight of the white finger on her hand and held her tight. He found the ring that he had slipped onto her finger and tore off her fur cloak. Then her golden hair toppled down, and she was his dearly beloved bride. Now the cook was richly rewarded, and the king held the wedding and they lived happily until their death.
3 This was the ring that he had sent to her as a gift.
66
HURLEBURLEBUTZ
Once a king got lost during a hunt, and suddenly a little white dwarf appeared before him.
“Your majesty,” he said, “if you give me your youngest daughter, I’ll show you how to get out of the forest.”