by Jacob Grimm
“No, no!” she exclaimed. “I won’t be able to stand it,” and she opened the other window because beads of sweat were running down her face also. Then he gave her a kick too, and she went flying out the window. Since she was lighter than her husband, she soared much higher.
Her husband called out to her, “Come over here!”
But she replied, “No, you come over here to me! I can’t make it over to you.”
So they floated in the air, and neither could get to the other. Whether they are still floating, I don’t know, but I do know that the young giant took his iron staff and continued on his way.
5
THE GNOME
Once upon a time there was a rich king who had three daughters. Every day they went walking in the palace garden, where the king, who loved trees, had planted many different kinds, but he was most fond of one particular tree, which he protected by placing it under a spell: Whoever picked one of its apples would be sent a hundred fathoms underground. When harvest time came, the apples on that tree became as red as blood. Every day the three daughters looked under the tree to see if the wind had blown an apple to the ground, but they never found one. Gradually the tree became so full and its branches so heavy that it seemed the tree would collapse. By then the youngest sister had such a craving for an apple from this tree that she said to her sisters, “Our father loves us far too much to put a curse on us. I believe he cast the spell mainly with strangers in mind.”
Upon saying that, she plucked a nice plump apple, ran to her sisters, and said: “Just taste it, dear sisters! I’ve never tasted anything so delicious in all my life.”
Then the two other princesses also took a bite of the apple, and suddenly all three sank deep down into the earth, leaving no trace whatsoever behind them.
At noon the king wanted to call them to the dining table, but they were nowhere to be found. He looked all around the castle and garden but couldn’t find them. Finally, he became so distressed that he made it known throughout the country that whoever brought his daughters back could have one of them for his wife. As a result, more men than you can imagine went out searching for them all over the kingdom, for the princesses were known to be beautiful and kind to all. Indeed, they were loved by everyone in the country.
Among the searchers were three huntsmen who had spent a week looking for them and had eventually come to a large castle. When they went inside, they found beautiful rooms, and in one of the rooms the table was set with delicious dishes that were still steaming hot, but there was not a living soul to be seen or heard in the whole castle. At last they were so hungry that they sat down and ate up all the food Then they agreed to stay in the castle and drew lots to see which one would remain there while the other two continued to look for the princesses. The lot fell to the oldest, and the next day he stayed in the castle while the two youngest went out searching. At noon a tiny gnome came and asked for a piece of bread. The huntsman took a loaf of bread that he found there and cut off a slice. As he was handing it to the little man, the gnome let it drop and asked him to kindly pick up the piece for him. As the huntsman was bending over, the gnome took a stick, grabbed him by his hair, and gave him a good beating. The next day the second huntsman stayed home, and he fared no better. When the other two returned in the evening, the oldest asked him, “Well, how did things go?
“Very badly.”
So the two eldest brothers confided in each other about their plight and didn’t tell the youngest anything about it because they didn’t like him. They always called him Stupid Hans, because he was not particularly worldly-wise.
On the third day the youngest stayed home, and again the gnome came to fetch a piece of bread. When the huntsman handed him a piece, the gnome let it drop again and asked him to kindly pick it up for him.
“What?” cried the huntsman. “Can’t you pick the bread up yourself? If you won’t make the effort to take better care of your daily bread, then you really don’t deserve to eat it.”
Then the gnome got very angry and ordered him to do it. But the young huntsman acted swiftly: he grabbed the gnome and thrashed him soundly. The gnome shrieked loudly and said, “Stop! Stop! Let me go, and I’ll tell you where the king’s daughters are.”
When he heard that, he stopped thrashing him. The gnome told the huntsman that he came from beneath the earth, where there were more than a dozen other gnomes like him, and if the huntsman would go with him, he would show him where the king’s daughters were. Then the gnome pointed to a deep well without any water in it and told him to beware of his companions, for they were not to be trusted, and that he would have to save the king’s daughters by himself. To be sure, his brothers wanted to rescue the king’s daughters too, but they didn’t want to exert themselves or take any risks. The best way would be to take a large basket, get into it with his hunting knife and a bell, and then have himself lowered down into the well. There he would find three rooms, and in each one he would see a princess picking the lice from a many-headed dragon. In each room he would have to cut the dragon’s heads off.
After the gnome had told him all that, he disappeared, and toward evening, the other two huntsman returned and asked him how his day went.
“So far, so good,” he said, and he told them that he hadn’t seen anyone until noon, when a tiny gnome had come and asked for a piece of bread. After he had handed it to him, the gnome had dropped it and asked him to pick it up. When he refused, the dwarf began to spit at him. They had a quarrel, and he gave the gnome a beating. Afterward the little fellow told him where the king’s daughters were.
Upon hearing that, the two brothers became so livid that they turned green with envy. The next morning they went to the well together and drew lots to see who would be the first to get into the basket. The lot fell to the eldest again, and he had to get into the basket and take the bell with him.
“If I ring,” he said, “you must pull me up quickly.”
When he was just a little way down, he rang the bell, and they pulled him up again. Then the second brother got in and did the very same thing. Finally, it was the youngest brother’s turn, and he let himself be lowered all the way to the bottom.
After he got out of the basket, he took his hunting knife, went to the first door, and listened. When he heard the dragon snoring loudly, he opened the door slowly and saw one of the king’s daughters picking lice from the nine dragon’s heads in her lap. So he took his hunting knife and cut off all nine heads. The princess jumped up, threw her arms around him, and kissed him many times. Then she took her necklace of pure gold and hung it around his neck. After that he went to the second princess, who was picking lice from a seven-headed dragon, and he rescued her as well. Finally, he went to the youngest, who had a four-headed dragon to louse, and he set her free too. Now they were all enormously happy and couldn’t stop hugging and kissing him. Soon thereafter he rang the bell very loudly so his brothers who were above could hear. One after the other, he put the princesses into the basket and had them pulled up. When his turn came, he remembered the gnome saying that his brothers were not to be trusted. So he took a big stone that was lying there and put it into the basket. When the basket was about midway up, the wicked brothers cut the rope so that the basket with the stone inside fell to the ground. Since they thought that he was now dead, they ran off with the king’s three daughters and made them promise to tell their father that they were the ones who had rescued them. Afterward the two of them went to the king and asked to marry his daughters.
In the meantime, the youngest huntsman had become depressed and just walked around the three rooms, for he thought he was doomed to die. Then he saw a flute hanging on the wall and said, “Why are you hanging there? This is no place for merrymaking!” He looked at the dragon heads, too, and said, “You can’t help me either.” He paced up and down the floor so much that he wore the ground down so that it became smooth. At last he had an idea: he took the flute from the wall and played a tune on it. Suddenly many gnomes app
eared, and with each note he played, another would emerge, and he kept on playing until the room was full of them. They asked him what he desired, and he said that he would like to return to the top of the earth again and see the light of day. Then they each grabbed a strand of his hair and flew up to earth with him. When he was above, he went straight to the king’s castle, where one of the princesses was to be married. Soon thereafter he found the room in which the king was sitting with his three daughters. When the princesses saw him, they fainted. The king got very angry and immediately had him taken to prison. He thought the huntsman had harmed his daughters, but when the princesses regained consciousness, they pleaded a great deal with the king to release him. When the king asked them why, they said they were not allowed to tell him the reason. However, their father said they should tell it to the stove. Meanwhile, he left the room, listened at the door, and heard everything. Shortly after, he had the two older brothers hanged on the gallows and gave the youngest daughter to the young huntsman for his wife.
When the wedding took place, I was wearing a pair of glass shoes and stumbled over a stone. The stone said, Clink! and my slippers broke in two.
6
THE KING OF THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN
A merchant had two children, a boy and a girl, who were still infants and couldn’t walk. About this time the merchant had invested his entire fortune in richly laden ships that he sent out to sea. Just when he thought he was about to make a lot of money through this venture, he received news that the ships had sunk. So now, instead of being a rich man, he was a poor one and had nothing left but a field outside the city. In order to take his mind off his troubles somewhat, he went into his field, and as he was pacing back and forth, a little black man suddenly stood beside him and asked him why he was so sad and what was troubling his heart.
“If you could help me,” said the merchant, “I’d certainly tell you.”
“Who knows?” answered the little black man. “Just tell me. Perhaps I can help you.”
Then the merchant told him that he had lost his whole fortune at sea and had nothing left but the field.
“Don’t worry,” said the little black man. “You shall have as much money as you want if you promise in twelve years from now to bring me the first thing that brushes against your leg when you return home. And you must bring it to this spot.”
The merchant thought, “That’s not much to ask. What else can that be but my dog?” Of course, he didn’t think of his little boy, and therefore, he said yes. Then he gave the little black man a signed and sealed agreement and went home.
When he returned to his house, his little boy was so happy to see him that he held himself up by some benches, toddled over to his father, and grabbed him around the legs. The father was horrified, for he remembered the agreement, and he knew now what he had signed away. Still, he thought the little man might have been playing a joke on him since he didn’t find any money. One month later, however, when he went up into his attic to gather some old tinware to sell, he saw a huge pile of money lying on the floor. Once he saw the money, he was delighted and was able to purchase things again and became an even greater merchant than before and trusted in God to make him a good man. In the meantime, his son grew and learned how to use his brains wisely. As he neared his twelfth birthday, however, the merchant became so worried that one could see the anxiety written on his face. One day his son asked him what was bothering him, and the father didn’t want to tell him. But the son persisted until his father finally revealed everything to him: how without thinking he had promised him to a little black man and received a lot of money in return, and how he had given the little man a signed and sealed agreement to deliver him on his twelfth birthday.
“Oh, father,” said the son. “Don’t be discouraged. Everything will turn out well. The black man has no power over me.”
The son had himself blessed by the priest, and when the hour arrived, he went out to the field with his father. There he drew a circle and stepped inside it with his father. The little black man came then and said to the old man, “Have you brought what you promised me?”
The father kept quiet, but the son said, “What do you want here?”
“I’ve come to discuss matters with your father, not with you.”
“You deceived my father and led him astray,” replied the son. “Give me back the agreement.”
“No,” said the little black man, “I won’t give up my rights.”
They talked for a long time until it was finally agreed that, since the son no longer belonged to his father, nor did he belong to his arch-enemy, he was to get into a little boat and drift downstream on the river. His father was to shove the boat off with his foot, and the son’s fate was to be decided by the river. The boy said farewell to his father, got into the little boat, and the father had to shove it off with his own foot. The little boat capsized with the bottom up and the top face down. Since the father believed his son had drowned, he went home and mourned for him.
However, the boat didn’t sink but continued to drift calmly downstream with the boy safely inside. Finally, it touched down upon an unknown shore and stood still. The boy went ashore, saw a beautiful castle in the distance, and went toward it. When he entered, he realized it was enchanted. He went through all the rooms, but they were empty except for the last chamber, where he encountered a snake. Now, this snake was an enchanted princess, who was delighted to see him and said, “Have you come at last, my savior? I’ve been waiting now twelve years for you. This kingdom is enchanted, and you must release it from the magic spell. Tonight twelve black men wearing chains will come and ask you what you’re doing here. You must keep quiet and refuse to answer them. Let them do whatever they want with you: they will torture you, beat you, and stab you. Let them do that, just don’t talk. At midnight they must go away. The second night twelve other men will come, and the third night there will be twenty-four, who will chop off your head. But at midnight their power will be gone, and if you have held out until then and have not uttered a single word, I shall be saved and shall come to you carrying the Water of Life. I’ll rub some on you, and you’ll be alive again and as healthy as you were before.”
“I shall gladly release you from the spell,” the young man said, and everything happened just as she had said: the black men could not force a word out of him, and on the third night the snake turned into a beautiful princess who came with the Water of Life and brought him back to life. Then she embraced him and kissed him, and there was joy and jubilation throughout the castle. Soon thereafter they celebrated their wedding, and he was king of the Golden Mountain.
From then on they lived happily together, and the queen gave birth to a handsome boy. After eight years had passed, the king’s thoughts turned to his father. His heart went out to him, and he wished he could see him again. But the queen didn’t want to let him go and said, “I can tell that this will bring me bad luck.”
Still, he gave her no peace until she consented to let him go. Upon his departure she gave him a wishing ring and said, “Take this ring and put it on your finger. With it you can transport yourself immediately to wherever you want to go. But you must promise me never to use it to wish me away from here to your father’s place.”
He promised her, put the ring on his finger, and wished that he was home, outside the city where his father lived. All at once he found himself outside the city. When he reached the city gate, the sentries wouldn’t let him enter because he was wearing such strange and rich clothes. So he climbed a hill where a shepherd was tending his flock. He exchanged clothes with him, put on the shepherd’s old coat, and then went into the city without being disturbed. After he got to his father’s house, he revealed his identity, but his father wouldn’t believe he was his son and said that, to be sure, he had had a son, but this son had long since been dead. Nevertheless, the father offered the man a plate of food since he saw he was a poor, needy shepherd.
“I’m truly your son,” said the shepherd to
his parents. “Don’t you remember any birthmarks you’d recognize me by?”
“Yes,” said his mother, “our son had a raspberry mark under his right arm.”
He pulled up his shirt, and when they saw the raspberry mark, they no longer doubted that he was their son. Then he told them that he was king of the Golden Mountain and that he had a princess as his wife and a handsome seven-year-old son.
“Now that can’t possibly be true,” said his father. “What kind of a king would run around in a tattered shepherd’s coat?”
Immediately the son got angry, and not thinking of his promise, he turned his ring and wished both his wife and son there, and within seconds they were with him. But the queen wept and accused him of breaking his promise and making her unhappy. Since she was there, however, and couldn’t do anything about it, she had to accept her situation, but there was evil on her mind.
Shortly thereafter her husband led her outside the city to the field and showed her the spot on the riverbank where the little boat had been shoved off. Then he said, “I’m tired now. Sit down next to me. I’d like to sleep a little on your lap.”
He laid his head on her lap, and she loused him a bit until he fell asleep. While he was sleeping, she took the ring off his finger and drew her foot out from under him, leaving only her slipper behind. Finally, she took her child in her arms and wished herself back in her kingdom. When he awoke, he was lying there all alone. His wife and child were gone, and the ring as well. Only the slipper, as a token, had been left behind. “You can’t go back home again to your parents,” he said to himself. “They’d only say you were a sorcerer. You’d better pack up and get back to your kingdom.”
So he went on his way and finally came to a mountain where three giants were standing and quarreling about how best to divide their father’s inheritance. When they saw him riding by, they called to him and said that since little people were clever, they wanted him to divide the inheritance among them. This inheritance consisted of three things: First, a sword that chopped off everyone’s head except that of the person who held it and said, “All heads off except mine!” Then the heads would lie on the ground. Second, a cloak that made one invisible if one put it on. Third, a pair of boots that carried the person who wore them to any spot he wished in a matter of seconds.