Tales from the Brothers Grimm: Selected and Illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger

by Brothers Grimm; Zwerger, Lisbeth

  The king, hoping to preserve his dear child from this misfortune, ordered all spindles in his entire kingdom to be burnt. However, the wise women’s gifts to the girl all came true, for she was so beautiful, well-behaved, friendly and intelligent that everyone who saw her loved her.

  As it happened, on her fifteenth birthday the king and queen were not at home, and the girl was all alone in the castle. She went all over it, into every room and chambers, and at last she came to an old tower. She climbed the narrow spiral staircase, and reached a small door. There was a rusty key in the lock, and when she turned it the door sprang open and she saw an old woman sitting in a little room with a spindle, busily spinning flax.

  “Good day, old mother,” said the king’s daughter. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m spinning,” said the old woman, nodding her head,

  “And what’s that thing jumping about in such a funny way?” asked the girl, and she took the spindle to try spinning for herself. But as soon as she had touched the spindle the magic spell came true, and she pricked her finger. At the moment when she felt it prick her, she dropped on the bed standing in the room and lay there in a deep sleep.

  That sleep spread over the whole castle. The king and queen, who had just come home and entered the castle hall, fell asleep, and all the courtiers with them. The horses slept in their stables, the dogs slept in the yard, the pigeons on the roof, the flies on the wall. Even the fire flickering on the hearth burned low and went to sleep. The roast meat turning on the spit stopped sizzling, and the cook, who was about to pull the kitchen boy’s hair for something he had done wrong, let go of him and fell asleep. The wind died down, and not a leaf stirred on the trees outside the castle. But a thorn hedge began growing round the castle, taller and taller every year, and at last it had surrounded the building entirely and grown right over it, so that nothing was to be seen, not even the flag on top of the roof.

  However, the country people told stories of the beautiful sleeping Briar Rose, for that was the name of the king’s daughter, and so from time to time kings’ sons came and tried to get through the hedge and reach the castle. None of them could do it, because the thorns held together as if they had hands, and the young men were caught in the tangled hedge, could not free themselves, and died a miserable death.

  After many years another king’s son came into that country and heard an old man telling the tale of the thorn hedge, saying that there was supposed to be a castle behind it where Briar Rose, the beautiful daughter of a king, had slept for a hundred years, and with her the king and queen and all their court. The old man had also heard, from his grandfather, that many kings’ sons had already come trying to make their way through the thorny hedge, but they had been caught there and died a tragic death. Then the young man said, “I’m not afraid. I’ll go there and see the lovely Briar Rose.” However hard the good old man tried to persuade him to give up such an idea, he wouldn’t listen.

  Now it so happened that the hundred years were up, and the day had come for Briar Rose to awaken to life again. When the king’s son approached the thorny hedge, it was covered with large and beautiful flowers that parted of their own accord and let him through unharmed, and they closed into a hedge again behind him. He saw the horses and the hounds with their pied coats lying asleep in the yard, and the pigeons sitting on the roof with their heads under their wings. And when he was inside the castle he saw the flies asleep on the wall, the cook in the kitchen still raising his hand as if to seize the boy, and the maid sitting with a black chicken that she had been about to pluck on her lap.

  Then he went on, and saw the whole court lying in the great hall asleep, while the king and queen lay beside the throne on its dais. He went on and on, and all was so still that you could hear yourself breathing, and at last he came to the tower and opened the door to the little room where Briar Rose was sleeping. There she lay, so beautiful that he couldn’t take his eyes off her, and he bent down and gave her a kiss.

  When his kiss had touched her, Briar Rose opened her eyes, woke up, and looked at him very kindly. They went down the spiral staircase together, and the king awoke, and so did the queen and all their court, gazing at one another wide-eyed. The horses in the yard stood up and shook themselves; the hounds raced about wagging their tails; the pigeons on the roof took their heads out from under their wings, looked around and flew out into the fields. The flies on the wall crawled on; the fire in the kitchen flickered, burned higher and cooked the meal; the joint on the spit went on sizzling; the cook gave the boy such a slap that he cried out; and the maid finished plucking the chicken. Then the wedding of the king’s son to Briar Rose was celebrated with great splendor, and they lived happily together all their lives.

  THE POOR MILLER’S BOY AND THE LITTLE CAT

  There was once an old miller who had neither wife nor children, but lived in his mill with three miller’s boys working for him. When they had worked for him for several years, the miller said to them one day, “I’m an old man and feel like taking my ease behind the stove these days. You three lads go out into the world, and I will give the mill to whichever of you brings me back the best horse. In return I’ll expect to be looked after here until I die.”

  The third of the boys was the youngest and smallest, and the other two thought him a simpleton. They didn’t want to let him have any chance of getting the mill. So when the three of them set out together, the two older miller’s boys said to simple Hans, “You might as well stay here – you’ll never in your life come by a horse!”

  But Hans went with them all the same. When night fell they came to a cave and crawled into it to sleep there. The two clever boys waited until Hans had fallen asleep, and then they got up and secretly stole away. They left Hans lying there, and thought they had played a clever trick on him. However, it didn’t turn out as they expected at all!

  When the sun rose and Hans awoke, he was lying in the deep cave. He looked around him and exclaimed, “Dear God, where am I?” At last he sat up, crawled out of the cave, went into the forest and thought: I’m all alone in the world now, the others have abandoned me – and how will I ever come to get a horse?

  As he walked along, deep in thought, he suddenly saw a little tortoiseshell cat coming towards him. The cat asked, in friendly tones, “Where do you want to go, Hans?”

  “I’m afraid you can’t help me,” said Hans.

  “I know what you wish for,” said the little cat. “You want a handsome horse. Come with me, serve me faithfully for seven years, and at the end of that time I will give you a finer horse than you have ever seen.”

  This is a strange cat, thought Hans, but I’ll go with her and find out whether what she says is true. So he went away with the tortoiseshell cat to her enchanted castle. It was full of little cats who served her. They scampered nimbly up and down stairs in high spirits, amusing themselves. When they sat down to table in the evening, three of the cats made music. One played the double-bass, another the violin, and the third raised a trumpet to his mouth and blew out his cheeks out as he played. When they had eaten, the table was taken away and the tortoiseshell cat said, “Come along now, Hans, and dance with me!”

  “No,” he replied. “What, dance with a kitty-cat? I’ve never done such a thing in my life.”

  “Well, take him to bed, then,” said the little cat to her cat servants. One of them carried a light to his bedroom, one took off his shoes, one his stockings, and finally one of them blew out the candle. Next morning they came back and helped him out of bed. One of them put his stockings on for him, another tied his garters, another fetched his shoes, yet another washed him, and finally one of the cats dried his face with her tail. This is certainly a comfortable place to live, said Hans to himself, and he was very happy with his new position.

  However, he also had to work for the cat, and chop wood for her every day. She gave him a silver axe for the work, as well as a silver wedge and a silver saw, and a mallet made of copper. He worked hard, and li
ved in the cat’s enchanted castle, where he was given good food and drink, but he never saw anyone apart from the tortoiseshell cat and the other cats in her household.

  One day she told him, “Go and mow my meadow, and spread the grass out to dry.” She gave him a silver scythe and a whetstone made of gold, and told him to bring everything back.

  Hans went and did as she told him. When the work was done, he carried the scythe, the whetstone and the hay he had made home, and asked the cat whether she wouldn’t give him his reward, for the seven years were up now.

  “No,” said the cat. “I have one more thing that you must do for me first. Here’s building material of silver, a carpenter’s hatchet, an angle iron and everything else you’ll need, all made of silver. I want you to build me a little house.”

  So Hans built the cat a pretty little house. When he had finished it, he said now he had done all she asked, but he still didn’t have a horse.

  “Would you like to see my horses?” asked the cat.

  “Yes, to be sure,” said Hans. Then the cat opened the door of the little house – and there stood twelve proud horses, with coats so smooth and shining that you could see your reflection in them. Hans felt his heart leap at the sight. Now the little cat gave him food and drink again, and then she said, “Go home. I am not giving you the horse to take with you, but I will come myself and bring it to you in three days’ time.”

  So Hans set off, and the cat showed him the way to the mill. But she hadn’t even given him new clothes to wear, so he had to go in the old, ragged smock that he had worn when he arrived, and after seven years it was far too short for him.

  When he came home to the mill, the other miller’s boys were back as well. Each of them had brought a horse with him, but one of the horses was blind and the other lame. “Well, Hans,” they asked. “Where’s your horse, then?”

  “It will be coming in three days’ time,” said Hans.

  At that they laughed and said, “Why, Hans, you simpleton, where would you get a horse? What a joke!”

  Hans went into the mill, but the miller said he was not to sit down at the table with them; they’d be ashamed of a companion in such a torn and ragged smock. So they gave him a little food to take out of doors, and when they were going to bed in the evening the two others wouldn’t let him have a bed himself. He had to crawl into the goose pen and lie down on hard straw.

  When he awoke, the three days were over, and a coach drove up drawn by six horses whose coats shone wonderfully. A servant was leading a seventh horse, and that horse was for Hans the poor miller’s boy.

  But a king’s beautiful daughter stepped out of the coach. She was none other than the little tortoiseshell cat whom poor Hans had served for seven years. She went into the mill and asked the miller where Hans, the smallest and youngest of his boys, might be.

  “Oh, we can’t let him into the parlor here,” said the miller. “He’s such a tattered, ragged sight that he has to sleep in the goose pen!”

  The king’s daughter said he was to be fetched at once. So they went to fetch him, and he came before the king’s daughter in his shabby old smock. Then the servants who had come too unpacked magnificent clothes, Hans had to wash himself and put them on, and when he had done so no king could have looked more handsome. Then the lovely girl asked to see the horses that the other miller’s boys had brought home. But one was blind and the other was lame. She told her grooms to bring in the seventh horse. When the miller saw it, he cried, “My word, a horse like that has never been seen in my yard before!”

  “It is for Hans,” said the king’s daughter.

  “If that is so,” said the miller, “then he must have the mill.”

  But the king’s daughter said the miller was to keep his mill. And she took her faithful Hans by the hand, sat down with him in the coach, and drove away with him.

  First they drove to the little house that he had built with silver tools. It had turned into a large castle, with everything inside and out made of gold and silver. Then they were married, and Hans was rich, so rich that he had enough to live on all his life. So let no one say that a man who seems to be a simpleton can never amount to anything.

  HANS MY HEDGEHOG

  There was once a farmer who had a great deal of money and property, but rich as he was one thing made him unhappy: he and his wife had no children. When he went into town with the other farmers, they often mocked him and asked why he had never had a child. That made him angry, and when he came home he said, “I wish I had a child, even if it were to be a hedgehog!” Then his wife did have a baby who was a hedgehog above the waist and a boy from the waist down, and when she saw the child she was horrified and told her husband, “Look at that! You’ve brought a curse down on us!”

  The farmer said, “There’s nothing we can do about it, and the boy must be baptised, but we can hardly ask anyone to stand godfather to him.”

  “We can only have him baptised as Hans my Hedgehog,” said his wife.

  When he was baptised, the priest said, “He can’t sleep in an ordinary bed with all those prickly spines.” A little straw was put behind the stove, and Hans my Hedgehog lay on it. His mother couldn’t suckle him either, because his prickles would have hurt her. So he lay behind the stove for eight years, and his father was tired of him and wished he would die, but he didn’t die, he just lay there.

  Now one day there was a market in town, and the farmer said he would go. He asked his wife what she would like him to bring her. “A little meat and a few bread rolls, something for the household,” she said. Then he asked the maidservant, who wanted a pair of slippers and a pair of stockings. Last of all he asked, “Hans my Hedgehog, what would you like me to bring you?” “Father,” he said, “bring me a set of bagpipes!” When the farmer came home again, he gave his wife the meat and the rolls he had bought her, then he gave the maid her slippers and stockings, and last of all he went behind the stove and gave Hans my Hedgehog his bagpipes.

  Once Hans my Hedgehog had the bagpipes, he said, “Father, go to the blacksmith and get him to shoe my rooster, and then I’ll ride away and never come back again.”

  The farmer was glad to think of being rid of him, so he had the rooster shod, and when that was done Hans my Hedgehog sat on the rooster, rode away, and took some pigs and donkeys with him. He was planning to herd them out in the forest. Once in the forest, however, the rooster flew up to the top of a tall tree with him, and he sat there herding the donkeys and the swine for many long years, until the herd had grown very large, while his father knew nothing about him. But as he sat in the tree he played his bagpipes, and the music he made was very beautiful.

  One day a king came riding by. He had lost his way in the forest, and heard the music. It surprised him, and he sent his servant to find out where the music was coming from. The servant looked, but all he could see was a small animal sitting up in a tree. It looked like a rooster with a hedgehog sitting on it, and the hedgehog was playing the music. Then the king told his servant to ask why the hedgehog was sitting there, and whether he knew the way back to his kingdom. At that Hans my Hedgehog climbed down from the tree and said he would show him the way, if the king would promise solemnly to give him whatever first came to meet him when he got home to the royal court, and he must put it in writing. Well, thought the king, I can promise that easily enough. I can write what I like, and Hans my Hedgehog won’t understand it. So the king took pen and ink and wrote something down, and when he had done that Hans my Hedgehog showed him the way, and he arrived home safe and sound.

  But his daughter, on seeing him in the distance, was so delighted that she ran to meet him and welcome him with a kiss. The king thought of Hans my Hedgehog, and told her what had happened to him, and how he had been obliged to promise a strange animal whatever first met him first at home; he had had to put it in writing as well. And the creature had been sitting on a rooster as if it were a horse, playing wonderful music. However, said the king, since the creature couldn’t re
ad he had written that Hans my Hedgehog was not to have whatever first met him. The princess was glad of that and said it was a good thing, because she would never have gone to such a creature.

  Hans my Hedgehog went on herding the donkeys and the pigs, and he was always merry, sitting up in the tree and playing his bagpipes. Now it happened that another king came riding by with his servants and messengers. He had lost his way, and didn’t know how to get home because the forest was so large. He too heard the beautiful music from far away and wondered what it was, telling a messenger to go and see. So the messenger found himself under the tree, and saw the rooster sitting there with Hans my Hedgehog on his back. The messenger asked what he was doing up there.

  “Herding my donkeys and my pigs. But what do you want?”

  The messenger said they had lost their way, and couldn’t get back to their own kingdom; could he by any chance tell them the way to it? Then Hans my Hedgehog climbed down the tree and told the old king that he would show him the way if he promised to give him whatever first met him outside his royal castle as his own. The king said yes – and wrote down that Hans my Hedgehog should have it. When that was done, Hans my Hedgehog rode ahead of the king on the rooster and showed him the way back to his kingdom.

  When the king rode into the courtyard there was great rejoicing. He had an only daughter, who was very beautiful and she ran to meet him, flung her arms around him and kissed him, because she was so glad to see her old father back. She asked him where he had been so long, and he told her that he had lost his way and very nearly never came back at all, but when he was riding through a great forest a creature that was half hedgehog, half human, sitting astride a rooster in a tall tree, had helped him and shown him the way. But he had promised in return that the creature should have whatever first met him when he came back to the royal court, and it had been his daughter, so now he regretted it deeply. However, his daughter promised that she would gladly go with the creature when he came, for love of her old father.