The Blue Fairy Book

by Andrew Lang

  Early in the morning Grettel had to go out and hang up the kettle full of water, and light the fire. ‘First we’ll bake,’ said the old dame; ‘I’ve heated the oven already and kneaded the dough’ She pushed Grettel out to the oven, from which fiery flames were already issuing. ‘Creep in,’ said the witch, ‘ and see if it’s properly heated, so that we can shove in the bread.’ For when she had got Grettel in she meant to close the oven and let the girl bake, that she might eat her up too. But Grettel perceived her intention, and spoke : ‘I don’t know how I’m to do it; how do I get in?’ ‘You silly goose !’ said the hag, ‘ the opening is big enough; see, I could get in myself; ’ and she crawled towards it, and poked her head into the oven. Then Grettel gave her a shove that sent her right in, shut the iron door, and drew the bolt. Gracious! how she yelled! it was quite horrible; but Grettel fled, and the wretched old woman was left to perish miserably.

  Grettel flew straight to Hansel, opened the little stable-door, and cried: ‘ Hansel, we are free; the old witch is dead.’ Then Hansel sprang like a bird out of a cage when the door is opened. How they rejoiced, and fell on each other’s necks, and jumped for joy, and kissed one another! And as they had no longer any cause for fear, they went into the old hag’s house, and there they found, in every corner of the room, boxes with pearls and precious stones. ‘These are even better than pebbles,’ said Hansel, and crammed his pockets full of them; and Grettel said: ‘I too will bring something home;’ and she filled her apron full. ‘But now,’ said Hansel, ’ let’s go and get well away from the witches’ wood.’ When they had wandered about for some hours they came to a big lake. ‘ We can’t get over,’ said Hansel; ’ ‘I see no bridge of any sort or kind.’ ‘Yes, and there’s no ferry-boat either,’ answered Grettel; ‘but look, there swims a white duck; if I ask her she’ll help us over;’ and she called out:

  ‘ Here are two children, mournful very,

  Seeing neither bridge nor ferry;

  Take us upon your white back,

  And row us over, quack, quack !’

  The duck swam towards them, and Hansel got on her back and bade his little sister sit beside him. ‘No,’ answered Grettel, ‘we should be too heavy a load for the duck: she shall carry us across separately.’ The good bird did this, and when they were landed safely on the other side, and had gone on for a while, the wood became more and more familiar to them, and at length they saw their father’s house in the distance. Then they set off to run, and bounding into the room fell on their father’s neck. The man had not passed a happy hour since he left them in the wood, but the woman had died. Grettel shook out her apron so that the pearls and precious stones rolled about the room, and Hansel threw down one handful after the other out of his pocket. Thus all their troubles were ended, and they all lived happily ever afterwards.

  My story is done. See ! there runs a little mouse ; anyone who catches it may make himself a large fur cap out of it.20

  SNOW-WHITE AND ROSE-RED

  A POOR widow once lived in a little cottage with a garden in front of it, in which grew two rose trees, one bearing white roses and the other red. She had two children, who were just like the two rose trees; one was called Snow-white and the other Rose-red, and they were the sweetest and best children in the world, always diligent and always cheerful; but Snow-white was quieter and more gentle than Rose-red. Rose-red loved to run about the fields and meadows, and to pick flowers and catch butterflies ; but Snow-white sat at home with her mother and helped her in the household, or read aloud to her when there was no work to do. The two children loved each other so dearly that they always walked about hand-in-hand whenever they went out together, and when Snow-white said: ‘ We will never desert each other,’ Rose-red answered : ‘No, not as long as we live;’ and the mother added : ‘ Whatever one gets she shall share with the other.’ They often roamed about in the woods gathering berries and no beast offered to hurt them ; on the contrary, they came up to them in the most confiding manner ; the little hare would eat a cabbage leaf from their hands, the deer grazed beside them, the stag would bound past them merrily, and the birds remained on the branches and sang to them with all their might. No evil ever befell them ; if they tarried late in the wood and night overtook them, they lay down together on the moss and slept till morning, and their mother knew they were quite safe, and never felt anxious about them. Once, when they had slept the night in the wood and had been wakened by the morning sun, they perceived a beautiful child in a shining white robe sitting close to their resting-place. The figure got up, looked at them kindly, but said nothing, and vanished into the wood. And when they looked round about them they became aware that they had slept quite close to a precipice, over which they would certainly have fallen had they gone on a few steps further in the darkness. And when they told their mother of their adventure, she said what they had seen must have been the angel that guards good children.

  Snow-white and Rose-red kept their mother’s cottage so beautifully clean and neat that it was a pleasure to go into it. In summer Rose-red looked after the house, and every morning before her mother awoke she placed a bunch of flowers before the bed, from each tree a rose. In winter Snow-white lit the fire and put on the kettle, which was made of brass, but so beautifully polished that it shone like gold. In the evening when the snowflakes fell their mother said : ‘Snow-white, go and close the shutters;’ and they drew round the fire, while the mother put on her spectacles and read aloud from a big book and the .two girls listened and sat and span. Beside them on the ground lay a little lamb, and behind them perched a little white dove with its head tucked under its wings.

  One evening as they sat thus cosily together someone knocked at the door as though he desired admittance. The mother said: ‘Rose-red, open the door quickly ; it must be some traveller seeking shelter.’ Rose-red hastened to unbar the door, and thought she saw a poor man standing in the darkness outside ; but it was no such thing, only a bear, who poked his thick black head through the door. Rose-red screamed aloud and sprang back in terror, the lamb began to bleat, the dove flapped its wings, and Snow-white ran and hid behind her mother’s bed. But the bear began to speak, and said : ‘Don’t be afraid: I won’t hurt you. I am half frozen, and only wish to warm myself a little.’ ‘My poor bear,’ said the mother, ‘lie down by the fire, only take care you don’t burn your fur.’ Then she called out: ‘Snow-white and Rose-red, come out; the bear will do you no harm : he is a good, honest creature.’ So they both came out of their hiding-places, and gradually the lamb and dove drew near too, and they all forgot their fear. The bear asked the children to beat the snow a little out of his fur, and they fetched a brush and scrubbed him till he was dry. Then the beast stretched himself in front of the fire, and growled quite happily and comfortably. The children soon grew quite at their ease with him, and led their helpless guest a fearful life. They tugged his fur with their hands, put their small feet on his back, and rolled him about here and there, or took a hazel wand and beat him with it; and if he growled they only laughed. The bear submitted to everything with the best possible good-nature, only when they went too far he cried : ‘Oh ! children, spare my life !

  Snow-white and Rose-red,

  Don’t beat your lover dead.’

  When it was time to retire for the night, and the others went to bed, the mother said to the bear: ‘ You can lie there on the hearth, in heaven’s name; it will be shelter for you from the cold and wet.’ As soon as day dawned the children let him out, and he trotted over the snow into the wood. From this time on the bear came every evening at the same hour, and lay down by the hearth and let the children play what pranks they liked with him; and they got so accustomed to him that the door was never shut till their black friend had made his appearance.

  When spring came, and all outside was green, the bear said one morning to Snow-white : ‘ Now I must go away, and not return again the whole summer.’ ‘ Where are you going to, dear bear ? ’ asked Snow-white. ‘ I must go to the wood a
nd protect my treasure from the wicked dwarfs. In winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they are obliged to remain underground, for they can’t work their way through; but now, when the sun has thawed and warmed the ground, they break through and come up above to spy the land and steal what they can : what once falls into their hands and into their caves is not easily brought back to light.’ Snow-white was quite sad over their friend’s departure, and when she unbarred the door for him, the bear, stepping out, caught a piece of his fur in the doorknocker, and Snow-white thought she caught sight of glittering gold beneath it, but she couldn’t be certain of it; and the bear ran hastily away, and soon disappeared behind the trees.

  A short time after this the mother sent the children into the wood to collect fagots. They came in their wanderings upon a big tree which lay felled on the ground, and on the trunk among the long grass they noticed something jumping up and down, but what it was they couldn’t distinguish. When they approached nearer they perceived a dwarf with a wizened face and a beard a yard long. The end of the beard was jammed into a cleft of the tree, and the little man sprang about like a dog on a chain, and didn’t seem to know what he was to do. He glared at the girls with his fiery red eyes, and screamed out : ‘ What are you standing there for ? can’t you come and help me ? ’ ‘ What were you doing, little man ? ’ asked Rose-red. ‘You stupid, inquisitive goose !’ replied the dwarf; ‘I wanted to split the tree, in order to get little chips of wood for our kitchen fire ; those thick logs that serve to make fires for coarse, greedy people like yourselves quite burn up all the little food we need. I had successfully driven in the wedge, and all was going well, but the cursed wood was so slippery that it suddenly sprang out, and the tree closed up so rapidly that I had no time to take my beautiful white beard out, so here I am stuck fast, and I can’t get away; and you silly, smooth-faced, milk-and-water girls just stand and laugh ! Ugh! what wretches you are ! ’

  The children did all in their power, but they couldn’t get the beard out ; it was wedged in far too firmly. ‘I will run and fetch somebody,’ said Rose-red. ‘Crazy blockheads !’ snapped the dwarf; ‘what’s the good of calling anyone else? you’re already two too many for me. Does nothing better occur to you than that ? ’ Don’t be so impatient,’ said Snow-white, ‘I’ll see you get help ;’ and taking her scissors out of her pocket she cut the end off his beard. As soon as the dwarf felt himself free he seized a bag full of gold which was hidden among the roots of the tree, lifted it up, and muttered aloud : ‘Curse these rude wretches, cutting off a piece of my splendid beard!’ With these words he swung the bag over his back, and disappeared without as much as looking at the children again.

  Shortly after this Snow-white and Rose-red went out to get a dish of fish. As they approached the stream they saw something which looked like an enormous grasshopper, springing towards the water as if it were going to jump in. They ran forward and recognised their old friend the dwarf. ‘Where are you going to ? ’ asked Rose-red ; ‘you’re surely not going to jump into the water ? ’ I’m not such a fool,’ screamed the dwarf. ‘Don’t you see that cursed fish is trying to drag me in ?’ The little man had been sitting on the bank fishing, when unfortunately the wind had entangled his beard in the line; and when immediately afterwards a big fish bit, the feeble little creature had no strength to pull it out; the fish had the upper fin, and dragged the dwarf towards him. He clung on with all his might to every rush and blade of grass, but it didn’t help him much; he had to follow every movement of the fish, and was in great danger of being drawn into the water. The girls came up just at the right moment, held him firm, and did all they could to disentangle his beard from the line ; but in vain, beard and line were in a hopeless muddle. Nothing remained but to produce the scissors and cut the beard, by which a small part of it was sacrificed.

  When the dwarf perceived what they were about he yelled to them : ‘Do you call that manners, you toadstools ! to disfigure a fellow’s face ? it wasn’t enough that you shortened my beard before, but you must now needs cut off the best bit of it. I can’t appear like this before my own people. I wish you’d been at Jericho first.’ Then he fetched a sack of pearls that lay among the rushes, and without saying another word he dragged it away and disappeared behind a stone.

  It happened that soon after this the mother sent the two girls to the town to buy needles, thread, laces, and ribbons. Their road led over a heath where huge boulders of rock lay scattered here and there. While trudging along they saw a big bird hovering in the air, circling slowly above them, but always descending lower, till at last it settled on a rock not far from them. Immediately afterwards they heard a sharp, piercing cry. They ran forward, and saw with horror that the eagle had pounced on their old friend the dwarf, and was about to carry him off. The tender-hearted children seized a hold of the little man, and struggled so long with the bird that at last he let go his prey. When the dwarf had recovered from the first shock he screamed in his screeching voice : ‘Couldn’t you have treated me more carefully ? you have torn my thin little coat all to shreds, useless, awkward hussies that you are !’ Then he took a bag of precious stones and vanished under the rocks into his cave. The girls were accustomed to his ingratitude, and went on their way and did their business in town. On their way home, as they were again passing the heath, they surprised the dwarf pouring out his precious stones on an open space, for he had thought no one would pass by at so late an hour. The evening sun shone on the glittering stones, and they glanced and gleamed so beautifully that the children stood still and gazed on them. ‘What are you standing there gaping for ? ’ screamed the dwarf, and his ashen-grey face became scarlet with rage. He was about to go off with these angry words when a sudden growl was heard, and a black bear trotted out of the wood. The dwarf jumped up in a great fright, but he hadn’t time to reach his place of retreat, for the bear was already close to him. Then he cried in terror:‘Dear Mr. Bear, spare me! I’ll give you all my treasure. Look at those beautiful precious stones lying there. Spare my life ! what pleasure would you get from a poor feeble little fellow like me ? You won’t feel me between your teeth. There, lay hold of these two wicked girls, they will be a tender morsel for you, as fat as young quails; eat them up, for heaven’s sake.’ But the bear, paying no attention to his words, gave the evil little creature one blow with his paw, and he never moved again.

  The girls had run away, but the bear called after them: ‘Snow-white and Rose-red, don’t be afraid; wait, and I’ll come with you.’ Then they recognised his voice and stood still, and when the bear was quite close to them his skin suddenly fell off, and a beautiful man stood beside them, all dressed in gold. ‘I am a king’s son,’ he said, ‘and have been doomed by that unholy little dwarf, who had stolen my treasure, to roam about the woods as a wild bear till his death should set me free. Now he has got his well-merited punishment.’

  Snow-white married him, and Rose-red his brother, and they divided the great treasure the dwarf had collected in nis cave between them. The old mother lived for many years peacefully with her children ; and she carried the two rose trees with her, and they stood in front of her window, and every year they bore the finest red and white roses.21

  THE GOOSE-GIRL

  ONCE upon a time an old queen, whose husband had been dead for many years, had a beautiful daughter. When she grew up she was betrothed to a prince who lived a great way off. Now, when the time drew near for her to be married and to depart into a foreign kingdom, her old mother gave her much costly baggage, and many ornaments, gold and silver, trinkets and knicknacks, and, in fact, everything that belonged to a royal trousseau, for she loved her daughter very dearly. She gave her a waiting-maid also, who was to ride with her and hand her over to the bridegroom, and she provided each of them with a horse for the journey. Now the Princess’s horse was called Falada, and could speak.

  When the hour for departure drew near the old mother went to her bedroom, and taking a small knife she cut her fingers till they bled; then s
he held a white rag under them, and letting three drops of blood fall into it, she gave it to her daughter, and said : ‘Dear child, take great care of this rag : it may be of use to you on the journey.’

  So they took a sad farewell of each other, and the Princess stuck the rag in front of her dress, mounted her horse, and set forth on the journey to her bridegroom’s kingdom. After they had ridden for about an hour the Princess began to feel very thirsty, and said to her waiting-maid : ‘Pray get down and fetch me some water in my golden cup out of yonder stream : I would like a drink.’ ‘If you’re thirsty,’ said the maid, ‘dismount yourself, and lie down by the water and drink; I don’t mean to be your servant any longer.’ The Princess was so thirsty that she got down, bent over the stream, and drank, for she wasn’t allowed to drink out of the golden goblet. As she drank she murmured : ‘Oh ! heaven, what am I to do ? ’ and the three drops of blood replied :

  ‘If your mother only knew,

  Her heart would surely break in two.’

  But the Princess was meek, and said nothing about her maid’s rude behaviour, and quietly mounted her horse again. They rode on their way for several miles, but the day was hot, and the sun’s rays smote fiercely on them, so that the Princess was soon overcome by thirst again. And as they passed a brook she called once more to her waiting-maid : ‘Pray get down and give me a drink from my golden cup,’ for she had long ago forgotten her maid’s rude words. But the waiting-maid replied, more haughtily even than before:

  If you want a drink, you can dismount and get it; I don’t mean to be your servant.’ Then the Princess was compelled by her thirst to get down, and bending over the flowing water she cried and said : ‘Oh! heaven, what am I to do?’ and the three drops of blood replied :