by Maria Tatar
“Wicked child!” shouted the enchantress. “What have you done? I thought I had shut you off from the rest of the world, but you betrayed me.”
Flying into a rage, she seized Rapunzel’s beautiful hair, wound the braids around her left hand, and grabbed a pair of scissors with her right. Snip, snap went the scissors, and the beautiful tresses fell to the ground. The enchantress was so hardhearted that she banished poor Rapunzel to a wilderness, where she had to live in a miserable, wretched state.
On the very day she had sent Rapunzel away, the enchantress fastened the severed braids to the window latch, and when the prince came and called out
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let your hair down.”
she let down the hair.
The prince climbed up, but instead of finding his precious Rapunzel, the enchantress was waiting for him with an angry, poisonous look in her eye. “Ha,” she shouted triumphantly. “You want to come get your darling little wife, but the beautiful bird is no longer sitting in the nest, singing her songs. The cat caught her, and before she’s done, she’s going to scratch out your eyes too. Rapunzel is lost to you forever. You will never see her again.”
The prince was beside himself with grief, and in his despair he jumped from the top of the tower. He was still alive, but his eyes were scratched out by the bramble patch into which he had fallen. He wandered around in the forest, unable to see anything. Roots and berries were the only thing he could find to eat, and he spent his time weeping and wailing over the loss of his dear wife.
The prince wandered around in misery for many years and finally reached the wilderness where Rapunzel was just barely managing to survive with the twins—a boy and a girl—to whom she had given birth. The prince heard a voice that sounded familiar to him, and so he followed it. When he came within sight of the person singing, Rapunzel recognized him. She threw her arms around him and wept. Two of those tears dropped into the prince’s eyes, and suddenly he could see as before, with clear eyes.
The prince went back to his kingdom with Rapunzel, and there was great rejoicing. They lived in happiness and good cheer for many, many years.
THE THREE LITTLE MEN
IN THE WOODS
nce there was a man whose wife had died, and there was a woman whose husband had died. The man had a daughter, and the woman also had a daughter. The girls knew each other, and one day they decided to take a walk and ended up at the woman’s house. The woman said to the man’s daughter: “Listen to me. If you tell your father that I’m interested in marrying him, I promise that you can bathe in milk every morning and drink wine every day. My daughter will have to drink water and wash in water.”
The girl went home and told her father what the woman had said. The man replied: “What should I do? Marriage can be a joy, but it can also be torture.” Finally, when he couldn’t make up his mind, he took one boot off and said: “Here, take this boot. There’s a hole right in its sole. Take it up to the attic, hang it up on a big nail, and then pour some water into it. If it holds water, then I’ll take a wife. If it runs out, I won’t.” The girl did as she was told, and it turned out that the water made the sides of the hole contract, and the boot filled up to the rim. The girl told her father what had happened. He went up the stairs to see for himself, and when he realized that it was all just as she described it, he went over to see the widow, courted her, and the wedding was celebrated.
The next morning, when the two girls woke up, the husband’s daughter had milk to bathe in and wine to drink, but the wife’s daughter had only water to bathe in and water to drink. The next morning there was water to bathe in and water to drink for both the husband’s daughter and the wife’s daughter. On the third morning there was water to bathe in and water to drink for the husband’s daughter and milk to bathe in and wine to drink for the wife’s daughter, and that’s how things stayed. The woman grew hostile to her stepdaughter and racked her brains thinking of ways to make her life miserable. She was envious too, for her stepdaughter was beautiful and kind, while her own daughter was ugly and nasty.
Once on a winter day, when the ground was frozen solid, and hill and dale were blanketed with snow, the woman made a dress out of paper, called the girl over, and said: “Here, put this dress on. I want you to go out into the woods and fetch me a little basket of strawberries. I’ve got a real craving for them.”
“My goodness,” the girl said. “There won’t be any berries out there at this time of year. The ground is frozen, and there’s a blanket of snow covering everything. And why should I put on this dress made of paper? It’s so cold outside that your breath freezes in the air. The wind will blow right through me, and thorns will tear the dress into pieces.”
“Why are you talking back to me?” the stepmother said. “Just get out of here and don’t show your face until that basket is full of strawberries.” She gave the girl a crust of hard bread and said: “You can chew on that for the rest of the day.” She was thinking to herself: “Once she’s out there, she’ll be freezing and will end up starving to death. I’ll never have to set eyes on her again!”
The girl was completely obedient, and after putting on the dress made of paper, she went out the door with her little basket. There was nothing but snow as far as the eye could see—not a blade of grass in sight. When she got to the forest, she found a tiny cottage, with three dwarfs peering out the windows. She bade them good morning and knocked gently at their door. “Come in!” they called, and she walked into the parlor and sat down on a bench near the oven. She was hoping to warm herself up and to eat some breakfast. The dwarfs said to her: “Give us a piece of what you have.”
“Gladly,” she said, and she broke the crust of bread in two and gave them half of it. They asked her: “What are you doing wearing that thin little dress here in the woods at this time of year?”
“Oh,” she replied, “I’m supposed to pick a little basket of strawberries, and I’m not allowed to go home until I’ve got it.”
When she had eaten her bread, the dwarfs gave her a broom and said: “Sweep the snow away from the back door.” While she was outside, the three little men conferred: “What should we give her for being so good and kind and sharing her bread with us?”
The first said: “My gift will be that she becomes more beautiful with each passing day.”
The second said: “My gift will be that gold pieces shall fall from her mouth whenever she says a word.”
The third said: “My gift will be that a king will come and make her his wife.”
The girl did exactly what the dwarfs told her to do, and she used the broom to sweep the snow from the back of the cottage. But what do you think she found while she was sweeping? Lots of ripe strawberries looking bright red in the snow. With great relief she picked a basketful, thanked the little men, and shook hands with each one of them. Then she ran straight home and was hoping to give her stepmother what she wanted.
When the girl walked into the house and said “Good evening,” a piece of gold fell from her mouth. Then she told everyone what had happened in the woods, and as she spoke, pieces of gold continued to fall from her mouth so that before long the parlor was filled with them.
“How arrogant!” her stepsister cried. “Throwing money around like that!” Secretly she was, of course, envious and was hoping that she too could go out into the forest in search of strawberries. Her mother said: “No, my dear little daughter. It’s much too cold. You’ll freeze to death.” But when the girl would not stop asking, she finally gave her consent and made a beautiful fur coat for her. She put it on, and her mother also gave her sandwiches and a cake to take with her.
The girl went into the woods and walked straight to the cottage. The three little dwarfs were looking out the window as before. But instead of saying good morning and without giving them so much as a glance or saying hello, she stumbled into the cottage, sat down
at the oven, and began eating a sandwich and some cake.
“Will you share that with us?” the little men cried.
The girl responded: “It’s really not enough for me. How can I possibly share this with anyone?”
When she finished eating, the men said: “Here’s a broom for you. Sweep the snow away from the back door for us.”
“Go sweep it yourself,” she said. “I’m not your maid.” When she realized that they were not going to give her anything, she went out the door. The little men conferred: “Why should we give her anything, when she behaves so badly and has a wicked, selfish heart, never giving anything away.”
The first one said: “My gift is that she will become uglier with each passing day.”
The second one said: “My gift is that a toad will jump out of her mouth whenever she speaks.”
The third said: “My gift is that she will come to an unhappy end.”
The girl went searching outside for strawberries, but when she couldn’t find any, she was irritated and returned home. When she opened her mouth to tell her mother what had happened out there in the woods, a toad jumped out of her mouth at every word. It didn’t take long for everyone to learn to stay away from her.
The stepmother was more annoyed than ever, and all she could do was think about how to inflict pain on her husband’s daughter, who was turning more beautiful every day. Finally she took a kettle, put it on the fire, and boiled yarn in it. When the yarn was boiled, she threw it over the girl’s shoulder, gave her an ax, and told her to chop a hole in the frozen ice of the river and then to rinse the yarn. She was an obedient child, and she went over and cut a hole in the ice. While she was hacking away, a splendid carriage drove by, and a
king was seated in it. The carriage came to a halt, and the king asked: “My child, what’s your name and what are you doing over there?”
“I’m a poor girl, and I’m rinsing yarn.”
The king took pity on her, and when he saw how beautiful she was, he said: “Do you want to ride in my carriage?”
“With all my heart,” she replied, for she was happy to get away from her mother and her sister.
The girl got into the carriage and drove off with the king. When she arrived at his castle, their marriage was celebrated with great splendor, for the little men had given her that as a gift. A year later, the young queen gave birth to a boy, and when the stepmother learned of her great happiness, she went with her daughter to the castle and pretended that she was there to visit.
One day the king left the castle, and no one else was at home when the evil woman grabbed the queen by her head, and her daughter grabbed her by the feet. They lifted her out of her bed and threw her out the window into a river that flowed past the castle. Then the old woman put the ugly girl into the bed, and she tucked her in right up over her head. When the king returned home and wanted to go talk to his wife, the old woman said: “Hush, hush, you can’t see her now. She’s got a fever, and you’ll have to let her rest today.”
The king was not at all suspicious, and he returned the next day. When he started talking with his wife, a toad—instead of the usual gold piece—dropped out of her mouth whenever she said a word in reply. He asked what was wrong with her, and the old woman said it was just the high fever and that it would soon go away.
That night, the kitchen boy saw a duck swimming along in the drainage canal, and the duck spoke these words:
“Your Royal Highness, what’s the news?
Are you awake? Do you know of the ruse?”
When he didn’t answer, the duck said:
“What are my guests doing today?”
The kitchen boy replied:
“They’re sleeping soundly while you’re away.”
Then she asked:
“And my child, is he asleep?”
He answered:
“He’s napping now, there’s not a peep.”
Then the duck turned into the queen, nursed the child, plumped up his bed, tucked him in, and swam back down the drainage canal, after turning back into a duck. She came two nights in a row, and on the third she said to the kitchen boy: “Go and tell the king that he must take his sword and swing it over me three times when I cross the threshold.”
The kitchen boy ran to tell the king, who came with his sword and swung it three times over the ghost. The third time his wife stood before him: alive, healthy, and energetic, just as she had been before.
The king was elated, but he kept the queen hidden in the bedroom until that Sunday, when the child was to be christened. And after the child had been christened, he asked: “What punishment should be given to a person who drags someone out of their bed and throws them into the water?”
The old woman replied: “The scoundrel should be put into a barrel studded with nails and rolled down a hill into the water.”
The king said: “You have pronounced your own sentence,” and he sent for a barrel like the one she had described and put the woman with her daughter into it. The lid was hammered tight, and the barrel went rolling down the hill and fell into the river.
HANSEL AND GRETEL
t the edge of a great forest, there once lived a poor woodcutter with his wife and two children. The little boy was called Hansel, and the girl was named Gretel. There was never much to eat in their home, and once, during a time of famine, the woodcutter could no longer put bread on the table. At night, he lay in bed worrying, tossing and turning in despair. With a deep sigh, he turned to his wife and said: “What is going to become of us? How can we possibly take care of our poor little children when the two of us don’t have enough to eat?”
“Listen to me,” his wife replied. “Tomorrow, at the crack of dawn, let’s take the children down into the deepest part of the forest. We’ll make a fire for them out there and give them each a crust of bread. Then we’ll go about our work, leaving them all by themselves. They’ll never find their way back home, and we’ll be rid of them.”
“Oh, no,” her husband said. “How could I ever do that! I don’t have the heart to leave the children all alone in the woods. Wild beasts are sure to find them and tear them to pieces.”
“You fool,” his wife replied. “Then all four of us can starve to death. You might as well start sanding the boards for our coffins.”
The wife didn’t give her husband a moment of peace until he finally agreed to her plan. “But still, I feel sorry for the poor children,” he said.
The children had not slept a wink because they were so hungry, and they didn’t miss a single word of what their stepmother had said to their father. Gretel wept bitter tears and said to her brother: “Well, now we’ve had it.”
“Hush, Gretel,” said Hansel, “and stop worrying. I’ll figure something out.”
When the old folks fell asleep, Hansel got up, put on his little jacket, opened the bottom half of the Dutch door, and slipped outside. The moon was shining brightly, and in front of the house there were some white pebbles, glittering like silver coins. Hansel stooped down to pick them up and put as many as would fit into his jacket pocket. Then he returned to Gretel and said: “Don’t worry, little sister. Just go to sleep. God won’t abandon us.” And he went back to bed.
At daybreak, just as the sun was rising, the wife came in and woke the two children up. “Get up, you lazybones. We’re going out to the forest to find some wood.”
The wife gave each child a crust of bread and said: “Here’s something for lunch. But don’t eat it before then. That’s all you’ll be getting.”
Gretel put the bread in her apron pocket because Hansel already had the pebbles in his jacket pocket. Together they set out on the path into the forest. While they were walking, Hansel kept stopping and looking back at the house. Finally, his father said: “Hansel, why do you keep lagging behind and turning to look back home? Watch out for
yourself, and don’t forget what your legs were made for.”
“Oh, Father,” said Hansel. “I’m trying to get a last look at my little white kitten, which is perched up on the roof trying to bid me farewell.”
The woman said: “You fool, that’s not your kitten. Those are just the rays of the sun, shining on the chimney.”
But Hansel had not been looking for his kitten. He had been taking the shiny pebbles from his pocket and dropping them on the ground.
When they reached the middle of the forest, the father said: “Go gather some wood, children. I’ll build a fire so that you won’t get cold.”
Hansel and Gretel gathered a little pile of brushwood and lit it. When the fire was blazing, the woman said: “Lie down by the fire, children, and try to take a nap. We’re going back into the forest to chop some wood. When we’re done, we’ll come back to get you.”
Hansel and Gretel sat down by the fire. At noontime they ate their crusts of bread. Since they could hear the sounds of an ax they were sure that their father was nearby. But it wasn’t an ax that they heard, it was a branch that their father had fastened to a dead tree, and the wind was banging it back and forth. They had been sitting there for so long that finally their eyes closed from sheer exhaustion, and they fell fast asleep. When they awoke, it was pitch dark. Gretel began crying and said: “How will we ever get out of the woods!”
Hansel comforted her: “Just wait until the moon comes out. Then we’ll find our way back.”
When the moon came out, Hansel took his sister by the hand and followed the pebbles, which were shimmering like newly minted coins and pointing the way back home for them. They walked all night long and got to their father’s house just as day was breaking. They knocked at the door, and when the woman opened and saw that it was Hansel and Gretel, she said: “You wicked children! Why were you sleeping so long in the woods? We thought you were never going to come back.”