Angela Carter's Book Of Fairy Tales

by Angela Carter

  ‘Well!’ said they, ‘if you will set us free, you may keep your life; for you can if you choose.’

  ‘Yes; only tell me,’ said the princess, ‘how it can be done, and I’ll do it, whatever it be.’

  ‘You must pick thistledown,’ said the princes, ‘and you must card it, and spin it and weave it; and after you have done that, you must cut out and make twelve coats, and twelve shirts and twelve neckerchiefs, one for each of us, and while you do that, you must neither talk, nor laugh nor weep. If you can do that, we are free.’

  ‘But where shall I ever get thistledown enough for so many neckerchiefs, and shirts, and coats?’ asked Snow-white and Rosy-red.

  ‘We’ll soon show you,’ said the princes; and so they took her with them to a great wide moor, where there stood such a crop of thistles, all nodding and nodding in the breeze, and the down all floating and glistening like gossamers through the air in the sunbeams. The princess had never seen such a quantity of thistledown in her life, and she began to pluck and gather it as fast and as well as she could; and when she got home at night she set to work carding and spinning yarn from the down. So she went on a long long time, picking, and carding and spinning, and all the while keeping the princes’ house, cooking, and making their beds. At evening home they came, flapping and whirring like wild ducks, and all night they were princes, but in the morning off they flew again, and were wild ducks the whole day.

  But now it happened once, when she was out on the moor to pick thistledown – and if I don’t mistake, it was the very last time she was to go thither – it happened that the young king who ruled that land was out hunting, and came riding across the moor, and saw her. So he stopped there and wondered who the lovely lady could be that walked along the moor picking thistledown, and he asked her her name, and when he could get no answer he was still more astonished; and at last he liked her so much, that nothing would do but he must take her home to his castle and marry her. So he ordered his servants to take her and put her up on his horse. Snow-white and Rosy-red wrung her hands, and made signs to them, and pointed to the bags in which her work was, and when the king saw she wished to have them with her, he told his men to take up the bags behind them. When they had done that the princess came to herself, little by little, for the king was both a wise man and a handsome man too, and he was as soft and kind to her as a doctor. But when they got home to the palace, and the old queen, who was his stepmother, set eyes on Snow-white and Rosy-red, she got so cross and jealous of her because she was so lovely, that she said to the king, ‘Can’t you see now, that this thing whom you have picked up, and whom you are going to marry, is a witch? Why, she can’t either talk, or laugh or weep!’

  But the king didn’t care a pin for what she said, but held on with the wedding, and married Snow-white and Rosy-red, and they lived in great joy and glory; but she didn’t forget to go on sewing at her shirts.

  So when the year was almost out, Snow-white and Rosy-red brought a prince into the world, and then the old queen was more spiteful and jealous than ever. At dead of night she stole in to Snow-white and Rosy-red, while she slept, and took away her babe, and threw it into a pit full of snakes. After that she cut Snow-white and Rosy-red in her finger, and smeared the blood over her mouth, and went straight to the king.

  ‘Now come and see,’ she said, ‘what sort of a thing you have taken for your queen; here she has eaten up her own babe.’

  Then the king was so downcast, he almost burst into tears, and said, ‘Yes, it must be true, since I see it with my own eyes; but she’ll not do it again, I’m sure, and so this time I’ll spare her life.’

  So before the next year was out she had another son, and the same thing happened. The king’s stepmother got more and more jealous and spiteful. She stole in to the young queen at night while she slept, took away the babe, and threw it into a pit full of snakes, cut the young queen’s finger, and smeared the blood over her mouth, and then went and told the king she had eaten up her own child. Then the king was so sorrowful, you can’t think how sorry he was, and he said, ‘Yes, it must be true, since I see it with my own eyes, but she’ll not do it again, I’m sure, and so this time too I’ll spare her life.’

  Well, before the next year was out, Snow-white and Rosy-red brought a daughter into the world, and her, too, the old queen took and threw into the pit full of snakes, while the young queen slept. Then she cut her finger, smeared the blood over her mouth, and went again to the king and said, ‘Now you may come and see if it isn’t as I say; she’s a wicked, wicked witch, for here she has gone and eaten up her third babe too.’

  Then the king was so sad, there was no end to it, for now he couldn’t spare her any longer but had to order her to be burnt alive on a pile of wood. But just when the pile was all ablaze, and they were going to put her on it, she made signs to them to take twelve boards and lay them round the pile, and on these she laid the neckerchiefs, and the shirts and the coats for her brothers, but the youngest brother’s shirt wanted its left arm, for she hadn’t had time to finish it. And as soon as ever she had done that, they heard such a flapping and whirring in the air, and down came twelve wild ducks flying over the forest, and each of them snapped up his clothes in his bill and flew off with them.

  ‘See now!’ said the old queen to the king, ‘wasn’t I right when I told you she was a witch; but make haste and burn her before the pile burns low.’

  ‘Oh!’ said the king, ‘we’ve wood enough and to spare, and so I’ll wait a bit, for I have a mind to see what the end of all this will be.’

  As he spoke, up came the twelve princes riding along as handsome well-grown lads as you’d wish to see; but the youngest prince had a wild duck’s wing instead of his left arm.

  ‘What’s all this about?’ asked the princes.

  ‘My queen is to be burnt,’ said the king, ‘because she’s a witch, and because she has eaten up her own babes.’

  ‘She hasn’t eaten them at all,’ said the princes. ‘Speak now, sister; you have set us free and saved us, now save yourself.’

  Then Snow-white and Rosy-red spoke, and told the whole story; how every time she was brought to bed, the old queen, the king’s stepmother, had stolen in to her at night, had taken her babes away, and cut her little finger, and smeared the blood over her mouth; and then the princes took the king, and showed him the snake-pit where three babes lay playing with adders and toads, and lovelier children you never saw.

  So the king had them taken out at once, and went to his stepmother, and asked her what punishment she thought that woman deserved who could find it in her heart to betray a guiltless queen and three such blessed little babes.

  ‘She deserves to be fast bound between twelve unbroken steeds, so that each may take his share of her,’ said the old queen.

  ‘You have spoken your own doom,’ said the king, ‘and you shall suffer it at once.’

  So the wicked old queen was fast bound between twelve unbroken steeds, and each got his share of her. But the king took Snow-white and Rosy-red, and their three children, and the twelve princes, and so they all went home to their father and mother and told all that had befallen them, and there was joy and gladness over the whole kingdom, because the princess was saved and set free, and because she had set free her twelve brothers.

  OLD FOSTER

  (HILLBILLY: USA)

  hey use to be an old man, he lived way over in the forest by hisself, and all he lived on was he caught women and boiled ’em in front of the fire and eat ’em. Now the way my mother told me, he’d go into the villages and tell ’em this and that and get ’em to come out and catch ’em and jest boil they breasts. That’s what she told me, and then I’ve heard hit that he jest eat ’em. Well, they was a beautiful stout woman, he liked ’em the best (he’d a been right atter me un your mother) so every day he’d come over to this woman’s house and he’d tell her to please come over to see his house. ‘Why, Mr Foster, I can’t find the way.’ ‘Yes, you can. I’ll take a spool of red s
ilk thread out of my pocket and I’ll start windin’ hit on the bushes and it’ll carry ye straight to my house.’ So she promised him one day she’d come.

  So she got her dinner over one day and she started. So she follered the red silk thread and went on over to his house. When she got there, there was a poor little old boy sittin’ over the fire a boilin’ meat. And he says, ‘Laws, Aunt’ – she was his aunt – ‘what er you doin’ here? Foster kills every woman that comes here. You leave here jest as quick as you can.’

  She started to jump out the door and she saw Foster a comin’ with two young women, one under each arm. So she run back and says, ‘Jack, honey, what’ll I do, I see him a comin’?’ ‘Jump in that old closet under the stair and I’ll lock you in,’ says Jack.

  So she jumped in and Jack locked her in. So Foster come in and he was jest talkin’ and a laughin’ with those two girls and tellin’ the most tales, and he was goin’ to taken ’em over to a corn shuckin’ next day. Foster says, ‘Come on in and have supper with me.’ So Jack put up some boiled meat and water. That’s all they had. As soon as the girls stepped in and seed the circumstance and seed their time had come their countenance fell. Foster says, ‘You better come in and eat, maybe the last chance you’ll ever have.’ Girls both jumped up and started to run. Foster jumps up and ketched ’em, and gets his tomihawk and starts upstairs with ’em. Stairs was shackly and rattly, and as they went up one of the girls retched her hand back and caught hold of a step and Foster jest tuck his tomihawk and hacked her hand off. It drapped into whar my mother was. She laid on in there until next day atter Foster went, then Jack let her out.

  She jest bird worked over to where the corn shuckin’ was. When she got there Foster was there. She didn’t know how to git Foster destroyed. The people thought these people got out in the forest and the wild animals ud ketch ’em. So she says, ‘I dreamt an awful dream last night. I dreamed I lived close to Foster’s house and he was always a-wantin’ me to come to his house.’

  Foster says, ‘Well, that ain’t so, and it shan’t be so, and God forbid it ever should be so.’

  She went right on, ‘And I dreamt he put out a red thread and I follered hit to his house and there uz Jack broilin’ women’s breasts in front of the fire.’

  Foster says, ‘Well, that ain’t so, and it shan’t be so, and God forbid it ever should be so.’

  She went right on, ‘And he says, “What er you doin’ here! Foster kills every woman uz comes here.”’

  Foster says, ‘Well, that ain’t so, and it shan’t be so, and God forbid it ever should be so.’

  She went right on, ‘And I seed Foster a-comin’ with two girls. And when they git thar the girls their hearts failed ’em and Foster ketched ’em and gets his tomihawk and starts up stairs with ’em.’

  Foster says, ‘Well, that ain’t so, and it shan’t be so, and God forbid it ever should be so.’

  She went right on, ‘The stairs was shackly and rattly and as they went up, one of the girls retched her hand back and caught hold of a step and Foster jest tuk his tomihawk and hacked her hand off.’

  Foster says, ‘Well, that ain’t so, and it shan’t be so, and God forbid it ever should be so.’

  She says, ‘Hit is so, and it shall be so and here I’ve got the hand to show.’

  And they knowed the two girls was missin’ and they knowed it was so, so they lynched Foster and then they went and got Jack and bound him out.

  ŠĀHĪN

  (PALESTINIAN ARAB)

  nce there was a king (and there is no kingship except that which belongs to Allah, may He be praised and exalted!) and he had an only daughter. He had no other children, and he was proud of her. One day, as she was lounging about, the daughter of the vizier came to visit her. They sat together, feeling bored.

  ‘We’re sitting around here feeling bored,’ said the daughter of the vizier. ‘What do you say to going out and having a good time?’

  ‘Yes,’ said the other.

  Sending for the daughters of the ministers and dignitaries of state, the king’s daughter gathered them all together, and they went into her father’s orchard to take the air, each going her own way.

  As the vizier’s daughter was sauntering about, she stepped on an iron ring. Taking hold of it, she pulled, and behold! it opened the door to an underground hallway, and she descended into it. The other girls, meanwhile, were distracted, amusing themselves. Going into the hallway, the vizier’s daughter came upon a young man with his sleeves rolled up. And what! there were deer, partridges, and rabbits in front of him, and he was busy plucking and skinning.

  Before he was aware of it, she had already saluted him. ‘Peace to you!’

  ‘And to you, peace!’ he responded, taken aback. ‘What do you happen to be, sister, human or jinn?’

  ‘Human,’ she answered, ‘and the choicest of the race. What are you doing here?’

  ‘By Allah,’ he said, ‘we are forty young men, all brothers. Every day my brothers go out to hunt in the morning and come home toward evening. I stay home and prepare their food.’

  ‘That’s fine,’ she chimed in. ‘You’re forty young men, and we’re forty young ladies. I’ll be your wife, the king’s daughter is for your eldest brother, and all the other girls are for all your other brothers.’ She matched the girls with the men.

  Oh! How delighted he was to hear this!

  ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Šāhīn,’ he answered.

  ‘Welcome, Šāhīn.’

  He went and fetched a chair, and set it in front of her. She sat next to him, and they started chatting. He roasted some meat, gave it to her, and she ate. She kept him busy until the food he was cooking was ready.

  ‘Šāhīn,’ she said when the food was ready, ‘you don’t happen to have some seeds and nuts in the house, do you?’

  ‘Yes, by Allah, we do.’

  ‘Why don’t you get us some. It’ll help pass away the time.’

  In their house, the seeds and nuts were stored on a high shelf. He got up, brought a ladder, and climbed up to the shelf. Having filled his handkerchief with seeds and nuts, he was about to come down when she said, ‘Here, let me take it from you. Hand it over!’ Taking the handkerchief from him, she pulled the ladder away and threw it to the ground, leaving him stranded on the shelf.

  She then brought out large bowls, prepared a huge platter, piled all the food on it, and headed straight out of there, taking the food with her and closing the door of the tunnel behind her. Putting the food under a tree, she called to the girls, ‘Come eat, girls!’

  ‘Eh! Where did this come from?’ they asked, gathering around.

  ‘Just eat and be quiet,’ she replied. ‘What more do you want? Just eat!’

  The food was prepared for forty lads, and here were forty lasses. They set to and ate it all.

  ‘Go on along now!’ commanded the vizier’s daughter. ‘Each one back where she came from. Disperse!’

  She dispersed them, and they went their way. Waiting until they were all busy, she took the platter back, placing it where it was before and coming back out again. In time the girls all went home.

  Now we go back. To whom? To Šāhīn. When his brothers came home in the evening, they could not find him.

  ‘Oh Šāhīn,’ they called. ‘Šāhīn!’

  And behold! he answered them from the shelf.

  ‘Hey! What are you doing up there?’ asked the eldest brother.

  ‘By Allah, brother,’ Šāhīn answered, ‘I set up the ladder after the food was ready and came to get some seeds and nuts for passing away the time. The ladder slipped, and I was stranded up here.’

  ‘Very well,’ they said, and set up the ladder for him. When he came down, the eldest brother said, ‘Now, go bring the food so we can have dinner.’ Gathering up the game they had hunted that day, they put it all in one place and sat down.

  Šāhīn went to fetch the food from the kitchen, but he could not find a single bite.

 
‘Brother,’ he said, coming back, ‘the cats must have eaten it.’

  ‘All right,’ said the eldest. ‘Come, prepare us whatever you can.’

  Taking the organs of the hunted animals, from this and that he made dinner and they ate. Then they laid their heads down and went to sleep.

  The next morning they woke up and set out for the hunt. ‘Now brother,’ they mocked him, ‘be sure to let us go without dinner another evening. Let the cats eat it all!’

  ‘No, brothers,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry.’

  No sooner did they leave than he rolled up his sleeves and set to skinning and plucking the gazelles, rabbits and partridges. On time, the vizier’s daughter showed up. Having gone to the king’s daughter and gathered all the other girls, she waited till they were amusing themselves with something and then dropped in on him.

  ‘Salaam!’

  ‘And to you, peace!’ he answered. ‘Welcome to the one who took the food and left me stranded on the shelf, making me look ridiculous to my brothers!’

  ‘What you say is true,’ she responded. ‘And yet I’m likely to do even more than that to the one I love.’

  ‘And as for me,’ he murmured, ‘your deeds are sweeter than honey.’

  Fetching a chair, he set it down for her, and then he brought some seeds and nuts. They sat down to entertain themselves, and she kept him amused until she realised the food was ready.

  ‘Šāhīn,’ she said, ‘isn’t there a bathroom in your house?’

  ‘Yes, there is,’ he replied.

  ‘I’m pressed, and must go to the bathroom. Where is it?’

  ‘It’s over there,’ he answered.

  ‘Well, come and show it to me.’

  ‘This is it, here,’ he said, showing it to her.

  She went in and, so the story goes, made as if she did not know how to use it.