The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (26 page)

Afterward he resumed walking, and finally, since he was not having much success with tailoring, he hired himself out as a servant at an inn. However, the maids weren't fond of him because he saw everything they did in secret without their noticing it. Then he reported them afterward. As a result, they wanted very much to play a prank on him.

So, one time, when he went for a walk in the meadow, where a maid was mowing the grass, she mowed him together with the grass and threw the grass and Thumbling to the cows when she returned home. Then the black cow swallowed Thumbling, and he was now cooped up inside the cow and heard that evening that the cow was to be slaughtered. Since his life was in danger, he cried out: “I'm here!”

“Where are you?”

“In the black cow!”

However, the people couldn't understand him, and the cow was slaughtered. Fortunately, he wasn't struck by the blows to the cow and became mixed with the sausage meat. When this meat was about to be chopped up, he cried out: “Don't chop too deeply! Don't chop too deeply! I'm stuck beneath the meat.”

Because of all the noise, however, nobody heard him. So Thumbling jumped quickly between the chopping knives avoiding any harm, but he couldn't get completely away and was stuffed into a blood sausage that was hung in the chimney to be smoked until winter when the sausage was to be eaten. Well, when his lodging was eventually sliced open, he jumped out and ran away.

Now the little tailor wandered again. However, a fox came across his path and snatched him.

“Mister fox,” Thumbling cried, “you've got me! Let me go!”

“All right,” said the fox. “Since there's not very much of you, I'll let you go if you get your father to give me all the hens in the chicken yard.”

So Thumbling swore that he'd do this, and the fox carried him to his home and was given all the hens in the chicken yard. Meanwhile, the little tailor brought his father the one coin that he had earned from all his wanderings.

“But why did the fox get all the poor little hens to eat?”

“Oh you fool, a father certainly loves his child more than he does his hens.”

46

FITCHER'S BIRD

Once upon a time there was a sorcerer who was a thief, and he used to go begging from house to house in the guise of a beggar. One time a maiden opened the door and gave him a piece of bread. He only had to touch her to force her to jump into his basket. Then he carried her off to his house, where everything was splendid inside, and he gave her whatever she desired.

Some time later he said to her: “I have some business to attend to outside the house, and so I must take a trip. Here is an egg. Take good care of it and carry it with you wherever you go. I'm also giving you a key, and if you value your life, don't go into the room that it opens.”

Nevertheless, when he was gone, she went and opened up this room, and as she entered it, she saw a large basin in the middle with dead and butchered people lying in it. She was so tremendously horrified that the egg she was carrying plopped into the basin. To be sure she quickly took it out and wiped the blood off, but the blood reappeared instantly. She wiped and scraped, but she couldn't get rid of the stain.

When the man returned from his journey, he demanded the key and the egg. He looked at both of them, and he realized right away that she had been in the bloody chamber.

“Didn't you pay attention to my instructions?” he said angrily. “Now you'll go back into the bloody chamber against your will.”

Upon saying this, he grabbed her, led her to the chamber, chopped her into pieces, and tossed her into the basin with the others.

After some time had passed the man went begging again and captured the second daughter. He took her from the house, and the same thing happened to her. She opened the forbidden door, let the egg fall into the blood, and was chopped to pieces and thrown into the basin.

Now the sorcerer wanted to have the third daughter as well. So he captured her and put her into his basket. After he returned home, he gave her the key and the egg before he set out on his journey. However, the third daughter was smart and cunning. She put the egg into a cupboard and then went into the secret chamber. When she found her sisters in the bloody basin, she looked all over the place for their missing parts and put them all together—head, body, arms, and legs. So the two sisters came back to life.

Then their sister led them out of the chamber and hid them.

When the man came home and didn't find any blood stains on the egg, he asked the third sister to become his bride. She said yes, but she told him that before she'd marry him, he had to fill his basket full of gold and carry it to her parents on his back. In the meantime she would make preparations for the wedding. Instead, she stuck her sisters into the basket, covered them with gold, and told them that they were to get help from home.

“Now carry this basket to my parents,” she said to the man, “but don't dare to stop and rest along the way. I can see everything from my window.”

So the man lifted the basket onto his back and went on his way. It was, however, so heavy that he was almost crushed to death by the weight. At one point he wanted to rest, but one of the sisters immediately cried out from the basket: “I see from my window that you're resting! Get a move on at once!”

He thought that it was his bride who was crying out, and so he immediately continued walking. Whenever he stopped along the way, he heard a voice and had to keep moving.

Back at his place, the bride took a skull, decorated it with jewels and set it on the window case. Then she invited the sorcerer's friends to the wedding, and after that was done, she dipped herself into a barrel of honey, cut open a bed, and rolled around in the feathers so that it was impossible to
recognize her because she looked so strange. And this is how she set out on her way. Soon she met some of the wedding guests, who asked:

“Where are you coming from, oh, Fitcher's bird?”

“From Fitze Fitcher's house, haven't you heard?”

“And what may the young bride be doing there?”

“She's swept the whole house from top to bottom.

Just now she's looking straight out of the window.”

Soon thereafter she met the bridegroom, who was on his return home:

“Where are you coming from, oh, Fitcher's bird?”

“From Fitze Fitcher's house, haven't you heard?”

“And what may the young bride be doing there?”

“She's swept the whole house from top to bottom.

Just now she's looking straight out of the window.”

The bridegroom looked and saw the decorated skull. He thought it was his bride and waved to her. However, once he and his guests were all gathered inside the house, the helpers who were sent by the sisters finally arrived. These people locked all the doors of the house and then they set fire to it. And since nobody could get out, they were all burned to death.

47

THE JUNIPER TREE

All this took place a long time ago, most likely some two thousand years ago. There was a rich man who had a beautiful and pious wife, and they loved each other very much. Though they didn't have any children, they longed to have some. Day and night the wife prayed for a child, but still none came, and everything remained the same.

Now, in the front of the house there was a yard, and in the yard stood a juniper tree. One day during winter the wife was under the tree peeling an apple, and as she was peeling it, she cut her finger, and her blood dripped onto the snow.

“Oh,” said the wife, and she heaved a great sigh. While she looked at the blood before her, she became quite sad. “If only I had a child as red as blood and as white as snow!”

Upon saying that, her mood changed, and she became very cheerful, for she felt something might come of it. Then she went home.

After a month the snow vanished. After two months everything turned green. After three months the flowers sprouted from the ground. After four months all the trees in the woods grew more solid, and the green branches became intertwined. The birds began to sing, and their song resounded throughout the forest as the blossoms fell from the trees. Soon the fifth month passed, and when the wife stood under the juniper tree, it smelled so sweetly that her heart leapt for joy. Indeed, she was so overcome by joy that she fell down on her knees. When the sixth month had passed, the fruit was large and firm, and she was quite still. In the seventh month she picked the juniper berries and ate them so avidly that she became sad and sick. After the eighth month passed, she called her husband to her and wept.

“If I die,” she said, “bury me under the juniper tree.”

After that she was quite content and relieved until the ninth month had passed. Then she had a child as white as snow and as red as blood. When she saw the baby, she was so delighted that she died.

Her husband buried her under the juniper tree, and he began weeping a great deal. After some time he felt much better, but he still wept every now and then. Eventually, he stopped, and after more time passed, he took another wife. With his second wife he had a daughter, while the child from the first wife was a little boy, who was as red as blood and as white as snow. Whenever the woman looked at her daughter, she felt great love for her, but whenever she looked at the little boy, her heart was cut to the quick. She couldn't forget that he would always stand in her way and prevent her daughter from inheriting everything, which was what the woman had in mind. Gradually the devil took hold of her and influenced her feelings toward the boy until she became quite cruel toward him: she pushed him from one place to the next, slapped him here and cuffed him there, so that the poor child lived in constant fear. When he came home from school, he found no peace at all.

One day the woman went up to her room, and her little daughter followed her and said, “Mother, give me an apple.”

“Yes, my child,” said the woman, and she gave her a beautiful apple from the chest that had a large heavy lid with a big, sharp iron lock.

“Mother,” said the little daughter, “shouldn't brother get one too?”

The woman was irritated by that remark, but she said, “Yes, as soon as he comes home from school.”

And, when she looked out of the window and saw him coming, the devil took possession of her, and she snatched the apple away from her daughter. “You shan't have one before your brother,” she said and threw the apple into the chest and shut it.

Meanwhile the little boy came through the door, and the devil compelled her to be friendly to him and say, “Would you like to have an apple, my son?” Yet, she gave him a fierce look.

“Mother,” said the little boy, “How ferocious you look! Yes, give me an apple.”

Then she felt compelled to coax him.

“Come over here,” she said as she lifted the lid. “Take out an apple for yourself.”

And as the little boy leaned over the chest, the devil prompted her, and
crash!
She slammed the lid so hard that his head flew off and fell among the apples. Then she was struck by fear and thought, “How am I going to get out of this?” She went up to her room and straight to her dresser, where she took out a white kerchief from a drawer. She put the boy's head back on his neck and tied the neckerchief around it so nothing could be seen. Then she set him on a chair in front of the door and put the apple in his hand.

Some time later little Marlene came into the kitchen and went up to her mother, who was standing by the fire in front of a pot of hot water, which she was constantly stirring.

“Mother,” said Marlene, “brother's sitting by the door and looks very pale. He's got an apple in his hand, and I asked him to give me the apple, but he didn't answer, and I became very scared.

“Go back to him,” said the mother, “and if he doesn't answer you, give him a box on the ear.”

Little Marlene returned to him and said, “Brother, give me the apple.”

But he wouldn't respond.

So she gave him a box on the ear, and his head fell off. The little girl was so frightened that she began to cry and howl. Then she ran to her mother and said, “Oh, mother, I've knocked my brother's head off!” And she wept and wept and couldn't be comforted.

“Marlene,” said the mother. “What have you done! You're not to open your mouth about this. We don't want anyone to know, and besides there's nothing we can do about it now. So we'll make a stew out of him.”

The mother took the little boy and chopped him into pieces. Next she put them into a pot and let them stew. But Marlene stood nearby and wept until all her tears fell into the pot, so it didn't need any salt. When the father came home, he sat down at the table and asked, “Where's my son?'

The mother served a huge portion of the stewed meat, and Marlene wept and couldn't stop.

“Where's my son?”the father asked again.

“Oh,” said the mother, “he's gone off into the country to visit his mother's great-uncle. He intends to stay there awhile.”

“What's he going to do there? He didn't even say good-bye to me.”

“Well, he wanted to go very badly and asked me if he could stay there six weeks. They'll take good care of him.”

“Oh, that makes me sad,” said the man. “It's not right. He should have said good-bye to me.” Then he began to eat and said, “Marlene, what are you crying for? Your brother will come back soon.” Without pausing, he said, “Oh, wife, the food tastes great! Give me some more!” The more he ate, the more he wanted. “Give me some more,” he said. “I'm not going to share this with you. Somehow I feel as if it were all mine.”

As he ate and ate, he threw the bones under the table until he was all done. Meanwhile, Marlene went to her dresser and took out her best silk neckerchief from the bottom drawer, gathered all the bones from beneath the table, tied them up in her silk kerchief, and carried them outside the door. There she wept bitter tears and laid the bones beneath the juniper tree. As she put them there, she suddenly felt relieved and stopped crying. Now the juniper tree began to move. The branches separated and came
together again as though they were clapping their hands in joy. At the same time smoke came out of the tree, and in the middle of the smoke there was a flame that seemed to be humming. Then a beautiful bird flew out of the fire and began singing magnificently. He soared high in the air, and after he vanished, the juniper tree was as it was before. Yet the silk kerchief was gone. Marlene was very happy and gay. It was as if her brother were still alive, and she went merrily back into the house, sat down at the table, and ate.