Then they kissed each other and said farewell. Reinald climbed into a carriage drawn by six horses and drove off. He went over hill and valley, up and down mountains, through deserts and forests, shrubs and hedges without stopping to rest until the sky began turning grey at dusk. Then Reinald suddenly lay on the ground, and the horses and carriage disappeared. At sunrise he saw six ants galloping away, drawing a nutshell behind them.
Reinald realized he was still in the magic forest and wanted to search for his second sister. Again he wandered about aimlessly and lonely for three days without accomplishing anything. But on the fourth day he heard a big eagle come swooping down to settle in a nest. Reinald hid in the bushes and waited for the eagle to fly away. After seven hours it soared into the air again. Then Reinald emerged from the bushes, went over to the tree, and cried out, “Dearest sister, are you up above? If so, let me hear your voice. I’m Reinald, your brother, and I’ve come to visit you!”
Then he heard a voice calling down to him, “If you’re Reinald, my dearest brother, whom I’ve never seen, come up to me.”
Reinald wanted to climb the tree, but the trunk was too thick and slippery. He tried three times in vain. Suddenly a silken rope ladder dropped down, and he climbed it until he reached the eagle’s nest, which was strong and secure like a platform on a linden tree. His sister sat under a canopy made out of rose-colored silk, and an eagle’s egg was lying on her lap. She was keeping it warm in order to hatch it. They kissed each other and rejoiced, but after a while the princess said, “Now, hurry and see to it that you get out of here, dearest brother. If the eagle, my husband, sees you, he’ll hack your eyes out and devour your heart as he’s already done with three of your servants, who were looking for you in the forest.”
“No,” said Reinald. “I’m staying here until your husband is transformed.”
“That will happen but only in six weeks. If you can hold out that long, go and hide in the tree. It’s hollow on the inside, and I’ll drop food down to you every day.”
Reinald crawled into the tree, and the princess let food down to him every day. Whenever the eagle flew away, he climbed up to her. After six weeks the eagle was transformed, and once more Reinald awoke in a bed that was like the one at his brother-in-law the bear’s place. Only here it was more splendid, and he lived with the eagle prince in great joy. On the seventh evening they said their farewells. The eagle gave him three eagle feathers and said, “If you’re in trouble, rub them, and I’ll come to your aid.”
Then he gave him servants to show him the way out of the forest. But when morning came, they suddenly disappeared, and Reinald was all alone on top of a high rocky cliff in a terrible wilderness. He looked around him, and in the distance he saw the reflection of a large lake, which glistened from the sun’s rays. He thought of his third sister, who might be there. So he began to climb down the cliff and work his way through the bushes and between the rocks. He needed three days to do this, and he often lost sight of the lake, but on the fourth day he succeeded in getting there. Once he was on the bank, he called out, “Dearest sister, if you’re in the water, let me hear your voice. I’m Reinald, your brother, and I’ve come to visit you.”
But no one answered, and everything was very quiet. He threw bread crumbs into the water and said to the fish, “Dear fish, go to my sister and tell her that Reinald the Wonder Child is here and wants to see her.”
But the red-speckled flounders snapped up the bread and didn’t listen to his words. Then he saw a little boat and immediately took off his armor. He kept only his sword in his hand as he jumped into the boat and rowed off. After he had gone a long way, he saw a chimney made of rock crystal jutting out of the water, and there was a pleasant smell rising up from it. Reinald rowed toward it and was convinced that his sister was living down below. So he climbed on top of the chimney and slid down. The princess was greatly startled when she suddenly saw a pair of wriggling legs followed shortly by a whole man, who identified himself as her brother. She rejoiced with all her heart, but then she turned sad and said, “The whale has heard that you’ve wanted to visit me, and he’s declared that if you come while he’s a whale, he’ll not be able to control his desire to eat you up. Moreover, he’ll break my crystal house, and I’ll also perish in the flood of water.”
“Can’t you hide me until the time comes when the magic loses its power?”
“Oh, no. How can I do that? Don’t you see that the walls are all made out of crystal, and you can see through them?”
Nevertheless, she thought and thought, and finally she remembered the room where the wood was kept. She arranged the wood in such a careful way that nobody could see anything from the outside, and it was there that she hid the Wonder Child. Soon after, the whale came, and the princess trembled like an aspen leaf. He swam around the crystal house a few times, and when he saw a little piece of Reinald’s clothing sticking out of the wood, he beat his tail, snorted ferociously, and if he had seen more, he would surely have destroyed the house. He came once a day and swam around it until the magic stopped in the seventh month. Suddenly Reinald found himself in a castle right in the middle of an island, and the castle surpassed even the splendor of the eagle’s castle. Now he lived with his sister and brother-in-law for a whole month in the lap of luxury. When the time was over, the whale gave him three scales and said, “When you’re in trouble, rub them, and I’ll come to your aid.”
The whale brought him to the bank, where his armor was still lying on the ground. The Wonder Child moved around in the wilderness for seven more days, and he slept seven nights under the open skies. Then he caught sight of a castle with a steel gate that had a mighty lock on it. In front of the gate was a black bull with flashing eyes. It was guarding the entrance, and Reinald attacked it. He gave the bull a powerful blow on its neck, but the neck was made of steel, and the sword broke as if it were glass. He tried to use his lance, but it broke like a piece of straw. Then the bull grabbed him with its horns and threw him into the air so that he got caught in the branches of a tree. In his desperation Reinald remembered the three bear’s hairs and rubbed them in his hand. All at once the bear appeared and fought with the bull. He tore the bull to pieces, but a bird came out of the bull’s stomach, flew high into the air, and rushed off. But Reinald rubbed the three eagle’s feathers, and suddenly a mighty eagle came flying through the air and pursued the bird, which flew directly toward a pond. The eagle dived at the bird and mangled it, but Reinald saw the bird drop a golden egg into the water. Now he rubbed the three fish scales in his hand, and immediately a whale came swimming up, swallowed the egg, and spat it out onto the shore. Reinald picked it up and cracked it open with a stone. There he found a little key that fit the steel gate. As soon as he just touched the gate with the key, the gate sprang open by itself, and he entered. All the bars on the other doors slid off by themselves, and he went through seven doors into seven splendid and brightly lit rooms. In the last room a maiden was lying asleep on a bed. She was so beautiful that he was completely dazzled by her. He sought to wake her, but it was in vain. Her sleep was so deep that she seemed to be dead. In his rage he struck a black slate standing next to the bed. At that very moment the maiden awoke but fell right back to sleep. Now he took the slate and threw it onto the stone floor so that it shattered into a thousand pieces. No sooner did this happen than the maiden opened her eyes wide, and the magic spell was broken. She turned out to be the sister of Reinald’s three brothers-in-law. Because she had rejected the love of a godless sorcerer, he had sentenced her to a deathlike sleep and changed her brothers into animals. They were to remain that way so long as the black slate remained untouched.
Reinald led the maiden out of the castle, and as they passed through the gate, his brothers-in-law came riding up from three different directions. They had been released from the magic spell, and with them came their wives and children. Indeed, the eagle’s bride had hatched the egg and carried a beautiful baby girl in her arms. Now all of them traveled
to the old king and queen. The Miracle Child brought his three sisters home. Soon he married the beautiful maiden, and their wedding provided great joy and pleasure to everyone,
Now the cat’s run home, for my tale is done.
83
THE POOR MAIDEN
Once upon a time there was a poor little maiden. Her mother and father had died, and she no longer had a house in which she could live, and a bed in which she could sleep. She had nothing more in the world than the clothes on her back, and she carried a small piece of bread in her hand that someone who had taken pity on her had given to her. Despite all this, the maiden was good and pious.
As she set out on her way, she encountered a poor man who asked her so desperately for something to eat that she gave him the piece of bread. Then she continued on her way and met a child who said to her: “My head is freezing. Please give me something that I can tie around it.”
So the maiden took off her cap and gave it to the child. And after she had walked a bit farther, she came across another child without a bodice. So she gave him hers. Further on she met another child who asked her for a little dress, and she took off her own dress and gave it to her. Finally she came to a forest, and it had already become dark. Then, yet another child came and asked for her undershirt, and the pious maiden thought: “It’s pitch black. You can certainly give away your undershirt,” and so she gave it to the child. All of a sudden the stars fell from heaven and turned into pure shining hard coins, and even though she had given away her undershirt, she had another one on her made from the finest linen. So she gathered the coins in the undershirt and became rich for the rest of her life.
84
THE MOTHER-IN-LAW
Once there lived a king and a queen, and the queen had a terribly evil mother-in-law. One day the king went to war, and the old queen had her daughter-in-law locked up in a damp cellar along with her two little sons. After some time had passed, the mother-in-law said to herself, “I’d really like to eat one of the children.”
So she called her cook and ordered him to go down into the cellar, take one of the little sons, slaughter him, and cook him.
“What kind of sauce would you like?” asked the cook.
“A brown one,” said the old queen.
The cook then went down into the cellar and said, “Ah, your highness, the old queen wants me to slaughter and cook one of your sons this evening.”
The young queen was deeply distressed and said, “Well, why don’t we take a pig? Cook it the way she wants, and say that it was my child.”
The cook did just that and served the pig in a brown sauce to the old queen as though it were a child. Indeed, she ate it with great relish. Soon thereafter the old queen thought, “the child’s meat tasted so tender that I’d like to have the second as well.” So, she called the cook and ordered him to go down into the cellar and slaughter the second son.
“What kind of a sauce should I cook him in?”
“Oh, in a white one,” said the old queen.
The cook went down into the cellar and said, “Ah, the old queen has ordered me now to slaughter your second little son and cook him, too.”
“Take a suckling pig,” the young queen said, “and cook it exactly as she likes it.”
The cook did just that and set it in front of the old queen in a white sauce, and she devoured it with even greater relish than before.
Finally, the old queen thought, “Now that the children are in my body I’d like to eat the young queen as well.” The old queen called the cook and ordered him to cook the young queen.
[Fragment: The cook slaughters a doe the third time. However, the young queen has trouble preventing her children from screaming. She doesn’t want the old queen to hear them and realize they are still alive, and so on.]
85
FRAGMENTS
Snowflower
A young princess was called Snowflower because she was white like snow and was born during the winter. One day her mother became sick, and the princess went out to pluck herbs that might heal her. As she went by a big tree, a swarm of bees flew out and covered her entire body from head to foot. But they didn’t sting or hurt her. Instead, they carried honey to her lips, and her entire body glowed through and through with beauty.
The Princess with the Louse
Once upon a time there was a princess who was so clean, indeed, the cleanest in the entire world, that nobody ever saw the least bit of dirt or stain on her. However, one time a louse was found sitting on her head, and this was regarded as such a true miracle that nobody wanted to kill the louse. Instead, people decided to nourish it with milk so that it would grow. So, this is indeed what happened, and the louse grew until it was finally as large as a calf. When the louse died later, the princess ordered it to be skinned, and a dress was to be made out of its fur. Soon thereafter a man came to court the princess, and she demanded that he was first to guess the animal that had provided the fur for her dress before she would marry him. Since he couldn’t do this, and nor could other suitors, they all had to leave the palace. Finally, a handsome prince came who was able to solve the riddle in the following way.—
Prince Johannes
This is a tale about his melancholy and nostalgic wanderings, about his flight with the spirit, about the red castle, about his numerous trials and tribulations until he was finally allowed to glimpse the beautiful princess of the sun.
The Good Cloth
Two daughters of a seamstress inherited a good old cloth, and whenever anything was wrapped in it, the cloth turned the object into gold. This cloth provided them with enough to live on, and they also did some sewing to earn a little extra money. One sister was very smart, the other very stupid. One day the oldest went to church, and a Jew came down the street calling, “Beautiful new cloth for sale! Beautiful cloth to trade for old cloth! Anyone want to trade?”
When the stupid sister heard that, she ran out to him and traded the good old cloth for a new cloth. This was exactly what the Jew had wanted, for he knew all about the power of the old cloth. When the older sister came home, she said, “We’re doing poorly with our sewing. I’ve got to get some money. Where’s our cloth?”
“It’s good that I’ve done what I’ve done,” said the stupid sister. “While you were gone, I made a trade for a brand-new cloth.”
[After this the Jew is turned into a dog, the two maidens into hens. Eventually, the hens regain their human form and beat the dog to death.]
86
THE FOX AND THE GEESE
Once the fox came to a meadow where there was a flock of nice, plump geese. Then he laughed and said, “Ho, I’ve come just at the right moment. You’re sitting there together so nicely that all I have to do is eat you up one by one.”
The geese began cackling in fright and jumped up. They screamed for mercy and begged piteously for their lives. However, the fox said: “No mercy! You’ve got to die.”
Finally, one of the geese plucked up her courage and said, “Well, if we poor geese must surrender our innocent young lives, then show us some mercy by granting us one last prayer so that we won’t have to die with our sins. After that we’ll line up in a row so that you’ll continually be able to pick out the fattest among us.”
“All right,” said the fox. “That’s a fair and pious request. I’ll wait until you’re done.”
So the first goose began a good long prayer and kept saying, “Ga! Ga!” Since she refused to end her prayer, the second didn’t wait for her turn and also began saying, “Ga! Ga!” (And when they all will have finished praying, the tale will be continued to be told, but in the meantime they’re still saying their prayers.)
VOLUME II
PREFACE TO VOLUME II
Despite the strong and pressing demands of time, we produced this additional collection of household tales faster and more easily than the first. In part this was due to the fact that, by itself, our collection had gained friends who supported it, and in part because those who would have lik
ed to have supported it earlier saw now clearly what we had intended and how we had intended to work. Moreover, we were finally favored by that sort of luck that appears to be coincidence but is actually the result of the usual diligent perseverance of collectors: after one first becomes accustomed to paying attention to similar kinds of things, one then encounters them more frequently than one might otherwise expect. Indeed, this is generally the case with folk customs, certain qualities, sayings, and jokes.
We are especially grateful for the kindness of friends from the duchies of Paderborn and Münster, who provided the tales in Low German. Their familiarity with this dialect is particularly beneficial with regard to the internal integrity of the tales. In these regions, traditionally famous for their German freedom, the tales have been preserved in many places as an almost regular Sunday pastime. In the mountains the shepherds told their own stories, also known in the Harz region and probably in other large mountainous areas, about the Emperor Redbeard, who lives there with his treasures, and also about the race of giants (the Hühnen) and how they throw their hammers to each other from mountain tops that are many miles apart from one other. We are thinking about publishing these tales elsewhere. Indeed, this region is still rich in traditional customs and songs.
One of our lucky coincidences involved making the acquaintance of a peasant woman from the village of Zwehrn near Kassel. It was through her that we received a considerable number of the tales published here that can be called genuinely Hessian and are also supplements to the first volume. This woman, still active and not much over fifty years old, is called Viehmann, and she has a firmly set and pleasant face with bright, clear eyes and had probably been beautiful in her youth. She has retained these old stories firmly in her memory, a gift that she says is not granted to everyone. Indeed, many people can’t even retain any tales, while she narrates in a manner that is thoughtful, steady, and unusually lively. Moreover, she takes great pleasure in it. At the beginning she speaks very freely, and then, if one wishes, she will repeat the tale slowly so that, with a little practice, one can copy down what she says. In this way we were able to retain much of what she said literally, and the story’s true essence will be easily recognized. Whoever believes that the transcription of such storytelling results in easy falsification, carelessness in the preservation of the tales, and, therefore, the impossibility of recording long narratives as a rule, ought to hear how exactly she always repeats each tale and how eager she is to get it right. She never changes anything when she retells a story and corrects mistakes as soon as she notices them even right in the middle of the telling. The attachment to tradition is much stronger among people who resolutely follow the same way of life than we who have a fondness for change can understand. This is exactly the reason why such storytelling that has been put to test has a certain insistent intimacy and an internal efficiency that other things do not easily attain, even though they can seem more lustrous on the outside. The epic source of folk narratives resembles the color green that one finds throughout nature in many different shades; it satisfies and soothes without ever causing fatigue.