“Anyone who wants a ride can have one!”
Then he lay down next to the fire until dawn.
In the morning the king arrived, and when he saw the young man lying asleep, he thought he was dead and said, “What a shame.”
But when the young man heard these words, he awoke, and as soon as he saw the king, he stood up. Then the king asked him how things had gone during the night.
“Quite well. One night’s gone by smoothly, the other two will go by as well.”
Indeed, the other nights were just like the first. But he already knew what to do, and so on the fourth day, he was rewarded with the king’s beautiful daughter.
5
THE WOLF AND THE SEVEN KIDS
A goat had seven young kids, whom she loved very much and carefully protected from the wolf. One day, when she had to go and fetch some food, she called them all together and said, “Dear children, I must go out to find some food. So be on your guard against the wolf and don’t let him inside. Pay close attention because he often disguises himself, but you can recognize him right away by his gruff voice and black paws. Protect yourselves. If he gets into the house, he’ll eat you all up.”
Upon saying this, the goat went on her way, but it was not long before the wolf arrived at the door and called out, “Open up, dear children. I’m your mother and have brought you some beautiful things.”
But the seven kids said: “You’re not our mother. She has a lovely, soft voice, and yours is gruff. You’re the wolf, and we’re not going to open the door.”
The wolf went away to a shopkeeper and bought a big piece of chalk, which he ate, and it made his voice soft. Then he returned to the house door of the seven kids and called out with a soft voice: “Dear children, let me in. I’m your mother, and I’ve brought something for each of you.”
But the wolf had put his paw on the windowsill, and when the children saw it, they said, “You’re not our mother. She doesn’t have a black paw like yours. You’re the wolf. We’re not going to open the door for you!”
So the wolf ran to a baker and said, “Baker, put some dough on my paws for me.”
And after that was done, the wolf went to the miller and said, “Sprinkle some white flour on my paws.”
The miller said no.
“If you don’t do it, I’ll eat you up!”
So the miller had to do it.
Now the wolf went once again to the house door of the seven kids and said, “Dear children, let me in. I’m your mother, and I’ve brought something for each of you.”
The seven kids wanted to see the paws first, and when they saw that they were snow white and heard the wolf speak so softly, they thought he was their mother and opened the door. Once the wolf entered, however, they recognized him and quickly hid themselves as best they could. The first kid slid under the table, the second hid in the bed, the third in the oven, the fourth in the kitchen, the fifth in the cupboard, the sixth under the large washbasin, and the seventh in the clock case. However, the wolf found them all and swallowed them, except for the youngest in the clock case, who remained alive.
When the wolf had satisfied his craving, he went off. Shortly thereafter, the mother goat came home, and oh, what a terrible sight! The wolf had been there and had devoured her dear children! She thought they were all dead, but then the youngest jumped out of the clock case and told her how everything had happened.
In the meantime, the wolf, who was stuffed, had gone to a green meadow, where he had lain himself down in the sun and had fallen into a deep sleep. The old goat thought she still might be able to save her children. Therefore, she said to the youngest kid: “Take the scissors, needle, and thread and follow me.”
After she left the house, she found the wolf lying on the ground in the meadow and snoring.
“There’s that nasty wolf!” she said and inspected him from all sides. “There he is after eating my six children for supper. Give me the scissors! Oh, if only they’re still alive inside him!”
Then she cut his belly open, and the six kids that had been swallowed whole by the gluttonous wolf jumped out and were unscathed. Immediately she ordered them to gather large and heavy stones and to bring them to her. Then she filled his stomach with them, and the kids sewed him up again and hid behind a hedge.
When the wolf had finished sleeping, he felt that his stomach was very heavy and said: “It’s rumbling and tumbling in my belly! It’s rumbling and tumbling in my belly! And I’ve only eaten six kids!”
He thought he had better have a drink of fresh water to help himself, and he looked for a well, but when he leaned over, he couldn’t stand straight because of the stones and fell into the water. When the seven kids saw this, they came running and danced joyfully around the well.
6
THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE BLINDWORM
Once upon a time there lived a nightingale and a blindworm, each with one eye. For a long time they lived together peacefully and harmoniously in a house. However, one day the nightingale was invited to a wedding, and she said to the blindworm, “I’ve been invited to a wedding and don’t particularly want to go with one eye. Would you be so kind as to lend me yours? I’ll bring it back to you tomorrow.”
The blindworm gave her the eye out of the kindness of her heart. But when the nightingale came home the following day, she liked having two eyes in her head and being able to see on both sides. So she refused to return the borrowed eye to the blindworm. Then the blindworm swore that she would avenge herself on the nightingale’s children and the children of her children.
“Well,” replied the nightingale, “see if you can find me.
I’ll build my nest in the linden, so high, so high, so high.
You’ll never be able to find it, no matter how hard you try.”
Ever since that time all the nightingales have had two eyes, and all the blindworms, none. But wherever the nightingale builds her nest, a blindworm lives beneath it in the bushes and constantly tries to crawl up the tree, pierce the eggs of her enemy, and drink them up.
7
THE STOLEN PENNIES
One day a father was sitting at the table with his wife and children and a good friend who was visiting him, and they were having their noonday meal. As they were sitting there, the clock struck twelve, and the visitor saw the door open, and a pale child dressed in snow-white clothes entered. He didn’t look around or say anything but went silently into the next room. Shortly thereafter he returned and went away just as quietly as he had entered. On the second and third day the child came again. Finally, the visitor asked the father who the beautiful child was that entered the room every day at noon. The father answered that he knew nothing about him. He hadn’t seen anything.
The next day as the clock struck noon, the child entered again, and the visitor pointed the child out to the father, but he didn’t see the boy. Neither did the mother nor the children. The visitor stood up, went to the door, opened it a little, and looked inside. There he saw the pale child sitting on the floor, digging and rummaging in the cracks of the boards. However, as soon as the child noticed the visitor, he disappeared. Now the visitor told the family what he had seen and gave an exact description of the boy. The mother was then able to recognize the child and said, “Alas, it’s my own dear child who died four weeks ago.”
Then they ripped up the boards of the floor and found two pennies that the boy had received from his mother at one time to give to a poor man, but the child had thought, “You can buy yourself a biscuit for that.” Therefore, he had kept the pennies and had hidden them in the cracks of the floor. This is why he hadn’t been able to rest in his grave and had come back every day at noon to look for the pennies. So the parents gave the money to a poor man, and after that the little child was never seen again.
8
THE HAND WITH THE KNIFE
There once was a little girl who had three brothers, and the boys meant the world to her mother. Yet the little girl was always neglected, treated badly,
and forced to go out early in the morning every day to dig up peat from the dry ground on the heath, which they used for making fires and cooking. To top it all off, she was given an old, blunt shovel to perform this nasty work.
But the little girl had an admirer who was an elf and lived in a hill near her mother’s house. Whenever she went by the hill, he would stretch out his hand from the rocky slope and offer her a knife that had miraculous powers and could cut through anything. She used this knife to cut out the peat and would finish her work quickly. Then she would return home happily with the necessary load, and when she walked by the rocky slope, she would knock twice, and the hand would reach out and take back the knife.
When the mother noticed how swiftly and easily she came back home with the peat, she told the girl’s brothers that there must be someone helping her; otherwise, it would be impossible for her to complete the work so fast. So the brothers crept after her and watched her receive the magic knife. They overtook her and forced her to give it to them. Then they returned to the rocky slope, knocked the way she had always done, and when the good elf stretched out his hand, they cut it off with his very own knife. The bloody arm drew back, and since the elf believed that his beloved had betrayed him, he was never seen after that.
9
THE TWELVE BROTHERS
Once upon a time there was a king who had twelve children, all boys. Moreover, he didn’t want to have a daughter and said to his wife: “If you give birth to our thirteenth child, and it’s a girl, I shall have the twelve boys killed. However, if it’s a boy, then they’ll all remain alive and stay together.”
The queen thought of talking him out of this, but the king refused to hear anything more about this topic.
“If everything turns out like I said, they must die. I’d rather chop off their heads myself than let a girl be among them.”
The queen was sad about this because she loved her sons with all her heart and didn’t know how she could save them. Finally, she went to the youngest, who was her favorite, and revealed to him what the king had decided.
“Dearest child,” she said, “go into the forest with your eleven brothers. Stay there, and don’t come home. One of you should keep watch on a tree and look over here toward the tower. If I give birth to a little son, I’ll raise a white flag on top of the tower. However, if it’s a little daughter, I’ll raise a red flag. If you all see that it’s red, then save yourselves. Flee into the wide world, and may our dear Lord protect you. I’ll get up every night and pray that you won’t freeze in the winter and are able to warm yourselves by a fire and that when it’s hot in the summer, you can rest in a cool forest and sleep.”
After she gave her blessing to her sons, they went out into the forest, where they frequently looked toward the tower. One of them had to sit on top of a high tree and constantly keep watch. Soon a flag was hoisted, but it wasn’t a white one. It was a blood-red flag that foreshadowed their doom. As soon as the brothers caught sight of it, they all became angry and cried out: “Why should we lose our lives because of a girl?”
Then they all swore to remain in the middle of the forest and to keep on their guard, and if a maiden were to appear, they would kill her without mercy.
Soon after this they searched for a cave where the forest was the darkest, and that’s where they began to live. Every morning eleven of the brothers went off to hunt. One of them had to remain home, cook, and keep house. Whenever they encountered a maiden, she was treated without mercy and lost her life. This is how they lived for many years.
In the meantime their little sister grew up and was the only child left at home. One day there was a large amount of washing to do, and among the clothes there were twelve shirts for boys.
“Whose shirts are these?” the princess asked the washerwoman. “They’re much too small for my father.”
It was then that the washerwoman told her that she had once had twelve brothers, but they had mysteriously gone away. Nobody knew where because the king had wanted to have them killed, and the twelve shirts belonged to the twelve brothers. The little sister was astonished that she had never heard of her twelve brothers, and during the afternoon as the clothes were drying and she was sitting in the meadow, she recalled the words of the washerwoman. After giving considerable thought to what she had heard, she stood up, took the twelve shirts, and went into the forest where her brothers were living.
The little sister made her way straight to the cave that served as her brothers’ dwelling. Eleven of them were out hunting, and only one of them who had to cook was at home. When he caught sight of the maiden, he composed himself and drew his sword.
“Kneel down! Your red blood will flow this very second!”
But the maiden pleaded: “Dear sir, let me live. I’ll stay with you and serve you honestly. I’ll cook and keep house.”
She spoke these words to the youngest brother, and he took pity on her because of her beauty and spared her life. Later, when his eleven brothers returned home and were astonished to find a maiden alive in their cave, he said to them: “Dear brothers, this girl came to our cave, and when I wanted to cut her to pieces, she pleaded for her life so much and said that she would serve us faithfully and keep house that I spared her life.”
The others thought that this would be a great benefit to them because now all twelve of them could go hunting, and they were satisfied with this arrangement. Then the maiden showed them the twelve shirts and told them that she was their sister. Indeed, they were all very happy about this and were glad that they hadn’t killed her.
Now the little sister took over all the household chores, and when the brothers went out hunting, she gathered wood and herbs, kept the fire going, made up the beds nice and white and clean, and did everything with zeal and without getting tired.
One day, when she was finished with all the work, she took a walk in the woods and came to a place where there were twelve large beautiful white lilies. Since they pleased her so much, she plucked all twelve of them. No sooner did she do this than an old woman stood before her.
“Oh, my daughter,” she said, “why didn’t you let the twelve budding flowers just stand there? They’re your twelve brothers. Now they’ve been changed into ravens and are lost forever.”
The little sister began to weep and said, “Isn’t there any way that I can save them?”
“No, there isn’t any way in the world except one that’s so difficult you won’t be able to rescue them. You must spend the next twelve years without speaking. If you say one single word, even if there’s only an hour left, everything will be in vain, and your brothers will die that very moment.”
Well, the little sister responded by climbing a tall tree in the forest, where she took a place. She wanted to sit there twelve years without saying a word to free her brothers. But it so happened that a king was out riding and hunting in the forest, and as he rode by the tree, his dog stood still and barked. So the king stopped, looked up, and was very amazed by the princess’s beauty. He called to her and asked her whether she wanted to become his wife. However, she remained silent and only nodded a bit with her head. So the king himself dismounted, helped her down from the tree, and lifted her up before him onto his horse. Then he brought her home to his castle. Meanwhile the princess did not utter one word, and the king thought that she was mute. They would have lived happily with one another if it hadn’t been for the king’s mother, who began to slander the young queen in front of her son.
“She’s a common beggar that you’ve dug up from nowhere, and she’s doing the most disgraceful things behind your back!”
Since the young queen couldn’t defend herself, the king was led astray and finally believed what his mother said. So, he sentenced his wife to death, and a enormous fire was built in the courtyard, where she was to be burned to death.
Soon the queen was standing in the flames that grazed the fringes of her dress. One minute was left before the twelve years of her silence would be completed. There was a noise
in the air, and twelve ravens swooped down into the courtyard. As soon as they touched the ground, they became twelve handsome princes who instantly put out the fire’s flames and led their sister to safety. Then she spoke once again and told the king how everything had happened and how she had to save her twelve brothers. Indeed, they were all pleased that everything turned out so well.
Now they had to decide what they should to with the evil mother-in-law. Well, they stuck her into a barrel full of boiling oil and poisonous snakes, and she died a ghastly death.
10
RIFFRAFF
The rooster said to the hen, “The nuts are ripe. Let’s go up the hill and for once eat our fill of nuts before the squirrel hauls them all away.”
“Yes,” responded the hen. “Let’s go and have a good time together.”
So they went up the hill, and since it was such a bright day, they stayed till evening. Now, I don’t know whether it was because they had stuffed themselves too much, or whether they had become too high and mighty, but they didn’t want to return home on foot. So the rooster had to build a small carriage made out of nut shells. When it was finished, the hen got in and said to the rooster, “Now you can just harness yourself to it.”
“No,” said the rooster. “You have some nerve! I’d rather go home by foot than let myself be harnessed to this carriage. No, that wasn’t part of our bargain. I’d gladly be coachman and sit on the box, but I refuse to pull the carriage!”
As they were quarreling, a duck came by quacking and pouted, “You thieves! Who said you could come up on my nut hill? Just you wait! You’ll pay for this!”
She charged at the rooster with a wide-open beak, but the rooster was on his toes and threw himself at the duck’s body nice and hard. Then he dug his spurs into her so violently that the duck begged for mercy and willingly let herself be harnessed to the carriage as punishment. Now the rooster sat down on the box as coachman, and off they went in a gallop.