Grimm's Fairy Tales (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

Along time ago lived an old Queen, who was also an enchantress ; and her daughter was the most beautiful crea ture under the sun. But the old woman was ever thinking how to entice men, in order to kill them, and every suitor, therefore, who came was compelled, before he could marry the daughter, to answer a riddle which the Queen proposed, and which was always so puzzling that it could not be solved; and the unfortunate lover was thereupon forced to kneel down and have his head struck off. Many and many a poor youth had been thus destroyed, for the maiden was very pretty; and still another King’s son was found who made up his mind to brave the danger. He had heard of the great beauty of the Princess, and he prayed his father to let him go and win her. “Never!” replied the King, “if you go away, you go to die!” At this answer the son felt very ill, and so continued for seven years nigh unto death’s door, for no physician could do him any good. At last, when the old King saw all hope was gone, he said to his son, “Go now and try your fortune, for I know not how else to restore you!” As soon as the Prince heard the word he jumped up from his bed, and felt new strength and vigour return to him while he made ready for his journey.

Soon he set off, and as he rode along across a common he saw at a distance something lying on the ground like a bundle of hay; but, as he approached nearer, he discovered that it was a Man who had stretched himself on the earth, and was as big as a little hill! The fellow waited till the Prince came up, and then said to him, rising as he spoke, “If you need any one take me into your service!”

“Very well, perhaps I shall need you,” said the Prince; “come with me.” So Fatty accompanied his new master, and presently they met with another Man, who was also lying on the ground, with his ear close to the grass. “What are you doing there?” asked the Prince.

“Follow me, I can find a use for you,” said the Prince to the Listener; and so the three now journeyed together. Presently they came to a spot where were lying two feet and part of two legs, but they could not see the continuation of them till they had walked a good stretch further, and then they came to the body, and at length to the head. “Hulloa!” cried the Prince, “what a length you are!”

Thereupon the Prince accepted also the services of this Man; and, as they went on, they found another fellow, who, although he was lying on the ground in the scorching heat of the sun, trembled and shivered so that not a limb in his body stood still. “What makes you freeze, when the sun shines like this?” asked the Prince.

“Alas! my nature is quite different from anything else!” replied the Man; “the hotter it is the colder I feel, and the frost penetrates all my bones; while the colder it is the hotter I feel; so that I cannot touch ice for the heat of my body, nor yet go near the fire for fear I should freeze it!”

“You are a wonderful fellow!” said the Prince; “come with me, and perhaps I may need you.” So the Man followed with the rest; and they came next to a Man who was stretching his neck to such a length that he could see over all the neighbouring hills. “What are you looking at so eagerly?” asked the Prince.

The Prince now pursued his way with his six servants to the city where the old Queen dwelt. When he arrived he would not tell his name, but told the Witch if she would give him her daughter he would do all she desired. The old Enchantress was delighted to have such a handsome young man fall into her clutches, and told him she would set him three tasks, and, if he performed them all, the Princess should become his wife.

“You must fetch for me a ring which I have let fall into the Red Sea,” said the Queen. Then the Prince returned home to his servants, and said to them, “The first task is no easy one; it is to fetch a ring out of the Red Sea; but let us consult together.”

“If I could but see it I would fetch it up,” said Long-Arms. “Is that all?” said Fatty, and, lying down on the bank, he held his mouth open to the water and the stream ran in as if into a pit, till at length the whole sea was as dry as a meadow. Long-Arms, thereupon, bent down a little, and fetched out the ring, to the great joy of the Prince, who carried it to the old Witch. She was mightily astonished, but confessed it was the right ring. “The first task you have performed, happily,” she said; “but now comes the second. Do you see those three hundred oxen grazing on the meadows before my palace; all those you must consume, flesh, bones, and skins, and horns; then in my cellar are three hundred casks of wine, which must all be drunk out by you; and if you leave a single hair of any of the oxen, or one drop of the wine you will lose your life.”

Thereupon the Prince returned again to his servants, and told them what the task was; and then he invited Fatty to be his guest. He came, and quickly consumed the three hundred oxen, flesh and bones, skin and horns, while he made as if it were only a good breakfast. Next he drank all the wine out of every cask, without so much as using a glass, but draining them all to the very dregs. As soon as the meal was over the Prince went and told the Queen he had performed the second task. She was much astonished, and said no one had ever before got so far as that; but she determined that the Prince should not escape her, for she felt confident he would lose his head about the third task. “This evening,” said she, “I will bring my daughter into your room, and you shall hold her round with one arm; but mind you do not fall asleep while you sit there, for at twelve o’clock I shall come, and if my daughter is not with you then you are lost.” “This task is easy,” thought the Prince to himself; “I shall certainly keep my eyes open.” Still he called his servants together, and told them what the old woman had said. “Who knows,” said he, “what craftiness may be behind? foresight is necessary; do you keep watch, that nobody passes out of the chamber during the night.”

As soon as night came the old Queen brought the Princess to the Prince, and then Long-Arms coiled himself in a circle round the pair, and Fatty placed himself in the doorway, so that not a living soul could enter the room. So there the two sat, and the maiden spoke not a word, but the moon shone through the window upon her face, so that the Prince could see her great beauty. He did nothing but look at her, was full of happiness and love, and felt no weariness at all. This lasted till eleven o’clock, and then the old Witch threw a charm over all, so that they fell fast asleep, and at the same moment the maiden was carried off.

Till a quarter to twelve the three slept soundly, but then the charm lost its strength, and they all awoke again. “Oh, what a terrible misfortune!” cried the Prince as soon as he awoke, “I am lost!” The faithful servants also began to complain; but the Listener said, “Be quiet and I will hear where she is!” He listened a moment, and then said,

“The Princess is sitting three hundred miles from hence, inside a cave, bewailing her fate. You alone can help us, Long-Arms; if you set to the task you will be there in a couple of strides.” “Certainly!” said Long-Arms; “but Sharp-Eyes must also go with us to pierce the rock.” Then he hoisted Sharp-Eyes upon his back, and in a moment, while one could scarcely turn his hand round, they were before the enchanted rock. Immediately Sharp-Eyes removed his bandage, and, looking round, the rocky cave was shattered into a thousand pieces. Then Long-Arms took the Princess out of the ruins and carried her home first, and, immediately returning for his companion, they were all seated, rejoicing at their fortunate escape, before the clock struck twelve.

As soon as it did strike, the old Enchantress slipped into the room, smiling horribly, for she thought her daughter was safe enough in the rocky cave, and the Prince was hers. But when she perceived her daughter in the arms of the Prince she was terrified, and exclaimed, “Here is one who can do more than I can!” She dared not, however, deny her promise, and the maiden was therefore betrothed to the Prince. But the old woman whispered in her daughter’s ear, “Shame upon you that you listened to common folks, and dared not to choose a husband after your own wishes!”

With these words the proud heart of the Princess was inflamed, and she thought of revenge; and accordingly, the following day, she caused three hundred bundles of logs to be heaped together, and then said to the Prince, “The three tasks were soon performed; but still I will not marry you until some one shall be found who will sit upon the fire of these logs and endure it.” She thought none of his servants would be burnt for their master; and so that, because out of love for her, he would himself sit upon the pile, she would be freed from him. But the servants said that Frosty had done nothing as yet, though they all had, and so they placed him on the top of the pile of wood. The fire was immediately kindled and burnt for three days, until all the wood was consumed; but, when the flames ceased, there stood Frosty in the midst of the ashes, shivering like an aspen-leaf, and declaring that he never before experienced such a frost, and must have perished if it had longer continued!

After this no further excuse could be made, and the beautiful Princess was obliged to take the unknown stranger as her husband. But just as they were going to church the old Queen declared again that she could not bear the shame, and she sent her guards after the wedding party with orders, at all risks, to bring back her daughter. The Listener, however, had kept his ears open, and he discovered the secret designs of the old Witch. “What shall we do?” asked he of Fatty; but the latter was equal to the occasion, and, spitting behind him once or twice a drop or two of the sea-water which he had formerly drunk, there was formed a great lake, in which the Queen’s guards were caught and drowned. The Queen as soon as she saw this catastrophe despatched her mounted guards; but the Listener heard the rat tlings of their trappings, and unbound the eyes of their fellow-servant, whose look, as soon as he directed it upon the approaching enemy, shivered them like glass. The bridal party now passed on undisturbed; and, as soon as the blessing had been pronounced over the new married pair, the six servants took their leave, saying to their former master, “Your wishes are fulfilled, and you no longer require us; we will therefore journey on and seek our fortunes elsewhere.”

Now, about half a mile from the Queen’s palace was a village before which a swineherd was tending his drove of pigs; and, as the Prince and Princess passed by it, the former said to his wife, “Do you know who I really am? I am no King’s son, but a swineherd, and this man here with this drove is my father; we two must therefore get out and assist him!” So saying, he dismounted with her from the carriage, and they went together into the inn; and he ordered the host to carry away secretly during the night the royal clothes belonging to his wife. Accordingly, when morning came, the poor Princess had nothing to wear; but the hostess gave her an old gown and a pair of old slippers, and of these things made a great favour, telling her that she certainly would not have lent them to her had not her husband begged for them!

The Princess now began really to believe that her husband was a swineherd, and with him she tended the drove, and thought it was a punishment for her pride and ambition. This continued for eight days, and then she could bear it no longer, for her feet were wounded all over. Just at that time two persons came to her, and asked if she knew who her husband was. “Yes, he is a swineherd,” she replied, “and is just now gone to drive a little trade with a few ribands and laces.”

“Come with us now, and we will take you to him,” said the two strangers to the Princess; and they took her into the palace, where her husband stood arrayed in his royal robes in the great hall. She did not, however, recognise him until he fell on her neck, and said to her, “I have suffered so much for you that it was only right that you should also suffer for me!” and with these words he kissed her lovingly. Soon afterwards their wedding was celebrated with due form, and with so much grandeur that I who tell this story would like to have been there to see!