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 Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:05 am
The Red Shoes
A peasant girl named Karen is adopted by a rich old lady after her mother's death. She grows up vain. Before her adoption Karen had a rough pair of red shoes, and now she tricks her adoptive mother into buying her a pair of red shoes fit for a princess. Karen repeatedly wears them to church, without paying attention to the service. She ignores the anger of her adopted mother and disapproving stares that even the holy images seem to express at her wearing red shoes in church. Her adoptive mother becomes ill, but Karen deserts her, preferring to attend a party in her red shoes. A mysterious soldier appears and makes strange remarks about what beautiful dancing shoes Karen has. Soon after, Karen begins to dance and she can't stop. The shoes take over; she cannot control them and they are stuck to her feet. The shoes continue to dance, through fields and meadows, rain or shine, night and day, and through brambles and briars that tear at Karen's limbs. She can't even attend her adoptive mother's funeral. An angel appears to her, bearing a sword, and condemns her to dance even after she dies, as a warning to vain children everywhere. Karen begs for mercy but the red shoes take her away before she hears the angel's reply. Karen finds an executioner and asks him to chop off her feet. He does so but the shoes continue to dance, now with Karen's amputated feet inside them. The executioner gives her a pair of wooden feet and crutches, and teaches her the criminals' psalm. Thinking that she has suffered enough for the red shoes, Karen decides to go to church in order for the people to see her. However her amputated feet, still in the red shoes, dance before her, barring the way. The following Sunday she tries again, thinking of herself at least as good as the others in church, but again the dancing red shoes bar the way. Karen gets a job as a maid in the parsonage, but when Sunday comes she dares not go to church. Instead she sits alone at home and prays to God for help. The angel reappears, now bearing a spray of roses, and gives Karen the mercy she asked for: it is as though the church comes home to her and her heart becomes so filled with sunshine, peace, and joy that it bursts. Her soul flies on sunshine to Heaven, and no one there mentions the red shoes.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:08 am
The Rich Brother and the Poor Brother
A rich old man with two sons, lost his wife. The older son lived with him and the younger son lived in the city. One day, the man learned that his older son had secretly married. The father turned him out, sent for his younger brother, and made him his only heir. He died and left his estate, which was not as good as it once was, to the younger son. The inheritance included some unfinished houses in the city. Meanwhile, the older brother and his wife lived in poverty. One day he begged his younger brother to give him the unfinished houses, and the brother agreed.
The younger brother married a woman who was wealthy but greedy. One day she went to the city and saw the houses. She made her husband go to law again and again to get them back. Finally, they appeared before to the highest court. They stopped by a farm, where the resident farmer fed the rich brother and, grudgingly, permitted the poor brother to stay. The farmer's wife asked for one of the poor brother's onions, became ill during the night, and blamed the onion. The farmer beat the poor brother until the rich brother demanded that he go to court to complain and stop beating him.
The rich brother and the farmer set out on horseback. The poor brother stayed to help a muleteer with his mule that was stuck in the mud. In spite of his help the muleteer went on without him. The poor brother decided he would never reach court in time, and one or the other case would go against him, so he might as well kill himself. But, it was too dark to be sure of it, so instead he went to sleep. In the morning, he jumped over a wall to kill himself, but he landed on top of an old man lying in the sun. The old man died.
The old man's sons brought the poor brother to court. The three cases were brought against the poor brother, and the judge found in his favor in all of them, and ordered the accusers to pay for their false accusations. The poor brother lived on the money for the rest of his life.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:09 am
The Riddle
There once was a prince who decided to go on a journey with his servant. In a dark forest, they came to a small house, where a maiden warned them that her stepmother was a witch who disliked strangers, but unfortunately there was nowhere else for shelter. The prince and his servant reluctantly entered the witch's house, but before they went to bed, the maiden warned the prince and his servant not to eat or drink anything the witch gave them because it might be poisonous. The next morning, the witch gave the prince's servant a poisonous drink, telling him to give it to his master, but the servant ended up spilling it on the prince's horse, killing it. When he told the prince what had happened and they came to the dead horse, a raven was already eating the corpse. Deciding they may not find better food that day, the servant killed the bird and took it with him. Next, they reached an inn and the servant gave the innkeeper the raven to make food of it. Unknown to the prince and his servant, the inn was really a robbers' den. The robbers returned, and, before killing the travellers, sat down to eat. Immediately after eating a few bites of the raven soup the innkeeper had prepared, the robbers fell down dead from the poison that the raven had in its body. The innkeeper's daughter then showed the prince and his servant the robbers' hidden treasure, but the prince insisted that the daughter keep it.
Continuing on, the prince and his servant next came to a town where a princess would marry any man who asked her a riddle that she could not solve. The prince asked the princess, "What slew none, and yet slew twelve?" The princess could not solve the riddle, so she sent her maid to see if the prince revealed the riddle while talking in his sleep. The prince was prepared, however, because that night he had his servant sleep in his bed. When the maid came in, the servant ripped off her robe and chased her out. Next, the princess sent her chambermaid to spy on the prince while he was asleep, but the prince's servant also ripped off her robe and chased her out. On the third night, the prince slept in his own bed, and the princess herself came in. The prince pretended to be asleep and the princess asked him the answer to the riddle. After revealing the answer, the princess departed, but left her robe behind.
The next morning, the princess announced the answer of the riddle: "A raven ate from a dead, poisoned horse, and died from it. Then, twelve robbers ate the raven and died from that." The prince declared that the princess had not solved the riddle herself, but rather questioned him in his sleep. The town judges asked for proof, and the prince showed them the three robes. The judges ordered the princess's robe to be embroidered with gold and silver, for it was to be her wedding robe.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:10 am
A Riddling Tale
Story and riddle
Three women were changed to identical flowers. One was allowed home at night and told her husband to pick and free her. He did so.
How did he recognize her?
[edit] Answer
The other flowers, having been in the field all night, had dew on them; the wife did not
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:11 am
The Rider Of Grianaig, And Iain The Soldier's Son
The knight of Grianaig had three daughters, but a mysterious beast carried them off. A soldier's three sons were going to play a game at Christmas, and the youngest son, Iain, insisted that they do it on the knight's lawn, because it was the smoothest, but this, as his brothers had warned, offended the knight because it reminded him of his daughters. Iain said he should give them a ship, and they would find his daughters. The knight agreed.
The brothers set out. They found a place where men were preparing for the wedding of the three daughters to three giants. There was a creel, which could lift them to where the daughters were. Each brother tried in turn; the older two were belabored by a raven and turned back; Iain, facing the same raven, called them to hoist him the more quickly. At the top, the raven asked him for tobacco, and when Iain refused him, told him to go to a giant's house, where he would find the oldest daughter. He went. The oldest daughter told him that rattling a chain would bring the giant, but only Iain the soldier's son could fight him. Iain rattled the chain and wrestled with the giant; he wished the raven were with him, and it helped him win the fight and gave him a knife to cut off its head.
The raven then told him to not let the daughter put him off, but to go on. Then it asked him for tobacco, and Iain offered him half; the raven told him that he had much to do yet, and should not offer that much. It then sent him to anoint himself and bathe before he slept, so he would be whole on the morning. He did this, and went on to rescue the second, and the youngest daughter. Then he took the three daughters and the giants' gold and silver and went back. The raven warned him to go first and have the daughters lowered after, but he lowered the daughters first, keeping only the youngest's cap, and the creel did not come back for him.
The raven told him to spend the night at the giant's house. In the morning, it took him to the stables where the door was opening and shutting; there was a steed for him in it, if he got through the door. Iain asked the raven to go first; it did, and lost only a feather. Iain tried and was killed. The raven revived him and told him to walk and not wonder at anything he saw, or touch anything. He came to three dead men, and pulled out the spears; the men sat up, and made him come to the cave of the black fisherman. There a hag turned them to stone; Iain defeated her, but was sent to fetch living water, to bring back the men. The raven sent him with the steed, which went over land and sea. There, as the raven told him, he put the horse in the stable himself and drank nothing but whey and water; but though the horse warned him against sleeping, he was enchanted by music and slept. The horse broke in and woke him. They barely escaped. With the water he revived the men.
The raven told him to leave the cap with him and sent him off on the steed to interrupt the wedding, because his brothers were to marry the two older, and the foreman of the men preparing for the wedding, the youngest. He rode off, and when he arrived, the horse asked him to cut off its head. He refused. The horse explained that she was a young maiden, and the raven a young man who had courted her, but the giants changed them. He cut off her head.
At the castle, he heard that the youngest princess demanded a cap such as her sisters had. Iain wished for the raven, who brought him the cap, and Iain cut off his head, turning him into a young man. They went to the dead horse, where there was a young woman, and they went off together. Iain gave the cap to the smith. The youngest princess demanded where he had gotten it, and the smith told her. The youngest princess married Iain, and the false bridegrooms were driven off.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:12 am
The Ridere of Riddles
A king's queen died when his son was born. He remarried, and his new wife also had a son. The stepmother tried to poison the first son so her son would inherit, but her son warned his brother. The first son decided to flee before she succeed, and his brother went with him. They tried the drinks she had given the older brother on their horses, and found they were poisonous. Then twelve ravens came to eat the dead horse and died as well. They took the ravens' bodies and had them made into pies. When they went on, they were waylaid by robbers; they claimed to have no purses but some food. The robbers took the pies, ate them, and died. The brothers took their gold and silver and went on to the Ridere (or Knight) of Riddles, whose beautiful daughter would marry whoever asked a riddle her father could not guess.
There, they asked, "One killed two, and two killed twelve, and twelve killed four and twenty, and two got out of it." The ridere could not guess, and sent maidens to wheedle the answer out. Twelve maidens lost their plaids to the younger brother, but could not get the answer. Finally, the princess herself went, and got the answer from the older brother, but left her plaid. The ridere would have executed them, but the older brother told the story of how his brother had shot twelve hares and got their hides, and he had shot a fine one and gotten her hide, so the ridere married him to his daughter. The younger brother went on, and the older gave him the right to the throne at home.
Three giants lived nearby, and the ridere told his son-in-law that if he had spirit, he would kill them. He did it, and was named the Hero of the White Shield, and went to live on the giants' lands. His brother heard of him, without knowing who he was, and went to fight with him. They fought, and neither one won, and they told each other their names.
The brother went home, but on the way, he saw twelve young men playing at shinny and learned they were his twelve sons, by twelve different mothers. He took both the young men and their mothers home with him.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:13 am
The Ridiculous Wishes
A woodcutter complained of his poor lot. Jupiter (or, alternatively, a tree spirit) granted him three wishes. The woodcutter went home, and his wife persuaded him to put off the wishing until the next day, after he had thought, but while sitting by the fire, he wished for sausages. His wife taxed him for his folly, and angry, he wished the sausages on her nose. Finally, they agreed to use the last wish to take the sausages off her nose, leaving them no better off than before.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:14 am
The Robber Bridegroom
A miller wished to marry his daughter off, and so when a rich suitor appeared, he betrothed her to him. One day the suitor complained that the daughter never visited him, told her that he lived in the forest, and overrode her reluctance by telling her he would leave a trail of ashes so she could find his home. She filled her pockets with peas and lentils and marked the trail with them as she followed the ashes.
They led her to a dark and silent house. A bird in a cage called out to warn her that she entered a murderer's house. An old woman in a cellar kitchen told her that the people there would kill and eat her unless the old woman protected her and hid her behind a barrel. A band of robbers arrived with a young woman, and they killed her and prepared to eat her. When one chopped off a finger to get at the golden ring on it, the finger and ring flew through the air and landed in the bodice of the hiding woman. The old woman discouraged them from searching, because neither the finger nor the ring were likely to run away: they'd find it in the morning.
The old woman drugged the robbers' wine. As soon as they fell asleep, the two living women fled. Wind had blown the ashes away, but the peas and lentils had sprung up into seedlings: the two followed the path of plants and reached the young woman's home.
When the wedding day arrived and the guests were telling stories, the young woman said that she would tell a dream she had had, and told of her visit to the robbers' den, her bridegroom punctuating it with "My darling, you only dreamed this." -- or the robber punctuating with exclamations that it was not so in the Mr. Fox variant -- until she produced the finger of the dead girl and showed it to the company.
The robber bridegroom and all his band were put to death.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:16 am
Rosanella
The Queen of the Fairies having died, the fairies tried to elect a new one, but there were two candidates they could not choose between. They decided whoever did the greatest wonder would be queen. One, Surcantine, resolved to raise a prince whom nothing could make constant, and the other, Paridamie, a princess whom no one would see without falling in love.
Nearby, King Bardondon and Queen Balanice had an infant daughter, Rosanella. One day the queen dreamed that an eagle had snatched a bouquet of roses from her, and when she woke, the princess had vanished. Soon after, peasant girls brought her twelve baskets, saying they might prove a consolation. Each one contained a beautiful baby girl. This renewed the queen's grief, but she set about providing for them, and this distracted her. She named them, but as they grew, though all were beautiful, intelligent, and accomplished, their dispositions were so clear that they came to be called by them: Sweet, or Grave, or Beautiful.
Meanwhile, Surcantine raised Prince Mirliflor to be perfect in every way except his fickleness, and he broke every heart in his father's kingdom. He went to visit King Bardondon and found himself in love with all twelve of the maidens, but one day giants carried them all off. The prince despaired, but soon after Paridamie appeared with Rosanella, and told the queen that soon she would not miss her twelve maidens. The prince did not want to meet her, but he had to, and found that she combined in herself all the charms of the twelve, and asked her to marry him.
Paridamie appeared, and revealed that the twelve had in fact all been Rosanella, so that they might charm the prince separately and, combined again, cure Mirliflor of his inconstancy. Surcantine owned herself defeated, and even attended the wedding and gave them a gift.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:17 am
The Rose-Tree
A man had two children, a daughter by his first wife and a son by his second. His daughter was very beautiful, and her brother loved her but his mother hated her.
The stepmother sent the daughter to the store to buy candles. Three times, the girl put down the candles to climb a stile, and a dog stole them.
The stepmother told her to come and let her comb her hair. She claimed she could not comb it on her knee, or with the comb, and sent the girl for a piece of wood and an axe, and cut off her head.
She stewed her heart and liver, and her husband tasted them and said they tasted strangely. The brother did not eat but buried his sister under a rose-tree. Every day he wept under it.
One day, the rose-tree flowered, and a white bird appeared. It sang to a cobbler and received a pair of red shoes; it sang to a watchmaker and received a gold watch and chain; it sang to three millers and received a millstone. Then it flew home and rattled the millstone against the eaves. The stepmother said that it thundered, and the boy ran out, and the bird dropped the shoes at his feet. It rattled the millstone again, the stepmother said that it thundered, the father went out, and the bird dropped the watch and chain at his feet. It rattled the millstone a third time, and the stepmother went out, and the bird dropped the millstone on her head.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:17 am
Rumpelstiltskin
In order to make himself appear more important, a miller lied to a king, telling him that his daughter could spin straw into gold. The king called for the girl, shut her in a tower room with straw and a spinning wheel, and demanded that she spin the straw into gold by morning, for three nights, or be executed (other versions have the king threatening to lock her up in a dungeon forever). She had given up all hope, when an impish creature appeared in the room and spun straw into gold for her in return for her necklace, then again the following night for her ring. On the third night, when she had nothing with which to reward him, the strange creature spun straw into gold for a promise that the girl's first-born child would become his.
The king was so impressed that he married the miller's daughter, but when their first child was born, the imp returned to claim his payment: "Now give me what you promised". The queen was frightened and offered him all the wealth she had if she could keep the child. The imp refused but finally agreed to give up his claim to the child if the queen could guess his name in three days. At first she failed, but before the final night, her messenger discovered the imp's remote mountain cottage and, unseen, overheard the imp hopping about his fire and singing. While there are many variations in this song, the 1886 translation by Lucy Crane reads:
Today do I bake, to-morrow I brew,
The day after that the queen's child comes in;
And oh! I am glad that nobody knew
That the name I am called is Rumpelstiltskin!"[1]
However, most American children today know it as:
Today I brew, tomorrow I bake;
And then the Prince child I will take;
For no one knows my little game
That Rumpelstiltskin is my name!
(German:
Heute back ich, morgen brau ich,
Übermorgen hol ich mir der Königin ihr Kind;
Ach, wie gut, dass niemand weiß,
dass ich Rumpelstilzchen heiß")[2]
When the imp came to the queen on the third day and she revealed his name, Rumpelstiltskin lost his bargain. In the 1812 edition of the Brothers Grimm tales, Rumpelstiltskin then "ran away angrily, and never came back". The ending was revised in a final 1857 edition to a more gruesome version where Rumpelstiltskin "in his rage drove his right foot so far into the ground that it sank in up to his waist; then in a passion he seized the left foot with both hands and tore himself in two." Other versions have Rumpelstiltskin driving his right foot so far into the ground that he creates a chasm and falls into it, never to be seen again. In the oral version originally collected by the brothers Grimm, Rumpelstiltskin flies out of the window on a cooking ladle (Heidi Anne Heiner).[citation needed]
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:18 am
Rushen Coatie
A queen with a daughter died. On her deathbed, she told her daughter that a red calf would come to her, and she could ask it for help.
The king remarried, to a widow with three daughters, and the stepmother and stepsisters maltreated her, giving her only a coat made of rushes to wear—calling her Rushen Coatie—and too little food. A red calf came to her, and when she asked for food, it told her to pull it from its ear. The stepmother set one of her daughters to spy on Rushen Coatie, and the girl discovered the red calf.
The stepmother feigned illness and told the king that she needed the sweetbread from the red calf. The king had it slaughtered, but the dead calf told Rushen Coatie to bury its body, and she did, except for the shankbone, which she could not find.
At Yuletide, the stepmother and stepsisters jeered at her for wanting to go to church and set her to make dinner, but the red calf limped into the kitchen. It gave her clothing to wear and told her a charm to cook the supper. At church, a young prince fell in love with her.
She went twice more, and the third time, the prince set a watch to stop her, but she jumped over it and a shoe, made of glass, fell to the ground.
The prince declared he would marry the woman whose foot the shoe matched, and one of her stepsisters hacked off part of her foot to do it, but the blood gave her away. Then no one had failed to try except Rushen Coatie, so the prince insisted on her trying it, and they married.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:19 am
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:19 am
Sadko
Sadko played the gusli on the shores of a lake. The Sea Tsar enjoyed his music, and offered to help him. Sadko was instructed to make a bet with the local merchants about catching a certain fish in the lake; when he caught it (as provided by the Tsar), the merchants had to pay the wager, making Sadko a rich merchant.
Sadko traded on the seas with his new wealth, but did not pay proper respects to the Tsar as per their agreement. The Tsar stopped Sadko's ships in the sea. He and his sailors tried to appease the Sea Tsar with gold, to no avail. Sadko's crew forced him to jump into the sea. There, he played the gusli for the Sea Tsar, who offered him a new bride. On advice, he took the last maiden in a long line, and lay down beside her.
He woke up on the shore and rejoined his wife.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:20 am
Sapia Liccarda
A rich merchant had three daughters, Bella, Cenzolla, and the youngest, Sapia Liccarda. He went on a trip and nailed up all the windows so they could not lean out and gossip, and gave them rings that would stain if they did something shameful. The older sisters managed to lean out anyway.
The king's castle was across the way, and his three sons, Cecciariello, Grazuloo, and Tore, flirted with the three daughters. The older two seduced the older two, but Sapia Liccarda gave Tore the slip, and increased his desire for her. The older two became pregnant. They craved the king's bread, and Sapia Liccarda went to the king's castle to beg it, with a flax comb on her back. She got it, and when Tore tried to seize her, the comb scratched his hand. Then they craved pears, and she went to the royal garden to get them. Tore saw her and climbed a tree to get her the pears, but when he tried to climb down and seize her, she took away the ladder. Finally, the older sisters were delivered of their sons, and Sapia Liccarda went to the castle for the third time, to leave each baby in his father's bed, and a stone in Tore's. The older two were pleased to have such fine young sons, and Tore was jealous of them.
The merchant returned and found the rings of his older two daughters stained. He was ready to beat them when the king's sons asked him to let them marry his daughters. He agreed.
Sapia Liccarda, thinking Tore angry with her, made a fine statue of herself in sugar paste and left it in her bed. Tore came in and stabbed the statue, and said he would suck her blood as well, but when he tasted the sugar paste, it was so sweet that he lamented his wickedness. Sapia Liccarda told him the truth, and they made their peace in the bed.
[edit] The King in the Basket
In Calvino's version, the daughters are instructed to lower a basket to buy whatever they need, and the king tricks them into lifting them up. The youngest, Leonetta, gets her sisters to lower her and plays tricks in his castle. The king asks the merchant to marry one of his daughters and knows that Leonetta is the prankster by her willingness. The sugar figure on the wedding night appears identically in the tale.[3]
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