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 Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:43 am
The White Dove
A woman would not marry except to a man with a blue beard. One day, a giant with a blue beard, a famous hunter, came to her parents' house, and she agreed to marry him. Because her new husband was rich, her mother considered what to give her and decided on three doves; she should send messages by the red dove if she were well and living peacably with her husband, by the white if she were ill, or by the black if she were unfortunate or in discord with her husband. Her husband went hunting and gave her nine keys, forbidding her to use one. She used it and found eight bodies of women, hanging up. She dropped the key, and it was stained with blood. Her husband demanded the keys and told her to go put on her finery, because she would die. The woman sent off the black dove and set the white dove to watch on the roof; then she stalled, saying that she was dressing a bride. The dove called that it could see nothing three times, and then three times reported that her brothers were respectively far off, approaching, and there. They broke into the house. Her husband claimed they were about to eat, but he fell asleep over dinner, either from drinking too much or a sleeping powder, and the brothers killed him.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:45 am
The Willful Child
Once upon a time there was a child who was willful and would not do what her mother wished. For this reason, God had no pleasure in her, and let her become ill. No doctor could do her any good, and in a short time the child lay on her deathbed. When she had been lowered into her grave, and the earth was spread over her, all at once her little arm came out again and reached upward. And when they had pushed it back in the ground and spread fresh earth over it, it was all to no purpose, for the arm always came out again. Then the mother herself was obliged to go to the grave and strike the arm with a rod. When she had done that, the arm was drawn in, and at last the child had to rest beneath the ground.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:45 am
The Wild Swans
In a faraway kingdom, there lives a widowed King with his twelve children: eleven princes and one princess. One day, he decides to remarry. He marries a wicked queen who was a witch. Out of spite, the queen turns her eleven stepsons into swans (they are allowed to become human by night) and forces them to fly away. The queen then tries to bewitch their 15-year old sister Elisa, but Elisa's goodness is too strong for this, so she has Elisa banished. The brothers carry Elisa to safety in a foreign land where she is out of harm's way of her stepmother.
There, Elisa is guided by the queen of the fairies to gather nettles in graveyards; she knits these into shirts that will eventually help her brothers regain their human shapes. Elisa endures painfully blistered hands from nettle stings, and she must also take a vow of silence for the duration of her task, for speaking one word will kill her brothers. The king of another faraway land happens to come across the mute Elisa and falls in love with her. He grants her a room in the castle where she continues her knitting. Eventually he proposes to crown her as his queen and wife, and she accepts.
Illustration by Vilhelm Pedersen, Andersen‘s first illustrator (1850)
However, the Archbishop is chagrined because he thinks Elisa is herself a witch, but the king will not believe him. One night Elisa runs out of nettles and is forced to collect more in a nearby church graveyard where the Archbishop is watching. He reports the incident to the king as proof of witchcraft. The statues of the saints shake their heads in protest, but the Archbishop misinterprets this sign as confirmation of Elisa's guilt. The Archbishop orders to put Elisa on trial for witchcraft. She can speak no word in her defence and is sentenced to death by burning at the stake.
The brothers discover Elisa's plight and try to speak to the king, but fail. Even as the tumbril bears Elisa away to execution, she continues knitting, determined to keep it up to the last moment of her life. This enrages the people, who are on the brink of snatching and destroying the shirts when the swans descend and rescue Elisa. The people (correctly) interpret this as a sign from Heaven that Elisa is innocent, but the executioner still makes ready for the burning. Then Elisa throws the shirts over the swans, and the brothers return to their human forms. The youngest brother retains one swan's wing because Elisa did not have time to finish the last sleeve. Elisa is now free to speak and tell the truth, but she faints from exhaustion, so her brothers explain. As they do so, the firewood around Elisa's stake miraculously take root and burst into flowers. Because of the miracle that happened, the youngest brother's wing turns back to a normal arm; the king plucks the topmost flower and presents it to Elisa.
Elisa's courage prevails, and she is forever reunited with her brothers and her father, the king.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:46 am
The Wicked Sisters
Prince Ivan hears three beautiful sisters talking. The older two say that if he married them, they would sew him a marvelous shirt; the youngest says she would bear him three sons with the sun on the forehead, the moon on the back of their heads, and stars to each side. The older sisters envied her and bribed her servants; when she bore the sons she had said, they stole them and hid them an arbor in the garden; then they presented the prince with first a puppy, then a kitten, then an ordinary child. The prince finally repudiated and demanded justice for her deceiving him. The chief justice decreed she should be blinded, put in a barrel with the ordinary child, and thrown out to sea; if she were guilty, she would die, but if she were innocent, she would emerge. This was done, and Prince Ivan married her oldest sister.
The substituted child grew by the hour, became reasonable, and commanded the barrel to come ashore and burst, then commanded a bathhouse to appear, in which he restored the princess's sight, and then a palace to appear. The arbor from the palace was in it. He had the princess bake three cakes. The three princes appeared and said that whoever brought them those cakes and told them of their mother would be their brother. The princess lived there with her sons and the child. One day they gave hospitality to monks, who went on to Prince Ivan's kingdom and told him of them. He immediately went to the palace and knew them for his wife and sons.
The oldest sister was thrown into the sea, and this time the barrel sank.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:47 am
Whuppity Stoorie
A woman's husband went to the fair and never returned; she was left alone with her baby son and owning only a big sow. The sow was about to farrow, and she hoped for a good litter, but one day she went to the pen to find the sow dying. She was distraught, and a fairy woman asked what she would give her if she helped the sow. The woman promised her anything she liked. She saved the sow and demanded the baby. Though she would not listen to any pleas, she did tell the woman that under the fairy laws, she had to wait three days, and the woman could stop her by telling her her name. The woman was distraught the first day, but the second, she went for a walk, and in the forest, she finds a quarry where the fairy is spinning and singing that her name is Whuppity Stoorie.
When the fairy came the next day, the woman pled with her to take the sow, and then to take herself. The fairy scorned her, asking what she would want with such a woman, and the woman said she knows she is unworthy to tie the shoestrings for Whuppity Stoorie. The fairy woman went screeching away.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:48 am
Why the Sea is Salt
A poor man begged from his brother on Christmas Eve. The brother promised him, depending on the variant, ham or bacon or a lamb if he would do something. The poor brother promised; the rich one handed over the food and told him to go to Hell (in Lang's version, the Dead Men's Hall; in the Greek, the Devil's dam). Since he promised, he set out.
In the Norse variants, he meets an old man along the way. In some variants, the man begs from him, and he gives something; in all, the old man tells him that in Hell (or the hall), they will want to buy the food from him, but he must only sell it for the hand-mill behind the door, and come to him for directions to use it. It took a great deal of haggling, but the poor man succeeded, and the old man showed him how to use it.
In the Greek, he merely brought the lamb and told the devils that he would take whatever they would give him, and they gave him the mill.
He took it to his wife, and had it grind out everything they needed for Christmas, from lights to tablecloth to meat and ale. They ate well and on the third day, they had a great feast. His brother was astounded and when the poor man had drunk too much, or when the poor man's children innocently betrayed the secret, he showed his rich brother the hand-mill.
His brother finally persuaded him to sell it. In the Norse version, the poor brother didn't teach him how to handle it. He set to grind out herrings and broth, but it soon flooded his house. His brother wouldn't take it back until he paid him as much as he paid to have it. In the Greek, the brother set out to Constantinople by ship.
In the Norse, one day a skipper wanted to buy the hand-mill from him, and eventually persuaded him.
In all versions, the new owner took it to sea and set it to grind out salt. It ground out salt until it sank the boat, and then went on grinding in the sea, turning the sea salt.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:49 am
Why the Bear Is Stumpy-Tailed
A bear sees a fox with fish. The fox tells him to fish by putting his tail into the water. The bear sits so long that his tail is frozen in and he tears it off to escape.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:49 am
The Wizard King
A king was lord over many lands and had mastered magical secrets. He married a princess, and they had a son. The queen set out to seek her fairy godmother, as soon as the baby was strong enough, because she had been warned that her husband was a wizard, and wizards and fairies had long feuded. Her fairy godmother gave him the gift of pleasing everyone and of learning quickly. A few years later, the queen died, instructing her son to do nothing without consulting that fairy.
The king was grief-stricken. Finally, as his familiar settings continually reminded him of his queen, he set out to foreign lands, using his arts to shapeshift into animals and so move about freely. As an eagle, he saw a far country where the queen had a single daughter, astoundingly beautiful. He carried her off and pled with her to marry him. Although he installed her in a beautiful castle, with fine servants and a charming parrot for her pet, her capture had ensured that she would never be won over. He kept her from his court, but one day thought that she might have heard of the charms of his son. Fearing he was a rival, the king sent him on a journey.
The prince traveled until he came to the kingdom where the princess had been stolen from. He was deeply moved by the story and resolved to rescue her, and went to the fairy for aid. She declared that he could not reach the enchanted castle where the princess was, and the only expedient she could think of was to capture her parrot. When the prince did this, the fairy turned the prince into an identical parrot. In his new form, the prince reached the princess and, after seeing that she disliked his father the king, told her why he was there.
The fairy created a chariot, drawn by eagles, and had the captive parrot direct it to the castle. There, the prince and princess escaped on it. The king followed them to her mother's country, but when he tried to cast a magical potion on them, the fairy threw it back on him. This allowed them to capture him and so strip him of his powers. The prince asked for the king to be pardoned, and it was so. As the king took to the skys he vowed never to forgive his son or the fairy.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:50 am
The Witch in the Stone Boat
A king told his son, Sigurd, to marry and recommended the daughter of another king. Sigurd went there and asked to marry her. That king agreed on the condition that Sigurd stayed and helped him as long as he could; Sigurd agreed to stay until he heard of his father's death. When he received the news, he and his wife had a son who was two, and he made preparations to set out.
His queen and their son were alone on the deck when she saw something approaching: a stone boat with a frightening troll witch. The witch got into their ship, took the baby from her and laid him on the deck, stripped her naked and took on her clothing, transforming herself into her shape, and put the queen in the boat and cursed her to go to the witch's brother in the underworld. The boat shot off. The baby began to fuss, and the witch went below to scold Sigurd for leaving her alone on the deck. He was surprised to hear her scold him, but thought she had reason; he too was unable to quiet the boy.
After the voyage, Sigurd had to give his son to a nurse to quiet him and found his wife had changed much, becoming haughty and stubborn One day, two young men, playing chess in the next room, heard her say that the more widely she yawned, the more she transformed back into a troll. She yawned widely, became a troll, and ate from a trough that a three-headed giant, who called her sister, brought her.
A woman in white, with an iron belt dragging a chain, appeared to nurse the son The new nurse heard her say, the second night, that two are gone and one was left. She confided to the king, who came the third night and saw the woman was his own wife. He cut the chain in two. Great noises came from beneath the earth.
The queen told how the three-headed giant had tried to force her to marry him, but she at last had consented if she could only visit her son three times. The chain falling on him must have killed him. The king had the false queen immediately captured and then stoned to death and her body torn apart by horses, while the real queen was restored to all her dignity.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:51 am
The Witch
A poor widower with twin children, a girl and a boy, remarried. The stepmother had several more children and mistreated the twins. Finally, she told them she was sending them to her grandmother, in the woods, where she knew there was a witch; she said they would have to serve her, but would be well-rewarded. The girl said they should visit their own grandmother first. They did this and found that their grandmother knew the woman was a witch. She advised them to be civil and kind, and never touch a crumb belonging to anyone else, and gave them bread, milk, and ham.
The witch set the girl to spin, and the boy to carry water in a sieve. The girl, who could not spin, wept. Mice came up to her and asked for bread. She gave them some. They told her to give the cat ham, and it should show them a way from the woods; meanwhile, they would spin for her. She went out, where her brother was trying to carry water. Wrens flew up and asked for some bread. They gave it, and the wrens advised him to stop up the holes with clay. They then gave the cat the ham. It gave them a handkerchief and comb, which would become a river and a forest, if they threw them behind them while they fled.
The next morning, the witch set the girl to weave, and the boy to chop wood into chips. Instead, they fled. A watch-dog sprung up, but they threw it the last of their bread. Birch trees nearly put out their eyes, but the girl tied a ribbon on their branches, and they let her by. Meanwhile the cat was tangling the weaving, and when the witch saw it, she demanded to know why it had not stopped the children. It told her that she had never given it a bone, and they had given it ham. The dog and the birch answered likewise, and she got her broom to follow.
The children threw down the handkerchief, but in time, the witch found a way to ford it. The children threw down the comb, and the witch found it impossible to force her way through it. They found their father again, and he drove the stepmother out of the house.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:53 am
The Wise Little Girl
Two brothers rode together, a poor one on a mare, a rich one on a stallion. The mare gave birth in the night, and the foal went under the rich brother's cart, so he claimed the cart had given birth to it. The emperor heard of their dispute at law and summoned them to ask them riddles: what were the swiftest, fattest, softest, and loveliest things in the world? The rich man went to his godmother and got answers: her husband's bay mare, a pig that they had been fattening, eider down, and her baby nephew. The poor man lamented his fate, and his seven-year-old daughter, his only child, heard him and gave him answers: "Tell the Emperor that the fastest thing in the world is the cold north wind in winter. The fattest is the soil in our fields whose crops give life to men and animals alike, the softest thing is a child's caress and the most precious is honesty."
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:54 am
The Wonderful Birch
A peasant woman meets a witch, who threatens to transform her if she does something; she does not do it, but the witch turns her into a sheep anyway, and herself into an image of the peasant woman. She brings the sheep back and tells the woman's husband they must slaughter it before it runs away. He agrees, but her daughter hears and runs to the sheep, lamenting. Her mother tells her not to eat anything made from her body but bury the bones. She does so, and a birch tree grows on the grave.
The witch came along with her own, two daughters, and ill-treats her stepdaughter. The king gives a festival, inviting everyone, and the witch sends off the husband with her elder daughters, throws a potful of barleycorns in the hearth, and tells the youngest that if she does not pick barleycorns from ashes, it will be worse for her. The birch tells her to strike the hearth with one of her branches, which sorts them, and then magically bathes and dresses her. Then it told her to go to the fields and whistle, for a horse, partly gold, partly silver, and the third partly something more precious will appear to take her to the castle. The girl then goes into the festival.
The king's son falls in love with her, and has her sit beside him, but one of the the witch's daughters gnaws bones under the table, and the king's son, thinking she was a dog, gave her such a kick to keep her away that her arm was broken. He had the door latch smear with tar, and when the stepdaughter left, her copper ring was caught in it. When the witch returned home, she told the stepdaughter that the king's son had fallen in love with her daughter and carried her about, only he had dropped her and broken her arm.
The king holds another festival. The witch tries to keep her stepdaughter busy by throwing hempseed on the hearth, but the stepdaughter, with the birch's aid, goes to the festival as before. This time, the king's son breaks the other witch's daughter's leg, and has the doorpost smeared with tar, so that her silver circlet is caught.
The king holds a third festival. The witch tries to keep her stepdaughter busy by throwing milk on the hearth, but the stepdaughter, with the birch's aid, goes to the festival as before. This time, the king's son kicks out the witch's eye, and has the threshold smeared with tar, so that one of her golden slippers is caught.
The king's son then sets out to discover who the maiden was, with the circlet, ring, and the slipper. When he is about to try them on the stepdaughter, the witch intervenes and gets them on her elder daughter. The stepdaughter whispers to the prince, who recognizes her. He takes both the daughter and the stepdaughter, and when they came to a river, he throws the witch's daughter over it to serve as a bridge. He and the stepdaughter cross, and takes her for his bride. Then they went to the magical birch tree and got treasures and gifts. The tree vanished soon after.
The witch's daughter wishes that a golden hemlock would spring out of her body so that her mother would know her, and it does. The stepdaughter gave birth to a son, and the witch, believing the wife was her own daughter, set out to give them a gift. She reaches the bridge and decides to take the golden hemlock, but her daughter speaks to her, and she learns what happened.
Reaching the castle, she threatens the daughter as she did her mother, and though the daughter does not do what she prohibits, she turns her into a reindeer and smuggles her own daughter into her place. But the child grows restless. A widow tells the prince what happened to his true wife, and he lets her take the son to the woods. The reindeer turns into a woman to nurse her child, but tells the widow she can do it only for three days before the herd goes on. The widow tells the prince to burn the reindeer skin. When he does, the woman complains she has nothing to wear and changes form, but the prince goes on destroying them. She gives up and complains that the witch will kill her.
In fact, when the witch sees them returning, she flees with her daughters around the world and still is to this day
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:54 am
The Wonderful Musician
A fiddler, wandering in the forest, gets bored and longs for company. He starts to play his fiddle, which draws to him a wolf, fox, and hare, none of which is the company he seeks. Using the animals' admiration for him and playing, he tricks each of them into becoming ensnared or trapped so that he can continue on his way alone. He finds a companion that he seeks, a woodsman, but at that time the wolf has worked itself free, and frees the fox and hare on his way to pursue the musician.
Just as the animals come upon the musician with the goal of doing him mischief, the woodcutter steps in front and protects him with his axe. The animals leave, and the musician thanks the woodcutter with another song, and then leaves.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:55 am
The Wonderful Tune
Maurice Connor, a blind man, was the finest piper in Munster, and knew a tune that when he played, it forced everyone to dance. One day at a wedding by the sea, he drank a great deal of whiskey, and foolishly began to play that tune. Everyone, and every creature down to the crabs, scallops and oysters, began to dance. A mermaid came dancing up out of the sea and persuaded him to marry her and live in the sea. He promised his old mother to send, every year, a piece of burned wood to Trafraska to show he was alive and well.
His mother died soon after the wedding, but the piece of burned wood drifted ashore every year for more than a century.
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:56 am
The Yellow Dwarf
A widowed queen spoiled her only daughter , who was so beautiful that kings vied for the honor of her hand, not believing they could attain it. Uneasy that her daughter would never marry, the queen went to visit the Fairy of the Desert for advice. She made a cape to protect herself from the lions that guarded the fairy, but she lost it. A yellow dwarf offered to save her in return for her daughter's hand. She accepted, but when the dwarf showed the miserable home in which her daughter would live, she grew quite ill.
Her daughter, distressed, went to seek the same fairy. The dwarf told her what her mother had promised, and when she was ready to reject it, the lions arrived. She agreed if he would save her. Back at the castle, she fell quite ill and agreed to marry the King of the Gold Mines. However, at the wedding, the Fairy of the Desert and the Yellow Dwarf interrupted. The dwarf carried off the princess, and the fairy fell in love with the king and carried him off. She chained him in a cave and turned herself into a beautiful woman, but her feet being unchanged, the king was able to tell who she was. He told her that he would hate the fairy as long as she kept him chained up, but would love her if she freed him. The Fairy of the Desert freed him and brought him to her castle, carrying him by the castle where the princess lived; she saw them and became convinced that the king was unfaithful to her.
The king was kept more pleasantly, but was unable to escape. He lamented his fate along the sea, and a mermaid left enchanted sea rushes behind to look like his body and freed him. She gave him a sword to fight his way to the princess.
The fairy was entirely deceived by the sea rushes and did not pursue him.
The king fought his way through sphinxes and dragons to find his path blocked by maidens with garlands of flowers; he still pressed on, tearing apart their garlands, and reached the princess. He persuaded her of his fidelity, but the Yellow Dwarf found them and killed him. The princess died of grief.
The mermaid was only able to change their bodies to two palm trees.
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