Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version (32 page)

But next morning they were aghast to see that the tree had disappeared, and all their hopes had gone with it. Meanwhile, Two Eyes was looking out of her bedroom window to see the tree standing happily in the castle courtyard, for in the middle of the night it had pulled its roots out of the ground and tiptoed all the way there to find her.

Two Eyes lived happily for a long time. One day many years later, two poor women came knocking at the castle gate to beg for something to eat, because they had been stricken with poverty and had to wander the world begging for bread from door to door. Two Eyes welcomed them and treated them so kindly that they were sorry for all the wrong they’d done to her; and the strange thing was that although so many years had passed, Two Eyes recognized One Eye and Three Eyes at once.

***

Tale type:
ATU 511, ‘One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes’

Source:
a story by Theodor Peschek, published in the journal
Wöchentliche Nachrichten für Freunde der Geschichte, Kunst und Gelahrtheit des Mittelalters
(
Weekly News for Friends of the History, Art and Learning of the Middle Ages
), vol. 2 (1816)

Similar stories:
Alexander Afanasyev: ‘Burenushka, the Little Red Cow’ (
Russian Fairy Tales
); Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: ‘Cinderella’ (
Children’s and Household Tales
)

This is
‘Cinderella’
, of course, with added absurdity. The presence of the wise woman, the goat, the entrails and the tree confirms it beyond any doubt: they are all aspects of the necessary but absent good mother, who turns up in every ‘Cinderella’ variant in one form or another.

In Afanasyev’s Russian version, Two Eyes invites her nosy sisters to put their heads in her lap and let her delouse them. That nice hygienic detail turns up in
‘The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs’
, too.

FORTY-THREE

THE SHOES THAT WERE DANCED TO PIECES

There was once a king who had twelve daughters, each one more beautiful than all the rest. They slept together in one room, their beds all in a row, and every evening, when they were all tucked up, the king himself locked the door and bolted it. However, when he opened the room every morning, he discovered that their shoes had been danced to shreds, and no one knew how that could possibly have happened. The princesses would say nothing about the matter.

The king announced that anyone who could discover where his daughters went to dance in the night could choose one of them for his wife, and in time become king himself. On the other hand, if he failed to find out the truth after three nights, he would lose his own life.

Soon a prince from another country arrived and offered to take on the task. He was made welcome, and taken to a room next to the princesses’ bedroom, where he was to keep watch and see where they went to dance. A bed was made up for him, and to make the task even easier, the door to the princesses’ bedroom was left open.

But unfortunately the prince’s eyes felt heavier and heavier as the night wore on, and he fell asleep. And when he woke up in the morning, the princesses’ shoes were nearly worn to pieces. The same thing happened the second night, and the third, and so the prince lost his head. Many others came to try their luck at this dangerous task, but they all failed as he had done.

Now it so happened that a poor soldier, who had been wounded and could no longer serve in the army, was making his way to that very city. On the way he met an old woman begging for alms, and feeling sorry for her he sat down and shared his last bit of bread and cheese with her.

‘Where are you going, dear?’ she said.

‘I’m not too sure, to be honest,’ he replied, but then went on, ‘Tell you what, though, I’d like to discover where those princesses go to dance their shoes to pieces. I could marry one of ’em then, and be king myself.’

‘That’s not difficult,’ said the old woman. ‘They’ll bring you a glass of wine when you go to bed, but don’t drink it whatever you do.’

Then she unfolded a cloak from her bundle, and said, ‘And when you put this on you’ll become invisible, and you can follow them and find out where they go.’

The soldier thanked her and went on his way, thinking: ‘This is getting serious now.’

At the palace they received him generously, showed him to his room, and gave him a splendid new suit of clothes to wear. And at bedtime, the oldest princess brought him a goblet of wine.

He’d made plans for that, and tied a sponge under his chin. He let the wine run into that, and didn’t let a single drop pass his lips. Presently he lay down and closed his eyes and snored a little to make them think he was asleep.

The twelve princesses heard him, and laughed, saying, ‘There’s one more who’s going to lose his life.’

They got up and opened their wardrobes and drawers and closets, trying on this dress and that one, putting up their hair, making themselves as beautiful as possible, and all the time skipping and hopping with excitement at the thought of the dancing to come. Only the youngest wasn’t sure. ‘You can laugh and joke,’ she said, ‘but I’ve got a feeling something bad is going to happen.’

‘You’re a silly goose,’ said the oldest princess. ‘You’re afraid of everything! Think of all those princes who’ve tried to watch us, and all for nothing. I bet I didn’t even need to give this soldier a sleeping draught. He’d have fallen asleep all by himself.’

When they were ready, the oldest princess looked at the soldier again, but he seemed to be fast asleep, so they thought it was safe. Then the oldest princess went to her bed and knocked on it. At once it sank down through the floor, and one by one the princesses climbed down into the opening. The soldier was watching secretly, and as soon as they’d all gone down, he put on the cloak and followed them. So as not to lose them, he walked so close behind them that he trod on the dress of the youngest one, and she felt it and called out, ‘Who’s that? Who’s pulling my dress?’

‘Oh, don’t be silly,’ said the oldest. ‘It just caught on a nail or something.’

They went on down the staircase till they came to a beautiful avenue between rows of trees. The leaves on the trees shone and gleamed like moonlight, because they were made of silver, and the soldier thought, ‘I’d better take something back as proof,’ and he snapped off a branch.

It made such a loud crack that the youngest princess was frightened again.

‘Didn’t you hear that? Something’s wrong . . .’

‘You’re cuckoo,’ said the oldest. ‘They’re just firing a salute to welcome us.’

The silver avenue changed into one where the trees were all made of gold, and finally to one where they were made of diamonds. The soldier broke off a branch from each of them, and they made such a noise that the youngest princess was frightened again each time, and each time the oldest one said it was the sound of a salute.

On they went till they came to a large body of water, where twelve boats were waiting, each with a prince at the oars. As the princesses arrived, the princes stood up and helped them into the boats, one each; but the soldier joined the youngest princess and her prince in theirs without their knowing.

The prince said, ‘I don’t know why the boat’s so heavy today. I can hardly make it move.’

‘I expect it’s the heat,’ said the princess. ‘I’m suffocating.’

On the other side of the water there stood a beautiful castle that was brilliantly lit by a thousand lanterns. The joyful music of trumpets and kettledrums sounded clearly through the air, and the princes brought their boats to rest at the bank and helped their princesses out, and then they began to dance. The soldier danced along with them, and whenever a princess lifted a glass of wine to her lips, the soldier drank it before she could. The older ones were merely puzzled by this, but the youngest was frightened, and the oldest one had to calm her down yet again.

They stayed there until three o’clock, by which time their shoes were all danced to pieces and they had to leave. The princes rowed them back across the water, and this time the soldier sat in the boat next to the oldest princess. He got out first and ran ahead, and by the time the tired princesses reached their beds again, he was already snoring in his.

‘We’re safe,’ they said, and took off their lovely dresses, placed their worn-out shoes under their beds, and went to sleep.

Next morning the soldier said nothing. He wanted to see that beautiful castle and the avenues of precious trees again. He went along with them the second night and then the third, and saw it all happen just as before, and each time their shoes were danced to pieces; and on the third night he brought back a goblet as more evidence.

On the final morning he had to give his answer, so he took the three branches and the goblet and went to the king. The princesses stood behind the door to listen.

The king said, ‘Well, you’ve had your three nights. Where did my daughters dance their shoes to pieces?’

And the soldier replied, ‘In a castle under the ground, your majesty. They met twelve princes who rowed them across a lake.’

He told the whole story, and showed the king the branches from the silver tree, the golden tree and the diamond tree, and also the goblet he’d brought from the castle. The king called his daughters before him.

‘I expect you’ve heard what this man told me,’ he said. ‘Now then: was he telling the truth?’

The princesses had no choice: they had to admit everything.

‘So you’ve done it,’ said the king to the soldier. ‘Now, which of these daughters of mine would you like for a wife?’

‘Well, I’m not as young as I used to be,’ said the soldier, ‘so I reckon the oldest would do me best.’

‘You shall have her,’ said the king, and their wedding was celebrated the very same day.

The king promised that the soldier would succeed him to the throne, and as for the princes under the ground, they were placed under a spell for as many nights as they had danced with the twelve princesses.

***

Tale type:
ATU 306, ‘The Danced-out Shoes’

Source:
a story told to the Grimm brothers by Jenny von Droste-Hülshoff

Similar stories:
Alexander Afanasyev: ‘The Secret Ball’ (
Russian Fairy Tales
)

Sometimes known as ‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses’, this tale has the charm that belongs to any account of the marvels that lie under the ground, especially those that include little boats, pretty lights, trees with precious foliage, music and dancing. It lends itself, of course, to beautiful illustration. I have done little to the story except make the old woman’s gifts (of advice, and of the cloak) a reward for the soldier’s charity.

FORTY-FOUR

IRON HANS

There was once a king who had a great forest near his castle, where there lived all kinds of wild animals. One day he sent out his senior huntsman to shoot a deer, but the huntsman didn’t come back.

‘Perhaps he’s had an accident,’ said the king, and next day he sent two more huntsmen after the first, but they didn’t come back either.

On the third day he called all his huntsmen together and said, ‘Search through the whole forest, and don’t give up till you’ve found all three.’

But none of those huntsmen came back, and nor did any of the hounds from the pack they took with them. From that day on, no one dared to go into the forest, and it lay in deep silence and solitude, and the only life that was seen was an occasional eagle or hawk flying above the trees.

For many years things remained like that, until one day a huntsman no one knew, a stranger, presented himself to the king saying he was looking for a job, and volunteered to go into the dangerous woods. However, the king didn’t allow him to go.

‘There’s something uncanny in there,’ he said. ‘The place is probably under a spell. I don’t see how you can do any better than the others; I’m afraid you’d get lost like them.’

But the huntsman said, ‘I’m willing to risk it, your majesty. I know nothing of fear.’

So the huntsman set off with his hound into the forest. It wasn’t long before the hound picked up a scent and started to follow it, but he hadn’t run more than a few steps when he came to the edge of a deep pool and could go no further.

Then a naked arm reached up out of the water, seized the hound and dragged him below the surface.

When the huntsman saw that, he went back and got three men to go with him and bring buckets to empty the pool. They did so, and when it was nearly empty they found a wild man lying on the bottom. His skin was brown like rusty iron, and his hair hung down over his face and fell right to his knees. They bound him tightly with ropes and led him away to the castle.

Everyone was amazed to see the wild man. The king ordered him to be put into an iron cage in the courtyard, and forbade anyone to unlock the door of the cage, on pain of death; and he gave the key into the care of the queen herself. From that time on, people could go safely into the forest again.

Now the king had a son who was eight years old. One day he was playing in the courtyard when his golden ball bounced through the bars and into the wild man’s cage.

The boy ran over to it and said, ‘Give me my ball.’

‘Not until you open the door for me,’ said the wild man.

‘No, I can’t do that,’ said the boy. ‘Papa’s forbidden it.’

And he ran away. Next day he came back and asked for his ball, but the wild man only said, ‘Open my door.’ Again the boy refused.

On the third day, when the king had gone out hunting, the boy came to the cage and said, ‘Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t open your cage. I haven’t got the key.’

The wild man said, ‘It’s under your mother’s pillow. You could easily get it.’

The boy desperately wanted his ball back, so he threw caution to the winds and got the key. The lock was hard to turn, and the boy pinched his finger; but when the door was open the wild man came out, gave the boy his ball, and hurried away.

The boy was frightened. He cried out, ‘Oh, wild man, don’t run away, or they’ll beat me!’

The wild man turned back, picked the boy up and set him on his shoulders, and strode off quickly towards the forest.

When the king came home he noticed the empty cage and asked the queen at once what had happened. She didn’t know anything about it, so she looked for the key, and found it gone. Then they realized the boy was missing, and called him, but no one answered. The king and the queen sent servants to look in the royal park around the castle, and in the fields and meadows beyond, but they didn’t find the boy; and then his parents guessed what had happened, and the court fell into deep mourning.

Once the wild man had reached the dark forest he set the boy down and said, ‘You’ll never see your father and mother again. But I’ll look after you, because you set me free, and I feel sorry for you. Do as I tell you, and everything will be all right. I’ve got plenty of treasure and gold, more than anyone else in the world, in fact.’

He gathered some moss and made a bed for the boy, who soon fell asleep. Next morning the wild man led him to a spring and said, ‘See this? This is my golden spring. It’s clear and bright, and I want it to stay like that. You sit here and guard it, and make sure nothing falls in that shouldn’t, because I don’t want it polluted by anything at all, you understand? I’ll come back every evening to see if you’ve done as I tell you.’

The boy sat down at the side of the spring, and watched the water. Sometimes he saw a golden fish or a golden snake deep down under the surface, and he took care to let nothing fall in. But as he sat there, the finger that he’d pinched in the cage door began to hurt so badly that he couldn’t help dipping it into the water. He pulled it out again at once, but he saw that it had turned to gold, and no matter how hard he tried to wipe it off his skin, it was gold all through.

That evening when Iron Hans came home, he looked at the boy and said, ‘What’s happened to the spring?’

‘Nothing, nothing,’ said the boy, holding the finger behind his back so Iron Hans couldn’t see it.

But the man said, ‘You’ve dipped your finger in the water. Well, I’ll let it go this time, but be very careful you don’t let anything else fall in.’

Early in the morning the boy got ready and went to the spring to keep watch. His finger hurt again, and this time he rubbed it across his head; but as he did so a hair unluckily fell out into the water. He snatched it out as quickly as he could, but it was already covered in gold.

By the time he came home, Iron Hans already knew what had happened. ‘You let a hair fall into the spring,’ he said. ‘That’s the second time. I’ll overlook it just once more, but if it happens again the spring will be polluted, and you won’t be able to stay here any more.’

On the third day the boy sat there carefully and didn’t move his finger, no matter how much it hurt. But the time went by very slowly, and for want of anything else to do, he bent over and looked at his reflection in the water. He bent his head lower and lower, trying to see his eyes, and then his long hair fell forwards from behind his head and down into the water. He jerked his head back at once, but it was too late: all his hair had turned gold, and it shone like the sun. You can imagine how frightened the poor boy felt. The only thing he could think of was to wrap his handkerchief around his head so that Iron Hans wouldn’t see it.

But of course as soon as he came home, that was the thing he noticed first of all.

‘Untie that handkerchief,’ he said.

The boy had to. All his golden hair fell down around his shoulders, and he couldn’t even think of an excuse.

‘You’ve failed the test,’ said Iron Hans. ‘You can’t stay here any longer. You’ll have to go out into the world, and there you’ll learn what it feels like to be poor. But you’re not a bad boy, and I wish you well, so I’ll grant you one favour: if you’re ever in real need, go into the forest and call out “Iron Hans”, and I’ll come and help you. I’ve got great powers, much more than you think, and more than enough gold and silver.’

So the prince left the forest and wandered along wild paths and well-trodden ones until at last he came to a great city. There he looked for work, but he couldn’t find any, because he’d never learned a trade to earn his living with. Finally he went to the palace and asked if they’d give him a job.

The palace officials didn’t know how they could make use of him, but he was a likeable boy, and they took him in. In the end the cook said he could find things for him to do, and set him to carrying wood and water, and raking out the ashes of the fire.

One day when the other waiters were busy, the cook told the boy to carry a dish to the royal table. The boy didn’t want anyone to see his golden hair, so he kept his cap on. Naturally the king was astonished at this, and said, ‘Boy, when you come to the royal table, you must always take your cap off.’

‘I better not, your majesty,’ said the boy, ‘because my scalp’s all covered in dandruff.’

The king summoned the cook and told him off for letting a boy with a condition like that serve at the royal table. He was to dismiss him at once. However, the cook felt sorry for the boy, and let him change places with the gardener’s assistant.

Now it was his job to plant and water, to prune and hoe, and put up with the wind and the rain. One summer’s day when he was working alone in the garden, it happened to be so hot that he took off his hat to let the breeze cool him down. As the sun shone on his golden hair, it sparkled and gleamed so much that the reflections shone into the princess’s bedroom.

She jumped up to see what it was, and saw the boy and called out: ‘Boy! Bring me a bouquet of flowers.’

He quickly put his cap back on, picked some wildflowers, and tied them together. As he was climbing the steps out of the garden the head gardener saw him, and said, ‘What d’you think you’re doing, taking the princess a bunch of common flowers like those? Throw them away, quick, and get her some of the rare ones. That pink rose has just come out – take her a bunch of those.’

‘Oh, no,’ said the boy, ‘that rose has got no scent. But these wild ones are so fragrant – I’m sure she’ll like them better.’

When he entered the princess’s room, she said, ‘Take your cap off. It’s not polite to leave it on in my presence.’

‘I can’t do that, your royal highness,’ he said. ‘My head’s all covered in scurf.’

At that the princess grabbed his cap and pulled it off. At once his golden hair fell down to his shoulders, and a beautiful sight it was. He wanted to run out, but she held his arm; and then she gave him a handful of ducats, and let him go. He took the ducats away, but he didn’t want them, so he gave them to the gardener.

‘Something for your children to play with,’ he said.

Next day the princess called for him again, demanding another bouquet of wildflowers. When he took it in, she grabbed at his cap at once, trying to take it away, but he held on tightly. Again she gave him some ducats, and again he gave them to the gardener for his children. It all happened once more on the third day: she couldn’t get his cap; he didn’t want the gold.

Not long after that, the country found itself at war. The king called his councillors together, but they couldn’t decide whether to fight or to give in, because the enemy had a large and powerful army.

The gardener’s boy said, ‘I’m grown up now. Just give me a horse, and I’ll go to war and fight for the country.’

The other young men laughed and said, ‘Don’t you worry, you can have a horse after we’ve left. We’ll leave one in the stable for you.’

So he waited till they’d gone and then looked in the stable for his horse. He found it had a lame foot, and it could only walk
hobbledy-clop, hobbledy-clop
.

All the same, he mounted it and rode off towards the thick forest. When he came to the edge of the trees, he stopped and called out ‘Iron Hans!’ three times, so loudly that it echoed all around.

The wild man appeared at once and said, ‘What do you need?’

‘I’m going to war,’ said the boy, ‘and I need a good horse.’

‘Then you shall have it, and much more besides.’

The wild man went back into the woods, and very soon afterwards a stable-boy came out of the trees, leading a magnificent horse that snorted and stamped and could hardly be controlled. What was more, behind him came a regiment of knights in iron armour, their swords flashing in the sun.

The boy left his lame horse with the stable-boy, mounted the other horse, and set off at the head of the knights. When they reached the battlefield they found that many of the king’s men had already fallen, and that the rest would soon have to give way as well. So the young man galloped up with his iron regiment and fell on the enemy like a storm, striking down every man in their path. The enemy fell back in confusion, but the young man was merciless, and didn’t stop until they were all either dead or in flight.

When the battle was over, he didn’t return to the king. Instead he led his iron army by a roundabout way into the forest, and once again called for Iron Hans.

‘What do you need?’ said the wild man.

‘Take back your horse and your knights, and give me my lame old hack.’

Iron Hans did just as he asked, and the young man rode home on the hobbledy-clop horse.

As for the king, when he arrived back at the palace his daughter ran out to meet him, and congratulated him on the great victory.

‘I had little to do with it,’ he said. ‘We were saved by a strange knight who rode to our rescue with his regiment of iron-clad knights.’

The princess was keen to know who the mysterious knight was, but the king couldn’t tell her.

‘All I know,’ he said, ‘is that he put the enemy to flight, and then he rode away.’

She went to the gardener and asked where his boy was, and the gardener laughed.

‘He’s just come back on his three-legged horse,’ he said. ‘The others are all making fun of him. “Look, here’s old hobbledy-clop!” they says. And they asks, “What hedge have you been sleeping under, then?” and he says, “I did better’n any of you. If it wasn’t for me, you’d have lost the battle,” he says. And then they split their sides.’

The king said to his daughter, ‘I’m going to announce a great tournament. It’s going to last for three days, and you can throw a golden apple for the knights to catch. Perhaps the unknown knight will turn up. You never know.’

When he heard about the tournament, the young man went out into the forest and called Iron Hans.

‘What do you need?’

‘To catch the princess’s golden apple.’

‘It’s as good as done,’ said Iron Hans. ‘And what’s more, you shall wear a suit of red armour, and ride a proud chestnut horse.’

When the tournament opened, the young man galloped up and took his place among the knights, and no one recognized him. Then the princess came and threw a golden apple among the knights, and he was the one who caught it, and as soon as he had it safe, he galloped away.