The king
said to the miller, "That is an art which pleases me well, if your
daughter is as clever as you say, bring her to-morrow to my palace, and I will
put her to the test."
And when
the girl was brought to him he took her into a room which was quite full of
straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel, and said, "Now set to work,
and if by to-morrow morning early you have not spun this straw into gold during
the night, you must die."
Thereupon
he himself locked up the room, and left her in it alone. So there sat the poor
miller's daughter, and for the life of her could not tell what to do, she had
no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew more and more
frightened, until at last she began to weep.
But all
at once the door opened, and in came a little man, and said, "Good
evening, mistress miller, why are you crying so?"
"Alas," answered the girl, "I have to spin straw into gold, and
I do not know how to do it."
"What will you give me," said the manikin, "if I do it for
you?"
"My necklace," said the girl.
The
little man took the necklace, seated himself in front of the wheel, and whirr,
whirr, whirr, three turns, and the reel was full, then he put another on, and
whirr, whirr, whirr, three times round, and the second was full too. And so it
went on until the morning, when all the straw was spun, and all the reels were
full of gold.
By
daybreak the king was already there, and when he saw the gold he was astonished
and delighted, but his heart became only more greedy. He had the miller's
daughter taken into another room full of straw, which was much larger, and
commanded her to spin that also in one night if she valued her life. The girl
knew not how to help herself, and was crying, when the door opened again, and
the little man appeared, and said, "What will you give me if I spin that
straw into gold for you?"
"The ring on my finger," answered the girl.
The
little man took the ring, again began to turn the wheel, and by morning had
spun all the straw into glittering gold.
The king
rejoiced beyond measure at the sight, but still he had not gold enough, and he
had the miller's daughter taken into a still larger room full of straw, and
said, "You must spin this, too, in the course of this night, but if you
succeed, you shall be my wife."
Even if
she be a miller's daughter, thought he, I could not find a richer wife in the
whole world.
When the
girl was alone the manikin came again for the third time, and said, "What
will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time also?"
"I have nothing left that I could give," answered the girl.
"Then promise me, if you should become queen, to give me your first
child."
Who
knows whether that will ever happen, thought the miller's daughter, and, not
knowing how else to help herself in this strait, she promised the manikin what
he wanted, and for that he once more spun the straw into gold.
And when
the king came in the morning, and found all as he had wished, he took her in
marriage, and the pretty miller's daughter became a queen.
A year
after, she brought a beautiful child into the world, and she never gave a
thought to the manikin. But suddenly he came into her room, and said, "Now
give me what you promised."
The
queen was horror-struck, and offered the manikin all the riches of the kingdom
if he would leave her the child. But the manikin said, "No, something
alive is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world."
Then the
queen began to lament and cry, so that the manikin pitied her.
"I will give you three days, time," said he, "if by that time
you find out my name, then shall you keep your child."
So the
queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever heard, and she
sent a messenger over the country to inquire, far and wide, for any other names
that there might be. When the manikin came the next day, she began with Caspar,
Melchior, Balthazar, and said all the names she knew, one after another, but to
every one the little man said, "That is not my name."
On the
second day she had inquiries made in the neighborhood as to the names of the
people there, and she repeated to the manikin the most uncommon and curious.
Perhaps your name is Shortribs, or
Sheepshanks,
or Laceleg, but he always answered, "That is not my name."
On the
third day the messenger came back again, and said, "I have not been able
to find a single new name, but as I came to a high mountain at the end of the
forest, where the fox and the hare bid each other good night, there I saw a
little house, and before the house a fire was burning, and round about the fire
quite a ridiculous little man was jumping, he hopped upon one leg, and shouted –
'To-day I bake, to-morrow brew,
the next I'll have the young queen's child.
Ha, glad am I that no one knew
that Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.'"
You may
imagine how glad the queen was when she heard the name. And when soon
afterwards the little man came in, and asked, "Now, mistress queen, what
is my name?"
At first she said, "Is your name Conrad?"
"No."
"Is your name Harry?"
"No."
"Perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin?"
"The
devil has told you that! The devil has told you that," cried the little
man, and in his anger he plunged his right foot so deep into the earth that his
whole leg went in, and then in rage he pulled at his left leg so hard with both
hands that he tore himself in two."
- The
Brothers Grimm
Briar-Rose
“A long time ago there were a King and Queen
who said every day, "Ah, if only we had a child!" but they never had
one. But it happened that once when the Queen was bathing, a frog crept out of
the water on to the land, and said to her, "Your wish shall be fulfilled;
before a year has gone by, you shall have a daughter."
What the frog had said came true, and the Queen
had a little girl who was so pretty that the King could not contain himself for
joy, and ordered a great feast. He invited not only his kindred, friends
and acquaintance, but also the Wise Women, in order that they might be kind and
well-disposed towards the child. There were thirteen of them in his kingdom,
but, as he had only twelve golden plates for them to eat out of, one of them
had to be left at home.
The feast was held with all manner of splendour
and when it came to an end the Wise Women bestowed their magic gifts upon the
baby: one gave virtue, another beauty, a third riches, and so on with
everything in the world that one can wish for.
When eleven of them had made their promises,
suddenly the thirteenth came in. She wished to avenge herself for not
having been invited, and without greeting, or even looking at any one, she
cried with a loud voice, "The King's daughter shall in her fifteenth year
prick herself with a spindle, and fall down dead." And, without saying a
word more, she turned round and left the room.
They were all shocked; but the twelfth, whose
good wish still remained unspoken, came forward, and as she could not undo the
evil sentence, but only soften it, she said, "It shall not be death, but a
deep sleep of a hundred years, into which the princess shall fall."
The King, who would fain keep his dear child
from the misfortune, gave orders that every spindle in the whole kingdom should
be burnt. Meanwhile the gifts of the Wise Women were plenteously fulfilled on
the young girl, for she was so beautiful, modest, good-natured, and wise, that
everyone who saw her was bound to love her.
It happened that on the very day when she was
fifteen years old, the King and Queen were not at home, and the maiden was left
in the palace quite alone. So she went round into all sorts of places, looked
into rooms and bed-chambers just as she liked, and at last came to an old
tower. She
climbed up the narrow winding-staircase, and
reached a little door. A rusty key was in the lock, and when she turned it the
door sprang open, and there in a little room sat an old woman with a spindle,
busily spinning her flax.
"Good day, old dame," said the King's
daughter; "what are you doing there?" "I am spinning," said
the old woman, and nodded her head. "What sort of thing is that, that
rattles round so merrily?" said the girl, and she took the spindle and
wanted to spin too. But scarcely had she touched the spindle when the magic
decree was fulfilled, and she pricked her finger with it.
And, in the very moment when she felt the
prick, she fell down upon the bed that stood there, and lay in a deep sleep.
And this sleep extended over the whole palace; the King and Queen who had just
come home, and had entered the great hall, began to go to sleep, and the whole of
the court with them. The horses, too, went to sleep in the stable, the dogs in
the yard, the pigeons upon the roof, the flies on the wall; even the fire that
was flaming on the hearth became quiet and slept, the roast meat left off
frizzling, and the cook, who was just going to pull the hair of the scullery
boy, because he had forgotten something, let him go, and went to sleep. And the
wind fell, and on the trees before the castle not a leaf moved again.
But round about the castle there began to grow
a hedge of thorns, which every year became higher, and at last grew close up
round the castle and all over it, so that there was nothing of it to be seen,
not
even the flag upon the roof. But the story of
the beautiful sleeping "Briar-rose," for so the princess was named,
went about the country, so that from time to time kings' sons came and tried to
get through the
thorny hedge into the castle.
But they found it impossible, for the thorns
held fast together, as if they had hands, and the youths were caught in them,
could not get loose again, and died a miserable death.
After long, long years a King's son came again
to that country, and heard an old man talking about the thorn-hedge, and that a
castle was said to stand behind it in which a wonderfully beautiful princess,
named Briar-rose, had been asleep for a hundred
years; and that the King and Queen and the whole court were asleep likewise. He
had heard, too, from his grandfather, that many kings' sons had already come, and
had tried to get through the thorny hedge, but they had remained sticking fast
in it, and had died a pitiful death. Then the youth said, "I am not
afraid, I will go and see the beautiful Briar-rose." The good old man
might dissuade him as he would, he did not listen to his words.
But by this time the hundred years had just
passed, and the day had come when Briar-rose was to awake again. When the
King's son came near to the thorn-hedge, it was nothing but large and beautiful
flowers, which parted from each other of their own accord, and let him pass
unhurt, then they closed again behind him like a hedge. In the castle-yard he saw
the horses and the spotted hounds lying asleep; on the roof sat the pigeons
with their heads under their wings. And when he entered the house,
the flies were asleep upon the wall, the cook
in the kitchen was still holding out his hand to seize the boy, and the maid
was sitting by the black hen which she was going to pluck.
He went on farther, and in the great hall he
saw the whole of the court lying asleep, and up by the throne lay the King and
Queen.
Then he went on still farther, and all was so
quiet that a breath could be heard, and at last he came to the tower, and
opened the door into the little room where Briar-rose was sleeping. There she
lay, so beautiful that he could not turn his eyes away; and he stooped down and
gave her a kiss. But as soon as he kissed her, Briar-rose opened her eyes and
awoke, and looked at him quite sweetly.
Then they went down together, and the King
awoke, and the Queen, and the whole court, and looked at each other in great
astonishment. And the horses in the court-yard stood up and shook themselves;
the hounds jumped up and wagged their tails; the pigeons upon the roof pulled
out their heads from under their wings, looked round, and flew into the open country;
the flies on the wall crept again; the fire in the kitchen burned up and
flickered and cooked the meat; the joint began to turn and frizzle again, and
the cook gave the boy such a box on the ear that he screamed, and the maid
plucked the fowl ready for the spit.
And then the marriage of the King's son with
Briar-rose was celebrated with all splendour, and they lived contented to the
end of their days.”
- The Brothers Grimm
