The three little men in the forest

 

 

Tale by the Brothers Grimm, translated by Ruth Salles and Renate Kaufmann.

There was a man whose wife had died, and a woman whose husband had died; and the man had a daughter, and the woman had a daughter too. The girls got to know each other, went for a walk together and later arrived at the woman's house. Then she said to the man's daughter:

– Listen, tell your father that I would like to marry him; you shall have milk every morning to wash yourself and wine to drink; but my daughter will have water to wash and water to drink.

The girl went home and told her father what the woman had said.

- What should I do? – said the man. “Marriage is a joy and it is also a torment.

Finally, unable to make any decision, he took off his boot and said:

– Take this boot, which has a hole in the sole, take it to the attic, hang it on the big nail and pour water inside. If it contains the water, I decide to take a wife again, but if the water runs out, I decide not to.

The girl did as she was told, but the water retracted the hole, and the boot was filled to the brim. She communicated the result to her father, and he then personally went upstairs. When he saw that his daughter was right, he went to the widow, asked for her hand, and the marriage took place.

The next morning, when the two girls arose, the man's daughter found milk to wash and wine to drink; but for the woman's daughter, there was water to wash and water to drink. On the second morning both the man's daughter and the woman's daughter found water to wash themselves and water to drink. And on the third morning the man's daughter had water to wash and water to drink, and the woman's daughter had milk to wash and wine to drink. And so it went on from there.

The woman hated her stepdaughter and, day by day, didn't know what to do worse for her. Besides, he envied her, for her stepdaughter was beautiful and graceful, while her own daughter was ugly and disgusting.

Once, in winter, when everything had frozen thickly and the mountain and valley lay covered with snow, the woman made a paper dress, called the girl and said:

- Take this dress, put it on and go to the forest to pick me a basket full of strawberries. I'm looking forward to eating them.

- Good God, - said the girl - in winter they don't grow strawberries, the earth is frozen, and the snow has covered everything! And why should I go with this paper dress? It's so cold outside that it freezes your breath. The wind will pass through the dress, and the thorns will rip it from my body.

– Dare you contradict me? – retorted the stepmother. - Try to go and don't show me until you have the basket full of strawberries.

He also gave him a piece of stale bread and said:

– With this, you will have something to eat during the day.

And he thought, “Outside, it will freeze and starve to death, and it will never appear before my eyes again.”

The girl then obeyed, put on the paper dress and left with the basket. Everywhere there was nothing but snow, and not a single green stalk could be seen. Arriving in the forest, she saw a little house where three little men were peering through the window. She wished them good morning and discreetly knocked on the door. They called her in, and she went into the little room and sat down on a bench by the stove; he wanted to warm up and eat his meal. The little men said:

– Give us a little too!

"With pleasure," she replied, and broke her little piece of bread in two, giving them half.

They asked:

- What do you want here in the forest, in the middle of winter, with that little dress so fine?

“Ah,” she replied, “I must look for strawberries to fill this basket, and I cannot go home without taking them with me.

When she had just eaten her bread, they gave her a broom, saying:

- Takes the snow off the back door with it.

While she was outside, the little men began to talk among themselves:

– What should we give her as a gift for being so kind and kind, and for having broken her bread with us?

Then the first said:

- My gift is that she becomes more beautiful every day.

And the second said:

“My gift is that a gold coin falls from your mouth whenever you utter a word.

And the third said:

“My gift is for a king to come and take you as his wife.

The girl did as the little men had told her, brushed off the snow behind the house, and what do you think she found? A large number of ripe, well-reddish strawberries peeping through the snow. Filled with joy, she hastened to pick them up and fill her basket, thanked the little men, shaking hands with each one, and ran home, for she wanted to take to her stepmother what she had demanded of her. When he entered and said, “Good night!”, immediately a gold coin dropped out of his mouth. Then he told what had happened to him in the forest, and with every word he uttered, gold coins fell from his mouth, so that the whole room was soon covered with them.

– Look how frivolous – exclaimed the stepmother’s daughter – to throw money like that!

Inwardly, however, he was jealous and also wanted to go into the forest to look for strawberries. Said the mother:

– No, my dear little daughter, it is too cold and you could get cold.

As, however, she did not give him more peace, he ended up consenting. He made her a magnificent fur coat, which she put on, and gave her bread and butter and cake to eat on the way.

The girl entered the forest and went straight to the little house. The three little men were there again, peering out of the window; but she did not greet them, and without so much as looking at them, shuffled into the room, sat down at the stove, and began to eat her bread and butter and her cake.

"Give us a little too," cried the little men.

She, however, replied:

– Barely enough for me, how can I give it to others?

When he had finished eating, they said:

- Here's a broom. Go outside, sweep with her outside the back door, and get everything clean.

“Why, sweep yourselves,” she replied, “I am not your maid.

And seeing that they didn't want to give him anything as a present, he went out the door.

– What should we give him for being so impolite, and for having an evil and envious heart, and for not sharing anything with anyone?

Said the first:

– My gift is that she becomes uglier every day.

And the second said:

-My gift is for a frog to jump out of your mouth with every word you utter.

And the third said:

“My gift is that you die a horrible death.

Outside, the girl looked for strawberries. As she didn't find any, she went home annoyed. And when she opened her mouth, wanting to tell her mother what had happened to her in the forest, with every word she said, a frog jumped out of her mouth, so that everyone took a dislike to her.

The stepmother then became even more angry and only thought of how to inflict all kinds of suffering on her stepdaughter, whose beauty grew day by day. Finally, he took a cauldron, set it on fire, and boiled wires in it. After they were boiled, he slung them over the poor girl's shoulders and gave her an axe, ordering her to go to the frozen river, dig a hole in the ice, and rinse the strands.

Obediently, she went over there and began to hack into the ice to dig a hole; she was still engaged in this, when a sumptuous carriage appeared, in which was the king. The chariot stopped, and the king asked:

– My little one, who are you and what are you doing there?

- I'm a poor girl and I rinse hair.

Then the king took pity and, seeing that she was so beautiful, said:

- Do you want to come with me?

“Oh, yes, with all my heart,” she replied, glad to be out of the sight of her mother and sister.

So he got into the chariot and left with the king. When they arrived at the castle, the marriage was celebrated with great splendor, as the little men had wished.

A year later, the young queen had a son. The stepmother, hearing of her great happiness, went with her daughter to the castle, on the pretext of paying a visit. But when, at a certain moment, the king was gone and there was no one else around, the wicked woman seized the queen by the head, and her daughter seized her by the feet, they took her from the bed and threw her out of the window, into the current of the river that passed through it. Then the ugly daughter lay down on the bed, and the old woman covered her up to her head. When the king returned and wanted to speak to his wife, the old woman said:

– Psst… silence! Now it's not possible. The queen is sweating a lot. Today you must let it rest.

The king saw no malice in this and returned the next morning. When he spoke to his wife, with each answer she gave him, a frog jumped out of his mouth, when before a gold coin had fallen. Then he asked what it was, but the old woman replied that it was a consequence of the strong sweating and that it would soon pass.

At night, however, the kitchen boy saw a duck that, swimming in the gutter, came and said:

– O king, what are you doing there?

Are you watching or are you sleeping?

And when he didn't give her any answer, she asked:

– And how are my visitors?

Then the kitchen boy replied:

– Deeply asleep.

And she continued:

– What is my little boy doing?

And he replied:

- He's sleeping in his crib.

Then, resuming her queenly appearance, she went upstairs, suckled the baby, adjusted his bed, covered him well, and, resuming the shape of a paw, went off again, swimming in the gutter. So she came for two nights. On the third, he said to the kitchen boy:

-Go, and tell the king to take his sword and, on the doorstep, brandish it three times over me.

The kitchen boy ran to the king, who came with his sword and brandished it three times over the spirit; the third time, his wife stood before him, radiant, full of life and health as before.

The king felt great joy, but he kept the queen hidden in a room until the following Sunday, when the child was to be baptized. When the ceremony was over, he said:

– What does a person deserve who pulls another out of bed and throws him into the river?

“Nothing better,” replied the old woman, “than to put the wicked one in a barrel riddled with nails and roll it down the mountain into the water.

The king then said:

– You have pronounced your sentence.

And he sent for a barrel like that, and he had the old woman and her daughter put into it; and the bottom of the barrel was nailed, and the barrel was rolled down the mountain, until it rolled into the river.