The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (27 page)

Meanwhile, the bird flew away, landed on the roof of a goldsmith's house, and began to sing:

“My mother, she killed me.

My father, he ate me.

My sister, Marlene, she made sure to see

my bones were gathered secretly,

bound nicely in silk, as neat as can be,

and laid beneath the juniper tree.

Tweet, tweet! What a lovely bird I am!”

The goldsmith was sitting in his workshop making a golden chain. When he heard the bird singing on his roof, he thought the song was very beautiful. Then he stood up, and as he walked across the threshold, he lost a slipper. Still, he kept on going, right into the middle of the street with only one sock and a slipper on. He was also wearing his apron, and in one of his hands he held the golden chain, in the other his tongs. The sun was shining brightly on the street as he walked, and then he stopped to get a look at the bird.

“Bird,” he said, “how beautifully you sing! Sing me that song again.”

“No,” said the bird, “I never sing twice for nothing. Give me the golden chain, and I'll sing it for you again.”

“All right,” said the goldsmith. “Here's the golden chain. Now sing the song again.”

The bird swooped down, grasped the golden chain in his right claw, went up to the goldsmith, and began singing:

“My mother, she killed me.

My father, he ate me.

My sister, Marlene, she made sure to see

my bones were gathered secretly,

bound nicely in silk, as neat as can be,

and laid beneath the juniper tree.

Tweet, tweet! What a lovely bird I am!”

Then the bird flew off to a shoemaker, landed on his roof, and sang:

“My mother, she killed me.

My father, he ate me.

My sister, Marlene, she made sure to see

my bones were gathered secretly,

bound nicely in silk, as neat as can be,

and laid beneath the juniper tree.

Tweet, tweet! What a lovely bird I am!”

When the shoemaker heard the song, he ran to the door in his shirt sleeves and looked up at the roof, keeping his hand over his eyes to protect them from the bright sun.

“Bird,” he said, “how beautifully you sing!” Then he called into the house, “Wife, come out here for a second! There's a bird up there. Just look. How beautifully he sings!” Then he called his daughter and her children, and the journeyman, apprentices, and maid. They all came running out into the street and looked at the bird and saw how beautiful he was. He had bright red and green feathers, and his neck appeared to glisten like pure gold, while his eyes sparkled in his head like stars.

“Bird,” said the shoemaker, “now sing me that song again.”

“No,” said the bird. “I never sing twice for nothing. You'll have to give me a present.”

“Wife,” said the man, “go into the shop. There's a pair of red shoes on the top shelf. Get them for me.”

His wife went and fetched the shoes.

“There,” said the man. “Now sing the song again.”

The bird swooped down, grasped the shoes in his left claw, flew back up on the roof, and sang:

“My mother, she killed me.

My father, he ate me.

My sister, Marlene, she made sure to see

my bones were gathered secretly,

bound nicely in silk, as neat as can be,

and laid beneath the juniper tree.

Tweet, tweet! What a lovely bird I am!”

When the bird finished the song, he flew away. He had the chain in his right claw and the shoes in his left, and he flew far away to a mill. The mill went
clickety-clack, clickety-clack, clickety-clack
. The miller had twenty men sitting in the mill, and they were hewing a stone. Their chisels went click-clack, click-clack, click-clack. And the mill kept going clickety-clack, clickety-clack, clickety-clack. The bird swooped down and landed on a linden tree outside the mill and sang:

“My mother, she killed me.”

Then one of the men stopped working.

“My father, he ate me.”

Then two more stopped and listened.

“My sister, Marlene, she made sure to see.”

Then four more stopped.

“My bones were gathered secretly,

bound nicely in silk, as neat as can be.”

Now only eight kept chiseling.

“And laid beneath . . .”

Now only five.

“. . . the juniper tree.”

Now only one.

“Tweet, tweet! What a lovely bird I am!”

Then the last one also stopped and listened to the final words.

“Bird, how beautifully you sing! Let me hear that, too. Sing your song again for me.”

“No,” said the bird. I never sing twice for nothing. Give me the millstone, and I'll sing the song again.”

“I would if I could,” he said. “But the millstone doesn't belong to me alone.”

“If he sings again,” said the others, “he can have it.”

Then the bird swooped down, and all twenty of the miller's men took some wooden beams to lift the stone. “Heave-ho! Heave-ho! Heave-ho!” Then the bird stuck his neck through the hole, put the stone on like a collar, flew back to the tree, and sang:

“My mother, she killed me.

My father, he ate me.

My sister, Marlene, she made sure to see

my bones were gathered secretly,

bound nicely in silk, as neat as can be,

and laid beneath the juniper tree.

Tweet, tweet “What a lovely bird I am!”

After the bird had finished his song, he spread his wings, and in his right claw he had the chain, in his left the shoes, and around his neck the millstone. Then he flew away to his father's house.

The father, mother, and Marlene were sitting at the table in the parlor, and the father said, “Oh, how happy I am! I just feel so wonderful!

“Not me,” said the mother. “I feel scared as if a storm were about to erupt.”

Meanwhile, Marlene just sat there and kept weeping. Then the bird flew up, and when he landed on the roof, the father said, “Oh, I'm in such
good spirits. The sun's shining so brightly outside, and I feel as though I were going to see an old friend again.”

“Not me,” said his wife. “I'm so frightened that my teeth are chattering. I feel as if fire were running through my veins.”

She tore open her bodice, while Marlene sat in a corner and kept weeping. She had her handkerchief in front of her eyes and wept until it was completely soaked with her tears. The bird swooped down on the juniper tree, where he perched on a branch and began singing:

“My mother, she killed me.”

The mother stopped her ears, shut her eyes, and tried not to see or hear anything, but there was a roaring in her ears like a turbulent storm, and her eyes burned and flashed like lightning.

“My father, he ate me.”

“Oh, Mother,” said the man, “listen to that beautiful bird singing so gloriously! The sun's so warm, and it smells like cinnamon.”

“My sister, Marlene, made sure to see.”

Then Marlene laid her head on her knees and wept and wept, but the man said, “I'm going outside. I must see the bird close up.”

“Oh, don't go!” cried the wife. “I feel as if the whole house were shaking and about to go up in flames!”

Nevertheless, the man went out and looked at the bird.

“My bones were gathered secretly,

bound nicely in silk, as neat as can be,

and laid beneath the juniper tree.

Tweet, tweet! What a lovely bird I am!”

After ending his song, the bird dropped the golden chain, and it fell around the man's neck just right, so that it fit him perfectly. Then he went inside and said, “Look how lovely that bird is! He gave me this beautiful golden chain, and he's just as beautiful as well!”

But the woman was petrified and fell to the floor. Her cap slipped off her head, and the bird sang again:

“My mother, she killed me.”

“Oh, I wish I were a thousand feet beneath the earth so I wouldn't have to hear this!”

“My father, he ate me.”

Then the woman fell down again as if she were dead.

“My sister, Marlene, she made sure to see.”

“Oh,” said Marlene, I want to go outside, too, and see if the bird will give me something.”

Then she went out.

“My bones were gathered secretly,

bound nicely in silk, as neat as can be.”

All at once the bird threw her the shoes.

“And laid them beneath the juniper tree.

Tweet, tweet! What a lovely bird I am!”

Marlene felt cheerful and happy. She put on the new red shoes and danced and skipped back into the house.

“Oh,” she said, “I was so sad when I went out, and now I feel so cheerful. That certainly is a splendid bird. He gave me a pair of red shoes as a gift.”

“Not me,” said the wife, who jumped, and her hair flared up like red-hot flames. “I feel as if the world were coming to an end. Maybe I'd feel better if I went outside.”

As she went out the door,
crash!
The bird threw the millstone down on her head, and she was crushed to death. The father and Marlene heard the crash and went outside. Smoke, flames, and fire were rising from the spot, and when it was over, the little brother was standing there. He took his father and Marlene by the hand, and all three were very happy. Then they went into the house, sat down at the table, and ate.

48

OLD SULTAN

A farmer had a faithful dog named Sultan. He was old and couldn't latch onto things with his teeth anymore. So the farmer said to his wife: “I'm going to shoot old Sultan. He's no longer of use to us anymore.”

His wife replied, “Don't you do it! We should support the faithful dog in his old age. He's served us well so many years.”

“You must be out of your mind!” her husband said. “What are we going to do with him? He doesn't have a tooth left in his head. No thief would be afraid of him anymore. If he's served us well, he's done it because of his hunger, and because he was well fed here. Tomorrow is his last day. End of discussion!”

The dog had overheard everything that they had discussed. Since he had a good friend, the wolf, he went out to see him in the evening and whine about his fate and tell him that his master was going to shoot him the next day.

“Don't worry,” the wolf said. “I'm going to give you a good plan: Early tomorrow morning your master will be going out with his wife to make hay, and they'll take their little child with them because nobody will be staying at home. They generally lay the child behind the hedge while they work. Now, you're to lie down next to the child as if you want to rest and guard him. I'll come out of the forest and steal the child. Then you've got to jump up and run after me and chase me away. They'll believe that you rescued their child, and you'll be in their good graces, and they'll give you anything you want for the rest of your life.”

The dog liked the plan, and it was carried out just as they had conceived it. The wolf ran off a short distance, and when the dog overtook him, the wolf dropped the child, and the dog brought him back to his master, whereupon the man cried out in a very loud voice: “Well, since our old Sultan has chased away the wolf once again, he's going to stay alive, and we'll support him for the rest of his life. Wife, go home and cook him some bread mush that he can easily swallow. Also, bring him my pillow. He's to have it for his bed as long as he lives.”

All of a sudden old Sultan had it so good that he couldn't have wished for a better life. The wolf came to him and was delighted to learn that everything had succeeded so well.

“Now you certainly won't have anything against it and will help me when I steal a fat sheep from your master.”

But Sultan was loyal to his master and told him what the wolf had in mind. So the man waited for the wolf in the barn, and when the wolf came and wanted to get a good bite of sheep, the farmer practically skinned him alive. Later the wolf was so outraged that he scolded old Sultan, called him a miserable fellow, and challenged him to a duel to settle things.

They were to take their positions right outside the forest, and each one was to bring a second with him. The wolf was the first one at the place and had brought the wild boar as his second, and old Sultan had only been able to recruit a lame cat and finally set out with her. When the wolf and the boar saw the cat coming toward them, constantly limping, they thought that she was picking up stones to throw at them, and they both became frightened. So the wild boar crawled into some bushes, and the wolf jumped up a tree. When the dog and cat reached the spot, they were both puzzled to find nobody there. However, the boar in the bushes began twitching his ear, and when the cat saw something move, she sprang on top of the boar and bit and scratched him. Consequently, the boar leapt into the air with a loud cry and ran away. As he was running, he yelled out: “Your opponent's sitting up there in the tree!”

So it came to light that the wolf had cowardly retreated, and the only way he could climb down from the tree was by agreeing to a peaceful settlement.

49

THE SIX SWANS

A king went hunting in a vast forest, got lost, and couldn't find his way out. Finally, he came upon a witch and asked her to show him the way out of the forest. However, the witch told him she wouldn't do it. He had to remain there and would lose his life. He could only be saved if he married
her daughter. The king cherished his life, and he was so frightened, he said yes. So the witch brought the maiden to him. Though she was young and beautiful, he couldn't look at her without getting the creeps and secretly shuddering. However, he intended to keep his promise. Then the old woman led both of them on the right path out of the forest, and once they were at the king's home, the witch's daughter became his wife.

Now the king still had seven children from his first wife, six boys and a girl, and since he was afraid the stepmother might harm them, he brought them to a castle in the middle of a forest. It lay so well concealed nobody knew the way to it, and he himself would not have found it if a wise woman had not given him a ball of yarn. When he threw the ball before him, the yarn unwound itself and showed him the way.