“Drummer, drummer, listen up.
Tell me, how could you clean forget
The girl who by your side on Glass Mountain sat?
Did I not trick the witch and save your life?
Did you not swear to make me your wife?
Drummer, drummer, listen up.”
All of a sudden he remembered. “Dear God,” he cried, “how could I callously betray her trust? It was the kiss I gave my parents on the right cheek with all the joy of my heart that made me forget.” He leapt up, took the princess by the hand, and led her to his parents’ bed. “This is my true bride,” he said. “If I wed the other, I will do her a great injustice.”
Once they heard the story of everything that had happened, the parents approved. The hall was once again lit up, drummers and trumpeters were fetched for the festivities, friends and family were invited to return, and the true wedding was celebrated in great happiness. The first bride kept the lovely dresses as compensation and declared herself well-pleased.
THE MARVELOUS MINSTREL
There once was a marvelous minstrel who wandered through a forest, feeling so utterly lonesome, trying to distract himself thinking about this and that, and when he’d had it with his thoughts, he said to himself, “Time is dragging on so long in these woods. I think I’ll fiddle forth a pleasant companion.” So he took the fiddle from his back and fiddled a tune that resounded in the treetops. It wasn’t long before a wolf came trotting forth out of the thicket. “Heavens!” said the minstrel. “A wolf I can do without.”
But the wolf came closer and said to him, “My dear minstrel, what an enchanting tune you’re fiddling! I’d like to learn it too.”
“Easy does it,” replied the minstrel. “Just do everything I tell you to do.”
“Oh, minstrel,” said the wolf, “I will obey you like a pupil his master.”
The minstrel bid him to come along, and once they had walked a ways together, they came to an old oak tree whose trunk was hollow and split open down the middle. “See here,” said the minstrel, “if you want to learn to fiddle, put your front paws in that slit.” The wolf obeyed, but the minstrel hastened to pick up a stone, and with one blow wedged his paws in so tightly that the wolf was trapped like a prisoner. “Just wait here until I come back,” said the minstrel and continued on his way.
A little while later he once again said to himself, “Time is dragging on so long in these woods. I think I’ll fiddle forth another companion.” So he took his fiddle from his back, and once again filled the wooded silence with a song. It wasn’t long before a fox came creeping forth through the trees. “Heavens!” said the minstrel. “A fox is not my idea of a friend.”
But the fox came furtively slinking over. “My dear minstrel, what an enchanting tune you’re fiddling! I’d like to learn it too.”
“Easy does it,” said the minstrel. “Just do everything I tell you to do.”
“Oh, minstrel,” said the fox, “I will obey you like a pupil his master.”
“Follow me,” said the minstrel, and once they’d walked for a while they came to a footpath hemmed in on both sides by tall hedges. The minstrel halted, reached out and bent a little hazelnut tree to the ground, and held it down with his feet, then on the other side did the same with another spry sapling, and said, “Very well, little fox, if you want to learn something then stretch out your left front paw.” The fox obeyed, and the minstrel bound his paw to the tree on his left. “Now the right one,” he said, which he proceeded to bind to the tree on his right. And once he’d checked that the knots were tied tightly enough, he let go with his feet, and the trees sprung back, hurling the little fox up in the air so that he dangled and flounced, suspended high above the ground.
“Just wait here till I come back,” said the minstrel, and continued on his way.
And yet again he said to himself, “Time is dragging on so long in these woods. I think I’ll fiddle forth another companion,” and grabbed his fiddle and filled the wooded silence with a song. Whereupon a hare came leaping forth. “Heavens!” said the minstrel. “What am I to do with a hare?”
“My dear minstrel,” said the little hare, “what an enchanting tune you’re fiddling! I’d like to learn it too.”
“Easy does it,” said the minstrel. “Just do everything I tell you to do.”
“Oh, minstrel,” said the hare, “I will obey you like a pupil his master.”
They went on for a while together until they came to a clearing in the woods where stood an aspen tree. The minstrel bound a long twine around the hare’s neck, the other end of which he knotted to the tree. “Lively now, little hare, run twenty times around the tree,” the minstrel commanded, and the hare obeyed, and once it had run twenty times around, the twine twisted twenty times around the tree, and the hare was caught fast, tug and tear as it might, the twine just dug into its soft neck.