Selected Tales of the Brothers Grimm(55)
On the day on which the wedding was to take place the bridegroom appeared, but the miller made sure to invite all his relatives and acquaintances. When they sat at the table, everyone was supposed to tell a story. The bride sat in silence and said nothing. So the bridegroom said to her, “Well, my dear, have you nothing to say? Tell us a story.”
Whereupon she replied, “Let me tell you a dream I had. I went alone through the woods and came at last to a lonely house with not a soul in sight, but there was a bird in a cage hanging on the wall, and it sang out:
‘Turn back, turn back, young bride,
A murderer lives inside.’
“And the bird sang it out yet again. It was only a dream, dear heart. I went from room to room and they were all empty, and it felt so eerie everywhere. Then, finally, I climbed down into the cellar. There sat an age-old woman shaking her head. So I asked her, ‘Does my bridegroom live here?’ And she replied, ‘Oh, my poor child, you’ve landed in a den of thieves. Your bridegroom does live here, but he intends to cut you up, cook you, and eat you.’ Dear heart, it’s only a dream. But the old woman hid me behind a great big barrel, and no sooner was I hidden than the robbers returned, dragging a girl along with them. They gave her three kinds of wine to drink – white, red, and yellow – which made her heart burst. Dear heart, it’s only a dream. Then they tore off her fine clothes, cut up her lovely body on a table, and sprinkled it with salt. Dear heart, it’s only a dream. And one of the robbers saw a gold ring on her little finger, and since it was hard to slip off, he took a cleaver and hacked it off, but the force of the blow made the finger fly into the air, bound over the great big barrel, and land in my lap. And here is the ring finger.”
With these words she raised it aloft and showed it to everyone there.
As she told the tale, the robber turned white as chalk, jumped up, and tried to escape, but the wedding guests grabbed hold of him and handed him over to the authorities. Then he and his whole band were judged and executed for their evil deeds.
RAPUNZEL
Once upon a time there were a man and a woman who had long wished in vain for a child. Finally the woman had reason to hope that God would fulfill their wish. The little rear window of their house looked out upon a beautiful garden in which the loveliest flowers and plants grew. It was ringed by a high wall and no one dared enter, as it belonged to a sorceress who had great powers and was feared by everyone. One day the woman stood at the window and looked down into the garden, where she spied a garden bed planted with the loveliest rapunzels, or lamb’s lettuce. They looked so fresh and green that she felt a sudden longing, an intense craving to eat them. The craving grew greater every day, and since she knew that she could have none of them, she grew wan and pale and looked altogether miserable. So much so that her husband took fright: “What’s the matter, my dear wife?”
“Oh,” she said, “if I can’t have any of that rapunzel in the garden behind our house, I’ll surely die.”
The man, who loved her dearly, thought to himself, Sooner than let my beloved wife die, I’d better go get her some rapunzel, whatever the price. So at twilight he climbed over the wall into the sorceress’s garden, hastily ripped up a handful, and brought it to his wife. She promptly made a salad of it and gobbled it up with great delight. But she liked it so much that the next day she wanted to have three times as much. If she was to be satisfied, the man would once again have to climb into the garden. Come twilight he lowered himself into the garden, but once over the wall, as soon as his feet touched the ground he had an awful fright. The sorceress was standing right there before him.
“How dare you,” she said with an angry look, “climb into my garden and like a thief make off with my rapunzels. You’ll pay dearly for it.”
“Please forgive me,” he replied, “let mercy move your heart. I only did what I had to. My wife spotted your rapunzels from the window and felt such a powerful craving for them that she would have died if she couldn’t eat some.”
Her anger quelled, the sorceress said to him, “If things are as you say they are, I’ll let you gather as much rapunzel as you like, but under one condition: You must give me the child your wife brings into the world. Things will go well for it, and I will care for it like a mother.”
In his terror, the man agreed, and when the woman gave birth, the sorceress appeared, gave the child the name Rapunzel, and took her away.
Rapunzel was the loveliest child under the sun. When she turned twelve, the sorceress locked her in a tower deep in a forest, with neither stairs nor door to enter and only a little window to look out of. When the sorceress wanted to get in, she stood outside and called: