Presented by
Authorama
Public Domain Books
The Raven
There was once a queen who had a little daughter, still too young torun alone. One day the child was very troublesome, and the mothercould not quiet it, do what she would. She grew impatient, and seeingthe ravens flying round the castle, she opened the window, and said:’I wish you were a raven and would fly away, then I should have alittle peace.’ Scarcely were the words out of her mouth, when thechild in her arms was turned into a raven, and flew away from herthrough the open window. The bird took its flight to a dark wood andremained there for a long time, and meanwhile the parents could hearnothing of their child.
Long after this, a man was making his way through the wood when heheard a raven calling, and he followed the sound of the voice. As hedrew near, the raven said, ’I am by birth a king’s daughter, but amnow under the spell of some enchantment; you can, however, set mefree.’ ’What am I to do?’ he asked. She replied, ’Go farther into thewood until you come to a house, wherein lives an old woman; she willoffer you food and drink, but you must not take of either; if you do,you will fall into a deep sleep, and will not be able to help me. Inthe garden behind the house is a large tan-heap, and on that you muststand and watch for me. I shall drive there in my carriage at twoo’clock in the afternoon for three successive days; the first day itwill be drawn by four white, the second by four chestnut, and the lastby four black horses; but if you fail to keep awake and I find yousleeping, I shall not be set free.’
The man promised to do all that she wished, but the raven said, ’Alas!I know even now that you will take something from the woman and beunable to save me.’ The man assured her again that he would on noaccount touch a thing to eat or drink.
When he came to the house and went inside, the old woman met him, andsaid, ’Poor man! how tired you are! Come in and rest and let me giveyou something to eat and drink.’
’No,’ answered the man, ’I will neither eat not drink.’
But she would not leave him alone, and urged him saying, ’If you willnot eat anything, at least you might take a draught of wine; one drinkcounts for nothing,’ and at last he allowed himself to be persuaded,and drank.
As it drew towards the appointed hour, he went outside into the gardenand mounted the tan-heap to await the raven. Suddenly a feeling offatigue came over him, and unable to resist it, he lay down for alittle while, fully determined, however, to keep awake; but in anotherminute his eyes closed of their own accord, and he fell into such adeep sleep, that all the noises in the world would not have awakenedhim. At two o’clock the raven came driving along, drawn by her fourwhite horses; but even before she reached the spot, she said toherself, sighing, ’I know he has fallen asleep.’ When she entered thegarden, there she found him as she had feared, lying on the tan-heap,fast asleep. She got out of her carriage and went to him; she calledhim and shook him, but it was all in vain, he still continuedsleeping.
The next day at noon, the old woman came to him again with food anddrink which he at first refused. At last, overcome by her persistententreaties that he would take something, he lifted the glass and drankagain.
Towards two o’clock he went into the garden and on to the tan-heap towatch for the raven. He had not been there long before he began tofeel so tired that his limbs seemed hardly able to support him, and hecould not stand upright any longer; so again he lay down and fell fastasleep. As the raven drove along her four chestnut horses, she saidsorrowfully to herself, ’I know he has fallen asleep.’ She went asbefore to look for him, but he slept, and it was impossible to awakenhim.
The following day the old woman said to him, ’What is this? You arenot eating or drinking anything, do you want to kill yourself?’
He answered, ’I may not and will not either eat or drink.’
But she put down the dish of food and the glass of wine in front ofhim, and when he smelt the wine, he was unable to resist thetemptation, and took a deep draught.
When the hour came round again he went as usual on to the tan-heap inthe garden to await the king’s daughter, but he felt even moreovercome with weariness than on the two previous days, and throwinghimself down, he slept like a log. At two o’clock the raven could beseen approaching, and this time her coachman and everything about her,as well as her horses, were black.
She was sadder than ever as she drove along, and said mournfully, ’Iknow he has fallen asleep, and will not be able to set me free.’ Shefound him sleeping heavily, and all her efforts to awaken him were ofno avail. Then she placed beside him a loaf, and some meat, and aflask of wine, of such a kind, that however much he took of them, theywould never grow less. After that she drew a gold ring, on which hername was engraved, off her finger, and put it upon one of his.Finally, she laid a letter near him, in which, after giving himparticulars of the food and drink she had left for him, she finishedwith the following words: ’I see that as long as you remain here youwill never be able to set me free; if, however, you still wish to doso, come to the golden castle of Stromberg; this is well within yourpower to accomplish.’ She then returned to her carriage and drove tothe golden castle of Stromberg.
When the man awoke and found that he had been sleeping, he was grievedat heart, and said, ’She has no doubt been here and driven away again,and it is now too late for me to save her.’ Then his eyes fell on thethings which were lying beside him; he read the letter, and knew fromit all that had happened. He rose up without delay, eager to start onhis way and to reach the castle of Stromberg, but he had no idea inwhich direction he ought to go. He travelled about a long time insearch of it and came at last to a dark forest, through which he wenton walking for fourteen days and still could not find a way out. Oncemore the night came on, and worn out he lay down under a bush and fellasleep. Again the next day he pursued his way through the forest, andthat evening, thinking to rest again, he lay down as before, but heheard such a howling and wailing that he found it impossible to sleep.He waited till it was darker and people had begun to light up theirhouses, and then seeing a little glimmer ahead of him, he went towardsit.
He found that the light came from a house which looked smaller than itreally was, from the contrast of its height with that of an immensegiant who stood in front of it. He thought to himself, ’If the giantsees me going in, my life will not be worth much.’ However, after awhile he summoned up courage and went forward. When the giant saw him,he called out, ’It is lucky for that you have come, for I have not hadanything to eat for a long time. I can have you now for my supper.’ ’Iwould rather you let that alone,’ said the man, ’for I do notwillingly give myself up to be eaten; if you are wanting food I haveenough to satisfy your hunger.’ ’If that is so,’ replied the giant, ’Iwill leave you in peace; I only thought of eating you because I hadnothing else.’
So they went indoors together and sat down, and the man brought outthe bread, meat, and wine, which although he had eaten and drunk ofthem, were still unconsumed. The giant was pleased with the goodcheer, and ate and drank to his heart’s content. When he had finishedhis supper the man asked him if he could direct him to the castle ofStromberg. The giant said, ’I will look on my map; on it are markedall the towns, villages, and houses.’ So he fetched his map, andlooked for the castle, but could not find it. ’Never mind,’ he said,’I have larger maps upstairs in the cupboard, we will look on those,’but they searched in vain, for the castle was not marked even onthese. The man now thought he should like to continue his journey, butthe giant begged him to remain for a day or two longer until thereturn of his brother, who was away in search of provisions. When thebrother came home, they asked him about the castle of Stromberg, andhe told them he would look on his own maps as soon as he had eaten andappeased his hunger. Accordingly, when he had finished his supper,they all went up together to his room and looked through his maps, butthe castle was not to be found. Then he fetched other older maps, andthey went on looking for the castle until at last they found it, butit was many thousand miles away. ’How shall I be able to get there?’asked the man. ’I have two hours to spare,’ said the giant, ’and Iwill carry you into the neighbourhood of the castle; I must thenreturn to look after the child who is in our care.’
The giant, thereupon, carried the man to within about a hundredleagues of the castle, where he left him, saying, ’You will be able towalk the remainder of the way yourself.’ The man journeyed on day andnight till he reached the golden castle of Stromberg. He found itsituated, however, on a glass mountain, and looking up from the foothe saw the enchanted maiden drive round her castle and then go inside.He was overjoyed to see her, and longed to get to the top of themountain, but the sides were so slippery that every time he attemptedto climb he fell back again. When he saw that it was impossible toreach her, he was greatly grieved, and said to himself, ’I will remainhere and wait for her,’ so he built himself a little hut, and there hesat and watched for a whole year, and every day he saw the king’sdaughter driving round her castle, but still was unable to get nearerto her.
Looking out from his hut one day he saw three robbers fighting and hecalled out to them, ’God be with you.’ They stopped when they heardthe call, but looking round and seeing nobody, they went on again withtheir fighting, which now became more furious. ’God be with you,’ hecried again, and again they paused and looked about, but seeing no onewent back to their fighting. A third time he called out, ’God be withyou,’ and then thinking he should like to know the cause of disputebetween the three men, he went out and asked them why they werefighting so angrily with one another. One of them said that he hadfound a stick, and that he had but to strike it against any doorthrough which he wished to pass, and it immediately flew open. Anothertold him that he had found a cloak which rendered its wearerinvisible; and the third had caught a horse which would carry itsrider over any obstacle, and even up the glass mountain. They had beenunable to decide whether they would keep together and have the thingsin common, or whether they would separate. On hearing this, the mansaid, ’I will give you something in exchange for those three things;not money, for that I have not got, but something that is of far morevalue. I must first, however, prove whether all you have told me aboutyour three things is true.’ The robbers, therefore, made him get onthe horse, and handed him the stick and the cloak, and when he had putthis round him he was no longer visible. Then he fell upon them withthe stick and beat them one after another, crying, ’There, you idlevagabonds, you have got what you deserve; are you satisfied now!’
After this he rode up the glass mountain. When he reached the gate ofthe castle, he found it closed, but he gave it a blow with his stick,and it flew wide open at once and he passed through. He mounted thesteps and entered the room where the maiden was sitting, with a goldengoblet full of wine in front of her. She could not see him for hestill wore his cloak. He took the ring which she had given him off hisfinger, and threw it into the goblet, so that it rang as it touchedthe bottom. ’That is my own ring,’ she exclaimed, ’and if that is sothe man must also be here who is coming to set me free.’
She sought for him about the castle, but could find him nowhere.Meanwhile he had gone outside again and mounted his horse and thrownoff the cloak. When therefore she came to the castle gate she saw him,and cried aloud for joy. Then he dismounted and took her in his arms;and she kissed him, and said, ’Now you have indeed set me free, andtomorrow we will celebrate our marriage.’
Continue...
The Golden Bird• Hans in Luck• Jorinda and Jorindel• The Travelling Musicians• Old Sultan• The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean• Briar Rose• The Dog and the Sparrow• The Twelve Dancing Princesses• The Fisherman and His Wife• The Willow-Wren and the Bear• The Frog-Prince• Cat and Mouse in Partnership• The Goose-Girl• The Adventures of Chanticleer and Partlet• Rapunzel• Fundevogel• The Valiant Little Tailor• Hansel and Gretel• The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage• Mother Holle• Little Red-Cap [little Red Riding Hood]• The Robber Bridegroom• Tom Thumb• Rumpelstiltskin• Clever Gretel• The Old Man and His Grandson• The Little Peasant• Frederick and Catherine• Sweetheart Roland• Snowdrop• The Pink• Clever Elsie• The Miser in the Bush• Ashputtel• The White Snake• The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids• The Queen Bee• The Elves and the Shoemaker• The Juniper-Tree• The Turnip• Clever Hans• The Three Languages• The Fox and the Cat• The Four Clever Brothers• Lily and the Lion• The Fox and the Horse• The Blue Light• The Raven• The Golden Goose• The Water of Life• The Twelve Huntsmen• The King of the Golden Mountain• Doctor Knowall• The Seven Ravens• The Wedding of Mrs Fox• Second Story• The Salad• The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was• King Grisly-Beard• Iron Hans• Cat-Skin• Snow-White and Rose-Red• About the Brothers Grimm
This eBook of “Fairy Tales” by the Grimm Brothers (based on translations from the Grimms’ Kinder und Hausmärchen by Edgar Taylor and Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes) belongs to the public domain.Complete book.
Authorama - Classic Literature, free of copyright. About...
