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Grimm's Fairy Tales
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Grimm's Fairy Tales
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Grimm's Fairy Tales

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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About this ebook

Originally entitled Children's and Household Tales, Grimm's Fairy Tales were first published by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the early nineteenth century.

This selection contains 80 stories and includes some of the best known, such as 'Briar-Rose' (perhaps better known as 'Sleeping Beauty'), and 'Little Red-Cap' ('Little Red Riding Hood'), as well as some lesser known tales, like 'The Bremen Town Musicians', 'The Goose-Girl' and 'King Thrushbeard'.

Handsome princes and princesses, wicked witches and step-mothers, benevolent kings and fortune seekers abound among the stories that were collected from all over Germany in the folklore tradition. But no matter what the moral
of the story, good always triumphs over evil.

Also included are more a selection of Arthur Rackham's marvellous illustrations which inject new life into these timeless tales.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 22, 2017
ISBN9781788880329
Author

Jacob Grimm

With his brother Wilhelm, Jacob Grimm collected and published Germanic and European folk and fairy tales during the early to mid 19th century. Some of the world’s most classic and beloved stories have been published by them, including “Rumplestiltskin,” “Snow White,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Rapunzel,” “Cinderella,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and many more.

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Rating: 4.1841912081218275 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Finally finished. I have lots of thoughts about these tales and their common motifs. Pretty much, if you have a stepmother, she's wicked and dabbles in witchcraft. Trials and events happen in threes. There's always a dress of the sun, a dress of the moon, and a dress of the stars that a beautiful maiden will exchange with a false bride so that she may sleep in the same chamber as her beloved, but the false bride will give the groom a sleeping potion so that he won't hear the beautiful maiden's story and remember who she is. Luckily the servants will inform the prince and all will be made well. The cleverest son is usually the one deemed stupid or daft. If you can slip from the skin of an animal, a form you are required to take by day, and someone steals the skin and burns it, then you are free from your curse and will remain human. And on and on. I learned many ways to cheat the devil, so that's handy. It was enjoyable to read the original, darker versions of the tales Disney "cleaned up" and to read the tales no one ever mentions, like "Allerleirauh" which in the German means "of many different kinds of fur." "The Bremen Town Musicians" and "The Master Thief" are two of my faves.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    As a child, I loved to read fairy tales more than anything else. My grandmother had a collection of Grimms’ fairy tales and Andersen’s fairy tales, and I grabbed one or the other off of her bookshelf at the first opportunity on each visit. I had never read anything like Ralph Manheim’s translation of Grimms’ fairy tales. It reads like exactly what it is – a transcription of oral stories and legends, with the voice of the teller unobscured by an editor. Some stories have multiple variations with slight differences between them. This collection makes it clear that the stories had a social purpose and were used to encourage positive character traits and discourage negative character traits. Manheim’s translation belongs in the libraries of all readers with more than a casual interest in fairy tales and legends.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Excellent omnibus of the classic fairytales as reimagined/edited for Victorian audiences by the Grimm brothers.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Decided to read Grimm after Tale of Tales. I can tell the Grimm Brothers were inspired by Giambattista Basile. A handful of these tales I've either read before in other anthologies, seen adaptations, or read versions of them from the comic book Fables. I enjoyed reading this book, but felt like this was more a reread than reading something new. However, there were many tales I never heard of before. I didn't realize that the Grimm Brothers had so many religious stories, like Hans Christian Anderson and Christa Rossetti. One thing that annoyed me was the character names. They used the name Hans way too many times. I'm not sure if it was on purpose or not, but their lesser know stories lacked creativity in names. Overall, there were some stories I didn't care for, but this is a must read for story tellers.

    The Pantheon edition I kind of liked and didn't. I wasn't a fan of the illustrations. They didn't seem to fit the story sometimes. I wasn't a fan of the lack of footnotes and notes either. They only had a few here and there. They needed more. What I love was Joseph Campbell's commentary at the end. It's a little long, but it helps others realize the Grimm Brothers are part of this chain of stories that have stuck with humanity over the years to help use relate and understand life better than what we may see with the human eye. We need fiction in our life and we need fairy tales as children and as adults.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Although this was one part of a two book set, there was a great contrast to Andersen’s Fairy Tales. At times it seemed as if this were the Cliff Notes of fairy tales, rather than what I would have expected from the Ugly Duckling, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel and others. I suppose that over time the details of these stories have been embellished by others all the way up to Walt Disney. The lesser known tales have the usual heads chopped off, people transformed into animals, parents abandoning their children, wicked stepmothers, and so on. A surprising number of these tales repeat themselves. For example, several evil characters are cut open and filled with stones, then sown up again. Quite disappointing. You should read the revised versions.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read my mother's copy while in elementary school and just about had them all memorized. Passed this one along to my Middle School grand-daughter at her request. I think this book is among the best translations for junior readers, simple and clear, but accurate (compare to Jack Zipes). The black-and-white illustrations give a good sense of the story and are appropriate for the era in which they were collected (19th-century Germany).
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    With love from Mummy and Daddy Xmas 1959, I was three and the words and pictures have never left me. A rock on which the rest of my life was built. The book records a moment in time and place, defined by stories, marked on every page by the history of the world, cousin to other stories in other places all over the world and full of the expectancy of the ever changing future.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm with illustrations from Arthur Rackham is indeed, as the Rock Point series says, a timeless classic.This is specifically a review of the Rock Point edition in their Timeless Classics series. It uses the 1897 Margaret Hunt translation as its source and the Rackham illustrations from a 1909 edition. Reviewing the tales themselves doesn't make a lot of sense here, we have all read at least some of them, whether in this form of one of the many variations. The introduction in this volume does a nice job of introducing the tales and gives a very brief overview of what exactly these stories represent both culturally and historically. If you want to learn about all of the questions and issues around them you will not want a collection of the tales for that, you will want a book devoted to the topic, though a collection like this one will be necessary to fully understand those issues.This edition is packaged wonderfully and will serve as both a nice addition to a library as well as a book you can read from, ideally to your children, then pass down to them when the time comes. The addition of the illustrations in beautiful plates adds to both the pleasure of reading and the pride of ownership.There are some writers that deserve a "complete works of" volume in most libraries and the Brothers Grimm are among those writers. This particular edition will serve that function very well.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    So many stories in this version! Quite a few I'd read before, but most were new to me. Read the ebook version, seemed to never end.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    These were hit and miss tales. Yet, there was so much to gain from reading some of the better ones that it augmented the rating significantly. These are classics, through and throughout, and they touch on the simpler, more moralistic sense of storytelling and manage to convey so much with so little. Overall, it was well worth reading and I feel I am all the better for it.4 stars!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The original versions not Disneyfied. Lots of deaths. Tricksters. Fools. Kindness rewarded. Cleverness rewarded. Some have morals. Some are just for fun to laugh at the foolishness.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved these tales (in German) when I was a child. Now I'm reading this book to our almost 5-year-old and he loves the stories also. I'm realizing how odd some of them seem in translation, and there sure are a great deal of religious references. But the main stories (Ashputtle, The Bremen Musicians, etc. ) are still classics!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    (Original Review, 2005-11-16)In Genesis there is suddenly this sentence/observation about giants walking the Earth in them days... I always see those elderly male Jews in Babylon, staring glumly at some campfire, thinking about the good old days and thinking up revengeful plans to smite the enemy. They tell the stories of their tribes but there is that one quite senile idiot always going on about 'them giants' - so in the end they say, "Okay, we WILL put them in. Now shut up already!" I can see myself being the Giant Guy (if more all over the place) and I'm not sure the good campfire folks here need the distraction... I don't know if it is only about 'folk tales' per se, but I am with most people on the campfire and howling wolves. For me the atmospherics are very, very important. Our culture no longer has much in the way of campfires and wolves so our writers have had to incorporate them, figuratively, into the fictions themselves. The rest is literary history.I don't see fairytales simply as children's stories; that's a relatively recent- and, of late, receding- viewpoint. There is a vast quantity of material around beyond Grimm and Andersen and little of it aimed at children. Perrault or Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy were writing for the amusement of adults, and the Arabian Nights were not exactly suitable bedtime reading for under-5's, while Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen achieved almost occult-like effects in her wondrous tales, which float somewhere between Baghdad and Copenhagen.Fairytales are most powerful when they access the taboo, the suppressed, or the deepest fears and desires within us. And they do so often. Your "children's rituals" and "simple messages" are really only the tip of the iceberg. For that matter, “The talented Mr. Ripley” (LINK) fulfills a similar role - a very wicked and challenging little tale full of deliciously gratuitous moments, the enjoyment of which made me at least think long and hard about my own morality.I was raised on the standard stuff: Grimm and Andersen mostly. There is obviously darkness there - and taboos, yes. (It's interesting that in the stories where children are imperiled the original versions had 'mother' and the later versions 'stepmothers'.) The ones I and probably most children end(ed) up with are the simpler, safer ones though, don't you think? I love Angela Carter's “Bloody Chamber” but most kids will be more likely to see Disney as the centre of the fairytale universe - which truly is a disservice to fairytales, of course.I am no longer that interested in stories where the characters are merely there to move things alone. Like standard puppets that can be used and reused for all kinds of similar types of stories. As I mentioned elsewhere, that goes for all kinds of stories, including movies. What I find fascinating about the early stories passed along (mutating on the way) is more that they give us some kinds of fleeting glimpse of the origin story of stories. Because most of the early part of that origins stories is/was in an oral form we can never really know how stories began and evolved. There are no helpful fossils - or not enough to have more than (slightly) informed theories.Did stories start as parts of religious/ceremonial chants? Were they like cave paintings: meant to magically influence the outcome of the hunt? Where did fiction start to make an entrance, if the earliest stories were mostly a sort of remembering (the deeds and wisdom of) dead tribe members? All endlessly fascinating to me - and no more than useless musings in the end.Back to fairytales for a moment. They may no longer really work for me as entertainment but the reason they don't is in a way part of their strength. That they are predictable is partly why they work so well as stories. They warn us about the evils of the world but they are also almost like a church service: a repeated ritual to explain the world. They bring order to what basically is a chaotic system. Which is of course also why they are so enduringly popular with children, who like rituals and the idea of safety-through-repetition. I like my stories, like “Grimms Märchen,” more complex but it is easy to see how stories that carve simple messages out of the complex narrative of the world will be as enduring as the world. In that way they are exactly like religion (for me at least). The Grimms, despite their initial attempt to be "invisible" curators of folklore, began increasingly to modify and colour the tales they transcribed. Italo Calvino discusses this phenomenon at length in the introduction to Italian Fables, his own attempt to replicate the Grimms' work in Italy.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Absolutely horrible. I would have been more entertained reading a dictionary. I found myself yelling at this book in my head asking why in the world anyone considers these stories good. I am convinced that all the high ratings people are giving this book are based on the Disney stories that were loosely based on the pure garbage contained within this book.

    I don't care if it's "good for its time" or "loses something in translation". Unless it was translated by house cat with slightly below average intelligence or written at a time when people considered gouging their own eyes out a leisure activity there is no reason for it to be this bad.

    Do not read this crap to your children, they will become entitled racists who play the lottery.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This collection is a load of interesting little stories. These originals are way more twisted than fairytales of my childhood. In these versions, the repercussions are more bloody and less forgiving.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Diese und weitere Rezensionen findet ihr auf meinem Blog Anima Libri - Buchseele

    Märchen, Märchen, Märchen… Ich sollte dringend mal die Kategorie/Genre-Darstellung auf dem Blog reparieren und passend einrichten, sodass man einen besseren Überblick über all die wunderschönen Märchenbücher bekommt, die ich in letzter Zeit so rezensiert habe…

    Da wären „Grimms Märchen“ von Phillip Pullman, „Die Märchen der Brüder Grimm“ und „Die Märchen von Hans Christian Andersen“ aus dem Taschen Verlag, „Grimms Märchen ohne Worte“ von Frank Flöthmann und „1001 Nacht – Tausendundeine Nacht“ oder auch Hörbücher wie „Es war einmal und wenn sie nicht“ oder „Es war einmal: Autoren auf Grimms Spuren“.

    Zugegebenermaßen, meine Märchensammlung ist derzeit auffällig Grimm-lastig und mit diesem Buch kommt noch eine weitere Ausgabe der Grimmschen Märchen hinzu: Die „Kinder- und Hausmärchen“ der Brüder Grimm aus der Reclam Bibliothek sieht nicht nur wirklich gut aus, sie ist auch tatsächlich einmal eine vollständige Ausgabe aller dieser Märchen.

    Ja, ich besitze bereits eine vollständige Ausgabe der Grimmschen Märchen, eine wunderschöne dreibändige Ausgabe, die allerdings auch schon ein paar Jährchen auf dem Buckel hat und sich nur bedingt zum „einfach mal drinrumlesen“ eignet. Daher habe ich mich wirklich gefreut, als ich diese Ausgabe gefunden habe, denn die wurde wirklich sehr gekonnt zusammengestellt und besonders der Punkt „weitgehend an der originalen Sprachlichkeit orientiert“ hat es mir angetan.

    So sind die Märchen in dieser Sammlung zwar z.B. grammatikalisch auf dem neusten Stand und auch sprachlich nicht mehr im „Originalzustand“ aber sehr nah dran. So kommt der ursprüngliche „Zauber“ der Grimmschen Märchen nach wie vor rüber, während sich die Märchen trotzdem etwas angenehmer und flüssiger lesen lassen als in der Originalversion.

    Alles in allem ist „Kinder- und Hausmärchen“ der Brüder Grimm aus der Reclam Bibliothek eine Ausgabe dieser Märchensammlung, mit der man kaum etwas falsch machen kann. Die Umsetzung ist sehr gut gelungen und inhaltlich bin ich ja sowieso ein riesiger Fan dieser Märchen. Von daher definitiv eine dicke, dicke Empfehlung für dieses Buch.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Classic stories. It is interesting how these stories have been altered through the years. Another reminder that life isn't always a "happy ending."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The one thing I would change about this book is to add more color to the illustrations in the stories. This way it would be more appealing to the students than just a black and white illustration.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Ever since I was a little girl, fairy tales have always made a way into my heart. I will never forget staying up late reading stories about Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. The more I read these fairytales the more I wanted. Then I found my way to the fae. Another realm of stories I fell into. Then I learned about The Brother’s Grimm. I was immediately consumed with learning about all these stories and fascinated that even existed. I wanted the beginning. I wanted the truth of how and where this stories began. So I began searching for the perfect book to open that door. I found it in my local indie bookstore. I ask if they have a collection of the “real” Grimm’s brothers stories. They said yes and brought me this beauty…Can I talk about how BEAUTIFUL this book is? Cause it truly is. Leatherbound, eerie and smelling wonderfully (yes I sniffed the book). It has gold pages laced with the real stories of Cinderella, Rapunzel, etc. I have it sitting by my bedside in which I read a story each night. And each story has brought me so much satisfaction.The stories themselves aren’t anything new. Most of us all heard of the Grimm’s stories either by movies (Disney has turned many Grimm’s stories into movies) or tv shows. I personally love reading the real thing. I feel like I stepped into a whole other world when I open this book. And maybe there is hope that something, maybe something strange will happen…you know, just like in stories. (WINK, WINK)If you are a fairytale lover like me and enjoy reading, go pick up this beauty. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I adore this book. I’m not even half-way through it (as I’m reading it slowly) but it is truly a wonderful collections of stories. I will warn you that these stories don’t all have happy endings. These stories were meant for children as lessons for life. Some end in happy endings while others not so much. With each story, I think about the life lesson that the Brothers Grimm are portraying. The way the capture it so beautifully in just a mere couples of pages always leaves me in awe.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    These are Stories I have read and loved as a child and Adult.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There are alot of good fairy tales, but alot depends on the editor or the edition, and going for "The Complete" isn't always the best choice. Repeating a story simply because it was told in the past isn't always a good idea-- it's a bit like turning on the TV and watching something simply because it's being aired. After a certain point, editing is required, whether you admit it or not, after all, there are infinite possible variations to every story, some of which have even made it into writing. So calling any collection "The Complete" is an illusion, and a damaging one, I think. If they simply mean that it's a translation of the "original"-- in terms of the written word-- Brothers Grimm collection of the 1810s, they could simply indicate that in some way. Perhaps-- 'Grimm's Fairy Tales-- Children's and Household Tales', or something like that. I suppose that even of this type of translation there are different versions, and the edition I have (Arthur Rackham as [mediocre] illustrator), doesn't have an introduction (which can be good as well as bad), and doesn't really explain the name-jokes when they come up-- "Fair Katrinelje and Pif-Paf-Poltrie"..... I mean, if you're not going to do something like that well, then maybe you shouldn't include it at all.... should you stuff it in there, just because you have this illusion that there can ever be a "complete" book of fairy tales? In the end this is to me more like a mine from which good stories can be picked, rather than a really good version in itself; my favorite collection of Grimm's Fairy Tales at this point is a google book's version with Edna Henry Lee Turpin as editor, from about a hundred years ago, although there are probably also other good versions, actually meant to be read by, I don't know, children and householders. (I don't want to get into specifics, but if you glance at the list of stories, even, you'll find at least one that clearly you wouldn't read to people of today.... which is why it only makes sense to edit it, as any story-teller modifies what he or she receives from the past....) In the end, the *average* quality of *all* these stories is simply that-- average. It could be better, although it could be worse, too. That's my take. (8/10)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Classic book of many traditional fairy tales and more. I would use this for upper level elementary students when discussing how the same story can be told in different ways.This is really a great read for third grade on up.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Indeholder "Katten og musen", "Eventyret om en, der drog ud for at lære frygt at kende", "Den tro Johannes", "De tolv brødre", "Pak", "De tre små mænd i skoven", "De tre spindersker", "Hans og Grete", "Fiskeren og hans kone", "Den tapre lille skrædder", "Askepot", "Gåden", "Mor Hulda", "Rødhætte", "De Bremer stadsmusikanter", "Djævelens tre guldhår", "Lusen og loppen", "Den kloge Hans", "Den kloge Else", "Bord dæk dig", "Tommeliden", "Tornerose", "Kong Drosselskæg", "Snehvide", "Ranselen, hatten og hornet", "Rumleskaft", "Guldfuglen", "Hunden og spurven", "Kongen af det gyldne bjerg", "Det lille æsel", "Ferdinand Tro og Ferdinand Utro", "Jernovnen", "Enøje, Toøje og Treøje", "De seks tjenere", "Jernhans", "På rejse", "Historien om en roe", "Den stærke Hans", "Bonden i himlen", "De to brødre", "Den lille bonde", "Guldgåsen", "Historien om seks, der kommer gennem verden", "Nelliken", "Den kloge Grete", "Bedstefaderen og sønnesønnen", "Bror Lystig", "Lykkehans", "Den fattige og den rige mand", "Den kloge bondepige", "Djævelens snavsede bror", "Bjørneskindsmanden", "De klge folk", "Den fattige møllerdreng og katten", "De to vandringsmænd", "Det blå lys", "Kongesønnen, der ikke var bange for noget", "De tre håndværkssvende", "Salatæslet", "Levetiden", "Bonden og djævelen", "Alfernes gave", "Haren og pindsvinet", "Ten, skytte og synål", "Marsvinet"."Katten og musen" handler om ???"Eventyret om en, der drog ud for at lære frygt at kende" handler om ???"Den tro Johannes" handler om ???"De tolv brødre" handler om ???"Pak" handler om ???"De tre små mænd i skoven" handler om ???"De tre spindersker" handler om ???"Hans og Grete" handler om ???"Fiskeren og hans kone" handler om ???"Den tapre lille skrædder" handler om ???"Askepot" handler om ???"Gåden" handler om ???"Mor Hulda" handler om ???"Rødhætte" handler om ???"De Bremer stadsmusikanter" handler om ???"Djævelens tre guldhår" handler om ???"Lusen og loppen" handler om ???"Den kloge Hans" handler om ???"Den kloge Else" handler om ???"Bord dæk dig" handler om ???"Tommeliden" handler om ???"Tornerose" handler om ???"Kong Drosselskæg" handler om ???"Snehvide" handler om ???"Ranselen, hatten og hornet" handler om ???"Rumleskaft" handler om ???"Guldfuglen" handler om ???"Hunden og spurven" handler om ???"Kongen af det gyldne bjerg" handler om ???"Det lille æsel" handler om ???"Ferdinand Tro og Ferdinand Utro" handler om ???"Jernovnen" handler om ???"Enøje, Toøje og Treøje" handler om ???"De seks tjenere" handler om ???"Jernhans" handler om ???"På rejse" handler om ???"Historien om en roe" handler om ???"Den stærke Hans" handler om ???"Bonden i himlen" handler om ???"De to brødre" handler om ???"Den lille bonde" handler om ???"Guldgåsen" handler om ???"Historien om seks, der kommer gennem verden" handler om ???"Nelliken" handler om ???"Den kloge Grete" handler om ???"Bedstefaderen og sønnesønnen" handler om ???"Bror Lystig" handler om ???"Lykkehans" handler om ???"Den fattige og den rige mand" handler om ???"Den kloge bondepige" handler om ???"Djævelens snavsede bror" handler om ???"Bjørneskindsmanden" handler om ???"De klge folk" handler om ???"Den fattige møllerdreng og katten" handler om ???"De to vandringsmænd" handler om ???"Det blå lys" handler om ???"Kongesønnen, der ikke var bange for noget" handler om ???"De tre håndværkssvende" handler om ???"Salatæslet" handler om ???"Levetiden" handler om ???"Bonden og djævelen" handler om ???"Alfernes gave" handler om ???"Haren og pindsvinet" handler om ???"Ten, skytte og synål" handler om ???"Marsvinet" handler om ???
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It's hard to read and repetitive. Every story is a variation of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, or Sleeping Beauty. There's lots of long paragraphs, little dialogue, and the narrative does little to evoke imagination. Everything happens in sets of threes, and I know nothing is going to happen the first two times, so I would just skip to the third.Every story is the same. Someone goes out into the world to seek fortune, marry someone, or defeat evil. He/she collects some magic artifacts. Something happens based on wordplay or puns. Then he's told not to do something, and inevitably, he does it. Because where would the plot be if anyone actually followed directions? Otherwise we wouldn't have "Gremlins". Go see the Disney versions.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    These are the unabridged tales of the Brothers Grimm, which means death and envy and not-nice endings. These are old German tales, which can bring back rather Teutonic visions of paganism and malicious parents. One can understand the superstition of the Germanic population and how many of these tales originated during the Thirty Years' War, when entire families and villages vanished in flames. I suppose if I had to survive during those times, my mind would have created wondrous stories that focused on retribution and survival. While the Grimms collected these tales in the 19th Century, the horrors of the previous centuries come through loud and clear.

    There are many patterns throughout the stories with the numbers 3 and 7 being very popular. Three sons venture into the world, seven brothers are turned into swans, three puzzles must be solved by the potential groom, seven years must be served under the Devil...and so forth and so on. Wives and mothers do not come out well here, either being selfish or witches or both. Hansel and Gretel still resonates, more so after reading the original version (as in, parents not wanting the kids).

    I took my time reading this over several months, so I could enjoy each story. There are many favorites but the one I enjoyed the most was the shortest:MISFORTUNE, which quickly tells the tale of a man who couldn't win, even as he was being saved (crushed by a wall).

    When misfortune pursues any one, it will find him out into whatever corner he may creep, or however far he may flee over the world.

    Book Season = Autumn (season of the witch)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this over and over again as a kid (obviously not the "kindle" edition, but it was one big volume.)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a great thing to reread all these old tales again, most of them as if for the first time! I'd forgotten how much simpler and purer many of these are than their Disney versions (although I do appreciate those also) such as Rumpelstiltskin and how explicitly Christian many of them are such as Our Lady's Child, my favorite, from which Tomie Depaola's classic "Clown of God" obviously draws from. I think the translation is one of the most readable I've seen, keeping a touch of old world flavor without sounding too foreign to modern ears. Great collection.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a reprint of Friedrich Panzer's 1913 publication of the first edition of the fairy tale collection of the Brothers Grimm (from 1813). Although his introduction is quite dated, the real find are the fairy tales themselves, as many of the tales are slightly different from the later editions (most modern editions of the tales are of the seventh or final edition from 1857). For example, in the 1813 version of Rapunzel Rapunzel is sent into the wilderness by Mrs. Gothel (the fairy) because she is obviously pregnant, a fact that is not mentioned in the 1857 version of the tale. And in the original tale of Snow White, the heroine was pursued by her jealous mother, only later was the jealous mother turned into an evil stepmother. While I would probably not recommend this edition for casual reading, as even some of the language and orthography are somewhat old-fashioned, it is a very interesting and enlightening addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in the genesis and development of Grimms' fairy tales. It is, however, in German, and I do not know if an English translation of the 1813 edition even exists.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This fairytale was about a brother and sister named, Hansel and Gretel, who are lured into the woods by their evil stepmom. They can't find their way back home and come upon a gingerbread candy house. They begin to eat the house and then get invited in by a witch who tried to fatten them up to eat them in a stew. They trick the witch, kill her, and then find their way home to their father with riches. The theme of this story could be triumph and perseverance. This story is kind of scary to teach as a lesson but I think it is a great book to have in the classroom for special story days to read about fairytales and the different types of them.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an extensive collection of 210 stories, fairy tales, and legends written by the Grimm Brothers and is 845 pages long. It includes a few of their more famous stories, like Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, and Cindarella, along with many that are not as well known.It's interesting to see how the versions of their famous stories in this book differ from the popular versions that are usually told.

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Grimm's Fairy Tales - Jacob Grimm

Introduction

Fairy tales offer us wonders. We’re not supposed to believe in them. We know there are no gingerbread houses, no princes transformed into bears, no dwarves able to spin straw into gold; and yet we also know that it may not be safe to stray from the path and into the forest. That children do lose their mothers and that families may not have enough to eat. The world of fairy tales is often not so different from our own.

The collection we know today as Grimm’s Fairy Tales was assembled by two brothers who had been orphaned as young boys, isolated by poverty as teenagers, and reduced to eating one meal a day as young men.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in Hanau, in the principality of Hesse. Theirs was a respectable family that had lived in the town for a hundred years. Their father was a lawyer and the town clerk, and later he was appointed as district magistrate for the countryside town of Steinau, a role that gave the family a certain prominence within the community. It was a comfortable life, but it soon came to an abrupt end.

In 1796, when Jacob was just 11 and Wilhelm nine, their father died. The inevitable consequence was the loss of their home and servants. The family now depended entirely on their mother’s father and sister for financial support. The young brothers understood that this responsibility would eventually pass to them. This knowledge, along with frequent encouragement from their grandfather, instilled in them a ferocious work ethic.

In 1798, the boys’ aunt paid for them to attend the Friedrichsgymnasium in Kassel. Set apart from their fellow students by poverty, the two brothers became exceptionally close, relying on each other for friendship. They threw themselves into their studies: both brothers graduated at the top of their class. Their lowly status, however, meant that they were able to attend the University of Marburg only after obtaining special dispensation to study law. Here, again, their poverty isolated them.

However, their brilliance did not go unnoticed. Friedrich Carl von Savigny, who lectured on criminal law, was so impressed by his student Jacob that he opened up his personal library to the young man.

Among a collection of rare manuscripts, Jacob was introduced to medieval German literature for the first time – and his brother shared his new fascination.

Through Von Savigny, the Grimms also befriended Ludwig Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, two key figures of German Romanticism. This was a movement that looked back to the Middle Ages as a simpler, better time – before the Industrial Revolution drove people from the land and into the cities, and before the Enlightenment promoted science and reason at the expense of intuition and emotion.

It was therefore a matter of some urgency to preserve the culture of the Middle Ages. If they did nothing, it might be lost forever.

Equally urgent, though, was the financial position of the Grimm family. In 1805, Jacob was forced to abandon his studies and take a job. The money he earned was not enough. Writing to his aunt he admitted, ‘We five people eat only three portions and only once a day.’

In 1808, the year his mother died, Jacob became a librarian at Kassel, where Wilhelm would later join him. The pay was still bad but at least the position offered plenty of opportunity for research.

Around this time, their friend Clemens Brentano was planning a collection of German folk literature and turned to Jacob and Wilhelm for help.

It’s worth remembering that the brothers were living in a state now occupied by the French. To collect and preserve the traditional tales of the German people were acts of defiance. What’s more, reminding the German people of their inherited culture gave them hope that it was possible to unite again as one nation.

Over the next few years, when they could, the brothers began to gather together fairy tales, inviting friends, acquaintances and tradespeople into their home and writing down what they heard.

One storyteller was Dorothea Viehmann. Her father kept an inn on the main road to Frankfurt, and she had grown up listening to the stories of the many travellers. In all, she contributed more than 40 tales and their variations, telling her stories again and again to the brothers, often without changing a word. This is what the brothers valued: the stories told in their original form. They initially refused any rewrites: elegant language would only contaminate the tales, they argued. In their purest form, one could hear the true voice of the German people.

This raises the inevitable question: are all the stories demonstrably German in origin? Rumpelstiltskin seems to be; a stilt is a post that helps support a building and a rumpelstilt a type of goblin who rattles these posts.

Others stories, however, are more likely to come from elsewhere. Dorothy Viehmann’s father came from a Huguenot family that had fled from persecution in France. Similarly, Marie Hassenpflug, who told the brothers the stories of Little Red-Cap and Snow White, came from a well-to-do, French-speaking family. The brothers originally gathered together around 50 tales, and sent them to Brentano. For reasons that remain unclear, however, he did nothing with them, and the brothers resolved to make their own collection.

Children’s and Household Tales, featuring 86 tales, was published in 1812 – to scathing reviews. The text was heavy with footnotes and the sources for each story were explained in great detail. What’s more, said the critics, too many of the stories weren’t even suitable for children.

They had a point. Cinderella’s step-sisters take a knife to their feet to try to fit the glass slipper, and it is Hansel and Gretel’s own mother who abandons them in the forest.

Sales of the book were disappointing, but the brothers continued collecting and publishing. Throughout, their scholarship remained impressive. Indeed, their rigorous approach has not just influenced the study of fairytales, it also established the basis for it – and modern researchers have validated their approach.

The brothers argued that variations in the same story across regions point to a shared cultural history deep in the past. Recent analysis of different versions of Rumpelstiltskin suggest that this story is 4,000 years old, while the story of Little Red-Cap (better known as Little Red Riding-Hood) seems to date from the 1st century ad.

W. H. Auden was surely right to insist that Grimm’s Fairy Tales are an essential part of Western culture, ‘next to the Bible in importance’.

If that argument seems so convincing to us today, it’s because the stories that the brothers collected have now spread across the world, and have been translated into more than 160 languages and reimagined via many art forms, most notably animation.

The first success for the brothers, though, came only in 1825. Finally, they bowed to their critics and published an edition especially for children. Out went the footnotes, in came illustrations. Most notably, the Small Edition also tempered the violence: the princess kissed the frog rather than throwing him against a wall; Sleeping Beauty was woken by nothing more violent than a kiss, and evil mothers were replaced by evil step-mothers – perhaps most famously in the case of Snow White.

For the next three decades, until their deaths, the brothers continued revising the stories, often to cater for changing tastes.

Such evolution continues to this day: in 2009, just a year after the election of Barack Obama, The Princess and the Frog was retold by Disney and featured an African-American princess.

Grimm’s Fairy Tales, based on the original English translation by Margaret Hunt from 1884, continue to offer us wonders and stories that reflect our world.

The Frog-King, or Iron Henry

In old times when wishing still helped one, there lived a king whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was so beautiful that the sun itself, which has seen so much, was astonished whenever it shone in her face. Close by the King’s castle lay a great dark forest, and under an old lime-tree in the forest was a well, and when the day was very warm, the King’s child went out into the forest and sat down by the side of the cool fountain, and when she was dull she took a golden ball, and threw it up on high and caught it, and this ball was her favourite plaything.

Now it so happened that on one occasion the princess’s golden ball did not fall into the little hand which she was holding up for it, but on to the ground beyond, and rolled straight into the water. The King’s daughter followed it with her eyes, but it vanished, and the well was deep, so deep that the bottom could not be seen. On this she began to cry, and cried louder and louder, and could not be comforted.

And as she thus lamented someone said to her, ‘What ails thee, King’s daughter? Thou weepest so that even a stone would show pity.’

She looked round to the side from whence the voice came, and saw a frog stretching forth its thick, ugly head from the water. ‘Ah! Old water-splasher, is it thou?’ said she; ‘I am weeping for my golden ball, which has fallen into the well.’

‘Be quiet, and do not weep,’ answered the frog, ‘I can help thee, but what will thou give me if I bring thy plaything up again?’

‘Whatever thou wilt have, dear frog,’ said she. ‘My clothes, my pearls and jewels, and even the golden crown which I am wearing.’

The frog answered, ‘I do not care for thy clothes, thy pearls and jewels, or thy golden crown, but if thou wilt love me and let me be thy companion and play-fellow, and sit by thee at thy little table, and eat off thy little golden plate, and drink out of thy little cup, and sleep in thy little bed – if thou wilt promise me this I will go down below, and bring thee thy golden ball up again.’

‘Oh yes,’ said she, ‘I promise thee all thou wishest, if thou wilt but bring me my ball back again.’ She, however, thought, ‘How the silly frog does talk! He lives in the water with the other frogs, and croaks, and can be no companion to any human being!’

But the frog, when he had received this promise, put his head into the water and sank down, and in a short while came swimming up again with the ball in his mouth, and threw it on the grass. The King’s daughter was delighted to see her pretty plaything once more, and picked it up, and ran away with it.

‘Wait, wait,’ said the frog. ‘Take me with thee. I can’t run as thou canst.’ But what did it avail him to scream his croak, croak after her, as loudly as he could? She did not listen to it, but ran home and soon forgot the poor frog, who was forced to go back into his well again.

The next day when she had seated herself at table with the King and all the courtiers, and was eating from her little golden plate, something came creeping splish splash, splish splash, up the marble staircase, and when it had got to the top, it knocked at the door and cried, ‘Princess, youngest princess, open the door for me.’

She ran to see who was outside, but when she opened the door, there sat the frog in front of it. Then she slammed the door to, in great haste, sat down to dinner again, and was quite frightened. The King saw plainly that her heart was beating violently, and said, ‘My child, what art thou so afraid of? Is there perchance a giant outside who wants to carry thee away?’

‘Ah, no,’ replied she. ‘It is no giant but a disgusting frog.’

‘What does a frog want with thee?’

‘Ah, dear father, yesterday as I was in the forest sitting by the well, playing, my golden ball fell into the water. And because I cried so, the frog brought it out again for me, and because he so insisted, I promised him he should be my companion, but I never thought he would be able to come out of his water! And now he is outside there, and wants to come in to me.’

In the meantime it knocked a second time, and cried,

‘Princess! Youngest princess!

Open the door for me!

Dost thou not know what thou saidst to me

Yesterday by the cool waters of the fountain?

Princess, youngest princess!

Open the door for me!’

Then said the King, ‘That which thou hast promised must thou perform. Go and let him in.’

She went and opened the door, and the frog hopped in and followed her, step by step, to her chair. There he sat still and cried, ‘Lift me up beside thee.’ She delayed, until at last the King commanded her to do it. When the frog was once on the chair he wanted to be on the table, and when he was on the table he said, ‘Now, push thy little golden plate nearer to me that we may eat together.’ She did this, but it was easy to see that she did not do it willingly. The frog enjoyed what he ate, but almost every mouthful she took choked her. At length, he said, ‘I have eaten and am satisfied; now I am tired, carry me into thy little room and make thy little silken bed ready, and we will both lie down and go to sleep.’

The King’s daughter began to cry, for she was afraid of the cold frog which she did not like to touch, and which was now to sleep in her pretty, clean little bed. But the King grew angry and said, ‘He who helped thee when thou wert in trouble ought not afterwards to be despised by thee.’

So she took hold of the frog with two fingers, carried him upstairs, and put him in a corner. But when she was in bed he crept to her and said, ‘I am tired, I want to sleep as well as thou, lift me up or I will tell thy father.’

Then she was terribly angry, and took him up and threw him with all her might against the wall. ‘Now, thou wilt be quiet, odious frog,’ said she.

But when he fell down he was no frog but a King’s son with beautiful kind eyes. He by her father’s will was now her dear companion and husband. Then he told her how he had been bewitched by a wicked witch, and how no one could have delivered him from the well but herself, and that tomorrow they would go together into his kingdom. Then they went to sleep, and next morning when the sun awoke them, a carriage came driving up with eight white horses, which had white ostrich feathers on their heads, and were harnessed with golden chains, and behind stood the young King’s servant Faithful Henry. Faithful Henry had been so unhappy when his master was changed into a frog that he had caused three iron bands to be laid round his heart, lest it should burst with grief and sadness. The carriage was to conduct the young King into his Kingdom. Faithful Henry helped them both in, and placed himself behind again, and was full of joy because of this deliverance. And when they had driven a part of the way, the King’s son heard a cracking behind him as if something had broken. So he turned round and cried, ‘Henry, the carriage is breaking.’

‘No, master, it is not the carriage. It is a band from my heart, which was put there in my great pain when you were a frog and imprisoned in the well.’

Again and once again while they were on their way something cracked, and each time the King’s son thought the carriage was breaking; but it was only the bands which were springing from the heart of Faithful Henry because his master was set free and was happy.

Cat and Mouse in Partnership

A certain cat had made the acquaintance of a mouse, and had said so much to her about the great love and friendship she felt for her, that at length the mouse agreed that they should live and keep house together. ‘But we must make a provision for winter, or else we shall suffer from hunger,’ said the cat, ‘and you, little mouse, cannot venture everywhere, or you will be caught in a trap some day.’

The good advice was followed, and a pot of fat was bought, but they did not know where to put it. At length, after much consideration, the cat said, ‘I know no place where it will be better stored up than in the church, for no one dares take anything away from there. We will set it beneath the altar, and not touch it until we are really in need of it.’ So the pot was placed in safety, but it was not long before the cat had a great yearning for it, and said to the mouse, ‘I want to tell you something, little mouse; my cousin has brought a little son into the world, and has asked me to be godmother; he is white with brown spots, and I am to hold him over the font at the christening. Let me go out today, and you look after the house by yourself.’

‘Yes, yes,’ answered the mouse, ‘by all means go, and if you get anything very good, think of me, I should like a drop of sweet red christening wine too.’

All this, however, was untrue; the cat had no cousin, and had not been asked to be godmother. She went straight to the church, stole to the pot of fat, began to lick at it, and licked the top of the fat off. Then she took a walk upon the roofs of the town, looked out for opportunities, and then stretched herself in the sun, and licked her lips whenever she thought of the pot of fat, and not until it was evening did she return home.

‘Well, here you are again,’ said the mouse, ‘no doubt you have had a merry day.’

‘All went off well,’ answered the cat.

‘What name did they give the child?’

‘Top off!’ said the cat quite coolly.

‘Top off!’ cried the mouse, ‘that is a very odd and uncommon name, is it a usual one in your family?’

‘What does it signify?’ said the cat. ‘It is no worse than Crumb-stealer, as your godchildren are called.’

Before long the cat was seized by another fit of longing. She said to the mouse, ‘You must do me a favour, and once more manage the house for a day alone. I am again asked to be godmother, and, as the child has a white ring round its neck, I cannot refuse.’

The good mouse consented, but the cat crept behind the town walls to the church, and devoured half the pot of fat. ‘Nothing ever seems so good as what one keeps to oneself,’ said she, and was quite satisfied with her day’s work.

When she went home the mouse enquired, ‘And what was this child christened?’

‘Half-done,’ answered the cat.

‘Half-done! What are you saying? I never heard the name in my life, I’ll wager anything it is not in the calendar!’

The cat’s mouth soon began to water for some more licking. ‘All good things go in threes,’ said she, ‘I am asked to stand godmother again. The child is quite black, only it has white paws, but with that exception, it has not a single white hair on its whole body; this only happens once every few years, you will let me go, won’t you?’

‘Top-off! Half-done!’ answered the mouse. ‘They are such odd names, they make me very thoughtful.’

‘You sit at home,’ said the cat, ‘in your dark-grey fur coat and long tail, and are filled with fancies. That’s because you do not go out in the daytime.’

During the cat’s absence the mouse cleaned the house, and put it in order but the greedy cat entirely emptied the pot of fat. ‘When everything is eaten up one has some peace,’ said she to herself, and well filled and fat she did not return home till night. The mouse at once asked what name had been given to the third child. ‘It will not please you more than the others,’ said the cat. ‘He is called All-gone.’

‘All-gone,’ cried the mouse, ‘that is the most suspicious name of all! I have never seen it in print. All-gone; what can that mean?’ and she shook her head, curled herself up, and lay down to sleep.

From this time forth no one invited the cat to be godmother, but when the winter had come and there was no longer anything to be found outside, the mouse thought of their provision, and said, ‘Come cat, we will go to our pot of fat which we have stored up for ourselves – we shall enjoy that.’

‘Yes,’ answered the cat, ‘you will enjoy it as much as you would enjoy sticking that dainty tongue of yours out of the window.’

They set out on their way, but when they arrived, the pot of fat certainly was still in its place, but it was empty. ‘Alas!’ said the mouse. ‘Now I see what has happened, now it comes to light! You are a true friend! You have devoured all when you were standing godmother. First top off, then half done, then—.’

‘Will you hold your tongue! cried the cat. ‘One word more and I will eat you too.’

‘All gone’ was already on the poor mouse’s lips; scarcely had she spoken it before the cat sprang on her, seized her, and swallowed her down. Verily, that is the way of the world.

Faithful John

There was once upon a time an old king who was ill, and thought to himself, ‘I am lying on what must be my death-bed.’ Then said he, ‘Tell Faithful John to come to me.’ Faithful John was his favourite servant, and was so called because he had for his whole life long been so true to him. When therefore he came beside the bed, the King said to him, ‘Most faithful John, I feel my end approaching, and have no anxiety except about my son. He is still of tender age, and cannot always know how to guide himself. If thou dost not promise me to teach him everything that he ought to know, and to be his foster-father, I cannot close my eyes in peace.’

Then answered Faithful John, ‘I will not forsake him, and will serve him with fidelity, even if it should cost me my life.’

At this, the old King said, ‘Now I die in comfort and peace.’ Then he added, ‘After my death, thou shalt show him the whole castle: all the chambers, halls and vaults, and all the treasures which lie therein, but the last chamber in the long gallery, in which is the picture of the princess of the Golden Dwelling, shalt thou not show. If he sees that picture, he will fall violently in love with her, and will drop down in a swoon, and go through great danger for her sake, therefore thou must preserve him from that.’ And when Faithful John had once more given his promise to the old King about this, the King said no more, but laid his head on his pillow, and died.

When the old King had been carried to his grave, Faithful John told the young King all that he had promised his father on his deathbed, and said, ‘This will I assuredly perform, and will be faithful to thee as I have been faithful to him, even if it should cost me my life.’ When the mourning was over, Faithful John said to him, ‘It is now time that thou shouldst see thine inheritance. I will show thee thy father’s palace.’ Then he took him about everywhere, up and down, and let him see all the riches, and the magnificent apartments, only there was one room which he did not open, that in which hung the dangerous picture. The picture was, however, so placed that when the door was opened you looked straight on it, and it was so admirably painted that it seemed to breathe and live, and there was nothing more charming or more beautiful in the whole world. The young King, however, plainly remarked that Faithful John always walked past this one door, and said, ‘Why dost thou never open this one for me?’

‘There is something within it,’ he replied, ‘which would terrify thee.’ But the King answered, ‘I have seen all the palace, and I will know what is in this room also,’ and he went and tried to break open the door by force. Then Faithful John held him back and said, ‘I promised thy father before his death that thou shouldst not see that which is in this chamber, it might bring the greatest misfortune on thee and on me.’

‘Ah, no,’ replied the young King, ‘if I do not go in, it will be my certain destruction. I should have no rest day or night until I had seen it with my own eyes. I shall not leave the place now until thou hast unlocked the door.’

Then Faithful John saw that there was no help for it now, and with a heavy heart and many sighs, sought out the key from the great bunch. When he had opened the door, he went in first, and thought by standing before him he could hide the portrait so that the King should not see it in front of him, but what availed that? The King stood on tip-toe and saw it over his shoulder. And when he saw the portrait of the maiden, which was so magnificent and shone with gold and precious stones, he fell fainting to the ground. Faithful John took him up, carried him to his bed, and sorrowfully thought, ‘The misfortune has befallen us, Lord God, what will be the end of it?’ Then he strengthened him with wine, until he came to himself again. The first words the King said were, ‘Ah, the beautiful portrait! Whose is it?’

‘That is the princess of the Golden Dwelling,’ answered Faithful John. Then the King continued, ‘My love for her is so great that if all the leaves on all the trees were tongues, they could not declare it. I will give my life to win her. Thou art my most Faithful John, thou must help me.’

The faithful servant considered within himself for a long time how to set about the matter, for it was difficult even to obtain a sight of the King’s daughter. At length he thought of a way, and said to the King, ‘Everything which she has about her is of gold – tables, chairs, dishes, glasses, bowls and household furniture. Among thy treasures are five tons of gold; let one of the goldsmiths of the Kingdom work these up into all manner of vessels and utensils, into all kinds of birds, wild beasts and strange animals, such as may please her, and we will go there with them and try our luck.’

The King ordered all the goldsmiths to be brought to him, and they had to work night and day until at last the most splendid things were prepared. When everything was stowed on board a ship, Faithful John put on the dress of a merchant, and the King was forced to do the same in order to make himself quite unrecognizable. Then they sailed across the sea, and sailed on until they came to the town wherein dwelt the princess of the Golden Dwelling.

Faithful John bade the King stay behind on the ship, and wait for him. ‘Perhaps I shall bring the princess with me,’ said he, ‘therefore see that everything is in order; have the golden vessels set out and the whole ship decorated.’ Then he gathered together in his apron all kinds of gold things, went on shore and walked straight to the royal palace. When he entered the courtyard of the palace, a beautiful girl was standing there by the well with two golden buckets in her hand, drawing water with them. And when she was just turning round to carry away the sparkling water she saw the stranger, and asked who he was. So he answered, ‘I am a merchant,’ and opened his apron, and let her look in. Then she cried, ‘Oh, what beautiful gold things!’ and put her pails down and looked at the golden wares one after the other. Then said the girl, ‘The princess must see these, she has such great pleasure in golden things, that she will buy all you have.’ She took him by the hand and led him upstairs, for she was the waiting-maid.

When the King’s daughter saw the wares, she was quite delighted and said, ‘They are so beautifully worked, that I will buy them all of thee.’ But Faithful John said, ‘I am only the servant of a rich merchant. The things I have here are not to be compared with those my master has in his ship. They are the most beautiful and valuable things that have ever been made in gold.’ She wanted to have everything brought to her there, but he said, ‘There are so many of them that it would take a great many days to do that, and so many rooms would be required to exhibit them, that your house is not big enough.’ Then her curiosity and longing were still more excited, until at last she said, ‘Conduct me to the ship, I will go there myself, and behold the treasures of thine master.’

On this Faithful John was quite delighted, and led her to the ship, and when the King saw her, he perceived that her beauty was even greater than the picture had represented it to be, and thought no other than that his heart would burst in twain. Then she got into the ship, and the King led her within. Faithful John, however, remained behind with the pilot, and ordered the ship to be pushed off, saying, ‘Set all sail, till it fly like a bird in air.’

Within, however, the King showed her the golden vessels, every one of them, also the wild beasts and strange animals. Many hours went by whilst she was seeing everything, and in her delight she did not observe that the ship was sailing away. After she had looked at the last, she thanked the merchant and wanted to go home, but when she came to the side of the ship, she saw that it was on the deep sea far from land, and hurrying onwards with all sail set. ‘Ah,’ cried she in her alarm, ‘I am betrayed! I am carried away and have fallen into the power of a merchant – I would die rather!’

The King, however, seized her hand, and said, ‘I am not a merchant. I am a king, and of no meaner origin than thou art, and if I have carried thee away with subtlety, that has come to pass because of my exceeding great love for thee. The first time that I looked on thy portrait, I fell fainting to the ground.’ When the princess of the Golden Dwelling heard that, she was comforted, and her heart was inclined unto him, so that she willingly consented to be his wife.

It so happened, however, while they were sailing onwards over the deep sea, that Faithful John, who was sitting on the fore part of the vessel, making music, saw three ravens in the air, which came flying towards them. At this he stopped playing and listened to what they were saying to each other, for that he well understood. One cried, ‘Oh, there he is carrying home the princess of the Golden Dwelling.’

‘Yes,’ replied the second, ‘but he has not got her yet.’ Said the third, ‘But he has got her, she is sitting beside him in the ship.’ Then the first began again, and cried, ‘What good will that do him? When they reach land a chestnut horse will leap forward to meet him, and the prince will want to mount it, but if he does that, it will run away with him, and rise up into the air with him, and he will never see his maiden more.’ Spake the second, ‘But is there no escape?’

‘Oh, yes, if anyone else gets on it swiftly, and takes out the pistol which must be in its holster, and shoots the horse dead with it, the young King is saved. But who knows that? And whosoever does know it, and tells it to him, will be turned to stone from the toe to the knee.’ Then said the second, ‘I know more than that: even if the horse be killed, the young King will still not keep his bride. When they go into the castle together, a wrought bridal garment will be lying there in a dish, and looking as if it were woven of gold and silver; it is, however, nothing but sulphur and pitch, and if he put it on, it will burn him to the very bone and marrow.’ Said the third, ‘Is there no escape at all?’

‘Oh, yes,’ replied the second, ‘if anyone with gloves on seizes the garment and throws it into the fire and burns it, the young King will be saved. ‘But what avails that?’ Whosoever knows it and tells it to him, half his body will become stone from the knee to the heart.’

Then said the third, ‘I know still more: even if the bridal garment be burnt, the young King will still not have his bride. After the wedding, when the dancing begins and the young queen is dancing, she will suddenly turn pale and fall down as if dead, and if someone does not lift her up and draw three drops of blood from her right breast and spit them out again, she will die. But if anyone who knows that were to declare it, he would become stone from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot.’

When the ravens had spoken of this together, they flew onwards, and Faithful John had well understood everything, but from that time forth he became quiet and sad, for if he concealed what he had heard from his master, the latter would be unfortunate, and if he discovered it to him, he himself must sacrifice his life. At length, however, he said to himself, ‘I will save my master, even if it bring destruction on myself.’

When therefore they came to shore, all happened as had been foretold by the ravens, and a magnificent chestnut horse sprang forward. ‘Good,’ said the King, ‘he shall carry me to my palace,’ and was about to mount it when Faithful John got before him, jumped quickly on it, drew the pistol out of the holster, and shot the horse. Then the other attendants of the King, who after all were not very fond of Faithful John, cried, ‘How shameful to kill the beautiful animal, that was to have carried the King to his palace.’ But the King said, ‘Hold your peace and leave him alone, he is my most faithful John, who knows what may be the good of that!’ They went into the palace, and in the hall there stood a dish, and therein lay the bridal garment looking no otherwise than as if it were made of gold and silver. The young King went towards it and was about to take hold of it, but Faithful John pushed him away, seized it with gloves on, carried it quickly to the fire and burnt it. The other attendants again began to murmur, and said, ‘Behold, now he is even burning the King’s bridal garment!’ But the young King said, ‘Who knows what good he may have done, leave him alone, he is my most faithful John.’

And now the wedding was solemnized: the dance began, and the bride also took part in it; then Faithful John was watchful and looked into her face, and suddenly she turned pale and fell to the ground, as if she were dead. At this he ran hastily to her, lifted her up and bore her into a chamber – then he laid her down, and knelt and sucked the three drops of blood from her right breast, and spat them out. Immediately she breathed again and recovered herself, but the young King had seen this, and being ignorant why Faithful John had done it, was angry and cried, ‘Throw him into a dungeon.’ Next morning Faithful John was condemned, and led to the gallows, and when he stood on high, and was about to be executed, he said, ‘Everyone who has to die is permitted before his end to make one last speech; may I too claim the right?’

‘Yes,’ answered the King, ‘it shall be granted unto thee.’

Then said Faithful John, ‘I am unjustly condemned, and have always been true to thee,’ and he related how he had hearkened to the conversation of the ravens when on the sea, and how he had been obliged to do all these things in order to save his master. Then cried the King, ‘Oh, my most Faithful John. Pardon, pardon – bring him down.’ But as Faithful John spoke the last word he had fallen down lifeless and become a stone.

Thereupon the King and the Queen suffered great anguish, and the King said, ‘Ah, how ill I have requited great fidelity!’ and ordered the stone figure to be taken up and placed in his bedroom beside his bed. And as often as he looked on it he wept and said, ‘Ah, if I could bring thee to life again, my most faithful John.’ Some time passed and the Queen bore twins, two sons who grew fast and were her delight. Once when the Queen was at church and the two children were sitting playing beside their father, the latter full of grief again looked at the stone figure, sighed and said, ‘Ah, if I could but bring thee to life again, my most faithful John.’ Then the stone began to speak and said, ‘Thou canst bring me to life again if thou wilt use for that purpose what is dearest to thee.’ Then cried the King, ‘I will give everything I have in the world for thee.’ The stone continued, ‘If thou wilt cut off the heads of thy two children with thine own hand, and sprinkle me with their blood, I shall be restored to life.’

The King was terrified when he heard that he

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