"Dear child, they belong to your twelve brothers." The little girl said,
"Where are my twelve brothers? I have never heard of them." And her mother answered,
"G.o.d only knows where they are wandering about in the world." Then she led the little girl to the secret room and unlocked it, and showed her the twelve coffins with the shavings and the little pillows.
"These coffins," said she, "were intended for your twelve brothers, but they went away far from home when you were born," and she related how everything had come to pa.s.s. Then said the little girl,
"Dear mother, do not weep, I will go and seek my brothers."
So she took the twelve shirts and went far and wide in the great forest.
The day sped on, and in the evening she came to the enchanted house. She went in and found a youth, who asked,
"Whence do you come, and what do you want?" and he marvelled at her beauty, her royal garments, and the star on her forehead. Then she answered,
"I am a king"s daughter, and I seek my twelve brothers, and I will go everywhere under the blue sky until I find them." And she showed him the twelve shirts which belonged to them. Then Benjamin saw that it must be his sister, and said,
"I am Benjamin, your youngest brother."
And she began weeping for joy, and Benjamin also, and they kissed and cheered each other with great love. After a while he said,
"Dear sister, there is still a hindrance; we have sworn that any maiden that we meet must die, as it was because of a maiden that we had to leave our kingdom." Then she said,
"I will willingly die, if so I may benefit my twelve brothers."
"No," answered he, "you shall not die; sit down under this tub until the eleven brothers come, and I agree with them about it." She did so; and as night came on they returned from hunting, and supper was ready. And as they were sitting at table and eating, they asked,
"What news?" And Benjamin said,
"Don"t you know any?"
"No," answered they. So he said,
"You have been in the wood, and I have stayed at home, and yet I know more than you."
"Tell us!" cried they. He answered,
"Promise me that the first maiden we see shall not be put to death."
"Yes, we promise," cried they all, "she shall have mercy; tell us now."
Then he said,
"Our sister is here," and lifted up the tub, and the king"s daughter came forth in her royal garments with her golden star on her forehead, and she seemed so beautiful, delicate, and sweet, that they all rejoiced, and fell on her neck and kissed her, and loved her with all their hearts.
After this she remained with Benjamin in the house and helped him with the work. The others went forth into the woods to catch wild animals, does, birds, and pigeons, for food for them all, and their sister and Benjamin took care that all was made ready for them. She fetched the wood for cooking, and the vegetables, and watched the pots on the fire, so that supper was always ready when the others came in. She kept also great order in the house, and the beds were always beautifully white and clean, and the brothers were contented, and lived in unity.
One day the two got ready a fine feast, and when they were all a.s.sembled they sat down and ate and drank, and were full of joy. Now there was a little garden belonging to the enchanted house, in which grew twelve lilies; the maiden, thinking to please her brothers, went out to gather the twelve flowers, meaning to give one to each as they sat at meat. But as she broke off the flowers, in the same moment the brothers were changed into twelve ravens, and flew over the wood far away, and the house with the garden also disappeared. So the poor maiden stood alone in the wild wood, and as she was looking around her she saw an old woman standing by her, who said,
"My child, what hast thou done! why couldst thou not leave the twelve flowers standing? they were thy twelve brothers, who are now changed to ravens for ever." The maiden said, weeping,
"Is there no means of setting them free?"
"No," said the old woman, "there is in the whole world no way but one, and that is difficult; thou canst not release them but by being dumb for seven years: thou must neither speak nor laugh; and wert thou to speak one single word, and it wanted but one hour of the seven years, all would be in vain, and thy brothers would perish because of that one word."
Then the maiden said in her heart, "I am quite sure that I can set my brothers free," and went and sought a tall tree, climbed up, and sat there spinning, and never spoke or laughed. Now it happened that a King, who was hunting in the wood, had with him a large greyhound, who ran to the tree where the maiden was, sprang up at it, and barked loudly. Up came the King and saw the beautiful Princess with the golden star on her forehead, and he was so charmed with her beauty that he prayed her to become his wife. She gave no answer, only a little nod of her head. Then he himself climbed the tree and brought her down, set her on his horse and took her home. The wedding was held with great splendour and rejoicing, but the bride neither spoke nor laughed. After they had lived pleasantly together for a few years, the King"s mother, who was a wicked woman, began to slander the young Queen, and said to the King,
"She is only a low beggar-maid that you have taken to yourself; who knows what mean tricks she is playing? Even if she is really dumb and cannot speak she might at least laugh; not to laugh is the sign of a bad conscience."
At first the King would believe nothing of it, but the old woman talked so long, and suggested so many bad things, that he at last let himself be persuaded, and condemned the Queen to death.
Now a great fire was kindled in the courtyard, and she was to be burned in it; and the King stood above at the window, and watched it all with weeping eyes, for he had held her very dear. And when she was already fast bound to the stake, and the fire was licking her garments with red tongues, the last moment of the seven years came to an end. Then a rushing sound was heard in the air, and twelve ravens came flying and sank downwards; and as they touched the earth they became her twelve brothers that she had lost. They rushed through the fire and quenched the flames, and set their dear sister free, kissing and consoling her.
And now that her mouth was opened, and that she might venture to speak, she told the King the reason of her dumbness, and why she had never laughed. The King rejoiced when he heard of her innocence, and they all lived together in happiness until their death.
But the wicked mother-in-law was very unhappy, and died miserably.
THE VAGABONDS
THE c.o.c.k said to the hen,
"It is nutting time, let us go together to the mountains and have a good feast for once, before the squirrels come and carry all away."
"Yes," answered the hen, "come along; we will have a jolly time together."
Then they set off together to the mountains, and as it was a fine day they stayed there till the evening. Now whether it was that they had eaten so much, or because of their pride and haughtiness, I do not know, but they would not go home on foot; so the c.o.c.k set to work to make a little carriage out of nutsh.e.l.ls. When it was ready, the hen seated herself in it, and said to the c.o.c.k,
"Now you can harness yourself to it."
"That"s all very fine," said the c.o.c.k, "I would sooner go home on foot than do such a thing: and I never agreed to it. I don"t mind being coachman, and sitting on the box; but as to drawing it myself, it"s quite out of the question."
As they were wrangling, a duck came quacking,
"You thieving vagabonds, who told you you might go to my mountain? Look out, or it will be the worse for you!" and flew at the c.o.c.k with bill wide open. But the c.o.c.k was not backward, and he gave the duck a good dig in the body, and hacked at her with his spurs so valiantly that she begged for mercy, and willingly allowed herself to be harnessed to the carriage. Then the c.o.c.k seated himself on the box and was coachman; so off they went at a great pace, the c.o.c.k crying out "Run, duck, as fast as you can!"
When they had gone a part of the way they met two foot-pa.s.sengers, a pin and a needle. They cried "Stop! stop!" and said that it would soon be blindman"s holiday; that they could not go a step farther; that the ways were very muddy; might they just get in for a little? they had been standing at the door of the tailors" house of call and had been delayed because of beer.
The c.o.c.k, seeing they were slender folks that would not take up a great deal of room, let them both step in, only they must promise not to tread on his toes nor on the hen"s.
Late in the evening they came to an inn, and there they found that they could not go any farther that night, as the duck"s paces were not good, she waddled so much from side to side; so they turned in. The landlord at first made some difficulty; his house was full already, and he thought they had no very distinguished appearance; at last, however, when they had made many fine speeches, and had promised him the egg that the hen had laid on the way, and that he should keep the duck, who laid one every day, he agreed to let them stay the night; and so they had a very gay time.
Early in the morning, when it was beginning to grow light, and everybody was still asleep, the c.o.c.k waked up the hen, fetched the egg, and made a hole in it, and they ate it up between them, and put the eggsh.e.l.l on the hearth. Then they went up to the needle, who was still sleeping, picked him up by his head, and stuck him in the landlord"s chair-cushion, and having also placed the pin in his towel, off they flew over the hills and far away. The duck, who had chosen to sleep in the open air, and had remained in the yard, heard the rustling of their wings, and, waking up, looked about till she found a brook, down which she swam a good deal faster than she had drawn the carriage.
A few hours later the landlord woke, and, leaving his feather-bed, began washing himself; but when he took the towel to dry himself he drew the pin all across his face, and made a red streak from ear to ear. Then he went into the kitchen to light his pipe, but when he stooped towards the hearth to take up a coal the eggsh.e.l.l flew in his eyes.
"Everything goes wrong this morning," said he, and let himself drop, full of vexation, into his grandfather"s chair; but up he jumped in a moment, crying, "Oh dear!" for the needle had gone into him.