“Cut her hands off, or else I cannot get her!”
The miller was shocked and answered,
“How can I cut off my own child’s hands?”
Then the devil threatened him and said,
“If you do not do it, you are mine, and I will take you instead!”
The father became alarmed, and promised to obey him. So he went to the girl and said,
“My child, if I do not cut off both your hands, the devil will carry me away. In my terror I promised to do it. Help me in my need, and forgive me the harm”.
She replied,
“Dear father, do with me what you will, I am your child”.
Thereupon she laid down both her hands, and her father cut them off. The devil came for the third time, but she wept so long and so much on the stumps, that after all they were quite clean.
Then the devil gave in[10], and lost all power over her.
The miller said to the girl,
“Thanks to you, I received such great wealth. I will keep you most delicately as long as you live”.
But she replied,
“Here I cannot stay, I will go forth, compassionate people will give me as much as I require”.
Thereupon she asked to tie her arms to her back, and by sunrise she set out on her way. She walked the whole day until night fell. Then she came to a royal garden. She saw that trees are covered with beautiful fruits, but she could not enter, for there was much water round about it. And as she was very tired, and hunger tormented her, she thought,
“Ah, I want to find myself[11] inside and eat the fruit! Or I’ll die of hunger!”
Then she knelt down, called on the Lord, and prayed. And suddenly an angel came towards her, who made a dam in the water. The moat became dry and she could walk through it.
She went into the garden and the angel went with her. She saw a tree with beautiful pears. Then she went to them, and ate one with her mouth from the tree. The gardener watched it; but as the angel was nearby, he was afraid and thought the maiden was a spirit, and was silent. He dare not to cry out, or to speak to the spirit.
When the girl ate the pear, she was satisfied. She went and concealed herself among the bushes. The King to whom the garden belonged, came down to it next morning, and counted. He saw that one of the pears was missing[12]. The King asked the gardener about the pear. The gardener answered,
“Last night, a spirit came in, who had no hands, and ate off one of the pears with its mouth”.
The King said,
“How did the spirit get over the water? Where did it go after that?”
The gardener answered,
“Someone came in a snow-white garment from heaven who made a dam, and kept back the water. So the spirit walked through the moat. And as it was an angel, I was afraid, and asked no questions, and did not cry out. When the spirit ate the pear, it went back again”.
The King said,
“If it is so as you say, I will watch with you tonight”.
When it grew dark the King came into the garden and brought a priest with him. All three seated themselves beneath the tree and watched. At midnight the maiden came out of the thicket, went to the tree, and again ate one pear off it with her mouth. Beside her stood the angel in white garments. Then the priest went out to them and said,
“Do you come from heaven or from earth? Are you a spirit, or a human being?”
She replied,
“I am no spirit, but an unhappy girl. Everybody left me”.
The King said,
“I won’t forsake you!”
He took her with him into his royal palace, and as she was so beautiful and good, he loved her with all his heart. He made for her silver hands, and took her to wife[13].
After a year the King went to fight, so he commended his young Queen to the care of his mother and said,
“If she has a baby, nurse her well, and tell me of it at once in a letter”.
Then she gave birth to a fine boy. So the old mother wrote and announced the joyful news to the King. But the messenger rested by a brook on the way, and as he was fatigued by the great distance, he fell asleep. Then came the Devil, who wanted to injure the good Queen, and exchanged the letter for another. That new letter says that the Queen gave birth to a monster. When the King read the letter he was shocked and much troubled. But he ordered to take great care of the Queen and nurse her well until his arrival. The messenger went back with the letter, but rested at the same place and again fell asleep. Then came the Devil once more, and put a different letter in his pocket. That new letter says that they must kill the Queen and her child.
The old mother was terribly shocked when she received the letter, and could not believe it. She wrote back again to the King. But received no other answer, because each time the Devil substituted a false letter. And in every letter there was an order: to kill the Queen. Furthermore: to sent to the King the Queen’s tongue and eyes as a token.
But the old mother brought a hind by night and cut out its tongue and eyes, and kept them. Then she said to the Queen,
“I cannot kill you as the King commands, but here you may stay no longer. Go forth into the wide world with your child, and never come here again”.
The poor woman tied her child on her back, and went away with eyes full of tears. She came into a great wild forest, and then she fell on her knees and prayed to God. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and led her to a little house on which was a sign with the words,
“Here all dwell free”.
A snow-white maiden came out of the little house and said,
“Welcome, Lady Queen,” and conducted her inside.
Then they unbound the little boy from her back, and feed him and laid him in a beautiful little bed. Then the poor girl said,
“From whence do you know that I was a queen?”
The white maiden answered,
“I am a God’s angel. I’ll watch over you and your child”.
The Queen stayed seven years in the little house. By God’s grace, because of her piety, her hands grew once more.
At last the King came home again from the war, and his first wish was to see his wife and the child. Then his old mother began to weep and said,
“You wicked man, why did you write to me to kill those two innocent lives?”
She showed him the letters from the Devil, and then continued,
“I did as you ordered,” and she showed the tokens, the tongue and eyes.
Then the King began to weep for his poor wife and his little son bitterly. His aged mother said,
“Be at peace, she still lives. I secretly killed a hind, and took these tokens from it. Then I bound the child to your wife’s back and sent her away into the wide world. She will never come back here again, because you were so angry with her”.
Then the King spoke,
“I will neither eat nor drink until I find again my dear wife and my child, if they are alive!”
Thereupon the King travelled about for seven long years, and sought her in every cleft of the rocks and in every cave. But he did not find her, and thought she was dead. During the whole of this time he neither ate nor drank, but God supported him.
At length he came into a great forest, and found therein the little house whose sign was,
“Here all dwell free”.
Then forth came the white maiden, took him by the hand, led him in, and said,
“Welcome, King,” and asked him from whence he came.
He answered, “I seek my wife and her child, but cannot find them”.
The angel offered him meat and drink, but he did not take anything, and only wished to rest a little. Then he lay down to sleep, and put a handkerchief over his face.
Thereupon the angel went into the chamber where the Queen sat with her son, whom she usually called “Sorrowful,” and said to her,
“Go out with your child, your husband is here”.
So the Queen went to the place where he lay, and the handkerchief fell from his face. Then she said,
“Sorrowful, pick up your father’s handkerchief, and cover his face again”.
The child picked it up, and put it over his face again. The King in his sleep heard what passed, and threw the handkerchief away once more. But the child grew impatient, and said,
“Dear mother, how can I cover my father’s face when I have no father in this world? I only know the prayer, ‘Our Father, which is in Heaven’. My father is in Heaven, and is the good God. How can I know a wild man like this? He is not my father!”
When the King heard that, he got up, and asked who they were.
Then said she, “I am your wife, and that is thy son, Sorrowful”.
And he saw her hands, and said,
“My wife had silver hands”.
She answered,
“The good God gave me new hands”.
The angel went into the room, and brought the silver hands, and showed them to him. Hereupon he knew for a certainty that it was his dear wife and his dear child, and he kissed them.
Then the angel of God gave them one meal with her, and after that they went home to the
King’s old mother. The King and Queen were married again, and lived contentedly to their happy end.
Bluebeard
Charles Perrault
There was once a man who had fine houses, both in town and country, silver and gold plates, nice furniture, and coaches gilded all over with gold. But this man was very unlucky because he had a blue beard, which made him so frightfully ugly that all the women and girls ran away from him.
One of his neighbors, a lady of quality[14], had two daughters who were very beautiful. He desired to marry one of them. Neither of them wanted to marry him, and they sent him backwards and forwards from one to the other. They did want to have a husband with a blue beard. Furthermore, he was already married to several wives, and nobody knew what became of them.
Blue Beard invited these girls, with their mother and three or four other ladies, with other young people of the neighborhood, to one of his country houses, where they stayed a whole week.
The time was filled with parties, hunting, fishing, dancing, mirth, and feasting. Everything succeeded so well that the youngest daughter began to think that the man’s beard was not so very blue after all, and that he was a gentleman.
As soon as they returned home, the marriage was concluded. About a month afterwards, Blue Beard told his wife that he was obliged to take a country journey for six weeks at least. He desired her to divert herself in his absence, to send for her friends and acquaintances, to take them into the country, if she pleased, and to do whatever she wanted.
“Here”, said he, “are the keys to the two great wardrobes, wherein I have my best furniture. These are to my silver and gold plates. These open my strongboxes, which hold my money, both gold and silver; these my caskets of jewels. And this is the master key to all my apartments. But look at this little key. It is the key to the closet at the end of the great hall on the ground floor. Open them all; go into each and every one of them, except that little closet, which I forbid you. If you open it, you will expect my anger and resentment”.
She promised to observe, very exactly, his orders. Then he embraced her, got into his coach and proceeded on his journey.
Soon her neighbors and good friends arrived. They were impatient to see all the rich furniture of her house. They did not come while her husband was there, because of his blue beard, which frightened them. They ran through all the rooms, closets, and wardrobes, which were all fine and very rich indeed.
After that, they went up into the two great rooms, which contained the best and richest furniture. They admired the number and beauty of the tapestry, beds, couches, cabinets, stands, tables, and looking glasses, in which they could see themselves from head to foot.
They extolled and envied the happiness of their friend, who in the meantime in no way diverted herself. She was impatient to go and open the closet on the ground floor. She was so much pressed by her curiosity that she went down a little back staircase, and with such haste that she nearly fell and broke her neck.
She came to the closet door, made a stop for some time, thought about her husband’s orders, and considered to be a little disobedient. The temptation was so strong that she could not overcome it. She then took the little key, and opened it. At first she could not see anything plainly, because the windows were shut. After some moments she began to perceive that the floor was all covered over with blood, on which lay the bodies of several dead women. These were all the wives whom Blue Beard married and murdered, one after another. She was very afraid, and the key fell out of her hand.
She picked up the key, locked the door, and went upstairs into her chamber. But she was frightened very much. She observed that the key to the closet was stained with blood. She tried two or three times to wipe it off; but the blood did not come out. She washed the key in vain, and even rubbed it with soap and sand. The blood still remained, for the key was magical and she could never make it clean. When the blood was gone off from one side, it came again on the other.
Blue Beard returned from his journey the same evening. His wife tried to convince him that she was extremely happy about his return.
The next morning he asked her for the keys, which she gave him. He easily guessed what happened.
“What!” said he, “is not the key of my closet among the rest?”
“I left it”, said she, “upstairs upon the table”.
“Bring it to me!” said Blue Beard, “At once!”
She went backwards and forwards, and finally brought him the key. Blue Beard looked at it very attentively and said to his wife,
“Why is there blood on the key?”
“I do not know”, cried the poor woman, paler than death.
“You do not know!” replied Blue Beard. “I very well know. You went into the closet, did you not? Very well, madam; you’ll go back, and take your place among the ladies you saw there”.
Upon this she begged his pardon with all the signs of a true repentance. She promised him to be obedient. She was beautiful and sorrowful; but Blue Beard had a heart harder than any rock!
“You must die, madam”, said he, “at once”.
“Since I must die”, answered she, “give me some time to say my prayers”.
“I give you”, replied Blue Beard, “seven minutes, but not one moment more”.
When she was alone she called out to her sister, and said to her,
“Sister Anne, go up, I beg you, to the top of the tower, and tell me: are there my brothers on the way? They promised me to come today, and if you see them, give them a sign to make haste”.
Her sister Anne went up to the top of the tower, and the poor wife cried out from time to time,
“Anne, sister Anne, do you see anyone?”
And sister Anne said,
“I see nothing but a cloud of dust in the sun, and the green grass”.
In the meanwhile Blue Beard took a great saber, and cried out,
“Come down instantly, or I shall come up to you”.
“One moment longer, if you please”, said his wife; and then she cried out very softly, “Anne, sister Anne, do you see anybody on the road?”
And sister Anne answered,
“I see nothing but a cloud of dust in the sun, and the green grass”.
“Come down quickly!” cried Blue Beard, “or I shall come up to you!”
“One moment”, answered his wife; and then she cried, “Anne, sister Anne, do you not see anybody on the road?”
“I see”, replied sister Anne, “a great cloud of dust”.
“Are they my brothers?”
“Alas, no my dear sister, I see a flock of sheep”.
“Will you not come down?” cried Blue Beard.
“One moment longer”, said his wife, and then she cried out, “Anne, sister Anne, do you see anybody on the road?”
“I see”, said she, “two horsemen, but they are still far away”.
“God be praised![15]” replied the poor wife joyfully. “They are my brothers. I will make them a sign to make haste”.
Then Blue Beard bawled out so loud that he the whole house trembled. The distressed wife came down, and threw herself at his feet, all in tears, with her hair about her shoulders.
“This means nothing”, said Blue Beard. “You must die!”
Then he took her hair with one hand, and lifted up the sword with the other. He prepared to strike off her head. The poor lady turned about to him, and looked at him sorrowfully.