The Blue Fairy Book
that. All of a sudden--crash, crash! with a bound it turned over, upside
down, and lay like a mountain on the top of him. But he tossed the
blankets and pillows in the air, emerged from underneath, and said: “Now
anyone who has the fancy for it may go a drive,” lay down at his fire,
and slept till daylight. In the morning the King came, and when he
beheld him lying on the ground he imagined the ghosts had been too much
for him, and that he was dead. Then he said: “What a pity! and such a
fine fellow he was.” The youth heard this, got up, and said: “It’s not
come to that yet.” Then the King was astonished, but very glad, and
asked how it had fared with him. “First-rate,” he answered; “and now
I’ve survived the one night, I shall get through the other two also.”
The landlord, when he went to him, opened his eyes wide, and said:
“Well, I never thought to see you alive again. Have you learned now what
shuddering is?” “No,” he replied, “it’s quite hopeless; if someone could
only tell me how to!”
The second night he went up again to the old castle, sat down at the
fire, and began his old refrain: “If I could only shudder!” As midnight
approached, a noise and din broke out, at first gentle, but gradually
increasing; then all was quiet for a minute, and at length, with a loud
scream, half of a man dropped down the chimney and fell before him. “Hi,
up there!” shouted he; “there’s another half wanted down here, that’s
not enough”; then the din commenced once more, there was a shrieking
and a yelling, and then the other half fell down. “Wait a bit,” he said;
“I’ll stir up the fire for you.” When he had done this and again looked
around, the two pieces had united, and a horrible-looking man sat on his
seat. “Come,” said the youth, “I didn’t bargain for that, the seat is
mine.” The man tried to shove him away, but the youth wouldn’t allow
it for a moment, and, pushing him off by force, sat down in his place
again. Then more men dropped down, one after the other, who fetching
nine skeleton legs and two skulls, put them up and played ninepins with
them. The youth thought he would like to play too, and said: “Look here;
do you mind my joining the game?” “No, not if you have money.” “I’ve
money enough,” he replied, “but your balls aren’t round enough.” Then
he took the skulls, placed them on his lathe, and turned them till they
were round. “Now they’ll roll along better,” said he, “and houp-la! now
the fun begins.” He played with them and lost some of his money, but
when twelve struck everything vanished before his eyes. He lay down and
slept peacefully. The next morning the King came, anxious for news. “How
have you got on this time?” he asked. “I played ninepins,” he answered,
“and lost a few pence.” “Didn’t you shudder then?” “No such luck,” said
he; “I made myself merry. Oh! if I only knew what it was to shudder!”
On the third night he sat down again on his bench, and said, in the most
desponding way: “If I could only shudder!” When it got late, six big men
came in carrying a coffin. Then he cried: “Ha! ha! that’s most likely
my little cousin who only died a few days ago”; and beckoning with his
finger he called out: “Come, my small cousin, come.” They placed the
coffin on the ground, and he approached it and took off the cover. In
it lay a dead man. He felt his face, and it was cold as ice. “Wait,” he
said “I’ll heat you up a bit,” went to the fire, warmed his hand, and
laid it on the man’s face, but the dead remained cold. Then he lifted
him out, sat down at the fire, laid him on his knee, and rubbed his arms
that the blood should circulate again. When that too had no effect it
occurred to him that if two people lay together in bed they warmed each
other; so he put him into the bed, covered him up, and lay down beside
him; after a time the corpse became warm and began to move. Then the
youth said: “Now, my little cousin, what would have happened if I
hadn’t warmed you?” But the dead man rose up and cried out: “Now I
will strangle you.” “What!” said he, “is that all the thanks I get? You
should be put straight back into your coffin,” lifted him up, threw him
in, and closed the lid. Then the six men came and carried him out again.
“I simply can’t shudder,” he said, “and it’s clear I sha’n’t learn it in
a lifetime here.”
Then a man entered, of more than ordinary size and of a very fearful
appearance; but he was old and had a white beard. “Oh! you miserable
creature, now you will soon know what it is to shudder,” he cried, “for
you must die.” “Not so quickly,” answered the youth. “If I am to die,
you must catch me first.” “I shall soon lay hold of you,” spoke the
monster. “Gently, gently, don’t boast too much, I’m as strong as you,
and stronger too.” “We’ll soon see,” said the old man; “if you are
stronger than I then I’ll let you off; come, let’s have a try.” Then he
led him through some dark passages to a forge, and grasping an axe he
drove one of the anvils with a blow into the earth. “I can do better
than that,” cried the youth, and went to the other anvil. The old man
drew near him in order to watch closely, and his white beard hung right
down. The youth seized the axe, cleft the anvil open, and jammed in the
old man’s beard. “Now I have you,” said the youth; “this time it’s your
turn to die.” Then he seized an iron rod and belabored the old man till
he, whimpering, begged him to leave off, and he would give him great
riches. The youth drew out the axe and let him go. The old man led him
back to the castle and showed him in a cellar three chests of gold. “One
of these,” said he, “belongs to the poor, one to the King, and the
third is yours.” At that moment twelve struck, and the spirit vanished,
leaving the youth alone in the dark. “I’ll surely be able to find a way
out,” said he, and groping about he at length found his way back to the
room, and fell asleep at his fire. The next morning the King came, and
said: “Well, now you’ve surely learned to shudder?” “No,” he answered;
“what can it be? My dead cousin was here, and an old bearded man came,
who showed me heaps of money down below there, but what shuddering is no
one has told me.” Then the King spoke: “You have freed the castle from
its curse, and you shall marry my daughter.” “That’s all charming,” he
said; “but I still don’t know what it is to shudder.”
Then the gold was brought up, and the wedding was celebrated, but the
young King, though he loved his wife dearly, and though he was very
happy, still kept on saying: “If I could only shudder! if I could only
shudder!” At last he reduced her to despair. Then her maid said: “I’ll
help you; we’ll soon make him shudder.” So she went out to the stream
that flowed through the garden, and had a pail full of little gudgeons
brought to her. At night, when the young King was asleep, his wife had
to pull the clothes off him, and pour the pail full of little gudgeons
over him, so that the little fish swam all about him. Then he awoke and
cried out: “Oh! how I shudder, how I shudder, dear wife! Yes, now I know
what shuddering is.” (1)
(1) Grimm.
RUMPELSTILTZKIN
There was once upon a time a poor miller who had a very beautiful
daughter. Now it happened one day that he had an audience with the King,
and in order to appear a person of some importance he told him that
he had a daughter who could spin straw into gold. “Now that’s a talent
worth having,” said the King to the miller; “if your daughter is as
clever as you say, bring her to my palace to-morrow, and I’ll put her to
the test.” When the girl was brought to him he led her into a room full
of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and spindle, and said: “Now set to
work and spin all night till early dawn, and if by that time you haven’t
spun the straw into gold you shall die.” Then he closed the door behind
him and left her alone inside.
So the poor miller’s daughter sat down, and didn’t know what in the
world she was to do. She hadn’t the least idea of how to spin straw into
gold, and became at last so miserable that she began to cry.
Suddenly the door opened, and in stepped a tiny little man and said:
“Good-evening, Miss Miller-maid; why are you crying so bitterly?” “Oh!”
answered the girl, “I have to spin straw into gold, and haven’t a notion
how it’s done.” “What will you give me if I spin it for you?” asked
the manikin. “My necklace,” replied the girl. The little man took the
necklace, sat himself down at the wheel, and whir, whir, whir, the wheel
went round three times, and the bobbin was full. Then he put on another,
and whir, whir, whir, the wheel went round three times, and the second
too was full; and so it went on till the morning, when all the straw
was spun away, and all the bobbins were full of gold. As soon as the sun
rose the King came, and when he perceived the gold he was astonished and
delighted, but his heart only lusted more than ever after the precious
metal. He had the miller’s daughter put into another room full of straw,
much bigger than the first, and bade her, if she valued her life, spin
it all into gold before the following morning. The girl didn’t know what
to do, and began to cry; then the door opened as before, and the tiny
little man appeared and said: “What’ll you give me if I spin the straw
into gold for you?” “The ring from my finger,” answered the girl. The
manikin took the ring, and whir! round went the spinning-wheel again,
and when morning broke he had spun all the straw into glittering gold.
The King was pleased beyond measure at the sights but his greed for gold
was still not satisfied, and he had the miller’s daughter brought into a
yet bigger room full of straw, and said: “You must spin all this away
in the night; but if you succeed this time you shall become my wife.”
“She’s only a miller’s daughter, it’s true,” he thought; “but I couldn’t
find a richer wife if I were to search the whole world over.” When the
girl was alone the little man appeared for the third time, and said:
“What’ll you give me if I spin the straw for you once again?” “I’ve
nothing more to give,” answered the girl. “Then promise me when you
are Queen to give me your first child.” “Who knows what may not happen
before that?” thought the miller’s daughter; and besides, she saw no
other way out of it, so she promised the manikin what he demanded, and
he set to work once more and spun the straw into gold. When the
King came in the morning, and found everything as he had desired, he
straightway made her his wife, and the miller’s daughter became a queen.
When a year had passed a beautiful son was born to her, and she thought
no more of the little man, till all of a sudden one day he stepped into
her room and said: “Now give me what you promised.” The Queen was in a
great state, and offered the little man all the riches in her kingdom if
he would only leave her the child. But the manikin said: “No, a living
creature is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world.” Then the
Queen began to cry and sob so bitterly that the little man was sorry for
her, and said: “I’ll give you three days to guess my name, and if you
find it out in that time you may keep your child.”
Then the Queen pondered the whole night over all the names she had ever
heard, and sent a messenger to scour the land, and to pick up far and
near any names he could come across. When the little man arrived on the
following day she began with Kasper, Melchior, Belshazzar, and all the
other names she knew, in a string, but at each one the manikin called
out: “That’s not my name.” The next day she sent to inquire the names
of all the people in the neighborhood, and had a long list of the
most uncommon and extraordinary for the little man when he made
his appearance. “Is your name, perhaps, Sheepshanks Cruickshanks,