The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics) (17 page)

An evil witch kidnapped three princesses and would not set them free. While they were in captivity, the girls learned a few magic tricks from the witch.

One day a young prince lost his way in the woods, and the two-faced witch welcomed him warmly, but she was actually plotting to kill him that night.

Although the princesses were not allowed to speak, the youngest of the three, Reinhilda, alerted the prince to the perils facing him. She had taken a liking to him, and she whispered in his ear: “When the old woman takes you to your room, don’t step on the threshold but jump over it! When she gives you something to drink for the night, don’t touch it because it will be a sleeping potion. Don’t sleep
in
the bed but
under
it. Leave everything else to me!”

After dinner the witch took the stranger up the stairs to his bedroom, and the youngest of the three sisters lit the way with her candle. The young man jumped over the threshold, and when the witch handed him something to drink, the candle went out, as if by accident. The prince poured the brew into his boot and settled down to sleep under the bed. Later that night the princess woke the prince up and fled with him using the magic she had learned while in captivity.

The two were able to soar through the air, but just as the day was dawning, Reinhilda realized that they were being followed. And indeed the witch, as soon as she had woken up, had known exactly what had happened with the prince and the youngest of the three princesses. She had sent one of the two other princesses out to catch her and bring her back.

It looked as if the two were about to be caught, when the princess said: “I’m going to change into a rosebush, and I’ll turn you into a rose. My sister is chasing us, and she won’t be able to do a thing because she can’t stand the smell of roses.” Just when the girl was closing in on them, a fragrant rosebush sprang up right in her path with a magnificent rose in bloom. The girl had been tricked, and she had to turn back. The witch scolded her no end. “You stupid girl,” she grumbled angrily. “If you had just plucked the rose, the bush would have followed.” And then she sent the eldest of the three to find the two fugitives.

In the meantime the couple returned to their human shapes, and they continued on their way. Reinhilda turned around at one point, and she saw that they were still being pursued. She decided to take advantage of her magic powers again, and she said to the prince: “I’m going to turn myself into a church, and you are going to climb up into the pulpit and hold a stern sermon about witches and their sinister magic.”

When the third sister caught up with the pair and was just about to overtake them, she suddenly found herself near a church, and right there in the pulpit was a preacher raging against witches and their black magic. The sister returned, and when the old woman asked her what she had seen, she said: “I could see her from a distance, but when I reached the spot where she had been, there was nothing but a church there with a preacher denouncing witches.”

“Oh, you foolish thing!” the old woman said. “If only you had just shoved the preacher out of the pulpit, the church would have come back with you. Now I have to go after them. Well, they don’t stand a chance against me.”

The princess resumed her natural form, but now the old woman was chasing the two of them, and she was hot on their trail. “My magic is not as powerful as a witch’s,” Reinhilda said to her beloved. “Give me your sword. I’m going to turn myself into a pond and you will become a duck. Just stay in the middle of the pond, no matter how much the old woman tries to lure you to come on shore. Otherwise we will be lost.”

The old woman did what she could to bring the duck on land, using terms of endearment and throwing tasty morsels
on the water, all in vain. The duck stayed in the middle of the pond and would not paddle any closer. Then the old woman climbed to the top of a dam in the pond and drank every drop of water in sight. The princess was now in the belly of the witch. She turned back into a human and cut the witch open from inside with the sword the prince had given to her. The witch was now as dead as a doornail.

The loving couple was reunited and in safety. The princess gave her hand to the prince at the altar, and the two lived happily together with the sisters, who had been freed from the spell.

A woman had a son named Jacob, and he was the source of much pain and sorrow. Her irritation with him grew until one day she cried out: “I’ve had it! It’s time for you to leave home and find a master, even if it’s the devil himself!”

Jacob heard these words and felt so bad that he left home and decided to find an apprenticeship. As he was walking along, he met a man who asked him where he was heading. The boy replied: “My mother ordered me to find work, even if it’s with the devil himself.”

“Well, then you are quite welcome to come with me,” the stranger said, and the two started walking together.

Their path took them through a mountain canyon, on to an underground cave. The boy was ordered to tend fires under many different cauldrons. His master warned him that he must never lift up any of the lids or look inside.

Once, when the devil was visiting the world aboveground, Jacob was overwhelmed with curiosity and lifted one of the lids, despite the warning. A humming noise rose up as if flies were swarming around him, but as it turned out, it was the noise of souls who had been damned, then boiled up in the pot, and were now simmering on the fire. After giving in to his curiosity, Jacob suddenly realized with horror that his grandmother was among the wretched in the cauldron. She recognized her grandson and asked how he had traveled down to where she was. Jacob told her everything that had happened. His grandmother said: “You won’t be able to stay here much
longer. As soon as Satan returns home, he is going to give you your wages and let you go. But don’t take more than three coins from him. If you do, he’ll break your neck.”

When he returned from his visit aboveground, the evil one knew exactly what had happened. He summoned the boy and told him that he would have to leave. And he gave him his wages, but the boy took no more than three coins, and Satan let him off the hook and allowed him to depart.

When the boy was back from below, he met a woman who asked him for alms: “I was in service for three years and all I have left are two kreuzers.” Jacob gave her one of his three coins. A second beggar woman asked him for a kreuzer, and he gave her another of the three coins he had received and kept going. Then an old man saw him and said: “I was in service for three long years, and I have nothing to my name.” Jacob took the last kreuzer out of his pocket and gave it to the beggar. The man said: “You have been so generous in dividing up your wages among us that I am going to grant you three wishes, all of which are guaranteed to come true.”

The boy said: “First of all I am going to wish to end up in heaven. Then I would like a musket that always hits its target and a fiddle that makes everyone dance to its tune.” He was granted all three wishes.

Jacob decided to try out his enchanted musket at a shooting contest. And just imagine, he won all the prizes, much to the chagrin of the other sharpshooters. They accused the boy of using black magic, and after a short trial he was sentenced to death. His execution was to be carried out in public.

On the day set for the execution, Jacob was allowed one last wish. He climbed the ladder and asked to hold his beloved fiddle one last time before a rope was put around his neck. Once he was up there, he started playing like a wild man. The executioners began dancing on the ladder and plunged to the ground. The priests and all the men and women in the crowd began whirling around madly, bumping up against each other, but Jacob kept playing more and more wildly, until everyone fell to the ground, exhausted from the frenzied movement. He
quickly climbed down the ladder and slipped away while everything was still quiet.

Ever since that day Jacob has appeared from time to time when people are dancing, and every once in a while someone will drop dead while he is fiddling.

A man hired a fisherman, but the fellow had no luck at all catching fish, and so he was about to lose his job. On the way home, the unhappy fisherman met a little man wearing a green jacket and a red hat on his head. “Sir fisherman! Where are you heading?”

“May God have pity on me, a poor fisherman.”

“Why in the world?” asked the little man. The fisherman explained that he was unhappy because he had no luck at all catching fish and was about to be let go. The little old man was sure that he could help him out. In exchange all he would have to do is turn over something that he did not know was in his home. Then he would have to make a cut on his arm, and write his name with blood in a book.

The fisherman thought: “That’s fine with me, for whatever I know is at home, my wife also knows is there.” He signed. Then he returned to his fishing spot, and now he was wildly successful, catching more fish than ever before. At home his wife asked how he had managed to catch so many fish. He told her the story of his encounter, and she suddenly made a long face. She revealed to her husband that she was expecting a child.

The fisherman’s wife gave birth to a boy, who was called Zacharias. The devil showed up and said that he would come fetch the boy when he turned seven. When the boy was old enough to go to school, his father explained the painful fix he was in to a priest. The priest gave him a prayer that the boy
was supposed to recite on a daily basis so that the evil one would not be able to touch him. The boy dutifully recited the prayer every day. One evening he forgot to say it. That night the devil appeared and took him away. While the devil was flying through the skies with him, Zacharias woke up and said the prayer, and the evil one had to drop him. The young man fell down and landed between two rocks.

The next day Zacharias realized that he was up on a mountain in the woods. From his perch he could see a grand palace on top of another mountain. He took a path that led over hill and down dale to the palace and walked right in, discovering one splendid room after another. In each one there was a three-legged giant with a lion’s tail. Next to the castle was a beautiful garden, vast in size. Three-legged cattle, with what looked like antlers, were roaming around in it.

A little man was seated in the middle of the garden, and he beckoned to the young man. Zacharias went over to him, and the man asked whether he was interested in staying. When he said he was, the man added: “There will be a price for staying here. But I’m going to give you my staff, and you can use it to master all the perils in this place. Don’t breathe a word about its power; otherwise you will be lost. Two giants are going to come by here, one tonight, another tomorrow night, and the night after that a giantess will appear. When the first giant appears, strike him with the staff, and he will collapse. On the second night, do the same thing with the other giant. Then chop them both up into little pieces and put one piece into every corner of the castle. On the third night, hit the giantess with the staff, then turn the staff toward the setting sun and throw it to the ground. The earth will open up and swallow the giantess. Then take the staff and turn it toward the rising sun and stamp your foot. A beautiful young woman will appear. As soon as she becomes visible, all the animals here will be rescued, and the castle and young woman will belong to you.”

Zacharias did exactly what the little man told him to do. That night a powerful giant appeared and stormed up and down in the room. He roared: “What’s going on? We’ve been here over two thousand years, and now we’re supposed to
leave? If your name were not Zacharias, you would be dead, like all the men before you.” The enraged giant was about to stampede and kill Zacharias. But Zacharias used the staff and hit the giant with such force that he collapsed. The next night the same thing happened, and Zacharias conquered the second giant as well. As ordered, he chopped the two giants into little pieces and left the pieces in the corners of the castle.

The next night a monstrous giantess showed up, ready to tear him to pieces. He didn’t blink an eye and knocked her to the ground with the staff. Then he pointed the staff toward the setting sun and threw it to the ground. He heard a loud rumbling and the ground opened up, swallowing up the dead giantess.

Zacharias then turned the magic staff toward the rising sun and stamped his foot. A chasm opened up, and an enchanting young woman rose up from it. She walked toward him and embraced him for being so courageous. Life in the castle was transformed with her arrival: The entire court, all the servants, and the animals, too, came to life and cheered for Zacharias, the man who had rescued them. The young woman gave Zacharias her hand, and her heart, too. And the palace with its inhabitants was his to rule.

The two celebrated their marriage and lived happily together for a long time.