The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics) (9 page)

A hunter’s widow had a son named Hans, and the two were without a home and always on the move. One day they were lost in the woods, but in the distance they could see a castle. It turned out that a giant was living there. He took them in and eventually married the widow. The little boy was quite happy, and when he grew older, he went out every day to hunt deer.

While looking for game one day, Hans discovered a clearing. He saw a tree with no branches at all, and hanging from its tippy-top was a sash, the kind worn by knights. The boy shinnied up the tree and took it back down with him. On it he could read the words: “Whoever puts me on and wears me will have superhuman strength.” He put the sash on, shot a deer, and carried it home on his back. His mother and the giant could not believe their eyes. They started worrying about the boy’s amazing strength and began to plot to get rid of him.

The two hatched a scheme that started with the giant feigning an illness, for which the only cure was milk from a lion. Not so far away there was a mother lion living in a cave, and she was nursing her cubs. Hans was so obliging that he decided to try to bring back some milk from her for his stepfather, the giant. When he reached the cave, the lion was standing on her back paws, and her front paws were clasped together as if she were pleading for something. Hans threw his weapons aside, and he playfully stroked the cat’s fur. The lion followed him to the castle. When the parents saw Hans strolling
along with the lion, they decided they would have to send him on a more dangerous mission.

Not far away from where they lived was another castle, belonging to another giant. A tree was growing on his property, and it had special apples on its branches. Hans was supposed to fetch a few of them, because they would cure his stepfather. This time Hans left without the slightest idea about how to bring back those apples. He reached the castle, which was built right by the seaside. It was locked up tightly, for the giant was out with his friends, robbing and looting wherever he could. First Hans grabbed some of the apples from the tree in the garden and then he picked the lock on the castle door, entered the castle, and discovered a woman there. She was stark naked and tied up. She told Hans that she was a princess and that the giants had kidnapped her. Hans started a huge fire and the smoke from it drew the attention of the army in the princess’s country, revealing her location. Before long, ships landed, and men from the neighboring country made preparations to bring the princess back home. They asked Hans to come with them, but he explained that he had to bring the special apples back to his father.

Hans was no longer in favor with his own family. His mother began trying to figure out the source of his strength. One day she noticed the sash he was wearing. She prepared a bath for her son and persuaded him to take the sash off and put it where it would stay dry. Then she took the sash to the giant, who wasted no time at all making sure that he was rid of Hans. He poked both his eyes out and threw him out of the castle. The lion was right there at the door and served her blind master as a guide.

Exhausted from his travels, Hans paused to rest for a while. Just when he was about to die of thirst, a wine merchant happened to be traveling down the road. The lion jumped up on his wagon, shoved a barrel down from it, and took it over to Hans. The merchant saw what had happened, and he felt so sorry for the blind man that he offered him a ride. When they entered the city, the princess happened to be looking out her
window and recognized the man who had rescued her. She dashed down the stairs, embraced him, and took him to an artist for a pair of artificial eyes. Then she and Hans went to see her father, the king, who was so happy to have the young man as a son-in-law that he named him his successor.

During the festivities after the wedding, someone noticed that Hans was blind. The news about his blindness traveled quickly among the people, and they decided that they did not want a blind man as their king. There was rioting in the streets and, along with the princess, Hans was sent into exile.

The two were forced to lead a nomadic life. The princess loved her husband and took good care of him. They sat down one day, by a brook, to rest from their travels. Out of nowhere two mice appeared, one blind, the other able to see. The one that could see guided the blind one to the brook and sprinkled some water from it on its eyes. The other mouse was suddenly able to see. The princess did not hesitate for a moment to repeat what the mouse had done, and suddenly Hans could see again. And so the two returned to their kingdom, where they received a rousing welcome. They lived together happily for a long time, and when Hans died, the lion lay down on his grave and stayed there until she, too, was dead.

There was once a rich miller with three daughters. He kept some cows in a stable, and one of them would leave every day at noon and return late at night. No one knew where she had gone or what she had been doing.

The eldest of the three daughters said to the cow one day, just as it was about to leave: “Let me go with you!”

“You can come along,” the cow replied. And so the girl followed behind the cow. They reached a small lake. The girl was terrified when she saw the cow wading into the water and preparing to swim across the lake. The cow told her to hold on to its tail and to come across with her. Before long they reached the other side, and the two were standing before a wondrously beautiful castle. The girl was eager to go inside, and the cow called out: “Don’t stay too long! I’ll shout your name out three times. If you don’t return when I call your name the third time, it means that you will have to stay in the castle.”

The eldest daughter walked around in the castle and was astonished by the beauty of the rooms and the precious objects housed in them. She was especially taken by some magnificently beautiful clothes spread out in one room, and she feasted her eyes on everything. She stayed inside until the cow called out her name a second time. Then she quickly grabbed a few of the splendid garments and rushed down to where the cow was standing. The cow took her across the water in the same way that they had come, and they returned home.

When the girl showed her sisters her fabulous clothes and told them everything that had happened, the middle sister wanted to swim across the lake with the cow to the castle. The
cow agreed, and everything happened just as it had with the first sister. She returned home, laden with beautiful clothes.

On the third day, the youngest and most beautiful of the three girls said: “My dear cow! My sisters went off with you, and each brought home precious things. Now it’s my turn!” She followed the cow, and the two crossed the lake and reached the castle. The princess went into the castle without heeding the cow’s warning.

Once she was inside the castle, the youngest passed through hallways and rooms, dazzled by the beauty of the place and all the precious things in it. But she was perfectly satisfied with doing nothing but looking at all the wonderful things everywhere she turned. She was so absorbed in contemplating them that she did not hear the cow call her name a second time. The third time she ran downstairs, but the cow had already left and was swimming back across the lake. The youngest of the miller’s daughters had to stay right where she was. She consoled herself with the thought that the cow would probably return the next day. And she walked up the staircase into the castle and went to bed.

At midnight, her sleep was interrupted by a ghastly screech. Suddenly the door to her bedroom opened, and a big black cat stepped into the room. It lay down right next to her and ordered her to cut off its tail when the clock struck twelve. The girl didn’t want to do that, but the cat threatened to kill her if she would not.

The poor girl had to go down to the basement with the cat. There was a chopping block and an ax down there. When the clock struck midnight, the girl took the ax and used it to chop off the cat’s tail. The cat immediately disappeared. The girl went back up to her room, lay down in bed, and was hoping to get back to sleep.

When she woke up the next morning, a handsome man was sleeping next to her. He owned the castle, and a wicked witch had turned him into a cat. He thanked her for lifting the curse, and then he showed her everything in the castle and offered to make it hers. He asked for her hand in marriage. The girl agreed, and the two enjoyed a long and happy life together.

A white calf trotted over to a princess one day and settled down to live with her from that day on. The calf played with her every day and slept by her side. The princess grew up to be a beautiful young woman, and many men sought her hand in marriage, but none could separate her from that white cow. Whenever the cow was endangered in any way at all, the princess would let out a scream, as if someone had punched her. One very persistent suitor went so far as to draw his sword and threaten to kill the cow. He scratched a spot on its hide, and the princess began to bleed in the exact same place. The king finally decided to make an announcement: “Whoever can free my daughter from this monster will have her as his wife!”

Not far from the castle there lived a poor woman with her son. She owned a flock of sheep, too. She sent the boy to the king with a horn. As soon as the young shepherd blew on the horn, the cow perked up its ears, leaped into the air, and ran over to him. The king was delighted. He told the boy to return home, and he began making preparations for a royal wedding to a prince. The shepherd felt humiliated and blew on his horn again. At that, the cow returned to the castle and trampled everything within sight of the princess. A second try to get rid of the cow failed, and the king had to make peace with the fact that the cow was there to stay.

One day the king lost his way in the woods while hunting.
He discovered a cottage in ruins. Next to its entrance there was a big rock with a shepherd’s horn on it. The king sat down on the rock. He wanted to give the other hunters a signal, and so he blew on the horn.

As soon as the horn sounded, the white cow came racing down toward the king and attacked him with its sharp horns. The king went into the cottage and shut the door tight, but the wood of the door was rotten and split into big chunks that landed on top of the king and knocked him down. He was now on his back, and the cow was bellowing as it pawed the ground and stomped on the wooden door.

Suddenly it was completely quiet. The king freed himself from the cow, stood up, and saw an old woman standing before him. “You probably do not recognize me,” she said. “But you will more than likely remember this ring!”

The king looked carefully at her. “Of course!” he cried out. “You are my dear wife from long ago! I stupidly believed that an accusation made against you was true, but someone had deceived me. I decided to spend one last night with you, and this is the ring you took from my finger before I left! But what happened to the stone that was in the ring?”

“I’ve been asking myself that same question,” his wife replied, “ever since our child was turned into a white calf.” The king was alarmed when he heard this news. “That must have been the work of the evil magician up on the mountain!” he cried. He drew his sword, cut a few hairs from the white cow, took the ring, and threw everything into the flames at the hearth. Suddenly there was a thunderous noise in the cottage, and the flames leaped up to the ceiling. The fire went out. There on the ground was the ring with its precious stone. And instead of a cow, a beautiful young woman was kneeling on the floor.

The hut had burned to the ground, and suddenly there was a great commotion all around it. The king’s subjects arrived with torches, as did the princess, and then finally the young shepherd. “Here is the daughter that I lost,” the king said. “And here is her mother, who is a countess. I am going to keep
my word, and I will give my daughter’s hand to the man who liberated her. He is in reality the son of a countess from an aristocratic house.”

The wedding was celebrated in great splendor, and they lived happily and peacefully for many a year.