Array The Brothers Grimm - Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm - A New English Version

‘Useless,’ said the mother. ‘She can’t see what she’s doing. Three Eyes, you get up there. You can probably see better than she can.’

One Eye came down and Three Eyes clambered up, but in spite of her better eyesight, she got on no better than her sister. Every time she reached for an apple, the branch moved just enough to take it out of reach, and finally she had to give up.

‘Can I try?’ said Two Eyes. ‘Maybe I’ll have more luck.’

‘You, you freak?’

‘Yes, monster, what makes you think you can do any better than us?’

Two Eyes climbed the tree, and instead of pulling themselves out of her reach the apples positively dropped into her hands. She gathered more and more until she had a whole apron full. When she climbed down, her mother took them away, and instead of treating her better because she was the only one who could reach the fruit, One Eye and Three Eyes grew envious and spiteful, and treated her even worse than before.

Now one day when they were all in the garden, a young knight happened to ride by.

The sisters saw him coming and said, ‘Quick, Two Eyes! Under the barrel! If he sees you, he’ll think we’re all horrible to look at!’

And they shoved her under a barrel that stood near the tree, together with the golden apples she’d already picked. Then they stood by the tree, preening themselves and simpering. As the knight came closer, they could see how handsome he was and what fine armour he was wearing.

‘Well, good morning, ladies,’ he said, getting off his horse. ‘That’s a splendid tree you have there. Gold and silver! If I could have a branch of it, you could have anything you wanted in exchange.’

‘Oh, yes, the tree belongs to us,’ said One Eye.

‘It’s completely ours,’ said Three Eyes. ‘I’ll break off a branch for you.’

But when she tried, there was the same result as before, and One Eye had no success either. However quickly they reached for a branch, it would always snatch itself out of their reach.

‘That’s odd,’ said the knight. ‘You say the tree is yours, but it won’t let you pick anything from it.’

‘Oh, it’s ours all right,’ said One Eye.

‘It’s just shy,’ said Three Eyes. ‘Probably because you’re looking.’

‘Let me have another go,’ said One Eye.

But as they were speaking, Two Eyes lifted the barrel a little, and rolled out some of the golden apples towards the knight’s feet. The knight saw them, and stepped back in astonishment.

‘I say! Where did they come from?’ he said.

‘Well, we’ve got another sister, but she—’

‘She looks a bit odd, you see, because she’s got two eyes, and—’

‘Well, we keep her out of sight. We don’t want to shame the family.’

‘I’d like to see her,’ said the knight. ‘Two Eyes, wherever you are, come out!’

Two Eyes managed to lift the barrel off and stood up. The knight was amazed at how lovely she was.

‘And can you break off a branch for me, Two Eyes?’ he said.

‘Yes, I can,’ said Two Eyes, ‘because the tree belongs to me.’

And with the greatest of ease she climbed the tree and broke off a branch with beautiful silver leaves and gold fruit, and gave it to the knight.

‘And what would you like in return, Two Eyes?’ he said.

‘Ah,’ said Two Eyes, ‘I have nothing but hunger and thirst, sorrow and distress from early morning till late at night. If you could take me away from all that, I’d be grateful.’

The knight lifted her on to his horse and took her to his father’s castle. He gave her some beautiful clothes and enough to eat and drink to her heart’s content, and because he’d fallen in love with her, he married her; and the wedding was celebrated joyfully all through the kingdom.

After Two Eyes had been taken away by the handsome knight, her two sisters were consumed with envy. But at least the beautiful tree is still ours, they thought, and even if we can’t pick the gold apples, people will stop to admire it, and who knows what good luck may flower from that?

But next morning they were aghast to see that the tree had disappeared, and all their hopes had gone with it. Meanwhile, Two Eyes was looking out of her bedroom window to see the tree standing happily in the castle courtyard, for in the middle of the night it had pulled its roots out of the ground and tiptoed all the way there to find her.

Two Eyes lived happily for a long time. One day many years later, two poor women came knocking at the castle gate to beg for something to eat, because they had been stricken with poverty and had to wander the world begging for bread from door to door. Two Eyes welcomed them and treated them so kindly that they were sorry for all the wrong they’d done to her; and the strange thing was that although so many years had passed, Two Eyes recognized One Eye and Three Eyes at once.

Tale type:ATU 511, ‘One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes’

Source:a story by Theodor Peschek, published in the journal Wöchentliche Nachrichten für Freunde der Geschichte, Kunst und Gelahrtheit des Mittelalters ( Weekly News for Friends of the History, Art and Learning of the Middle Ages ), vol. 2 (1816)

Similar stories:Alexander Afanasyev: ‘Burenushka, the Little Red Cow’ ( Russian Fairy Tales ); Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: ‘Cinderella’ ( Children’s and Household Tales )

This is ‘Cinderella’, of course, with added absurdity. The presence of the wise woman, the goat, the entrails and the tree confirms it beyond any doubt: they are all aspects of the necessary but absent good mother, who turns up in every ‘Cinderella’ variant in one form or another.

In Afanasyev’s Russian version, Two Eyes invites her nosy sisters to put their heads in her lap and let her delouse them. That nice hygienic detail turns up in ‘The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs’, too.

There was once a king who had twelve daughters, each one more beautiful than all the rest. They slept together in one room, their beds all in a row, and every evening, when they were all tucked up, the king himself locked the door and bolted it. However, when he opened the room every morning, he discovered that their shoes had been danced to shreds, and no one knew how that could possibly have happened. The princesses would say nothing about the matter.

The king announced that anyone who could discover where his daughters went to dance in the night could choose one of them for his wife, and in time become king himself. On the other hand, if he failed to find out the truth after three nights, he would lose his own life.

Soon a prince from another country arrived and offered to take on the task. He was made welcome, and taken to a room next to the princesses’ bedroom, where he was to keep watch and see where they went to dance. A bed was made up for him, and to make the task even easier, the door to the princesses’ bedroom was left open.

But unfortunately the prince’s eyes felt heavier and heavier as the night wore on, and he fell asleep. And when he woke up in the morning, the princesses’ shoes were nearly worn to pieces. The same thing happened the second night, and the third, and so the prince lost his head. Many others came to try their luck at this dangerous task, but they all failed as he had done.

Now it so happened that a poor soldier, who had been wounded and could no longer serve in the army, was making his way to that very city. On the way he met an old woman begging for alms, and feeling sorry for her he sat down and shared his last bit of bread and cheese with her.