Елена Лебедева: Лучшие английские сказки / Best english fairy tales

It certainly was a marvelous sight. In the farthest corner of the garden was a tree quite covered [44]with lovely white blossoms. Its branches were all golden, and silver fruit hung down from them, and under it stood the little boy he loved.

Downstairs ran the Giant in great joy, and out into the garden. He hastened across the grass, and came near to the child.

And when he came quite close his face grew red with anger, and he said, ‘Who has dared to wound you?’

For on the palms of the child’s hands were the prints of two nails, and the prints of two nails were on the little feet.

‘Who has dared to wound you?’ cried the Giant; ‘tell me, that I may take my big sword and kill him.’

‘No!’ answered the child; ‘but these are the wounds of Love.’

‘Who are you?’ said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child.

And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, ‘You let me play once in your garden, today you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.’

And when the children ran in that afternoon, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms.

Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the king, and in order to make himself appear important he said to him, ‘I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold.’

The king said to the miller, ‘That is an art which pleases me well, if your daughter is as clever as you say, bring her tomorrow to my palace, and I will put her to the test.’

And when the girl was brought to him he took her into a room which was quite full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel, and said, ‘Now set to work, and if by tomorrow morning early you have not spun this straw into gold during the night, you must die.’

Thereupon he himself locked up the room, and left her in it alone. So there sat the poor miller’s daughter, and could not tell what to do, she had no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew more and more frightened, until at last she began to cry.

But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man, and said, ‘Good evening, mistress miller, why are you crying?’

‘Oh,’ answered the girl, ‘I have to spin straw into gold, and I do not know how to do it.’

‘What will you give me,’ said the manikin, ‘if I do it for you?’

‘My necklace,’ said the girl.

The little man took the necklace, seated himself in front of the wheel, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three turns, and the reel was full, then he put another on, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three times round, and the second was full too. And so it went on until the morning, when all the straw was spun, and all the reels were full of gold.

By daybreak the king was already there, and when he saw the gold he was astonished and delighted, but his heart became only more greedy. He had the miller’s daughter taken into another room full of straw, which was much larger, and commanded her to spin that also in one night if she valued her life. The girl knew not how to help herself, and was crying, when the door opened again, and the little man appeared, and said, ‘What will you give me if I spin that straw into gold for you?’

‘The ring on my finger,’ answered the girl.

The little man took the ring, again began to turn the wheel, and by morning had spun all the straw into glittering gold.

The king rejoiced beyond measure at the sight of [45]it, but still he had not enough gold, and he had the miller’s daughter taken into a still larger room full of straw, and said, ‘You must spin this, too, in the course of this night, but if you succeed, you shall be my wife.’

Even if she be a miller’s daughter, thought he, I could not find a richer wife in the whole world.

When the girl was alone the manikin came again for the third time, and said, ‘What will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time also?’

‘I have nothing left that I could give,’ answered the girl.

‘Then promise me, if you should become queen, to give me your first child.’

Who knows whether that will ever happen, thought the miller’s daughter, and, not knowing how else to help herself in this strait, she promised the manikin what he wanted, and for that he once more spun the straw into gold.

And when the king came in the morning, and found all as he had wished, he took her in marriage, and the pretty miller’s daughter became a queen.

A year after, she born a beautiful child, and she never gave a thought to the manikin. But suddenly he came into her room, and said, ‘Now give me what you promised.’

The queen was horror-struck, and offered the manikin all the riches of the kingdom if he would leave her the child. But the manikin said, ‘No, something alive is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world.’

Then the queen began to cry, so that the manikin pitied her.

‘I will give you three days time,’ said he, ‘if by that time you find out my name, then shall you keep your child.’

So the queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever heard, and she sent a messenger over the country to inquire, far and wide, for any other names that there might be. When the manikin came the next day, she began with Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, and said all the names she knew, one after another, but to every one the little man said, ‘That is not my name.’

On the second day she had inquiries made in the neighborhood as to the names of the people there, and she repeated to the manikin the most uncommon and curious. Perhaps your name is Shortribs, or Sheepshanks, or Laceleg, but he always answered, ‘That is not my name.’

On the third day the messenger came back again, and said, ‘I have not been able to find a single new name, but as I came to a high mountain at the end of the forest, where the fox and the hare bid each other good night, [46]there I saw a little house, and before the house a fire was burning, and round about the fire quite a ridiculous little man was jumping, he hopped upon one leg, and shouted –

‘Today I bake, tomorrow brew, the next I’ll have the young queen’s child.

Ha, glad am I that no one knew that Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.’

You may imagine how glad the queen was when she heard the name. And when soon afterwards the little man came in, and asked, ‘Now, mistress queen, what is my name?’

At first she said, ‘Is your name Conrad?’

‘No.’

‘Is your name Harry?’

‘No.’

‘Perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin?’

‘The devil has told you that! The devil has told you that,’ cried the little man, and in his anger he plunged his right foot so deep into the earth that his whole leg went in, and then in rage he pulled at his left leg so hard with both hands that he tore himself in two.

Two Frogs lived together in a marsh. But one hot summer the marsh dried up, and they left it to look for another place to live in: for frogs like damp places if they can get them. By and by [47]they came to a deep well, and one of them looked down into it, and said to the other, ‘This looks a nice cool place. Let us jump in and settle here.’ But the other, who had a wiser head on his shoulders, replied, ‘Not so fast, my friend. Supposing this well dried up like the marsh, how should we get out again?’

Moral: Look before you leap.

Once upon a time, long ago there were two brothers, the one rich and the other poor. When Christmas Eve [48]came, the poor one had not a bite in the house, either of meat or bread; so he went to his brother, and begged him, in God’s name, to give him something for Christmas Day. It was by no means the first time that the brother had been forced to give something to him, and he was not better pleased at being asked now than he generally was.