|
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Foundling
Bird
There was once a forester who went into the
forest to hunt, and as he entered it he heard a sound of
screaming as if a little child were there. He followed the
sound, and at last came to a high tree, and at the top of
this a little child was sitting, for the mother had fallen
asleep under the tree with the child, and a bird of prey
had seen it in her arms, had flown down, snatched it away,
and set it on the high tree.
The forester climbed up, brought the child down, and thought
to himself, "Thou wilt take him home with thee, and
bring him up with thy Lina." He took it home, therefore,
and the two children grew up together. The one, however,
which he had found on a tree was called Fundevogel, because
a bird had carried it away. Fundevogel and Lina loved each
other so dearly that when they did not see each other they
were sad.
The forester, however, had an old cook, who one evening
took two pails and began to fetch water, and did not go
once only, but many times, out to the spring. Lina saw this
and said, "Hark you, old Sanna, why are you fetching
so much water?" "If thou wilt never repeat it
to anyone, I will tell thee why." So Lina said, no,
she would never repeat it to anyone, and then the cook said,
"Early to-morrow morning, when the forester is out
hunting, I will heat the water, and when it is boiling in
the kettle, I will throw in Fundevogel, and will boil him
in it."
Betimes next morning the forester got up and went out hunting,
and when he was gone the children were still in bed. Then
Lina said to Fundevogel, "If thou wilt never leave
me, I too will never leave thee." Fundevogel said,
"Neither now, nor ever will I leave thee." Then
said Lina, "Then I will tell thee. Last night, old
Sanna carried so many buckets of water into the house that
I asked her why she was doing that, and she said that if
I would promise not to tell any one she would tell me, and
I said I would be sure not to tell any one, and she said
that early to-morrow morning when father was out hunting,
she would set the kettle full of water, throw thee into
it and boil thee; but we will get up quickly, dress ourselves,
and go away together."
The two children therefore got up, dressed themselves quickly,
and went away. When the water in the kettle was boiling,
the cook went into the bed-room to fetch Fundevogel and
throw him into it. But when she came in, and went to the
beds, both the children were gone. Then she was terribly
alarmed, and she said to herself, "What shall I say
now when the forester comes home and sees that the children
are gone? They must be followed instantly to get them back
again."
Then the cook sent three servants after them, who were
to run and overtake the children. The children, however,
were sitting outside the forest, and when they saw from
afar the three servants running, Lina said to Fundevogel,
"Never leave me, and I will never leave thee."
Fundevogel said, "Neither now, nor ever." Then
said Lina, "Do thou become a rose-tree, and I the rose
upon it." When the three servants came to the forest,
nothing was there but a rose-tree and one rose on it, but
the children were nowhere. Then said they, "There is
nothing to be done here," and they went home and told
the cook that they had seen nothing in the forest but a
little rose-bush with one rose on it. Then the old cook
scolded and said, "You simpletons, you should have
cut the rose-bush in two, and have broken off the rose and
brought it home with you; go, and do it once." They
had therefore to go out and look for the second time. The
children, however, saw them coming from a distance. Then
Lina said, "Fundevogel, never leave me, and I will
never leave thee." Fundevogel said, "Neither now,
nor ever." Said Lina, "Then do thou become a church,
and I'll be the chandelier in it." So when the three
servants came, nothing was there but a church, with a chandelier
in it. They said therefore to each other, "What can
we do here, let us go home." When they got home, the
cook asked if they had not found them; so they said no,
they had found nothing but a church, and that there was
a chandelier in it. And the cook scolded them and said,
"You fools! why did you not pull the church to pieces,
and bring the chandelier home with you?" And now the
old cook herself got on her legs, and went with the three
servants in pursuit of the children. The children, however,
saw from afar that the three servants were coming, and the
cook waddling after them. Then said Lina, "Fundevogel,
never leave me, and I will never leave thee." Then
said Fundevogel, "Neither now, nor ever." Said
Lina, "Be a fishpond, and I will be the duck upon it."
The cook, however, came up to them, and when she saw the
pond she lay down by it, and was about to drink it up. But
the duck swam quickly to her, seized her head in its beak
and drew her into the water, and there the old witch had
to drown. Then the children went home together, and were
heartily delighted, and if they are not dead, they are living
still.
From Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, trans. Margaret
Hunt (London: George Bell, 1884), 1:200-202. |
