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Grimms' Fairy Tales
Jorinde
and Joringel
There was once an old castle in the midst
of a large and thick forest, and in it an old woman who
was a witch dwelt all alone. In the day-time she changed
herself into a cat or a screech-owl, but in the evening
she took her proper shape again as a human being. She could
lure wild beasts and birds to her, and then she killed and
boiled and roasted them. If any one came within one hundred
paces of the castle he was obliged to stand still, and could
not stir from the place until she bade him be free. But
whenever an innocent maiden came within this circle, she
changed her into a bird, and shut her up in a wicker-work
cage, and carried the cage into a room in the castle. She
had about seven thousand cages of rare birds in the castle.
Now, there was once a maiden who was called Jorinda, who
was fairer than all other girls. She and a handsome youth
named Joringel had promised to marry each other. They were
still in the days of betrothal, and their greatest happiness
was being together. One day in order that they might be
able to talk together in quiet they went for a walk in the
forest. "Take care," said Joringel, "that
you do not go too near the castle."
It was a beautiful evening; the sun shone brightly between
the trunks of the trees into the dark green of the forest,
and the turtle-doves sang mournfully upon the young boughs
of the birch-trees.
Jorinda wept now and then: she sat down in the sunshine
and was sorrowful. Joringel was sorrowful too; they were
as sad as if they were about to die. Then they looked around
them, and were quite at a loss, for they did not know by
which way they should go home. The sun was still half above
the mountain and half set.
Joringel looked through the bushes, and saw the old walls
of the castle close at hand. He was horror-stricken and
filled with deadly fear. Jorinda was singing --
"My little bird, with the necklace red,
Sings sorrow, sorrow, sorrow,
He sings that the dove must soon be dead,
Sings sorrow, sor -- jug, jug, jug."
Joringel looked for Jorinda. She was changed into a nightingale,
and sang, "jug, jug, jug." A screech-owl with
glowing eyes flew three times round about her, and three
times cried, "to-whoo, to-whoo, to-whoo!"
Joringel could not move: he stood there like a stone, and
could neither weep nor speak, nor move hand or foot.
The sun had now set. The owl flew into the thicket, and
directly afterwards there came out of it a crooked old woman,
yellow and lean, with large red eyes and a hooked nose,
the point of which reached to her chin. She muttered to
herself, caught the nightingale, and took it away in her
hand.
Joringel could neither speak nor move from the spot; the
nightingale was gone. At last the woman came back, and said
in a hollow voice, "Greet thee, Zachiel. If the moon
shines on the cage, Zachiel, let him loose at once."
Then Joringel was freed. He fell on his knees before the
woman and begged that she would give him back his Jorinda,
but she said that he should never have her again, and went
away. He called, he wept, he lamented, but all in vain,"Ah,
what is to become of me?"
Joringel went away, and at last came to a strange village;
there he kept sheep for a long time. He often walked round
and round the castle, but not too near to it. At last he
dreamt one night that he found a blood-red flower, in the
middle of which was a beautiful large pearl; that he picked
the flower and went with it to the castle, and that everything
he touched with the flower was freed from enchantment; he
also dreamt that by means of it he recovered his Jorinda.
In the morning, when he awoke, he began to seek over hill
and dale if he could find such a flower. He sought until
the ninth day, and then, early in the morning, he found
the blood-red flower. In the middle of it there was a large
dew-drop, as big as the finest pearl.
Day and night he journeyed with this flower to the castle.
When he was within a hundred paces of it he was not held
fast, but walked on to the door. Joringel was full of joy;
he touched the door with the flower, and it sprang open.
He walked in through the courtyard, and listened for the
sound of the birds. At last he heard it. He went on and
found the room from whence it came, and there the witch
was feeding the birds in the seven thousand cages.
When she saw Joringel she was angry, very angry, and scolded
and spat poison and gall at him, but she could not come
within two paces of him. He did not take any notice of her,
but went and looked at the cages with the birds; but there
were many hundred nightingales, how was he to find his Jorinda
again?
Just then he saw the old woman quietly take away a cage
with a bird in it, and go towards the door.
Swiftly he sprang towards her, touched the cage with the
flower, and also the old woman. She could now no longer
bewitch any one; and Jorinda was standing there, clasping
him round the neck, and she was as beautiful as ever!
From Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, trans. Margaret
Hunt (London: George Bell, 1884), 1:288-289. |
