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Grimms' Fairy Tales
The
Three Spinners
There was once a girl who was idle and would
not spin, and let her mother say what she would, she could
not bring her to it. At last the mother was once so overcome
with anger and impatience, that she beat her, on which the
girl began to weep loudly. Now at this very moment the Queen
drove by, and when she heard the weeping she stopped her
carriage, went into the house and asked the mother why she
was beating her daughter so that the cries could be heard
out on the road? Then the woman was ashamed to reveal the
laziness of her daughter and said, "I cannot get her
to leave off spinning. She insists on spinning for ever
and ever, and I am poor, and cannot procure the flax."
Then answered the Queen, "There is nothing that I like
better to hear than spinning, and I am never happier than
when the wheels are humming. Let me have your daughter with
me in the palace. I have flax enough, and there she shall
spin as much as she likes." The mother was heartily
satisfied with this, and the Queen took the girl with her.
When they had arrived at the palace, she led her up into
three rooms which were filled from the bottom to the top
with the finest flax. "Now spin me this flax,"
said she, "and when thou hast done it, thou shalt have
my eldest son for a husband, even if thou art poor. I care
not for that, thy indefatigable industry is dowry enough."
The girl was secretly terrified, for she could not have
spun the flax, no, not if she had lived till she was three
hundred years old, and had sat at it every day from morning
till night. When therefore she was alone, she began to weep,
and sat thus for three days without moving a finger. On
the third day came the Queen, and when she saw that nothing
had been spun yet, she was surprised; but the girl excused
herself by saying that she had not been able to begin because
of her great distress at leaving her mother's house. The
queen was satisfied with this, but said when she was going
away,"To-morrow thou must begin to work."
When the girl was alone again, she did not know what to
do, and in her distress went to the window. Then she saw
three women coming towards her, the first of whom had a
broad flat foot, the second had such a great underlip that
it hung down over her chin, and the third had a broad thumb.
They remained standing before the window, looked up, and
asked the girl what was amiss with her? She complained of
her trouble, and then they offered her their help and said,
"If thou wilt invite us to the wedding, not be ashamed
of us, and wilt call us thine aunts, and likewise wilt place
us at thy table, we will spin up the flax for thee, and
that in a very short time." "With all my heart,"
she replied, "do but come in and begin the work at
once." Then she let in the three strange women, and
cleared a place in the first room, where they seated themselves
and began their spinning. The one drew the thread and trod
the wheel, the other wetted the thread, the third twisted
it, and struck the table with her finger, and as often as
she struck it, a skein of thread fell to the ground that
was spun in the finest manner possible. The girl concealed
the three spinners from the Queen, and showed her whenever
she came the great quantity of spun thread, until the latter
could not praise her enough. When the first room was empty
she went to the second, and at last to the third, and that
too was quickly cleared. Then the three women took leave
and said to the girl, "Do not forget what thou hast
promised us, -- it will make thy fortune.
When the maiden showed the Queen the empty rooms, and the
great heap of yarn, she gave orders for the wedding, and
the bridegroom rejoiced that he was to have such a clever
and industrious wife, and praised her mightily. "I
have three aunts," said the girl, "and as they
have been very kind to me, I should not like to forget them
in my good fortune; allow me to invite them to the wedding,
and let them sit with us at table." The Queen and the
bridegroom said, "Why should we not allow that?"
Therefore when the feast began, the three women entered
in strange apparel, and the bride said, "Welcome, dear
aunts." "Ah," said the bridegroom, "how
comest thou by these odious friends?" Thereupon he
went to the one with the broad flat foot, and said, "How
do you come by such a broad foot?" "By treading,"
she answered, "by treading.""Then the bridegroom
went to the second, and said, "How do you come by your
falling lip?" "By licking," she answered,
"by licking." Then he asked the third, "How
do you come by your broad thumb?" "By twisting
the thread," she answered, "by twisting the thread."
On this the King's son was alarmed and said, "Neither
now nor ever shall my beautiful bride touch a spinning-wheel."
And thus she got rid of the hateful flax-spinning.
From Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, trans. Margaret
Hunt (London: George Bell, 1884), 1:59-61. |
