The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (interesting novels to read .txt) 📕

`I was thinking what I shall call my first child after I am

married to that young man. All the names in the calendar are

taken already.’

The mother sat down on the staircase beside her daughter and

said, `I will think about it with you, my dear.’

The father who had stayed upstairs with the young man was

surprised that neither his wife nor his daughter came back, and in

his turn went down to look for them. He found them both sitting

on the stairs, while beside them the beer was running all over the

ground from the tap, which was wide open.

`What are you doing there? The beer is running all over the

cellar.’

`We were thinking what we should call the children that our

daughter will have when she marries that young man. All the

names in the calendar are taken already.’

`Well,’ said the father, `I will think about it with you.’

As neither mother nor daughter nor father came upstairs again,

the lover grew impatient, and went down into the cellar to see

what they could all be doing. He found them all three sitting on

the stairs, while beside them the beer was running all over the

ground from the tap, which was wide open.

`What in the world are you all doing that you don’t come

upstairs, and that you let the beer run all over the cellar?’

`Yes, I know, my boy,’ said the father, `but if you marry our

daughter what shall you call your children? All the names in the

calendar are taken.’

When the young man heard this answer he replied:

`Well! good-bye, I am going away. When I shall have found

three people sillier than you I will come back and marry your

daughter.’

So he continued his journey, and after walking a long way he

reached an orchard. Then he saw some people knocking down

walnuts, and trying to throw them into a cart with a fork.

`What are you doing there?’ he asked.

`We want to load the cart with our walnuts, but we can’t

manage to do it.’

The lover advised them to get a basket and to put the walnuts

in it, so as to turn them into the cart.

`Well,’ he said to himself, `I have already found someone more

foolish than those three.’

So he went on his way, and by-and-by he came to a wood.

There he saw a man who wanted to give his pig some acorns to

eat, and was trying with all his might to make him climb up the

oak-tree.

`What are you doing, my good man?’ asked he.

`I want to make my pig eat some acorns, and I can’t get him

to go up the tree.’

`If you were to climb up and shake down the acorns the pig

would pick them up.’

`Oh, I never thought of that.’

`Here is the second idiot,’ said the lover to himself.

Some way farther along the road he came upon a man who

had never worn any trousers, and who was trying to put on a pair.

So he had fastened them to a tree and was jumping with all his

might up in the air so that he should hit the two legs of the trousers

as he came down.

`It would be much better if you held them in your hands,’ said

the young man, `and then put your legs one after the other in each

hole.’

`Dear me to be sure! You are sharper than I am, for that

never occurred to me.’

And having found three people more foolish than his bride, or

her father or her mother, the lover went back to marry the young

lady.

And in course of time they had a great many children.

Story from Hainaut.

(M. Lemoine. La Tradition. No, 34,)

THERE was once upon a time a King who had become a widower.

His Queen had left one daughter behind her, and she was so

wise and so pretty that it was impossible for any one to be wiser or

prettier. For a long time the King went sorrowing for his wife, for

he had loved her exceedingly; but at last he grew tired of living

alone, and married a Queen who was a widow, and she also had

a daughter, who was just as ill-favoured and wicked as the other

was good and beautiful. The stepmother and her daughter were

envious of the King’s daughter because she was so pretty, but so

long as the King was at home they dared do her no harm, because

his love for her was so great.

Then there came a time when he made war on another King and

went away to fight, and then the new Queen thought that she could

do what she liked; so she both hungered and beat the King’s daughter

and chased her about into every corner. At last she thought that

everything was too good for her, and set her to work to look after

the cattle. So she went about with the cattle, and herded them in

the woods and in the fields. Of food she got little or none, and

grew pale and thin, and was nearly always weeping and sad. Among

the herd there was a great blue bull, which always kept itself very

smart and sleek, and often came to the King’s daughter and let her

stroke him. So one day, when she was again sitting crying and

sorrowing, the Bull came up to her and asked why she was always

so full of care? She made no answer, but continued to weep.

`Well,’ said the Bull, `I know what it is, though you will not tell

me; you are weeping because the Queen is unkind to you, and because

she wants to starve you to death. But you need be under no concern

about food, for in my left ear there lies a cloth, and if you will but

take it and spread it out, you can have as many dishes as you like.’

So she did this, and took the cloth and spread it out upon the

grass, and then it was covered with the daintiest dishes that any one

could desire, and there was wine, and mead, and cake. And now

she became brisk and well again, and grew so rosy, and plump, and

fair that the Queen and her scraggy daughter turned blue and white

with vexation at it. The Queen could not imagine how her stepdaughter could look so well on such bad food, so she ordered one of

her handmaidens to follow her into the wood and watch her, and

see how it was, for she thought that some of the servants must be

giving her food. So the maid followed her into the wood and

watched, and saw how the stepdaughter took the cloth out of the

Blue Bull’s ear, and spread it out, and how the cloth was then covered

with the most delicate dishes, which the stepdaughter ate and

regaled herself with. So the waiting-maid went home and told the Queen.

And now the King came home, and he had conquered the other

King with whom he had been at war. So there was great gladness

in the palace, but no one was more glad than the King’s daughter.

The Queen, however, pretended to be ill, and gave the doctor much

money to say that she would never be well again unless she had

some of the flesh of the Blue Bull to eat. Both the King’s daughter

and the people in the palace asked the doctor if there were no other

means of saving her, and begged for the Bull’s life, for they were all

fond of him, and they all declared that there was no such Bull in the

whole country; but it was all in vain, he was to be killed, and should

be killed, and nothing else would serve. When the King’s daughter

heard it she was full of sorrow, and went down to the byre to the

Bull. He too was standing there hanging his head, and looking so

downcast that she fell a-weeping over him.

`What are you weeping for?’ said the Bull.

So she told him that the King had come home again, and that

the Queen had pretended to be ill, and that she had made the doctor

say that she could never be well again unless some of the flesh of

the Blue Bull was given her to eat, and that now he was to be

killed.

`When once they have taken my life they will soon kill you

also,’ said the Bull. `If you are of the same mind with me, we will

take our departure this very night.’

The King’s daughter thought that it was bad to go and leave

her father, but that it was worse still to be in the same house with

the Queen, so she promised the Bull that she would come.

At night, when all the others had gone to bed, the King’s daughter

stole softly down to the byre to the Bull, and he took her on his

back and got out of the courtyard as quickly as he could. So at

cock-crow next morning, when the people came to kill the Bull, he

was gone, and when the King got up and asked for his daughter she

was gone too. He sent forth messengers to all parts of the kingdom

to search for them, and published his loss in all the parish churches,

but there was no one who had seen anything of them.

In the meantime the Bull travelled through many lands with the

King’s daughter on his back, and one day they came to a great

copper-wood, where the trees, and the branches, and the leaves, and

the flowers, and everything else was of copper.

But before they entered the wood the Bull said to the King’s

daughter:

`When we enter into this wood, you must take the greatest care

not to touch a leaf of it, or all will be over both with me and with

you, for a Troll with three heads, who is the owner of the wood,

lives here.’

So she said she would be on her guard, and not touch anything.

And she was very careful, and bent herself out of the way of the

branches, and put them aside with her hands; but it was so thickly

wooded that it was all but impossible to get forward, and do what

she might, she somehow or other tore off a leaf which got into her

hand.

`Oh! oh! What have you done now?’ said the Bull. `It will

now cost us a battle for life or death; but do be careful to keep the

leaf.’

Very soon afterwards they came to the end of the wood, and the

Troll with three heads came rushing up to them.

`Who is that who is touching my wood?’ said the Troll.

`The wood is just as much mine as yours!’ said the Bull.

`We shall have a tussle for that!’ shrieked the Troll.

`That may be,’ said the Bull.

So they rushed on each other and fought, and as for the Bull

he butted and kicked with all the strength of his body, but the

Troll fought quite as well as he did, and the whole day went by

before the Bull put an end to him, and then he himself was so full

of wounds and so worn out that he was scarcely able to move. So

they had to