Household Tales by Jacob Grimm (classic books for 12 year olds .txt) ๐
Description
When it was first published in 1812 as Childrenโs and Household Tales, this collection of Germanic fairy tales contained eighty-six stories and was criticized because, despite the name, it wasnโt particularly well-suited to children. Over the next forty-five years, stories were added, removed, and modified until the final seventh edition was published in 1857, containing 210 fairy tales. Today, the book is commonly referred to as Grimmsโ Fairy Tales.
These fairy tales include well-known characters such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, as well as many more that never became quite as popular. Over the years, these stories have been translated, retold, and adapted to many different media.
This is a collection of Margaret Huntโs 1884 English translation, originally published in two volumes.
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- Author: Jacob Grimm
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The captain said, โThen they cannot have had any.โ
โNot so,โ said the King. โEvery animal has a tongue,โ and then he likewise asked what anyone would deserve who made such an answer?
The captain replied, โHe ought to be torn in pieces.โ Then the King said he had pronounced his own sentence, and the captain was put in prison and then torn in four pieces; but the Kingโs daughter was married to the huntsman. After this he brought his father and mother, and they lived with their son in happiness, and after the death of the old King he received the kingdom.
The Flail from HeavenA countryman was once going out to plough with a pair of oxen. When he got to the field, both the animalsโ horns began to grow, and went on growing, and when he wanted to go home they were so big that the oxen could not get through the gateway for them. By good luck a butcher came by just then, and he delivered them over to him, and made the bargain in this way, that he should take the butcher a measure of turnip-seed, and then the butcher was to count him out a Brabant thaler for every seed. I call that well sold! The peasant now went home, and carried the measure of turnip-seed to him on his back. On the way, however, he lost one seed out of the bag. The butcher paid him justly as agreed on, and if the peasant had not lost the seed, he would have had one thaler the more. In the meantime, when he went on his way back, the seed had grown into a tree which reached up to the sky. Then thought the peasant, โAs thou hast the chance, thou must just see what the angels are doing up there above, and for once have them before thine eyes.โ So he climbed up, and saw that the angels above were threshing oats, and he looked on. While he was thus watching them, he observed that the tree on which he was standing, was beginning to totter; he peeped down, and saw that someone was just going to cut it down. โIf I were to fall down from hence it would be a bad thing,โ thought he, and in his necessity he did not know how to save himself better than by taking the chaff of the oats which lay there in heaps, and twisting a rope of it. He likewise snatched a hoe and a flail which were lying about in heaven, and let himself down by the rope. But he came down on the earth exactly in the middle of a deep, deep hole. So it was a real piece of luck that he had brought the hoe, for he hoed himself a flight of steps with it, and mounted up, and took the flail with him as a token of his truth, so that no one could have any doubt of his story.
The Two Kingsโ ChildrenThere was once on a time a King who had a little boy of whom it had been foretold that he should be killed by a stag when he was sixteen years of age, and when he had reached that age the huntsmen once went hunting with him. In the forest, the Kingโs son was separated from the others, and all at once he saw a great stag which he wanted to shoot, but could not hit. At length he chased the stag so far that they were quite out of the forest, and then suddenly a great tall man was standing there instead of the stag, and said, โIt is well that I have thee. I have already ruined six pairs of glass skates with running after thee, and have not been able to get thee.โ Then he took the Kingโs son with him, and dragged him through a great lake to a great palace, and then he had to sit down to table with him and eat something. When they had eaten something together the King said, โI have three daughters, thou must keep watch over the eldest for one night, from nine in the evening till six in the morning, and every time the clock strikes, I will come myself and call, and if thou then givest me no answer, tomorrow morning thou shall be put to death, but if thou always givest me an answer, thou shalt have her to wife.โ
When the young folks went to the bedroom there stood a stone image of St. Christopher, and the Kingโs daughter said to it, โMy father will come at nine oโclock, and every hour till it strikes three; when he calls, give him an answer instead of the Kingโs son.โ Then the stone image of St. Christopher nodded its head quite quickly, and then more and more slowly till at last it stood still.
The next morning the King said to him, โThou hast done the business well, but I cannot give my daughter away. Thou must now watch a night by my second daughter, and then I will consider with myself, whether thou canst have my eldest daughter to wife, but I shall come every hour myself, and when I call thee, answer me, and if I call thee and thou dost not reply, thy blood shall flow.โ
Then they both went into the sleeping-room, and there stood a still larger stone image of St. Christopher, and the Kingโs daughter said to it, โIf my father calls, do you answer him.โ Then the great stone image of St. Christopher again nodded its head quite quickly and then more and more slowly, until at last it stood still again. And the Kingโs son lay down on the threshold, put his hand under his head and slept.
The next morning the King said to him, โThou hast done the business really well, but
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