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Tales from the Brothers Grimm

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The Frog King or Iron Henry

Once upon a time, when wishes could still come true, there was a king whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was so lovely that the sun itself, although it had seen so much, marvelled at her beauty whenever it shone on her face. Close to the king's castle there was a great, dark forest, and in the forest, under an old linden tree, there was a well. If the weather was very hot, the king's daughter used to go out into the forest and sit on the rim of the well - and if she was bored she took a golden ball that was her favorite plaything with her, threw it up in the air and caught it again.

One day it so happened that after she had thrown the golden ball up it did not fall back into her little hands again, but came down on the ground and rolled straight into the water. The king's daughter followed it with her eyes, but the ball disappeared, and the well was deep, so deep that you couldn't see to the bottom of it. Then she began to weep and wail inconsolably, louder and louder. And as she was weeping like that, a voice spoke to her, "What's the matter, king's daughter? Why are you crying so pitifully that it would melt a heart of stone?"

She looked around to find out where the voice came from, and then she saw a frog putting his fat, ugly head up above the water. "Oh, it's you, is it, old squelchy-splasher?" she said. "I'm crying because my golden ball has fallen into the well, and now I've lost it."

"Hush, don't cry," replied the frog. "I can help you there, but what will you give me if I bring your plaything up out of the water again?"

"Anything you like, dear frog," she said. "My fine dresses, my pearls and jewels, even the golden crown that I wear."

"I don't want your dresses, your pearls and jewels or your golden crown," said the frog, "but if you will be kind to me and take me as your friend and playmate, let me sit at your little table beside you, eat from your little golden plate, drink from your little golden goblet and sleep in your little bed - if you will promise me all that, I will climb down the well and bring your golden ball up again."

"Oh yes," she said, "I promise anything you like if you will only bring me back my golden ball." But she was thinking: what nonsense that silly frog talks! There he sits in the water with the other frogs, so how can he be friends with any human being?

Once she had promised, the frog dipped his head down under the water, sank to the bottom of the well, and a little later he came swimming up again with the ball in his mouth and dropped it on the grass. The king's daughter was delighted to see her pretty toy again. She picked it up and ran away with it.

"Wait for me!" the frog called after her. "Take me with you. I can't run as fast as you!" But however loud he croaked, it did him no good! She paid him no attention, but hurried home and soon forgot all about the poor frog, who had to climb down into his well again.

Next day, when she was sitting at the dinner table with the king and all the courtiers, eating from her little golden plate, something came crawling up the marble steps outside the castle, slip slop, slip slop, and when it was at the top of the flight of steps it knocked on the door and called, "Youngest daughter of the king, open the door to let me in!" She went to see who was outside the door, but when she opened it, there sat the frog. Then she quickly slammed the door and sat down again, feeling very frightened. The king could see that her heart was beating fast, and he asked, "What are you afraid of, my child? Is there a giant outside the door wanting to take you away?"

"No," she said, "it's not a giant, it's a nasty frog."

"What does the frog want?"

"Oh, dear father, when I was sitting beside the well in the forest yesterday my golden ball fell into the water. And the frog fetched it out because I was crying so hard, and when he insisted I promised to be his friend, but I never thought he could get out of the water. Now he's outside the door and wants to come in."

And already there was a second knock on the door, and a voice called out:

"Youngest king's daughter
Open the door.
Don't you remember
The promise you swore,
Beside the cool water
Youngest king's daughter?
Open the door!"

Then the king said, "If you made a promise, you must keep it, so go and open the door to him." She went and opened the door, and the frog hopped in and followed her back to her chair. He sat there on the floor and said, "Pick me up so that I can sit beside you!" She hesitated until at last the king told her to do as the frog said. Once he was on the chair he wanted to get up on the table, and when he was on the table he said, "Push your little golden plate closer to me so that we can eat from it together."

She did as the frog said, but anyone could tell that she was reluctant to do so. The frog ate a good dinner, but she could hardly swallow a morsel. At last the frog said, "I've eaten all I want, and now I'm tired, so carry me into your little bedchamber, make up the bed with silken sheets, and we'll lie down to sleep."

The king's daughter began to weep, because she was afraid of the cold, clammy frog. She didn't like to touch him, and now she must let him sleep in her lovely, clean little bed. But the king was angry, and said, "If someone helps you in your hour of need, then you must not despise him afterwards." So she picked up the frog with the tips of two fingers, carried him to her bedchamber and put him down in a corner. However, when she was lying in bed he came crawling up and said, "I'm tired, I want to sleep in as much comfort as you, so pick me up or I'll tell your father!"

At that she lost her temper, seized the frog and threw him against the wall with all her might, saying, "That will keep you quiet, you nasty frog!"

However, when he fell to the floor he wasn't a frog any more, he had turned into a king's son with kind and beautiful eyes. And now, as her father the king wished, he was to be her dear friend and her husband. He told her that a wicked witch had cast a spell on him, and no one but the king's youngest daughter could break the spell and release him from the water in the well. Tomorrow, he said, they would go off to his own kingdom together. Then they went to sleep, and at sunrise next morning a carriage drawn by eight white horses came driving up. The horses had white ostrich plumes on their heads, and were harnessed to the carriage with golden chains, and behind the carriage stood the young king's servant, Faithful Henry. Faithful Henry had been so upset when his master was turned into a frog that he had had three iron bands fastened around his heart, to keep it from breaking with misery and sadness. Now that the carriage was to take the young king away to his kingdom, Faithful Henry helped him and his young wife into it, got up behind them again, and was full of joy to see that the spell had been broken.

When they had gone part of the way the king's son heard a cracking noise behind him, like something breaking. So he turned round and called:

"Henry, the carriage is breaking!" But Faithful Henry replied:

"No, sir, that was my heart waking.
Cracking one of the iron bands
Forged around it when from your lands
You were exiled by the witch's spell,
To be a frog and live in a well."

As they drove along there was a second cracking sound, and then a third, and each time the king's son thought the carriage was breaking, but it was only the iron bands falling away from Faithful Henry's heart, because now his master was released from the spell and was happy.

The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids

Once upon a time there was an old nanny-goat who had seven young kids, and she loved them dearly, just as any mother loves her children. One day, when she wanted to go into the forest and look for food, she called all seven to her and said, "Dear children, I'm going into the forest, so you must be on your guard against the wolf. If he gets into this house he'll eat you all up. He often pretends to be someone else, but you'll know him by his rough voice and his black paws."

"Dear Mother," said the kids, "we'll take good care, so you go out and don't worry about us." So the old goat bleated goodbye and set off with her mind at rest.

It wasn't long before someone knocked at the door of the house and called, "Open the door, dear children, here's your mother back bringing something nice for each of you." But the kids could hear from his rough voice that he was the wolf. "No," they replied, "you're not our mother. She has a kind, gentle voice, but your voice is rough. You're the wolf."

The wolf went away to a shop where he bought a big piece of chalk; he ate it to soften his voice. Then he came back, knocked on the door of the house and called, "Open the door, dear children, here's your mother back bringing something nice for each of you." But the wolf had put one of his black paws on the window-sill, and the goat's children saw it and said, "We won't open the door; our mother doesn't have a black paw like you. You're the wolf."

Then the wolf went to a baker and said, "I've hurt my paw. Put some dough on it, please." And when the baker had spread dough over his paw, he went to the miller and said, "Sprinkle some white flour over my paw." The miller thought: the wolf wants to deceive someone. And he was unwilling to do it, but the wolf said, "If you don't do as I say, I'm going to eat you up." Then the miller was frightened, and made the wolf's paw look white. That's human nature for you.

Now the wicked wolf went to the door of the goat's house for the third time, knocked on the door and said, "Open the door, dear children, here's your mother back bringing something out of the forest for each of you."

"Show us your paw first," called the kids, "so that we'll know if you're really our dear mother."

Then the wolf put his paw on the window-sill, and when they saw that it was white they believed that what he said was true, and opened the door. However, it wasn't their mother who came in but the wolf. They were frightened, and tried to hide. One of them ran under the table, the second jumped into the bed, the third hid in the stove, the fourth in the kitchen, the fifth in the wardrobe, the sixth under the wash-basin, and the seventh in the case of the clock on the wall. But the wolf found them all and made short work of them: he swallowed them one by one, and the only one he missed was the youngest, who was hiding in the clock case. And when his appetite was satisfied he strolled away, lay down outside in the green grass of the meadow under a tree, and went to sleep.

Not long after that, the old nanny-goat came home from the forest. Oh, what a sight met her eyes! The front door of the house was wide open, the table, chairs and benches were turned upside down, the wash- basin was smashed to pieces, the blanket and pillows had been pulled off the bed. She looked for her children, but they were nowhere to be found. She called their names, one after another, but no one answered. At last, when she came to the name of the youngest, a little voice called, "Dear Mother, I'm here in the clock case on the wall." She let the kid out, and he told her how the wolf had come and eaten all the others. You can imagine how the goat wept for her poor children. At last, in her grief, she went out of the house, and the youngest little kid went with her. When she came to the meadow, there was the wolf lying under the tree, snoring so hard that the branches shook.

She looked at the wolf from all sides, and saw that there was something moving and wriggling inside his big, over-stretched belly. Oh God, she thought, can my poor children still be alive after the wolf swallowed them all for his supper? And she sent the seventh kid running back to the house to fetch her a pair of scissors, a needle and some thread. Then she slit open the monster's belly, and as soon as she had made the first cut one of the kids put his head out, and as she went on cutting all six jumped out, one by one. They were all still alive, and hadn't even come to any harm, because in his greed the monster had swallowed them whole. How happy they were! They hugged their dear mother, and capered about like a tailor on his wedding day.

"Now," said the old nanny-goat, "go and fetch me some big lumps of rock, and we'll fill the wicked creature's belly with those while he's still asleep." So the seven little kids hurried off to find the stones, and put as many inside the wolf's belly as it would take. Then the old nanny-goat quickly sewed it up again, so that the wolf wouldn't notice anything. He didn't even move while all this was going on.

When the wolf had finally slept long enough, he got up, and because the stones inside him made him feel thirsty he wanted to find a well and drink water from it. However, when he was on his feet and began walking, the stones inside him hit each other as he moved and rumbled around. Then the wolf cried:

"What's rumbling inside me?

What jiggles and thumps?

It ought to be kids,

But it sounds like stone lumps."

And when he came to the well and leaned over the rim of it to drink the water, the heavy stones dragged him in, and he drowned miserably. Seeing his fate, the seven little kids came running up, shouting, "The wolf is dead, the wolf is dead!" Then they and their mother danced around the well for joy.

Hansel and Gretel

There was once a poor woodcutter who lived near a large forest with his wife and his two children; the little boy was called Hansel and the little girl's name was Gretel. He did not have much at home for his family to eat, and a time came when prices were so high in the country round about that he couldn't even provide their daily bread. As he lay in bed one evening, tossing and turning as he thought of all his anxieties, he sighed and said to his wife, "What's to become of us? How can we feed our poor children, when we have nothing left to eat ourselves?"

"I'll tell you what to do, husband," his wife replied. "Early tomorrow morning we'll take the children out into the thickest part of the forest; we'll light a fire for them there and give them a piece of bread each, and then we'll go about our work and leave them alone. They'll never find the way home again, and we'll be rid of them."

"No, wife," said her husband. "I won't do that. How could I find it in my heart to take my children into the forest and leave them alone there, where the wild beasts would soon come and tear them to pieces?"

"You fool," she said. "Then all four of us must die of starvation, and all you have to do is plane the planks for our coffins smooth." And she went on pestering him until he agreed. "But I feel so sorry for the poor children," he said.

The two children hadn't been able to sleep either because they were so hungry, and they had heard what their stepmother said to their father. Gretel shed bitter tears and said to Hansel, "It's all up with us now."

"Hush, Gretel," said Hansel. "Don't worry, I'll think of a way to help us." And when the old people had gone to sleep, he got up, put on his little coat, opened the bottom half of the door and stole out. The moon was shining brightly, and the white pebbles outside the house gleamed like silver coins. Hansel bent down and put as many of them in his coat pocket as it would take. Then he went back indoors, and told Gretel, "Cheer up, dear little sister, and go to sleep. God will not abandon us." And he got back into bed.

At daybreak, even before the sun had risen, the woman came to wake the two children. "Get up, you lazybones," she said. "We're going into the forest to fetch wood." Then she gave them each a piece of bread, saying, "That's for you to eat in the middle of the day, but don't eat it any earlier, because it's all you'll get." Gretel put the bread under her apron, because Hansel's pocket was full of pebbles. Then they all set off for the forest together. When they had been walking for a little while, Hansel stopped and looked back at the house. He did that again and again.

"What are you looking at, Hansel?" asked his father. "Don't lag behind like that, stir your stumps!"

"Oh, Father," said Hansel, "I'm looking at my little white cat sitting on the roof saying goodbye to me."

"Nonsense," said the woman, "that's not your cat, it's the morning sun shining on the chimney." But Hansel had not really been looking at his cat; whenever he had stopped it was to take one of the shiny pebbles out of his pocket and drop it on the path.

When they were in the middle of the forest, the father said, "Off you go to gather wood, children, and I'll light a fire to keep you warm." Hansel and Gretel busily collected a whole pile of twigs, their father lit the fire, and when the flames were burning high the woman said, "Lie down by the fire, children, and have a rest. We're going on into the forest to chop wood. When we've finished our work we'll come back for you."

Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire, and when it was mid-day they ate their bread. And because they could hear the blows of the axe, they thought their father was nearby. However, it was not his axe they heard, but a branch that he had tied to a dry tree, swinging back and forth in the wind. When they had sat like that for a long time, they were so weary that their eyes closed, and they fell fast asleep. At last, much later, they woke up to find that it was dark, and night had fallen.

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Excerpted from Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Brothers Grimm, Lisbeth Zwerger. Copyright © 2012 Lisbeth Zwerger. Excerpted by permission of minedition.
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