“Fitcher’s Bird” Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Fitcher's Bird Image via Wikipedia

Once upon a time there was a sorcerer who was a thief. He disguised himself as a poor man and went begging from house to house. A girl came to the door and brought him a piece of bread. He touched her, and she was forced to jump into his pack basket. Then he carried her to his house where everything was splendid, and he gave her everything that she wanted.

One day he said, “I have to take care of something away from home. I will be away for a while. Here is an egg. Take good care of it. Carry it with you at all times. And here is a key, but at the risk of your life, do not go into the room that it opens. But as soon as he had gone, she unlocked the door and went into the room. In the middle there was a large basin. In it there were dead and dismembered people. She was so terrified that she dropped the egg, which she was holding in her hand, into the basin. She quickly took it out again and wiped off the blood, but it reappeared in an instant. She could not get the egg clean, no matter how much she wiped and scrubbed.

When the man returned, he asked for the egg and the key. He looked at them and knew that she had been in the blood chamber. “You did not heed my words,” he said angrily, “and now you are going into the chamber against your will.” With that he seized her, led her into the room, cut her up in pieces, and threw her into the basin with the others.

Sometime later the man went begging again. He captured the second daughter from the house, and the same thing happened to her as to the first one. She too opened the forbidden door, dropped the egg into the blood, and was cut to pieces and thrown into the basin.

Then the sorcerer wanted to have the third daughter. He captured her in his pack basket, carried her home, and at his departure gave her the egg and the key. However, the third sister was clever and sly. First of all, she put the egg in a safe place, and then she went into the secret chamber. When she saw her sisters in the basin, she found all of their parts and put each one back in its right place: head, body, arm, and leg. The parts started to move, and then they joined together, and the two sister came back to life. She took them both out of the room and hid them.

When the man returned and found that the egg was free of blood, he asked her to become his bride. She said yes, but told him that first he would have to carry a basket filled with gold on his back to her parents, and that meanwhile she would be getting ready for the wedding. Then she told her sisters to get help from home. She put them into the basket and covered them over with gold. Then she said to the man, “Carry this away. And don’t you dare stop to rest. If you do, I’ll be able to see through my window.” He lifted the basket onto his back and started off, but it was so heavy that the weight nearly killed him. He wanted to rest a little, but one of the girls inside the basket called out, “I can see through my window that you are resting. Walk on at once!” He thought it was his bride calling out, so he got up and walked on. Every time he wanted to rest, he heard the call, and had to continue on.

Meanwhile, back at his house, his bride dressed up a skull and placed it in the attic window. Then she invited all the sorcerer’s friends to the wedding. Then she dipped herself in a barrel of honey, cut open the bed, and rolled in the feathers so that no one would be able to recognize her. In this strange disguise, she left the house and started down the path. Soon she met some of the guests, who said, “You, Fitcher’s bird, where are you coming from?”

“I’m coming from Fitcher’s house.”

“And what is his young bride doing?”

“She’s cleaning the house from bottom to top. Right now she is looking out of the attic window.”

Then she also met the bridegroom, who was returning home.

“You, Fitcher’s bird, where are you coming from?”

“I’m coming from Fitcher’s house.”

“And what is my young bride doing?”

“She’s cleaning the house from bottom to top. Right now she is looking out of the attic window.”

The bridegroom looked up, and saw the disguised skull. Thinking it was his bride, he waved to it. But after he arrived home, and all his friends were there as well, the help came that the sisters had sent. They closed up the house and set it afire, and because no one could get out, they all perished in the flames.

• Source: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, “Fitchers Vogel,” Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 1st ed., vol. 1 (Berlin: Realschulbuchhandlung, 1812), no. 46, pp. 200-203.
• Translated by D. L. Ashliman. © 1999.
• The Grimm brothers modified this tale stylistically in succeeding editions.
• Link to the German text of the first edition: Fitchers Vogel (1812).
• Link to the German test of the final edition: Fitchers Vogel (1856).
• Link to a translation of the final (1856) version of Fitcher’s Bird.

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“The Robber Bridegroom” by the Brothers Grimm

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There was once upon a time a miller, who had a beautiful daughter, and as she was grown up, he wished that she was provided for, and well married. He thought, if any good suitor comes and asks for her, I will give her to him. Not long afterwards, a suitor came, who appeared to be very rich, and as the miller had no fault to find with him, he promised his daughter to him. The maiden, however, did not like him quite so much as a girl should like the man to whom she is engaged, and had no confidence in him. Whenever she saw, or thought of him, she felt a secret horror. Once he said to her, you are my betrothed, and yet you have never once paid me a visit. The maiden replied, I know not where your house is. Then said the bridegroom, my house is out there in the dark forest. She tried to excuse herself and said she could not find the way there. The bridegroom said, next sunday you must come out there to me, I have already invited the guests, and I will strew ashes in order that you may find your way through the forest. When sunday came, and the maiden had to set out on her way, she became very uneasy, she herself knew not exactly why, and to mark her way she filled both her pockets full of peas and lentils. Ashes were strewn at the entrance of the forest, and these she followed, but at every step she threw a couple of peas on the ground. She walked almost the whole day until she reached the middle of the forest, where it was the darkest, and there stood a solitary house, which she did not like, for it looked so dark and dismal. She went inside it, but no one was within, and the most absolute stillness reigned.

Suddenly a voice cried, turn back, turn back, young maiden dear, ’tis a murderer‘s house you enter here. The maiden looked up, and saw that the voice came from a bird, which was hanging in a cage on the wall. Again it cried, turn back, turn back, young maiden dear, ’tis a murderer’s house you enter here.

Then the young maiden went on farther from one room to another, and walked through the whole house, but it was entirely empty and not one human being was to be found. At last she came to the cellar, and there sat an extremely aged woman, whose head shook constantly. Can you not tell me, said the maiden, if my betrothed lives here.

Alas, poor child, replied the old woman, whither have you come. You are in a murderer’s den. You think you are a bride soon to be married, but you will keep your wedding with death. Look, I have been forced to put a great kettle on there, with water in it, and when they have you in their power, they will cut you to pieces without mercy, will cook you, and eat you, for they are eaters of human flesh. If I do not have compassion on you, and save you, you are lost.

Thereupon the old woman led her behind a great hogshead where she could not be seen. Be still as a mouse, said she, do not make a sound, or move, or all will be over with you. At night, when the robbers are asleep, we will escape, I have long waited for an opportunity. Hardly was this done, than the godless crew came home. They dragged with them another young girl. They were drunk, and paid no heed to her screams and lamentations.

They gave her wine to drink, three glasses full, one glass of white wine, one glass of red, and a glass of yellow, and with this her heart burst in twain. Thereupon they tore off her delicate raiment, laid her on a table, cut her beautiful body in pieces and strewed salt thereon. The poor bride behind the cask trembled and shook, for she saw right well what fate the robbers had destined for her. One of them noticed a gold ring on the finger of the murdered girl, and as it would not come off at once, he took an axe and cut the finger off, but it sprang up in the air, away over the cask and fell straight into the bride’s bosom. The robber took a candle and wanted to look for it, but could not find it. Then another of them said, have you looked behind the great hogshead. But the old woman cried, come and get something to eat, and leave off looking till the morning, the finger won’t run away from you.

Then the robbers said, the old woman is right, and gave up their search, and sat down to eat, and the old woman poured a sleeping-draught in their wine, so that they soon lay down in the cellar, and slept and snored. When the bride heard that, she came out from behind the hogshead, and had to step over the sleepers, for they lay in rows on the ground, and great was her terror lest she should waken one of them. But God helped her, and she got safely over. The old woman went up with her, opened the doors, and they hurried out of the murderer’s den with all the speed in their power. The wind had blown away the strewn ashes, but the peas and lentils had sprouted and grown up, and showed them the way in the moonlight. They walked the whole night, until in the morning they arrived at the mill, and then the maiden told her father everything exactly as it had happened.

When the day came for the wedding to be celebrated, the bridegroom appeared, and the miller had invited all his relations and friends. As they sat at table, each was bidden to relate something. The bride sat still, and said nothing. Then said the bridegroom to the bride, come, my darling, do you know nothing. Relate something to us like the rest. She replied, then I will relate a dream. I was walking alone through a wood, and at last I came to a house, in which no living soul was, but on the wall there was a bird in a cage which cried, turn back, turn back, young maiden dear, ’tis a murderer’s house you enter here. And this it cried once more. My darling, I only dreamt this.

Then I went through all the rooms, and they were all empty, and there was something so horrible about them. At last I went down into the cellar, and there sat a very old woman, whose head shook. I asked her, does my bridegroom live in this house. She answered, alas poor child, you have got into a murderer’s den, your bridegroom does live here, but he will hew you in pieces, and kill you, and then he will cook you, and eat you. My darling I only dreamt this. But the old woman hid me behind a great hogshead, and scarcely was I hidden, when the robbers came home, dragging a maiden with them, to whom they gave three kinds of wine to drink, white, red, and yellow, with which her heart broke in twain. My darling, I only dreamt this. Thereupon they pulled off her pretty clothes, and hewed her fair body in pieces on a table, and sprinkled them with salt. My darling, I only dreamt this. And one of the robbers saw that there was still a ring on her little finger, and as it was hard to draw off, he took an axe and cut it off, but the finger sprang up in the air, and sprang behind the great hogshead, and fell in my bosom. And there is the finger with the ring. And with these words she drew it forth, and showed it to those present.

The robber, who had during this story become as pale as ashes, leapt up and wanted to escape, but the guests held him fast, and delivered him over to justice. Then he and his whole troop were executed for their infamous deeds.

INTERESTING LINKS

Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopeida/The Robber Bridegroom  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Robber_Bridegroom_(fairy_tale)

Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia/Aarne-Thompson classification System     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarne-Thompson

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