The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics) (19 page)

Once there was a village so badly infested with mice that no one knew what to do. A stranger arrived in town and told the farmers that he would be able to get rid of the mice. They promised him a generous reward in return. The stranger pulled out a little whistle and blew into it. All the mice in the village ran after the man, who took them to a big pond, where they all drowned. The stranger returned to the village and asked for his reward. But the farmers refused to give him the full amount. The man blew into another little whistle, and this time all the children in the village came running after him.

There was a young boy living there at the time whose mother had died. His stepmother was very mean to him. One day she sent him into the woods to pick an entire basket of strawberries. After a while he grew tired and decided to lie down for a short time and take a nap. A little man appeared and picked enough berries to fill up the basket. He gave the boy a small box and told him not to open it unless he was desperate.

Just when the boy was getting ready to return home, the stranger with the whistle passed by, and the boy ran after him with all the other children. The man took them to a huge mountain, and the children had to go through a door into the dark mountain. They were terrified.

The boy remembered the little box. He opened it up and an old beetle flew out of it. The beetle gave him a key. The boy opened the door in the mountain, and the children were all
able to get out. But they had no idea where they were, for they had traveled a great distance from home.

The boy reached a huge cliff that turned out to be an enchanted castle. He thought: “I’d better make sure that the beetle is all right.” The beetle came flying by at once, scraped around in the ground a bit, found the key to the castle, and opened its doors. The boy saw all kinds of precious objects there. Before long a king arrived with a princess and many servants. The king said: “You have lifted the curse on us. I was the old beetle.” And he gave the princess to the boy in marriage.

All that happened in our homeland, the Oberpfalz.

A young knight decided to marry the beautiful daughter of a servant, and he had to endure the resentment of the nobility in the region, especially the mothers. They refused to appear at the wedding and shunned the young couple, who lived alone in their castle.

The two lived happily together, with no complaints about their peaceful isolation. When the time came for the wife to give birth, she turned to her husband, who was deeply worried about finding a godfather for the child, and said: “Go out through the garden into the streets and just ask the first person you meet to do you this favor, even if it happens to be a servant.”

Before the knight had even left the garden, he met an elegantly beautiful woman, who told him: “I understand your concerns. But stop worrying. I will be the child’s godmother, and you won’t regret it.” And so he escorted the noble lady, who was wearing a blue veil—it was the Madonna—up to the castle, and she helped out with the birth, comforting the young woman as she delivered a girl. When the child was baptized, she was given the name Maria. The mysterious godmother parted with the words: “I am not going to give the child a gift now. The child will need me later, and then I’ll help her.”

The child Maria grew up, and when she reached the age of seven, her mother died. Her father, who felt abandoned, married a young woman living nearby. She was beautiful and proud, and she loved giving orders. It was a difficult time for Maria. Her stepmother was arrogant and despised her, and
she had to take on all kinds of menial labor. Her father was not happy about that, but he didn’t dare oppose his wife.

The stepmother was becoming more and more abusive with each passing day. One day Maria burst into tears and curled up in a corner. All at once Our Lady of the Angels appeared before her and said: “My dear child, I am your godmother, and I made a vow to your mother that I would appear before you if you needed help. Come with me, and I’ll make sure that you are safe.” The girl took her hand eagerly, and the two went out into the woods.

They reached a mountain and Our Lady of the Angels knocked on a sheer surface three times. A door suddenly opened onto a beautiful palace with twelve rooms. In each of them, strands of the most precious pearls were hanging from the walls. At the windows and on the tables were beautiful roses. Maria was supposed to take care of them and make sure they did not wilt. In exchange, she was allowed to dine with our dear lady at a table where food magically appeared at appointed times.

One day the fair lady had to leave on a journey. Maria was supposed to manage everything in the palace, but she was told not to enter the thirteenth chamber. On the evening of the third day, she was so overcome by curiosity that she opened the door to the mysterious room. Bookcases lined the wall, and on them were massive books. The Lord was sitting at a desk with his Son, and they were composing the destinies of those who had been born and endowing them with gifts to guide them in their paths through life. Sometimes they noted how gifts were squandered or used in ways that were not part of their master plan.

When Our Lady of the Angels returned home, she said: “You have disobeyed my order. I am not going to punish you, but you can no longer stay here. Go back home to your father. You will find the way easily, and I will make sure you have everything you need.” She gave Maria a white dress, and after placing a wreath of roses on her head, she sent the girl away.

At home, Maria discovered that her father was living in miserable circumstances, for his wife had spent the entire fortune. The man was overjoyed to see his daughter, who appeared to
be flourishing, especially since he feared that she had died long ago. The stepmother was not at all thrilled when the girl she hated reappeared. She was hoping to get rid of her by hiring her out as a kitchen maid.

Maria wanted to live with her father no matter what, even if it meant carrying out the most menial tasks in the kitchen. As far as the stepmother was concerned, Maria could do nothing right. And her new stepbrothers teased her and made fun of the filthy maid in the kitchen. The stepmother joined in the laughter.

One day the brothers took things too far, and they beat the girl until she began bleeding. She retreated to the kitchen and, leaning over a washbasin, she began weeping. Her blood trickled into the basin, and each teardrop that fell into the basin made a ringing sound. The girl’s stepmother scolded the children for fighting all the time. She noticed something shiny in the basin and discovered some of the most beautiful pearls she had ever seen.

There was great joy at the castle, for now they could return to festive times, and even Maria was invited to one of the dazzling balls. She was so thrilled that she began to laugh, and one rose after another dropped from her mouth.

Before long the profits from the pearls were exhausted. The stepmother and her sons began to torture Maria in order to raise more money, and she wept more pearls and laughed more roses.

An old servant was living in the castle, and she was distressed that Maria had to suffer so much. She comforted her with the words: “Just be patient, my child. I was once your nursemaid, and I’m happy to go wherever you wish. The next time you weep, give me the basin and we’ll collect the pearls in it!” The two left to search for a place where they could live peacefully.

The girl had become so beautiful in the meantime that many a young man fell in love with her. Maria had no feelings for any of them. One day Our Lady of the Angels appeared before her and offered these words of comfort: “My dear child! Stop worrying. I have given you the gift of being indifferent to the
stirrings of love. Follow me to my palace, which I am going to turn over to you. My time in this region is over, and I am moving on. From now on you will have the chance to give shelter to the ill and to the impoverished until the day when I call you to me.” She knocked three times on the wall of the mountain cavern, and a magnificent palace appeared before them.

Maria moved in, and she invited all those who were poor and ailing to the castle, where she took care of them. Whenever she had a problem, she went back into the forbidden chamber, where she had once seen God the Father with his Son. She was always given help. The noble woman remained young and beautiful for her entire life. When she died, no one could believe that she was really gone, but Our Lady of the Angels had come for her soul. Maria was lying on a bed, a pale virgin in a white dress, with red roses in her hair.

There once lived a fellow who was tired of slaving away to make a living. He spent a lot of time complaining to the Lord about how hard he worked, especially when it was snowing. Snow made his work all the harder, and what good was snow, after all? It had not fallen in Paradise, and it was also not on Noah’s ark. It could not possibly be a part of God’s creation.

One day this fellow was in the forest chopping wood, when thick flakes of snow began to fall from the sky. Cursing his fate, he crawled into a nearby hollow. Just as he was settling into a place where he could stretch out, an angel appeared to ask why he called so often on the devil, but so rarely on God. “The Lord doesn’t pay much attention to me, and so I can’t really pretend that I’m friends with him.” The angel asked what he needed from God to change his mind. And the foolish fellow said that he wanted to see flour falling from the sky instead of snow.

Just then, flour began falling down from the sky in thick clouds. People came running to collect it, and suddenly they had enough bread and didn’t have to work anymore. But the next time a house burned down or a wall collapsed, the people who had once worked as carpenters and masons would not lift a finger. And so it happened that everyone started making their homes in caves, just as they had when the world was first created. They lived on plants and roots and walked around naked, just like Adam and Eve. The number of wild animals multiplied, and thorny hedges, shrubs, and trees took over where there had once been cozy homes and pathways lined with flowers.

The worker realized the foolishness of his ways and understood just how stupid he had been to question the divine order of the world. Filled with remorse, he rose up from his resting place to find the angel, and then—he woke up. When he emerged from the hollow, there was snow at his feet. He fell to his knees to thank the Lord for teaching him a lesson through his dreams. From then on, he was at peace with the world.

There was once a carpenter named Hoydel, and over time, he turned into a thief and hard-hearted killer. He kept track of his murders by putting a notch on his walking stick for each one. Before long, there were so many notches on it that he had room left for only three more.

One day he ran into a priest. Hoydel was such a scoundrel that he actually asked him to hear his confession. When the pious man learned about all the grisly murders, he was in a state of shock and wanted to get away as fast as possible. Hoydel beat the man until he was dead and cut another notch on his stick. Then he murdered another person. All that was left on the staff was room for one more notch. Hoydel met a priest living as a hermit, and he asked him to hear his confession. If the fellow refused to absolve him, he was going to kill him, too, then cut another notch on his stick and kill himself.

The hermit asked the miserable sinner whether he still had the staff that he had used to murder his first victim. Hoydel told him that he did. The priest told him to put the thing in the ground and to kneel down before it and pray. “If the staff begins to grow leaves, blossoms, and then bears fruit, you will find salvation,” he told him and went on his way.

Years later the hermit passed the spot, and Hoydel was still kneeling by the staff, which, in the meantime, had grown to be a tall tree bearing beautiful red apples. The priest touched the kneeling man, and he turned to dust. A white dove emerged from his remains and flew up to the
heavens.