The Crimson Fairy Book
U >>
Unknown >> The Crimson Fairy Book
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 | 4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21
As soon as the man understood this, he got up out of the coffin,
seized a stick, and called his wife into the room, saying: 'Come, and
I will tell you what you so much want to know'; and then he began
to beat her with the stick, saying with each blow: 'It is that, wife, it
is that!' And in this way he taught her never again to ask why he
had laughed.
The Boy Who Could Keep A Secret
Once upon a time there lived a poor widow who had one little boy.
At first sight you would not have thought that he was different from
a thousand other little boys; but then you noticed that by his side
hung the scabbard of a sword, and as the boy grew bigger the
scabbard grew bigger too. The sword which belonged to the
scabbard was found by the little boy sticking out of the ground in
the garden, and every day he pulled it up to see if it would go into
the scabbard. But though it was plainly becoming longer and
longer, it was some time before the two would fit.
However, there came a day at last when it slipped in quite easily.
The child was so delighted that he could hardly believe his eyes, so
he tried it seven times, and each time it slipped in more easily than
before. But pleased though the boy was, he determined not to tell
anyone about it, particularly not his mother, who never could keep
anything from her neighbours.
Still, in spite of his resolutions, he could not hide altogether that
something had happened, and when he went in to breakfast his
mother asked him what was the matter.
'Oh, mother, I had such a nice dream last night,' said he; 'but I can't
tell it to anybody.'
'You can tell it to me,' she answered. 'It must have been a nice
dream, or you wouldn't look so happy.'
'No, mother; I can't tell it to anybody,' returned the boy, 'till it
comes true.'
'I want to know what it was, and know it I will,' cried she, 'and I
will beat you till you tell me.'
But it was no use, neither words nor blows would get the secret out
of the boy; and when her arm was quite tired and she had to leave
off, the child, sore and aching, ran into the garden and knelt
weeping beside his little sword. It was working round and round in
its hole all by itself, and if anyone except the boy had tried to catch
hold of it, he would have been badly cut. But the moment he
stretched out his hand it stopped and slid quietly into the scabbard.
For a long time the child sat sobbing, and the noise was heard by
the king as he was driving by. 'Go and see who it is that is crying
so,' said he to one of his servants, and the man went. In a few
minutes he returned saying: 'Your Majesty, it is a little boy who is
kneeling there sobbing because his mother has beaten him.'
'Bring him to me at once,' commanded the monarch, 'and tell him
that it is the king who sends for him, and that he has never cried in
all his life and cannot bear anyone else to do so.' On receiving this
message the boy dried his tears and went with the servant to the
royal carriage. 'Will you be my son?' asked the king.
'Yes, if my mother will let me,' answered the boy. And the king
bade the servant go back to the mother and say that if she would
give her boy to him, he should live in the palace and marry his
prettiest daughter as soon as he was a man.
The widow's anger now turned into joy, and she came running to
the splendid coach and kissed the king's hand. 'I hope you will be
more obedient to his Majesty than you were to me,' she said; and
the boy shrank away half-frightened. But when she had gone back
to her cottage, he asked the king if he might fetch something that he
had left in the garden, and when he was given permission, he pulled
up his little sword, which he slid into the scabbard.
Then he climbed into the coach and was driven away.
After they had gone some distance the king said: 'Why were you
crying so bitterly in the garden just now?'
'Because my mother had been beating me,' replied the boy.
'And what did she do that for?' asked the king again.
'Because I would not tell her my dream.'
'And why wouldn't you tell it to her?'
'Because I will never tell it to anyone till it comes true,' answered
the boy.
'And won't you tell it to me either?' asked the king in surprise.
'No, not even to you, your Majesty,' replied he.
'Oh, I am sure you will when we get home,' said the king smiling,
and he talked to him about other things till they came to the palace.
'I have brought you such a nice present,' he said to his daughters,
and as the boy was very pretty they were delighted to have him and
gave him all their best toys.
'You must not spoil him,' observed the king one day, when he had
been watching them playing together. He has a secret which he
won't tell to anyone.'
'He will tell me,' answered the eldest princess; but the boy only
shook his head.
'He will tell me,' said the second girl.
'Not I,' replied the boy.
'He will tell me,' cried the youngest, who was the prettiest too.
'I will tell nobody till it comes true,' said the boy, as he had said
before; 'and I will beat anybody who asks me.'
The king was very sorry when he heard this, for he loved the boy
dearly; but he thought it would never do to keep anyone near him
who would not do as he was bid. So he commanded his servants to
take him away and not to let him enter the palace again until he had
come to his right senses.
The sword clanked loudly as the boy was led away, but the child
said nothing, though he was very unhappy at being treated so badly
when he had done nothing. However, the servants were very kind
to him, and their children brought him fruit and all sorts of nice
things, and he soon grew merry again, and lived amongst them for
many years till his seventeenth birthday.
Meanwhile the two eldest princesses had become women, and had
married two powerful kings who ruled over great countries across
the sea. The youngest one was old enough to be married too, but
she was very particular, and turned up her nose at all the young
princes who had sought her hand.
One day she was sitting in the palace feeling rather dull and lonely,
and suddenly she began to wonder what the servants were doing,
and whether it was not more amusing down in their quarters. The
king was at his council and the queen was ill in bed, so there was no
one to stop the princess, and she hastily ran across the gardens to
the houses where the servants lived. Outside she noticed a youth
who was handsomer than any prince she had ever seen, and in a
moment she knew him to be the little boy she had once played with.
'Tell me your secret and I will marry you,' she said to him; but the
boy only gave her the beating he had promised her long ago, when
she asked him the same question. The girl was very angry, besides
being hurt, and ran home to complain to her father.
'If he had a thousand souls, I would kill them all,' swore the king.
That very day a gallows was built outside the town, and all the
people crowded round to see the execution of the young man who
had dared to beat the king's daughter. The prisoner, with his hands
tied behind his back, was brought out by the hangman, and amidst
dead silence his sentence was being read by the judge when
suddenly the sword clanked against his side. Instantly a great noise
was heard and a golden coach rumbled over the stones, with a
white flag waving out of the window. It stopped underneath the
gallows, and from it stepped the king of the Magyars, who begged
that the life of the boy might be spared.
'Sir, he has beaten my daughter, who only asked him to tell her his
secret. I cannot pardon that,' answered the princess's father.
'Give him to me, I'm sure he will tell me the secret; or, if not, I have
a daughter who is like the Morning Star, and he is sure to tell it to
her.'
The sword clanked for the third time, and the king said angrily:
'Well, if you want him so much you can have him; only never let me
see his face again.' And he made a sign to the hangman. The
bandage was removed from the young man's eyes, and the cords
from his wrists, and he took his seat in the golden coach beside the
king of the Magyars. Then the coachman whipped up his horses,
and they set out for Buda.
The king talked very pleasantly for a few miles, and when he
thought that his new companion was quite at ease with him, he
asked him what was the secret which had brought him into such
trouble. ' That I cannot tell you,' answered the youth, 'until it
comes true.'
'You will tell my daughter,' said the king, smiling.
'I will tell nobody,' replied the youth, and as he spoke the sword
clanked loudly. The king said no more, but trusted to his daughter's
beauty to get the secret from him.
The journey to Buda was long, and it was several days before they
arrived there. The beautiful princess happened to be picking roses
in the garden, when her father's coach drove up.
'Oh, what a handsome youth! Have you brought him from
fairyland?' cried she, when they all stood upon the marble steps in
front of the castle.
'I have brought him from the gallows,' answered the king; rather
vexed at his daughter's words, as never before had she consented to
speak to any man.
'I don't care where you brought him from,' said the spoilt girl. 'I
will marry him and nobody else, and we will live together till we
die.'
'You will tell another tale,' replied the king, 'when you ask him his
secret. After all he is no better than a servant.'
'That is nothing to me,' said the princess, 'for I love him. He will
tell his secret to me, and will find a place in the middle of my heart.'
But the king shook his head, and gave orders that the lad was to be
lodged in the summer-house.
One day, about a week later, the princess put on her finest dress,
and went to pay him a visit. She looked so beautiful that, at the
sight of her, the book dropped from his hand, and he stood up
speechless. 'Tell me,' she said, coaxingly, 'what is this wonderful
secret? Just whisper it in my ear, and I will give you a kiss.'
'My angel,' he answered, 'be wise, and ask no questions, if you wish
to get safely back to your father's palace; I have kept my secret all
these years, and do not mean to tell it now.'
However, the girl would not listen, and went on pressing him, till at
last he slapped her face so hard that her nose bled. She shrieked
with pain and rage, and ran screaming back to the palace, where her
father was waiting to hear if she had succeeded. 'I will starve you
to death, you son of a dragon,' cried he, when he saw her dress
streaming with blood; and he ordered all the masons and bricklayers
in the town to come before him.
'Build me a tower as fast as you can,' he said, 'and see that there is
room for a stool and a small table, and for nothing else. The men
set to work, and in two hours the tower was built, and they
proceeded to the palace to inform the king that his commands were
fulfilled. On the way they met the princess, who began to talk to
one of the masons, and when the rest were out of hearing she asked
if he could manage to make a hole in the tower, which nobody
could see, large enough for a bottle of wine and some food to pass
through.
'To be sure I can,' said the mason, turning back, and in a few
minutes the hole was bored.
At sunset a large crowd assembled to watch the youth being led to
the tower, and after his misdeeds had been proclaimed he was
solemnly walled up. But every morning the princess passed him in
food through the hole, and every third day the king sent his
secretary to climb up a ladder and look down through a little
window to see if he was dead. But the secretary always brought
back the report that he was fat and rosy.
'There is some magic about this,' said the king.
This state of affairs lasted some time, till one day a messenger
arrived from the Sultan bearing a letter for the king, and also three
canes. 'My master bids me say,' said the messenger, bowing low,
'that if you cannot tell him which of these three canes grows nearest
the root, which in the middle, and which at the top, he will declare
war against you.
The king was very much frightened when he heard this, and though
he took the canes and examined them closely, he could see no
difference between them. He looked so sad that his daughter
noticed it, and inquired the reason.
'Alas! my daughter,' he answered, 'how can I help being sad? The
Sultan has sent me three canes, and says that if I cannot tell him
which of them grows near the root, which in the middle, and which
at the top, he will make war upon me. And you know that his army
is far greater than mine.'
'Oh, do not despair, my father,' said she. 'We shall be sure to find
out the answer'; and she ran away to the tower, and told the young
man what had occurred.
'Go to bed as usual,' replied he, 'and when you wake, tell your
father that you have dreamed that the canes must be placed in warm
water. After a little while one will sink to the bottom; that is the
one that grows nearest the root. The one which neither sinks nor
comes to the surface is the cane that is cut from the middle; and the
one that floats is from the top.'
So, the next morning, the princess told her father of her dream, and
by her advice he cut notches in each of the canes when he took
them out of the water, so that he might make no mistake when he
handed them back to the messenger. The Sultan could not imagine
how he had found out, but he did not declare war.
The following year the Sultan again wanted to pick a quarrel with
the king of the Magyars, so he sent another messenger to him with
three foals, begging him to say which of the animals was born in the
morning, which at noon, and which in the evening. If an answer
was not ready in three days, war would be declared at once. The
king's heart sank when he read the letter. He could not expect his
daughter to be lucky enough to dream rightly a second time, and as
a plague had been raging through the country, and had carried off
many of his soldiers, his army was even weaker than before. At this
thought his face became so gloomy that his daughter noticed it, and
inquired what was the matter.
'I have had another letter from the Sultan,' replied the king, 'and he
says that if I cannot tell him which of three foals was born in the
morning, which at noon, and which in the evening, he will declare
war at once.'
'Oh, don't be cast down,' said she, 'something is sure to happen'; and
she ran down to the tower to consult the youth.
'Go home, idol of my heart, and when night comes, pretend to
scream out in your sleep, so that your father hears you. Then tell
him that you have dreamt that he was just being carried off by the
Turks because he could not answer the question about the foals,
when the lad whom he had shut up in the tower ran up and told
them which was foaled in the morning, which at noon, and which in
the evening.'
So the princess did exactly as the youth had bidden her; and no
sooner had she spoken than the king ordered the tower to be pulled
down, and the prisoner brought before him.
'I did not think that you could have lived so long without food,' said
he, 'and as you have had plenty of time to repent your wicked
conduct, I will grant you pardon, on condition that you help me in a
sore strait. Read this letter from the Sultan; you will see that if I
fail to answer his question about the foals, a dreadful war will be
the result.'
The youth took the letter and read it through. 'Yes, I can help you,'
replied he; 'but first you must bring me three troughs, all exactly
alike. Into one you must put oats, into another wheat, and into the
third barley. The foal which eats the oats is that which was foaled
in the morning; the foal which eats the wheat is that which was
foaled at noon; and the foal which eats the barley is that which was
foaled at night.' The king followed the youth's directions, and,
marking the foals, sent them back to Turkey, and there was no war
that year.
Now the Sultan was very angry that both his plots to get possession
of Hungary had been such total failures, and he sent for his aunt,
who was a witch, to consult her as to what he should do next.
'It is not the king who has answered your questions,' observed the
aunt, when he had told his story. 'He is far too stupid ever to have
done that! The person who has found out the puzzle is the son of a
poor woman, who, if he lives, will become King of Hungary.
Therefore, if you want the crown yourself, you must get him here
and kill him.'
After this conversation another letter was written to the Court of
Hungary, saying that if the youth, now in the palace, was not sent
to Turkey within three days, a large army would cross the border.
The king's heart was sorrowful as he read, for he was grateful to
the lad for what he had done to help him; but the boy only laughed,
and bade the king fear nothing, but to search the town instantly for
two youths just like each other, and he would paint himself a mask
that was just like them. And the sword at his side clanked loudly.
After a long search twin brothers were found, so exactly resembling
each other that even their own mother could not tell the difference.
The youth painted a mask that was the precise copy of them, and
when he had put it on, no one would have known one boy from the
other. They set out at once for the Sultan's palace, and when they
reached it, they were taken straight into his presence. He made a
sign for them to come near; they all bowed low in greeting. He
asked them about their journey; they answered his questions all
together, and in the same words. If one sat down to supper, the
others sat down at the same instant. When one got up, the others
got up too, as if there had been only one body between them. The
Sultan could not detect any difference between them, and he told
his aunt that he would not be so cruel as to kill all three.
'Well, you will see a difference to-morrow,' replied the witch, 'for
one will have a cut on his sleeve. That is the youth you must kill.'
And one hour before midnight, when witches are invisible, she
glided into the room where all three lads were sleeping in the same
bed. She took out a pair of scissors and cut a small piece out of the
boy's coat-sleeve which was hanging on the wall, and then crept
silently from the room. But in the morning the youth saw the slit,
and he marked the sleeves of his two companions in the same way,
and all three went down to breakfast with the Sultan. The old
witch was standing in the window and pretended not to see them;
but all witches have eyes in the backs of their heads, and she knew
at once that not one sleeve but three were cut, and they were all as
alike as before. After breakfast, the Sultan, who was getting tired
of the whole affair and wanted to be alone to invent some other
plan, told them they might return home. So, bowing low with one
accord, they went.
The princess welcomed the boy back joyfully, but the poor youth
was not allowed to rest long in peace, for one day a fresh letter
arrived from the Sultan, saying that he had discovered that the
young man was a very dangerous person, and that he must be sent
to Turkey at once, and alone. The girl burst into tears when the
boy told her what was in the letter which her father had bade her to
carry to him. 'Do not weep, love of my heart,' said the boy, 'all will
be well. I will start at sunrise to-morrow.'
So next morning at sunrise the youth set forth, and in a few days he
reached the Sultan's palace. The old witch was waiting for him at
the gate, and whispered as he passed: 'This is the last time you will
ever enter it.' But the sword clanked, and the lad did not even look
at her. As he crossed the threshold fifteen armed Turks barred his
way, with the Sultan at their head. Instantly the sword darted forth
and cut off the heads of everyone but the Sultan, and then went
quietly back to its scabbard. The witch, who was looking on, saw
that as long as the youth had possession of the sword, all her
schemes would be in vain, and tried to steal the sword in the night,
but it only jumped out of its scabbard and sliced off her nose, which
was of iron. And in the morning, when the Sultan brought a great
army to capture the lad and deprive him of his sword, they were all
cut to pieces, while he remained without a scratch.
Meanwhile the princess was in despair because the days slipped by,
and the young man did not return, and she never rested until her
father let her lead some troops against the Sultan. She rode
proudly before them, dressed in uniform; but they had not left the
town more than a mile behind them, when they met the lad and his
little sword. When he told them what he had done they shouted for
joy, and carried him back in triumph to the palace; and the king
declared that as the youth had shown himself worthy to become his
son-in-law, he should marry the princess and succeed to the throne
at once, as he himself was getting old, and the cares of government
were too much for him. But the young man said he must first go
and see his mother, and the king sent him in state, with a troop of
soldiers as his bodyguard.
The old woman was quite frightened at seeing such an array draw
up before her little house, and still more surprised when a handsome
young man, whom she did not know, dismounted and kissed her
hand, saying: 'Now, dear mother, you shall hear my secret at last! I
dreamed that I should become King of Hungary, and my dream has
come true. When I was a child, and you begged me to tell you, I
had to keep silence, or the Magyar king would have killed me. And
if you had not beaten me nothing would have happened that has
happened, and I should not now be King of Hungary.'
[From the Folk Tales of the Magyars.]
The Prince And The Dragon
Once upon a time there lived an emperor who had three sons. They
were all fine young men, and fond of hunting, and scarcely a day
passed without one or other of them going out to look for game.
One morning the eldest of the three princes mounted his horse and
set out for a neighbouring forest, where wild animals of all sorts
were to be found. He had not long left the castle, when a hare
sprang out of a thicket and dashed across the road in front. The
young man gave chase at once, and pursued it over hill and dale, till
at last the hare took refuge in a mill which was standing by the side
of a river. The prince followed and entered the mill, but stopped in
terror by the door, for, instead of a hare, before him stood a
dragon, breathing fire and flame. At this fearful sight the prince
turned to fly, but a fiery tongue coiled round his waist, and drew
him into the dragon's mouth, and he was seen no more.
A week passed away, and when the prince never came back
everyone in the town began to grow uneasy. At last his next
brother told the emperor that he likewise would go out to hunt, and
that perhaps he would find some clue as to his brother's
disappearance. But hardly had the castle gates closed on the prince
than the hare sprang out of the bushes as before, and led the
huntsman up hill and down dale, till they reached the mill. Into this
the hare flew with the prince at his heels, when, lo! instead of the
hare, there stood a dragon breathing fire and flame; and out shot a
fiery tongue which coiled round the prince's waist, and lifted him
straight into the dragon's mouth, and he was seen no more.
Days went by, and the emperor waited and waited for the sons who
never came, and could not sleep at night for wondering where they
were and what had become of them. His youngest son wished to
go in search of his brothers, but for long the emperor refused to
listen to him, lest he should lose him also. But the prince prayed so
hard for leave to make the search, and promised so often that he
would be very cautious and careful, that at length the emperor gave
him permission, and ordered the best horse in the stables to be
saddled for him.
Full of hope the young prince started on his way, but no sooner was
he outside the city walls than a hare sprang out of the bushes and
ran before him, till they reached the mill. As before, the animal
dashed in through the open door, but this time he was not followed
by the prince. Wiser than his brothers, the young man turned away,
saying to himself: 'There are as good hares in the forest as any that
have come out of it, and when I have caught them, I can come back
and look for you.'
For many hours he rode up and down the mountain, but saw
nothing, and at last, tired of waiting, he went back to the mill. Here
he found an old woman sitting, whom he greeted pleasantly.
'Good morning to you, little mother,' he said; and the old woman
answered: 'Good morning, my son.'
'Tell me, little mother,' went on the prince, 'where shall I find my
hare?'
'My son,' replied the old woman, 'that was no hare, but a dragon
who has led many men hither, and then has eaten them all.' At
these words the prince's heart grew heavy, and he cried, 'Then my
brothers must have come here, and have been eaten by the dragon!'
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 | 4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21