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Story #8 |
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Story #8 |
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This week I decided
to use a story told by the brothers Grimm. I actually found this
story in a book that belonged to my husband when he was a child.
I like this story because it seemed like a mix and match of other fairy
tales, combined to make it an extremely hopeful story. I also like
the simple message it has worked in with all of the fairy tale romance;
that things and people are not always as they seem. I'm decided to
use the exact version printed in The Juniper Tree because I haven't
really had any sentimental entries yet and I love the rhymes they use.
This is some "Froggy Clip Art", courtesy of Sandra
Loosemore.
For full bibliographical referende please click
here, or the picture is a link to her website.
Text taken from
The
Juniper Tree, translated by Lore Segal and Randall Jarrell.
For full bibliographical
reference please click here.
Once
upon a time there was a king who had three sons; two were smart and clever
but the third did not talk much, was simple and they never called him anything
but Dumbkin. When the king grew old and weak and began to think of
his end, he did not know which of his sons should inherit the kingdom after
him, so he said, "Go out into the world, and the one who brings home the
finest carpet shall be king after my death." That there might be
no quarreling, he led the three princes in front of the palace, blew three
feathers in to the air and said, "As they fly, so you shall follow."
One of the feathers flew east, the other west, but the third flew straight
forward, did not fly far and dropped to the ground. Now one brother
went right, the other went left, and they laughed at Dumbkin, who had to
stay right there where the third feather had fallen to the ground.
Dumbkin sat down and was sad. All of the sudden he noticed that right
next to the feather was a trap door. He lifted it up and found some
stairs and climbed down. He came to another door, knocked, and heard
someone calling from inside:
"Lady green and neat
Prunefeet
Prunefeet's puppy dog
Prunes here and everywhere
Quickly see who might be there."
The door opened by itself and here sat a great fat toad surrounded by a
lot of little toads. The fat toad asked him what he wanted.
He answered, "I would like to have the finest, most beautiful carpet,"
so she called over one of the young ones and said:
"Lady green and neat
Prunefeet
Prunefeet's puppy dog
Prunes here and everywhere
Bring me that large box over there."
The young toad fetched the box and the fat toad opened it and gave Dumbkin
a carpet so beautiful and fine, nothing like it could have been woven on
earth. And so he thanked her and climbed back out.
The two others, however, had taken their youngest brother for a simpleton,
and did not think he would ever come up with anything. "Why should
we give ourselves a lot of trouble looking," they said, and each got hold
of the first shepherd's wife he met, took the rough clothes off her back,
and brought them to the king. At that same moment came Dumbkin with
his beautiful carpet, and when the king saw it he was amazed and said,
"By rights the kingdom belongs to the youngest." But the two others
left their father no peace and said it was impossible for Dumbkin, who
had no sense at all, to become king and begged him to set a new trial.
And so the father said, "The who brings home the most beautiful ring shall
inherit the kingdom, led the three brothers outside, and blew into the
air the three feathers which they were to follow. Again the two eldest
went east and west but Dumbkin's feather blew straight forward and fell
to the ground right next to the door in the earth. And so he climbed
down to the fat toad and told her that he needed the most beautiful ring.
She had them bring her the big box right away and gave him a ring that
glittered with brilliants and was so beautiful no goldsmith on earth could
have made it. The two eldest laughed at Dumbkin trying to find a
golden ring and took no trouble at all; each knocked out the nails from
the iron ring of an old wagon wheel and brought it to the king. But
when Dumbkin showed his ring, the father once again said, "The kingdom
belongs to him." The two eldest would not give up tormenting the
king until he set still a third trial and made a proclamation that he should
have the kingdom who brought home the most beautiful woman. Once
again he blew the three feathers into the air and they flew as they had
flown the two other times.
And so Dumbkin, without further ado, went down to the fat toad and said,
"I am to bring home the most beautiful woman." "Well, well," said
the toad, "the most beautiful woman, eh? That's not so easy to come
by, but you shall have her all the same." SHe gave him a hollow carrot
that was harnessed to six mice. But Dumbkin said, very sadly, "What
am I to do with this?" The toad answered, "Just you set one of my
little toads inside." And so he took one out of the circle at random
and put her in the yellow coach, and as soon as she sat inside she turned
into the most beautiful young lady, the carrot turned into a carriage,
and the six mice into horses. And so he kissed her and galloped off
with the horses and brought her to the king. The brothers had
arrived too, but they had taken no trouble to look for a beautiful woman
and each had brought home the first peasant woman he had come across.
When the king saw them, he said, "The youngest shall have the kingdom after
my death." But the two eldest deafened the king's ears with their
clamor: "We cannot allow Dumbkin to be king!" and they demanded
that the prize should go to him whose woman could jump through the ring
that hung down from the middle of the hall. Surely, they thought,
the peasant women will be good at something like this, they are strong
enough, but the delicate young lady will jump herself to death. The
old king agreed to this as well, and so the two peasant women jumped,
and though they managed to get through they were so clumsy they fell and
broke their coarse arms and legs. Then the beautiful lady whom Dumbkin
had brought leaped through as lightly as a deer, and all opposition
had to come to an end.
And thus Dumbkin received the crown and long and wisely did he reign.