mud/content/library/grimm/056_sweetheart_roland.txt

Sweetheart Roland

There was once on a time a woman who was a real witch and had two
daughters, one ugly and wicked, and this one she loved because she was
her own daughter, and one beautiful and good, and this one she hated,
because she was her step-daughter. The step-daughter once had a pretty
apron, which the other fancied so much that she became envious, and
told her mother that she must and would have that apron. “Be quiet, my
child,” said the old woman, “and thou shalt have it. Thy step-sister
has long deserved death, to-night when she is asleep I will come and
cut her head off. Only be careful that thou art at the far-side of the
bed, and push her well to the front.” It would have been all over with
the poor girl if she had not just then been standing in a corner, and
heard everything. All day long she dared not go out of doors, and when
bed-time had come, the witch’s daughter got into bed first, so as to
lie at the far side, but when she was asleep, the other pushed her
gently to the front, and took for herself the place at the back, close
by the wall. In the night, the old woman came creeping in, she held an
axe in her right hand, and felt with her left to see if anyone was
lying at the outside, and then she grasped the axe with both hands, and
cut her own child’s head off.

When she had gone away, the girl got up and went to her sweetheart, who
was called Roland, and knocked at his door. When he came out, she said
to him, “Hear me, dearest Roland, we must fly in all haste; my
step-mother wanted to kill me, but has struck her own child. When
daylight comes, and she sees what she has done, we shall be lost.”
“But,” said Roland, “I counsel thee first to take away her magic wand,
or we cannot escape if she pursues us.” The maiden fetched the magic
wand, and she took the dead girl’s head and dropped three drops of
blood on the ground, one in front of the bed, one in the kitchen, and
one on the stairs. Then she hurried away with her lover. When the old
witch got up next morning, she called her daughter, and wanted to give
her the apron, but she did not come. Then the witch cried, “Where art
thou?” “Here, on the stairs, I am sweeping,” answered the first drop of
blood. The old woman went out, but saw no one on the stairs, and cried
again, “Where art thou?” “Here in the kitchen, I am warming myself,”
cried the second drop of blood. She went into the kitchen, but found no
one. Then she cried again, “Where art thou?” “Ah, here in the bed, I am
sleeping.” cried the third drop of blood. She went into the room to the
bed. What did she see there? Her own child, whose head she had cut off,
bathed in her blood. The witch fell into a passion, sprang to the
window, and as she could look forth quite far into the world, she
perceived her step-daughter hurrying away with her sweetheart Roland.
“That shall not serve you,” cried she, “even if you have got a long way
off, you shall still not escape me.” She put on her many league boots,
in which went an hour’s walk at every step, and it was not long before
she overtook them. The girl, however, when she saw the old woman
striding towards her, changed, with her magic wand, her sweetheart
Roland into a lake, and herself into a duck swimming in the middle of
it. The witch placed herself on the shore, threw bread-crumbs in, and
gave herself every possible trouble to entice the duck; but the duck
did not let herself be enticed, and the old woman had to go home at
night as she had come. On this the girl and her sweetheart Roland
resumed their natural shapes again, and they walked on the whole night
until daybreak. Then the maiden changed herself into a beautiful flower
which stood in the midst of a briar hedge, and her sweetheart Roland
into a fiddler. It was not long before the witch came striding up
towards them, and said to the musician, “Dear musician, may I pluck
that beautiful flower for myself?” “Oh, yes,” he replied, “I will play
to you while you do it.” As she was hastily creeping into the hedge and
was just going to pluck the flower, for she well knew who the flower
was, he began to play, and whether she would or not, she was forced to
dance, for it was a magical dance. The quicker he played, the more
violent springs was she forced to make, and the thorns tore her clothes
from her body, and pricked her and wounded her till she bled, and as he
did not stop, she had to dance till she lay dead on the ground.

When they were delivered, Roland said, “Now I will go to my father and
arrange for the wedding.” “Then in the meantime I will stay here and
wait for thee,” said the girl, “and that no one may recognize me, I
will change myself into a red stone land-mark.” Then Roland went away,
and the girl stood like a red land-mark in the field and waited for her
beloved. But when Roland got home, he fell into the snares of another,
who prevailed on him so far that he forgot the maiden. The poor girl
remained there a long time, but at length, as he did not return at all,
she was sad, and changed herself into a flower, and thought, “Some one
will surely come this way, and trample me down.”

It befell, however, that a shepherd kept his sheep in the field, and
saw the flower, and as it was so pretty, plucked it, took it with him,
and laid it away in his chest. From that time forth, strange things
happened in the shepherd’s house. When he arose in the morning, all the
work was already done, the room was swept, the table and benches
cleaned, the fire on the hearth was lighted, and the water was fetched,
and at noon, when he came home, the table was laid, and a good dinner
served. He could not conceive how this came to pass, for he never saw a
human being in his house, and no one could have concealed himself in
it. He was certainly pleased with this good attendance, but still at
last he was so afraid that he went to a wise woman and asked for her
advice. The wise woman said, “There is some enchantment behind it,
listen very early some morning if anything is moving in the room, and
if thou seest anything, let it be what it may, throw a white cloth over
it, and then the magic will be stopped.”

The shepherd did as she bade him, and next morning just as day dawned,
he saw the chest open, and the flower come out. Swiftly he sprang
towards it, and threw a white cloth over it. Instantly the
transformation came to an end, and a beautiful girl stood before him,
who owned to him that she had been the flower, and that up to this time
she had attended to his housekeeping. She told him her story, and as
she pleased him he asked her if she would marry him, but she answered,
“No,” for she wanted to remain faithful to her sweetheart Roland,
although he had deserted her, but she promised not to go away, but to
keep house for the shepherd for the future.

And now the time drew near when Roland’s wedding was to be celebrated,
and then, according to an old custom in the country, it was announced
that all the girls were to be present at it, and sing in honour of the
bridal pair. When the faithful maiden heard of this, she grew so sad
that she thought her heart would break, and she would not go thither,
but the other girls came and took her. When it came to her turn to
sing, she stepped back, until at last she was the only one left, and
then she could not refuse. But when she began her song, and it reached
Roland’s ears, he sprang up and cried, “I know the voice, that is the
true bride, I will have no other!” Everything he had forgotten, and
which had vanished from his mind, had suddenly come home again to his
heart. Then the faithful maiden held her wedding with her sweetheart
Roland, and grief came to an end and joy began.