125 lines
7.2 KiB
Text
125 lines
7.2 KiB
Text
The Robber Bridegroom
|
||
|
||
There was once on 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, “Thou art my betrothed, and yet
|
||
thou hast never once paid me a visit.” The maiden replied, “I know not
|
||
where thy 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 thou must come
|
||
out there to me; I have already invited the guests, and I will strew
|
||
ashes in order that thou mayst find thy 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 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 hast thou come?
|
||
Thou art in a murderer’s den. Thou thinkest thou art a bride soon to be
|
||
married, but thou wilt keep thy wedding with death. Look, I have been
|
||
forced to put a great kettle on there, with water in it, and when they
|
||
have thee in their power, they will cut thee to pieces without mercy,
|
||
will cook thee, and eat thee, for they are eaters of human flesh. If I
|
||
do not have compassion on thee, and save thee, thou art lost.”
|
||
|
||
Thereupon the old woman led her behind a great hogshead where she could
|
||
not be seen. “Be as still as a mouse,” said she, “do not make a sound,
|
||
or move, or all will be over with thee. 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 little 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, “Hast thou 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
|
||
murderers’ 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 when the wedding was 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, dost thou 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 very old woman, whose head shook; I asked her,
|
||
‘Does my bridegroom live in this house? She answered, ‘Alas poor child,
|
||
thou hast got into a murderer’s den, thy bridegroom does live here, but
|
||
he will hew thee in pieces, and kill thee, and then he will cook thee,
|
||
and eat thee.’ 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.
|