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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account