In the morning, when he awoke, he began to seek over hill and dale if
he could find such a flower. He sought until the ninth day, and then,
early in the morning, he found the blood-red flower. In the middle of
it there was a large dew-drop, as big as the finest pearl.
Day and night he journeyed with this flower to the castle. When he was
within a hundred paces of it he was not held fast, but walked on to the
door. Joringel was full of joy; he touched the door with the flower,
and it sprang open. He walked in through the courtyard, and listened
for the sound of the birds. At last he heard it. He went on and found
the room from whence it came, and there the witch was feeding the birds
in the seven thousand cages.
When she saw Joringel she was angry, very angry, and scolded and spat
poison and gall at him, but she could not come within two paces of him.
He did not take any notice of her, but went and looked at the cages
with the birds; but there were many hundred nightingales, how was he to
find his Jorinda again?
Just then he saw the old woman quietly take away a cage with a bird in
it, and go towards the door.
Swiftly he sprang towards her, touched the cage with the flower, and
also the old woman. She could now no longer bewitch any one; and
Jorinda was standing there, clasping him round the neck, and she was as
beautiful as ever!
70 The Three Sons of Fortune
A father once called his three sons before him, and he gave to the
first a cock, to the second a scythe, and to the third a cat. “I am
already aged,” said he, “my death is nigh, and I have wished to take
thought for you before my end; money I have not, and what I now give
you seems of little worth, but all depends on your making a sensible
use of it. Only seek out a country where such things are still unknown,
and your fortune is made.”
After the father’s death the eldest went away with his cock, but
wherever he came the cock was already known; in the towns he saw him
from a long distance, sitting upon the steeples and turning round with
the wind, and in the villages he heard more than one crowing; no one
would show any wonder at the creature, so that it did not look as if he
would make his fortune by it.
At last, however, it happened that he came to an island where the
people knew nothing about cocks, and did not even understand how to
divide their time. They certainly knew when it was morning or evening,
but at night, if they did not sleep through it, not one of them knew
how to find out the time.
“Look!” said he, “what a proud creature! it has a ruby-red crown upon
its head, and wears spurs like a knight; it calls you three times
during the night, at fixed hours, and when it calls for the last time,
the sun soon rises. But if it crows by broad daylight, then take
notice, for there will certainly be a change of weather.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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