A special kind of fairy tales [2]

... Continued from previous entry

Kei duduk sebelah aku, bukak buku " The Grimm Brothers: Fairy tales" chapter "The Juniper Tree"

Once upon a time, there lived a rich man with his beautiful wife and she was beautiful and good. The wife prayed day and night for a beautiful child but still they did not get one.. One day in winter, the wife stood under the juniper tree, peeling herself an apple and as she was peeling the apple, she cut her fingers. Three drops of blood fell onto the snow and she said "Ah, if only I have a child red as blood and white as snow". It made her so happy as if it was really going to happen. Nine months later, she gave birth to a son, as white as snow and as red as blood. As she saw her son, she was so happy that she died.

The rich man was sad. He buried her under the juniper tree as she had always wanted. Months passed by, the rich made marry his new wife and was sad no more.

With his new wife, he had a beautiful daughter named Anne Mary. Anne Mary loved her brother so much but her mother despised her brother, fearing that all the inheritance would be his when the rich man died. It made her bitter and she would pushed him around, pinch him whenever her husband was not around.

Once the woman had gone upstairs and her little daughter came up too and said,

"Mother, can I have an apple?"

"Yes, my child," said the woman and gave her a beautiful apple out of the chest. Now this chest had a great heavy lid with a sharp iron lock.

"Mother," said the little daughter, "couldn't brother have one too?"

This upset the woman, but she said, "He can have one when he gets back from school." And as she looked out the window she saw him coming and it was as the devil got into her and she reached out and snatched the apple out of her daughter's hand and said, "You can't have one till your brother comes," and threw the apple back into the chest and closed the lid.

And then the little boy came in the door and the evil one made her speak kindly to him and she said, "My son, would you like an apple?" and looked at him full of hatred.

"Mother," said the little boy, "how strange and wild you look! Please give me an apple." And it was as if she must still draw him on and she said, "Come with me," and lifted up the lid. "You can pick your own apple."

And as the little boy leaned in, the evil one spoke in her hear. Crunch! she slammed the lid shut so that the head flew off and rolled among the red apples. And now terror overwhelmed her and she thought, "How can I get myself out of this?" and so she went up to her room, to her wardrobe, and out of the top drawer she took a white cloth and set the head back on the neck and tied the scarf around it in such a way that you couldn't see anything and set him on a chair in front of the door and put the apple in his hand.

"Mother," said Ann Marie, "brother is sitting in front of the door. He looks so white and has an apple in his hand. I asked him to give me the apple but he wouldn't answer me, and it made my flesh creep!"

"Go back out," said her mother, "and if he won't answer you, you box his ears for him."

And so Ann Marie went out and said, "Brother, give me your apple," but he said nothing and so she boxed his ears, and his head fell off and she was horror-stricken and began to cry and to scream and ran to her mother and said, "Oh, Mother, I've hit my brother and knocked his head off," and cried and cried and could not stop.

"Ann Marie," said the mother, "what have you done! But you just keep quiet and nobody will know. After all, it can't be helped now; we will stew him in a sour broth." And so the mother took the little boy and hacked him in pieces and put the pieces in a pot and stewed him in the sour broth.

When the father came home he sat down to supper and said, "And where is my son?" And so the mother brought a big dish of black stew. "Oh," said the mother, "he's gone on a trip. He went to his mother's great-uncle and wants to stay there for a while."

"What's he going to do there? And never even say goodbye to me!"

"Oh," he wanted so much to go, he asked me if he could stay six weeks; they'll take good care of him there."

"Ah," said the man, "why am I feeling so sad? It doesn't seem right, somehow. He might at least have come and said goodbye to me!"

"Ah, wife, what good food this is! Give me some more." And the more he ate the more he wanted, and said, "Give me more. You can't have any of it; it's as if all of this were for me." And he ate and ate, and threw the bones under the table, and finished it all up.

But Ann Marie went to her chest of drawers and took her best silk scarf out of the bottom drawer and fetched every last little bone from under the table and tied them up in the silk cloth and carried them outside. Then she laid them under the juniper tree in the green grass and as soon as she had laid them there she felt so much better and didn't cry anymore. But the juniper began to stir and the branches kept opening out and coming back together again and a bird come out of the mist from the tree. Anne Marie was happy as if her brother was still alive. She went back to her home, singing gleefully.

But the bird flew away and sat down on the roof of the goldsmith's house and began to sing:

"My mother she butchered me,
 My father he ate me,
 My sister, little Ann Marie,
 She gathered up the bones of me
 And tied them in a silken cloth
 To lay under the juniper.
 Tweet twee, what a pretty bird am I!"

The goldsmith was sitting in his workshop, making a golden chain, and he heard the bird that sat on his roof and sang, and it seemed so beautiful to him. "Bird," said he, "how beautifully you sing! Take this golden chain and sing that piece again." So the bird sang.

And so the bird flew off to a cobbler's and sat down on the roof and sang:

"My mother she butchered me,
 My father he ate me,
 My sister, little Ann Marie,
 She gathered up the bones of me
 And tied them in a silken cloth
 To lay under the juniper.
 Tweet twee, what a pretty bird am I!"

The cobbler heard it and ran out of the door. "Bird," said he, "how beautifully you sing!Here, take this red shoes and sing that piece again". So the bird sang.

And so the bird went and sat on the linden tree that stood in front of the mill and sang:

"My mother she butchered me,
 My father he ate me,
 My sister, little Ann Marie,
 She gathered up the bones of me
 And tied them in a silken cloth
 To lay under the juniper.
 Tweet twee, what a pretty bird am I!"

The miller stop working and listened to the bird. One of them said, "Bird," said he, "how beautifully you sing! Here, take this mill stone and sing that piece again"

And when it was finished singing, it spread its wings, and in the right claw it carried the chain, and the shoes in the left, and around the neck it wore the millstone, and flew all they back to its father's house.

"My mother she butchered me,
 My father he ate me,
 My sister, little Ann Marie,
 She gathered up the bones of me
 And tied them in a silken cloth
 To lay under the juniper.
 Tweet twee, what a pretty bird am I!"

The father went outside to see the bird. As he went to the juniper tree, the bird let the golden chain fall right around the man's neck. He was happy so he went back into the house."Look at the pretty bird, what a pretty golden chain it gave me for a present, and how pretty it is to look at!"

"Ah," said Ann Marie, "I'm going out too to see if the bird has a present for me," and so she went out.

It threw a pair of red shoes to her and she was happy so she put on the shoes and went back into the house.

 "Ah," said she, "I was so sad when I went outside, and now I feel so much better. What a wonderful bird it is! It gave me a pair of red shoes for a present."

The mother said "I'm going out and maybe I will feel better too." And as she came out of the door, crunch! the bird threw the millstone on her head and she was squashed. The father and Ann Marie heard it and came out. There was steam and flames and fire rising from the spot, and when they were gone, there stood the little brother and he took his father and Ann Marie by the hand and the three of them were so happy and went into the house and sat down at the table and ate their supper.

The end..

****

Adieu

P/s: Damn, this is super long..

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