Grimm's Household Tales

Once upon a time there lived a man and a woman who had no children as long as they were rich, but when they became poor they had a little boy. They could not find a godfather for him, however, so the man said he would go to another place to see if he could find one there. As he went, a poor man met him and asked where he was going. He said he was going to see if he could find a godfather; he was poor, so no one would stand as godfather for him. “Oh,” said the poor man, “you are poor, and I am poor; I will be godfather for you, but I am so badly off that I can give the child nothing. Go home and tell the nurse to come to the church with the child.”

When they all arrived at the church together, the beggar was already there, and he gave the child the name Ferdinand the Faithful.

As he was going out of the church, the beggar said, “Now go home. I can give you nothing, and you likewise ought to give me nothing.” But he gave a key to the nurse and told her that when she got home she was to give it to the father, who was to take care of it until the child was fourteen years old. Then the boy was to go to the heath, where there was a castle that the key would fit, and everything inside it would belong to him. When the child was seven years old and had grown very big, he once went to play with some other boys, and each of them boasted that he had received more from his godfather than the others had; but the child could say nothing and was upset. He went home and said to his father, “Did I get nothing at all, then, from my godfather?” “Oh, yes,” said the father, “you had a key. If there is a castle standing on the heath, just go to it and open it.” Then the boy went there, but no castle was to be seen or heard of.

After seven more years, when he was fourteen years old, he went there again, and there stood the castle. When he had opened it, there was nothing inside but a horse, a white one. Then the boy was so full of joy at having a horse that he mounted it and galloped back to his father. “Now I have a white horse, and I will travel,” he said. So he set out, and as he was on his way, a pen was lying on the road. At first he thought he would pick it up, but then he thought to himself, “You should leave it lying there; you will easily find a pen where you are going, if you need one.” As he was riding away, a voice called after him, “Ferdinand the Faithful, take it with you.” He looked around but saw no one; then he went back and picked it up. When he had ridden a little farther, he passed by a lake, and a fish was lying on the bank, gasping and panting for breath. He said, “Wait, my dear fish, I will help you get into the water,” and he took hold of it by the tail and threw it into the lake. Then the fish put its head out of the water and said, “Because you have helped me out of the mud, I will give you a flute. When you are in any need, play on it, and I will help you, and if you ever let anything fall into the water, just play, and I will bring it out to you.” Then he rode away, and a man came up to him and asked where he was going. “Oh, to the next place.” Then the man asked what his name was. “Ferdinand the Faithful.” “Well! Then we have almost the same name; I am called Ferdinand the Unfaithful.” And they both set out for the inn in the nearest place.

Unfortunately, Ferdinand the Unfaithful knew everything that the other had ever thought and everything that the other was about to do; he knew it by means of all kinds of wicked arts. In the inn, however, there was an honest girl who had a bright face and behaved very charmingly. She fell in love with Ferdinand the Faithful because he was a handsome man, and she asked him where he was going. “Oh, I am just traveling around,” he said. Then she said he ought to stay there, for the King of that country wanted an attendant or an outrider, and he ought to enter the King’s service. He answered that he could not very well go to just anyone like that and offer himself. Then the maiden said, “Oh, but I will soon do that for you.” And so she went straight to the King and told him that she knew of an excellent servant for him. He was well pleased with that and had Ferdinand the Faithful brought to him, and wanted to make him his servant. Ferdinand the Faithful, however, preferred to be an outrider, for he wanted to be wherever his horse was, so the King made him an outrider. When Ferdinand the Unfaithful learned of that, he said to the girl, “What! Do you help him and not me?” “Oh,” said the girl, “I will help you too.” She thought, “I must stay on good terms with that man, for he is not to be trusted.” She went to the King and offered Ferdinand the Unfaithful as a servant, and the King was willing.

Now when the King met his lords in the morning, he always lamented and said, “Oh, if only I had my love with me.” Ferdinand the Unfaithful, however, was always hostile to Ferdinand the Faithful. So once, when the King was complaining in this way, Ferdinand the Unfaithful said, “You have the outrider; send him away to get her, and if he does not do it, his head must be cut off.” Then the King sent for Ferdinand the Faithful and told him that there was a girl he loved in this place or that place, that he was to bring her to him, and that if he did not do it, he would die.

Ferdinand the Faithful went into the stable to his white horse and complained and lamented, “Oh, what an unhappy man I am!” Then someone behind him called, “Ferdinand the Faithful, why do you weep?” He looked around but saw no one, and went on lamenting, “Oh, my dear little white horse, now I must leave you; now I must die.” Then someone called once more, “Ferdinand the Faithful, why do you weep?” Then for the first time he realized that it was his little white horse who was asking that question. “Do you speak, my little white horse? Can you do that?” And he said again, “I am to go to this place and to that, and I am to bring the bride. Can you tell me how I am to go about it?” Then the little white horse answered, “Go to the King and say that if he will give you what you must have, you will get her for him. If he will give you a ship full of meat and a ship full of bread, it will succeed. Great giants live on the lake, and if you take no meat with you for them, they will tear you to pieces, and there are the large birds that would pick the eyes out of your head if you had no bread for them.” Then the King made all the butchers in the land slaughter animals and all the bakers bake, so that the ships could be filled. When they were full, the little white horse said to Ferdinand the Faithful, “Now mount me and come with me into the ship, and then when the giants come, say,

“Peace, peace, my dear little giants,
I have thought of you,
I have brought something for you.”

And when the birds come, you shall say again,

“Peace, peace, my dear little birds,
I have thought of you,
I have brought something for you.”

Then they will do nothing to you, and when you come to the castle, the giants will help you. Then go up to the castle and take a couple of giants with you. The princess lies sleeping there; you must not awaken her, but the giants must lift her up and carry her in her bed to the ship.” Now everything happened as the little white horse had said, and Ferdinand the Faithful gave the giants and the birds what he had brought with him for them, and that made the giants willing, and they carried the princess in her bed to the King. And when she came to the King, she said she could not live; she must have her papers, which had been left in her castle. Then, at the instigation of Ferdinand the Unfaithful, Ferdinand the Faithful was called, and the King told him he must fetch the papers from the castle, or he would die. Then he went once more into the stable and bemoaned his fate, saying, “Oh, my dear little white horse, now I am to go away again; how am I to do it?” Then the little white horse said he was just to load the ships full again. So it happened again as it had happened before, and the giants and the birds were satisfied and made gentle by the meat. When they came to the castle, the white horse told Ferdinand the Faithful that he must go in, and that the papers lay on the table in the princess’s bedroom. And Ferdinand the Faithful went in and fetched them. When they were on the lake, he let his pen fall into the water; then the white horse said, “Now I cannot help you at all.” But he remembered his flute and began to play on it, and the fish came with the pen in its mouth and gave it to him. So he took the papers to the castle, where the wedding was celebrated.

The Queen, however, did not love the King because he had no nose, but she would have liked very much to love Ferdinand the Faithful. Once, therefore, when all the lords of the court were together, the Queen said she could do feats of magic, that she could cut off anyone’s head and put it on again, and that one of them ought to try it. But none of them would be the first, so Ferdinand the Faithful, again at the instigation of Ferdinand the Unfaithful, undertook it, and she cut off his head and put it on again for him, and it healed together at once, so that it looked as if he had a red thread around his throat. Then the King said to her, “My child, where did you learn that?” “Yes,” she said, “I understand the art; shall I just try it on you also?” “Oh, yes,” he said. But she cut off his head and did not put it on again; instead she pretended that she could not get it on and that it would not stay fixed. Then the King was buried, but she married Ferdinand the Faithful.

Ferdinand the Faithful, however, always rode his white horse, and once when he was seated on it, it told him that he was to go to the heath that he knew and gallop three times around it. And when he had done that, the white horse stood up on its hind legs and was changed into a king’s son.