Grimm's Household Tales

There was once a king’s son who was seized with a desire to travel about the world, and he took no one with him but a faithful servant. One day he came to a great forest, and when darkness overtook him, he could find no shelter and did not know where to spend the night. Then he saw a girl who was walking toward a small house, and when he came nearer, he saw that she was young and beautiful. He spoke to her and said, “Dear child, can my servant and I find shelter for the night in the little house?” “Oh, yes,” said the girl in a sad voice, “you certainly can, but I do not advise you to try it. Do not go in.” “Why not?” asked the king’s son. The girl sighed and said, “My stepmother practices wicked arts; she is hostile toward strangers.” Then he saw very well that he had come to the house of a witch. But since it was dark, and he could not go any farther, and he was not afraid either, he entered. The old woman was sitting in an armchair by the fire, and she looked at the stranger with her red eyes. “Good evening,” she growled, and pretended to be quite friendly. “Take a seat and rest.” She blew up the fire on which she was cooking something in a small pot. The daughter warned the two to be careful and to eat and drink nothing, for the old woman brewed evil drinks. They slept quietly until early morning. When they were getting ready to leave, and the king’s son was already seated on his horse, the old woman said, “Stop a moment. First I will hand you a parting drink.” While she fetched it, the king’s son rode away, and the servant, who had to buckle his saddle tight, was the only one present when the wicked witch came with the drink. “Take that to your master,” she said. But at that instant the glass broke, and the poison spurted onto the horse. It was so strong that the animal fell down dead at once. The servant ran after his master and told him what had happened, but he did not want to leave his saddle behind, so he ran back to fetch it. When he came to the dead horse, however, a raven was already sitting on it, devouring it. “Who knows whether we will find anything better today?” said the servant, so he killed the raven and took it with him. And now they journeyed onward through the forest the whole day but could not get out of it. By nightfall they found an inn and entered it. The servant gave the raven to the innkeeper to prepare for supper. They had, however, stumbled on a den of murderers, and during the darkness twelve of them came, intending to kill the strangers and rob them. Before they set about this work, they sat down to supper, and the innkeeper and the witch sat down with them, and together they ate a dish of soup in which the flesh of the raven was cut up. They had hardly swallowed a couple of mouthfuls, however, before they all fell down dead, for the raven had passed on to them the poison from the horse’s flesh. No one else was left in the house but the innkeeper’s daughter, who was honest and had taken no part in their godless deeds. She opened all the doors for the stranger and showed him the heaped-up treasures. But the king’s son said she might keep everything, that he wanted none of it, and he rode onward with his servant.

After they had traveled for a long time, they came to a town in which there was a beautiful but proud princess. She had had it proclaimed that whoever set her a riddle that she could not guess would become her husband, but if she guessed it, his head would be cut off. She had three days to guess it, but she was so clever that she always found the answer to the riddle before the appointed time. Nine suitors had already perished in this manner when the king’s son arrived. Blinded by her great beauty, he was willing to stake his life for it. Then he went to her and laid his riddle before her. “What is this?” he said. “One killed none, and yet killed twelve.” She did not know what that was. She thought and thought, but she could not find out. She opened her riddle books, but the answer was not in them. In short, her wisdom was at an end. As she did not know how to help herself, she ordered her maid to creep into the lord’s bedchamber and listen to his dreams. She thought that he might speak in his sleep and reveal the riddle. But the clever servant had placed himself in the bed instead of his master, and when the maid came there, he tore off the cloak in which she had wrapped herself and chased her out with rods. The second night the king’s daughter sent her lady-in-waiting, who was to see if she could succeed better in listening, but the servant took her cloak away from her too and hunted her out with rods. Now the master believed himself safe for the third night and lay down in his own bed. Then the princess herself came. She had put on a misty-gray cloak, and she seated herself near him. When she thought that he was asleep and dreaming, she spoke to him, hoping that he would answer in his sleep, as many people do. But he was awake, and he understood and heard everything quite well. Then she asked, “One killed none, what is that?” He replied, “A raven, which ate from a dead and poisoned horse and died of it.” She inquired further, “And yet killed twelve, what is that?” He answered, “That means twelve murderers, who ate the raven and died of it.”

When she knew the answer to the riddle, she wanted to steal away, but he held her cloak so fast that she was forced to leave it behind. The next morning the king’s daughter announced that she had guessed the riddle, and she sent for the twelve judges and explained it before them. But the young man begged for a hearing and said, “She stole into my room in the night and questioned me; otherwise she could not have discovered it.” The judges said, “Bring us proof of this.” Then the servant brought the three cloaks there, and when the judges saw the misty-gray one that the king’s daughter usually wore, they said, “Let the cloak be embroidered with gold and silver, and then it will be your wedding cloak.”