Grimm's Household Tales

There was once a poor peasant who had no land, only a small house and one daughter. Then the daughter said, “We ought to ask our lord the King for a bit of newly cleared land.” When the King heard of their poverty, he presented them with a piece of land. She and her father dug it up and intended to sow it with a little wheat and other grain of that kind. When they had dug up nearly the whole of the field, they found in the earth a mortar made of pure gold. “Listen,” the father said to the girl, “since our lord the King has been so gracious and has presented us with the field, we ought to give him this mortar in return.” The daughter, however, would not consent to this, and said, “Father, if we have only the mortar and not the pestle as well, we shall have to get the pestle, so you had much better say nothing about it.” He would not obey her, however, but took the mortar and carried it to the King. He said that he had found it in the cleared land and asked whether the King would accept it as a present. The King took the mortar and asked whether he had found nothing else. “No,” answered the countryman. Then the King said that the peasant must now bring him the pestle. The peasant said they had not found it, but he might just as well have spoken to the wind. He was put in prison and was to stay there until he produced the pestle. Every day the servants had to carry him bread and water, which is what people get in prison, and they heard the man crying out continually, “Ah, if only I had listened to my daughter! Alas, alas, if only I had listened to my daughter!” He would neither eat nor drink. So the King commanded the servants to bring the prisoner before him, and then asked the peasant why he was always crying, “Ah, if only I had listened to my daughter!” and what his daughter had said. “She told me that I ought not to take the mortar to you, for I would have to produce the pestle as well.” “If you have a daughter who is as wise as that, let her come here.” She was therefore obliged to appear before the King, who asked her whether she really was so wise. He said he would give her a riddle, and if she could guess it, he would marry her. She answered at once that yes, she would guess it. Then the King said, “Come to me not clothed, not naked, not riding, not walking, not in the road, and not out of the road, and if you can do that, I will marry you.” So she went away, took off everything she had on, and then she was not clothed. She took a great fishing net, seated herself in it, and wrapped it entirely around and around her, so that she was not naked. She hired a donkey and tied the fisherman’s net to its tail, so that it was forced to drag her along, and that was neither riding nor walking. The donkey also had to drag her along in the ruts, so that she touched the ground only with her big toe, and that was neither being in the road nor being out of the road. And when she arrived in that manner, the King said she had guessed the riddle and fulfilled all the conditions. Then he ordered her father to be released from prison, married her, and entrusted all the royal possessions to her care.

Now when some years had passed, the King was once drawing up his troops on parade when it happened that some peasants who had been selling wood stopped with their wagons in front of the palace. Some of the wagons had oxen yoked to them, and some had horses. One peasant had three horses, and one of them gave birth to a young foal, which ran away and lay down between two oxen that were in front of the wagon. When the peasants came together, they began to dispute, to beat each other, and to make a disturbance. The peasant with the oxen wanted to keep the foal and said that one of the oxen had given birth to it, and the other peasant said that his horse had had it and that it was his. The quarrel came before the King, and he gave the verdict that the foal should stay where it had been found, and so the peasant with the oxen, to whom it did not belong, got it. Then the other went away and wept and lamented over his foal. Now he had heard how gracious his lady the Queen was, because she herself had sprung from poor peasant folk, so he went to her and begged her to see whether she could not help him get his foal back again. She said, “Yes, I will tell you what to do, if you will promise not to betray me. Early tomorrow morning, when the King parades the guard, place yourself there in the middle of the road by which he must pass, take a great fishing net, and pretend to be fishing. Go on fishing, too, and empty out the net as if you had gotten it full.” Then she also told him what he was to say if the King questioned him. The next day, therefore, the peasant stood there and fished on dry ground. When the King passed by and saw that, he sent his messenger to ask what the stupid man was doing. The peasant answered, “I am fishing.” The messenger asked how he could fish when there was no water there. The peasant said, “It is as easy for me to fish on dry land as it is for an ox to have a foal.” The messenger went back and took the answer to the King, who ordered the peasant to be brought to him and told him that this was not his own idea, and that he wanted to know whose it was. The peasant must confess this at once. The peasant, however, would not do so. He kept saying, “God forbid that I should do so! The idea was my own.” They laid him, however, on a heap of straw and beat him and tormented him so long that at last he admitted that he had gotten the idea from the Queen.

When the King reached home again, he said to his wife, “Why have you behaved so falsely to me? I will not have you any longer as a wife. Your time is up. Go back to the place you came from, to your peasant’s hut.” One favor, however, he granted her: she could take with her the one thing that was dearest and best in her eyes. And so she was dismissed. She said, “Yes, my dear husband, if you command this, I will do it,” and she embraced him and kissed him and said she would take leave of him. Then she ordered a powerful sleeping potion to be brought, to drink a farewell toast to him. The King took a long drink, but she took only a little. He soon fell into a deep sleep, and when she saw that, she called a servant, took a fine white linen cloth, and wrapped the King in it. The servant was forced to carry him into a carriage that stood in front of the door, and she drove with him to her own little house. She laid him in her own little bed, and he slept one day and one night without waking, and when he awoke, he looked around and said, “Good God! Where am I?” He called his attendants, but not one of them was there. At length his wife came to his bedside and said, “My dear lord and King, you told me I could take away with me from the palace that which was dearest and most precious in my eyes. I have nothing more precious and dear than you, so I have brought you with me.” Tears rose to the King’s eyes, and he said, “Dear wife, you shall be mine, and I will be yours.” And he took her back with him to the royal palace and married her again, and at the present time they are very likely still living.