Once upon a time there was a nightingale and a slowworm who each had only one eye and lived together in a house for a long time in peace and unity. But one day the nightingale was invited to a wedding, and she said to the slowworm, "I've been invited to a wedding and I wouldn't like to go with only one eye like this. Would you be so good as to lend me yours? I'll bring it back to you tomorrow.” And the slowworm did it as a favor.
But the next day, when the nightingale came home, she liked it so much that she had two eyes in her head and could see on both sides that she didn't want to give the poor slowworm her borrowed eye back. Then the slowworm swore she wanted revenge on her, and on her children and grandchildren.
"Go ahead," said the nightingale, "and look for me:
"I am building my nest on those linden trees,
so high, so high, so high, so high,
you may never find me again!"
Since that time, all nightingales have two eyes and all slowworms have no eyes. But wherever a nightingale builds, there lives a slowworm down in the bushes, and it always tries to crawl up, bore holes in its enemy's eggs, and drink them out.
My Notes
- This tale is an animal legend.
- This story was the sixth tale in the Grimms' collection in 1812, but was removed in 1819.
No comments:
Post a Comment