The Three Little Men in the Wood

 13. The Three Little Men in the Wood (Die drei Maennlein im Walde)

There was once a man, whose wife was dead, and a woman, whose husband was dead; and the man had a daughter, and so had the woman. The girls were acquainted with each other, and used to play together sometimes in the woman's house. So the woman said to the man's daughter,

"Listen to me, tell your father that I will marry him, and then you shall have milk to wash in every morning and wine to drink, and my daughter shall have water to wash in and water to drink."

The girl went home and told her father what the woman had said. The man said,

"What shall I do! Marriage is a joy, and also a torment."

At last, as he could come to no conclusion, he took off his boot, and said to his daughter,

"Take this boot, it has a hole in the sole; go up with it into the loft, hang it on the big nail and pour water in it. If it holds water, I will once more take to me a wife; if it lets out the water, so will I not."

The girl did as she was told, but the water held the hole together, and the boot was full up to the top. So she went and told her father how it was. And he went up to see with his own eyes, and as there was no mistake about it, he went to the widow and courted her, and then they had the wedding.

The next morning, when the two girls awoke, there stood by the bedside of the man's daughter milk to wash in and wine to drink, and by the bedside of the woman's daughter there stood water to wash in and water to drink.

On the second morning there stood water to wash in and water to drink for both of them alike. On the third morning there stood water to wash in and water to drink for the man's daughter, and milk to wash in and wine to drink for the woman's daughter; and so it remained ever after. The woman hated her step-daughter, and never knew how to treat her badly enough from one day to another. And she was jealous because her step-daughter was pleasant and pretty, and her real daughter was ugly and hateful.

Once in winter, when it was freezing hard, and snow lay deep on hill and valley, the woman made a frock out of paper, called her step-daughter, and said,

"Here, put on this frock, go out into the wood and fetch me a basket of strawberries; I have a great wish for some."

"Oh dear," said the girl, "there are no strawberries to be found in winter; the ground is frozen, and the snow covers everything. And why should I go in the paper frock? it is so cold out of doors that one's breath is frozen; the wind will blow through it, and the thorns will tear it off my back!"

"How dare you contradict me!" cried the step-mother, "be off, and don't let me see you again till you bring me a basket of strawberries."

Then she gave her a little piece of hard bread, and said,

"That will do for you to eat during the day," and she thought to herself, "She is sure to be frozen or starved to death out of doors, and I shall never set eyes on her again."

So the girl went obediently, put on the paper frock, and started out with the basket. The snow was lying everywhere, far and wide, and there was not a blade of green to be seen. When she entered the wood she saw a little house with three little men peeping out of it. She wished them good day, and knocked modestly at the door. They called her in, and she came into the room and sat down by the side of the oven to warm herself and eat her breakfast. The little men said,

"Give us some of it."

"Willingly," answered she, breaking her little piece of bread in two, and giving them half. They then said,

"What are you doing here in the forest this winter time in your little thin frock?"

"Oh," answered she, "I have to get a basket of strawberries, and I must not go home without them."

When she had eaten her bread they gave her a broom, and told her to go and sweep the snow away from the back door. When she had gone outside to do it the little men talked among themselves about what they should do for her, as she was so good and pretty, and had shared her bread with them.

Then the first one said, "She shall grow prettier every day."

The second said, "Each time she speaks a piece of gold shall fall from her mouth."

The third said, "A king shall come and take her for his wife."

In the meanwhile the girl was doing as the little men had told her, and had cleared the snow from the back of the little house, and what do you suppose she found? fine ripe strawberries, showing dark red against the snow! Then she joyfully filled her little basket full, thanked the little men, shook hands with them all, and ran home in haste to bring her step-mother the thing she longed for. As she went in and said, "Good evening," a piece of gold fell from her mouth at once. Then she related all that had happened to her in the wood, and at each word that she spoke gold pieces fell out of her mouth, so that soon they were scattered all over the room.

"Just look at her pride and conceit!" cried the step-sister, "throwing money about in this way!" but in her heart she was jealous because of it, and wanted to go too into the wood to fetch strawberries. But the mother said,

"No, my dear little daughter, it is too cold, you will be frozen to death."

But she left her no peace, so at last the mother gave in, got her a splendid fur coat to put on, and gave her bread and butter and cakes to eat on the way.

The girl went into the wood and walked straight up to the little house. The three little men peeped out again, but she gave them no greeting, and without looking round or taking any notice of them she came stumping into the room, sat herself down by the oven, and began to eat her bread and butter and cakes.

"Give us some of that," cried the little men, but she answered,

"I've not enough for myself; how can I give away any?"

Now when she had done with her eating, they said,

"Here is a broom, go and sweep all clean by the back door."

"Oh, go and do it yourselves," answered she; "I am not your housemaid."

But when she saw that they were not going to give her anything, she went out to the door. Then the three little men said among themselves,

"What shall we do to her, because she is so unpleasant, and has such a wicked jealous heart, grudging everybody everything?"

The first said, "She shall grow uglier every day."

The second said, "Each time she speaks a toad shall jump out of her mouth at every word."

The third said, "She shall die a miserable death."

The girl was looking outside for strawberries, but as she found none, she went sulkily home. And directly she opened her mouth to tell her mother what had happened to her in the forest a toad sprang out of her mouth at each word, so that every one who came near her was quite disgusted.

The step-mother became more and more set against the man's daughter, whose beauty increased day by day, and her only thought was how to do her some injury. So at last she took a kettle, set it on the fire, and scalded some yarn in it. When it was ready she hung it over the poor girl's shoulder, and gave her an axe, and she was to go to the frozen river and break a hole in the ice, and there to rinse the yarn. She obeyed, and went and hewed a hole in the ice, and as she was about it there came by a splendid coach, in which the King sat. The coach stood still, and the King said,

"My child, who art thou, and what art thou doing there?" She answered,

"I am a poor girl, and am rinsing yarn."

Then the King felt pity for her, and as he saw that she was very beautiful, he said,

"Will you go with me?"

"Oh yes, with all my heart," answered she; and she felt very glad to be out of the way of her mother and sister.

So she stepped into the coach and went off with the King; and when they reached his castle the wedding was celebrated with great splendour, as the little men in the forest had foretold.

At the end of a year the young Queen had a son; and as the step-mother had heard of her great good fortune she came with her daughter to the castle, as if merely to pay the King and Queen a visit. One day, when the King had gone out, and when nobody was about, the bad woman took the Queen by the head, and her daughter took her by the heels, and dragged her out of bed, and threw her out of the window into a stream that flowed beneath it. Then the old woman put her ugly daughter in the bed, and covered her up to her chin. When the King came back, and wanted to talk to his wife a little, the old woman cried,

"Stop, stop! she is sleeping nicely; she must be kept quiet to-day."

The King dreamt of nothing wrong, and came again the next morning; and as he spoke to his wife, and she answered him, there jumped each time out of her mouth a toad instead of the piece of gold as heretofore. Then he asked why that should be, and the old woman said it was because of her great weakness, and that it would pass away.

But in the night, the boy who slept in the kitchen saw how something in the likeness of a duck swam up the gutter, and said,—

"What does the King, I pray you tell,Is he awake or sleeps he well?"

But there was no answer. Then it said,

"And all my guests, are they asleep?"

So the kitchen-boy answered,

"Yes, one and all they slumber deep"

It asked again,

"And what about my baby dear?"

And he answered,

"Oh, it sleeps soundly, never fear."

Then the duck took the shape of the Queen and went to the child, and gave him to drink, smoothed his little bed, covered him up again, and then, in the likeness of a duck, swam back down the gutter. In this way she came two nights, and on the third she said to the kitchen-boy,

"Go and tell the King to brandish his sword three times over me on the threshold!"

Then the kitchen-boy ran and told the King, and he came with his sword and brandished it three times over the duck, and at the third time his wife stood before him living, and hearty, and sound, as she had been before.

The King was greatly rejoiced, but he hid the Queen in a chamber until the Sunday came when the child was to be baptized. And after the baptism he said,

"What does that person deserve who drags another out of bed and throws him in the water?"

And the old woman answered,

"No better than to be put into a barrel with iron nails stuck through it, and to be rolled in it down the hill into the water."

Then said the King,

"You have spoken your own sentence;" and he ordered a barrel to be fetched, and the old woman and her daughter were put into it, and the top hammered down, and the barrel was rolled down the hill into the river.

My Notes

• This is the translation of Lucy Crane, with minor corrections.
• This is tale type 480 (The Kind and Unkind Girls). Other famous tales of this type include the Russian folk tale "The Twelve Months," Perrault's "The Fairies" (also known as "Diamonds and Toads"), the English folktale "The Three Heads of the Well," and Grimms' "Mother Holle."
• This story was present in all seven editions of Grimms' collection, and was always placed as the twelfth tale. However, the story was greatly expanded upon as various edits were made.

1812 version

A man's wife died and he wasn't sure if he should marry again or not. Finally he took off his boot, which had a hole in the sole, and said to his daughter, his only child, "Take this boot, carry it to the loft where there is a big nail, hang it on it, then fetch water and pour it in. If he holds the water, I will marry again, but if it leaks, I will remain unmarried."

The girl did as she was told, but the water closed the hole and the boot was filled to the brim. The man checked himself to see if it was true, then he said, "I guess I have to marry."

So he went and wooed a widow. She also brought into the house a daughter by her first husband, and when she saw that her stepchild was beautiful and everyone loved her, she hated her.

One day, in the middle of winter, when the snow was deep, she made a dress from thin paper, and when it was finished she called the stepchild and said, "I want to eat some strawberries. Put on the dress, go into the forest, and look for the basketful. Don't you dare come home until you've filled it!"

The girl cried bitterly and said, "In winter strawberries don't grow in the forest, and even if they did there would be snow on top of them. How am I supposed to find them? It's so cold outside that my breath will freeze. And how can I go in this paper dress? The wind will blow through it and the thorns will tear it off me."

"Not another word," said mother. "Go out at once and look for the strawberries!" In her envious heart she thought that the girl would freeze to death and never come home; that's why she had made her the thin paper dress.

The girl obediently put on the paper dress and went into the forest, but there was nothing but snow and not a single green blade to be seen anywhere. She went on and on, and when she got to the middle of the forest she saw a small house with three little men looking out of it. She said hello to them, and, because she greeted them so politely, they asked why she was was wearing the thin paper dress and searching in the forest in wintertime.

"Oh!" she said, "I'm supposed to look for a basketful of strawberries and I mustn't come home until I bring it with me."

The three men then said, "Go behind our house and clear away the snow, that's where the strawberries have had shelter and have grown, so you will find them there."

The girl thanked them and did as she was told. While she was clearing away the snow and picking the strawberries, the three little men said among themselves, "What should we give her, because she has been so nice to us and is so beautiful?"

"She will be even more beautiful," said the first.

"Gold coins will fall out of her mouth when she speaks," said the second.

"A king will come and marry her," said the third.

Then girl again came to them again and they gave their gifts to her, and, when she tried to say thank you, gold coins fell out of her mouth. She went home and the stepmother was amazed at the strawberries she brought, and was even more amazed when she saw the gold coins falling out of her mouth. And it was not long before a king came and fetched her, and she became his wife.

Now the mother wanted her daughter to also receive such great happiness. So she made her a splendid fur coat and told her to go out into the forest and ask the little men for a present. But the men saw that she had a bad heart, and instead of good presents they gave her bad ones. The first, that she would freeze in her fur coat as if it were made of paper. The second, that she would become uglier each day. The third, that she would die a miserable death.

The daughter came home shivering with cold and told her mother what had happened to her, and when the mother saw that the three men's curses were beginning to come true, she thought only of revenge. She went to her stepdaughter, the queen, and behaved in a friendly and affectionate way. She she was well received and given her own dwelling. Soon afterwards the queen gave birth to a prince, and when she was alone, recovering from her pregnancy at night, the wicked woman and her daughter lifted her out of bed, and they carried her out to the river and threw her in. The next morning they told the king that the queen had died in the night.

The following night the kitchen boy saw a duck swimming down the gutter into the kitchen. And the duck asked:

"All my guests, are they asleep?"

And he answered:

"Yes, one and all they slumber deep"

"And what about my baby dear?"

"Oh, it sleeps soundly, never fear."

So she went up to the baby in the form of a queen, gave him something to drink, tended to him, made his cradle for him, covered him up, and swam away again through the gutter as a duck when morning came. She came again the next night, and on the third night she said to the kitchen boy, "Go to the king and tell him to swing his sword three times on the over me."

So the king swung his sword over her three times, and the queen stood before him alive again. The falsehood of the stepmother and her daughter was exposed, and they were thrown to the wild beasts of the forest to eat.