A poor widow once lived in a little cottage with a
garden in front of it, in which grew two rose trees, one bearing white roses
and the other red. She had two children, who were just like the two rose trees;
one was called Snow-White and the other Rose-Red, and they were the sweetest
and best children in the world, always diligent and always cheerful; but Snow-White
was quieter and more gentle than Rose-Red. Rose-Red loved to run about the
fields and meadows, and to pick flowers and catch butterflies; but Snow-White
sat at home with her mother and helped her in the household, or read aloud to
her when there was no work to do.
The two children
loved each other so dearly that they always walked about hand in hand whenever
they went out together, and when Snow- white said, "We will never desert
each other," Rose-Red answered: "No, not as long as we live";
and the mother added: "Whatever one gets she shall share with the
other." They often roamed about in the woods gathering berries and no
beast offered to hurt them; on the contrary, they came up to them in the most
confiding manner; the little hare would eat a cabbage leaf from their hands,
the deer grazed beside them, the stag would bound past them merrily, and the
birds remained on the branches and sang to them with all their might.
No evil ever
befell them; if they tarried late in the wood and night overtook them, they lay
down together on the moss and slept till morning, and their mother knew they
were quite safe, and never felt anxious about them. Once, when they had slept
all night in the wood and had been wakened by the morning sun, they perceived a
beautiful child in a shining white robe sitting close to their resting-place.
The figure got up, looked at them kindly, but said nothing, and vanished into
the wood. And when they looked round about them they became aware that they had
slept quite close to a precipice, over which they would certainly have fallen
had they gone on a few steps further in the darkness. And when they told their
mother of their adventure, she said what they had seen must have been the angel
that guards good children.
Snow-White and Rose-Red
kept their mother's cottage so beautifully clean and neat that it was a
pleasure to go into it. In summer Rose-Red looked after the house, and every
morning before her mother awoke she placed a bunch of flowers before the bed,
from each tree a rose. In winter Snow-White lit the fire and put on the kettle,
which was made of brass, but so beautifully polished that it shone like gold.
In the evening when the snowflakes fell their mother said: "Snow-White, go
and close the shutters," and they drew round the fire, while the mother
put on her spectacles and read aloud from a big book and the two girls listened
and sat and span. Beside them on the ground lay a little lamb, and behind them
perched a little white dove with its head tucked under its wings.
One evening as
they sat thus cosily together someone knocked at the door as though he desired
admittance. The mother said: "Rose-Red, open the door quickly; it must be
some traveller seeking shelter." Rose-Red
hastened to unbar the door, and thought she saw a poor man standing in the
darkness outside; but it was no such thing, only a bear, who poked his thick
black head through the door. Rose-Red screamed aloud and sprang back in terror,
the lamb began to bleat, the dove flapped its wings, and Snow-White ran and hid
behind her mother's bed. But the bear began to speak, and said: "Don't be
afraid: I won't hurt you. I am half frozen, and only wish to warm myself a
little."
"My poor
bear," said the mother, "lie down by the fire, only take care you don't
burn your fur." Then she called out: "Snow-White and Rose-Red, come
out; the bear will do you no harm; he is a good, honest creature." So they
both came out of their hiding-places, and gradually the lamb and dove drew near
too, and they all forgot their fear. The bear asked the children to beat the
snow a little out of his fur, and they fetched a brush and scrubbed him till he
was dry. Then the beast stretched himself in front of the fire, and growled
quite happily and comfortably. The children soon grew quite at their ease with
him, and led their helpless guest a fearful life. They tugged his fur with
their hands, put their small feet on his back, and rolled him about here and
there, or took a hazel wand and beat him with it; and if he growled they only
laughed. The bear submitted to everything with the best possible good- nature,
only when they went too far he cried: "Oh! children, spare my life!
"Snow-White
and Rose-Red,
Don't beat your
lover dead."
When it was time to retire for the night, and the
others went to bed, the mother said to the bear: "You can lie there on the
hearth, in heaven's name; it will be shelter for you from the cold and
wet." As soon as day dawned the children led him out, and he trotted over
the snow into the wood. From this time on the bear came every evening at the
same hour, and lay down by the hearth and let the children play what pranks
they liked with him; and they got so accustomed to him that the door was never
shut till their black friend had made his appearance.
When spring came, and all outside was green, the
bear said one morning to Snow-White: "Now I must go away, and not return
again the whole summer." "Where are you going to, dear bear?"
asked Snow-White. "I must go to the wood and protect my treasure from the
wicked dwarfs. In winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they are obliged to
remain underground, for they can't work their way through; but now, when the
sun has thawed and warmed the ground, they break through and come up above to
spy the land and steal what they can; what once falls into their hands and into
their caves is not easily brought back to light." Snow-White was quite sad
over their friend's departure, and when she unbarred the door for him, the
bear, stepping out, caught a piece of his fur in the door- knocker, and Snow-White
thought she caught sight of glittering gold beneath it, but she couldn't be
certain of it; and the bear ran hastily away, and soon disappeared behind the
trees.
A short time after this the mother sent the children
into the wood to collect fagots. They came in their wanderings upon a big tree
which lay felled on the ground, and on the trunk among the long grass they
noticed something jumping up and down, but what it was they couldn't
distinguish. When they approached nearer they perceived a dwarf with a wizened
face and a beard a yard long. The end of the beard was jammed into a cleft of
the tree, and the little man sprang about like a dog on a chain, and didn't
seem to know what he was to do. He glared at the girls with his fiery red eyes,
and screamed out: "What are you standing there for? Can't you come and
help me?"
"What were
you doing, little man?" asked Rose-Red. "You stupid, inquisitive
goose!" replied the dwarf; "I wanted to split the tree, in order to
get little chips of wood for our kitchen fire; those thick logs that serve to
make fires for coarse, greedy people like yourselves quite burn up all the
little food we need. I had successfully driven in the wedge, and all was going
well, but the cursed wood was so slippery that it suddenly sprang out, and the
tree closed up so rapidly that I had no time to take my beautiful white beard
out, so here I am stuck fast, and I can't get away; and you silly,
smooth-faced, milk-and- water girls just stand and laugh! Ugh! what wretches
you are!"
The children did
all in their power, but they couldn't get the beard out; it was wedged in far
too firmly. "I will run and fetch somebody," said Rose-Red.
"Crazy blockheads!" snapped the dwarf; "what's the good of
calling anyone else? You're already two too many for me. Does nothing better
occur to you than that?" "Don't be so impatient," said Snow-White,
"I'll see you get help," and taking her scissors out of her pocket
she cut off the end of his beard. As soon as the dwarf felt himself free he
seized a bag full of gold which was hidden among the roots of the tree, lifted
it up, and muttered aloud: "Curse these rude wretches, cutting off a piece
of my splendid beard!" With these words he swung the bag over his back, and
disappeared without as much as looking at the children again.
Shortly after
this Snow-White and Rose-Red went out to get a dish of fish. As they approached
the stream they saw something which looked like an enormous grasshopper
springing toward the water as if it were going to jump in. They ran forward and
recognized their old friend the dwarf. "Where are you going to?"
asked Rose-Red; "you're surely not going to jump into the water?"
"I'm not
such a fool," screamed the dwarf. "Don't you see that cursed fish is
trying to drag me in?" The little man had been sitting on the bank
fishing, when unfortunately the wind had entangled his beard in the line; and
when immediately afterward a big fish bit, the feeble little creature had no
strength to pull it out; the fish had the upper fin, and dragged the dwarf
toward him. He clung on with all his might to every rush and blade of grass,
but it didn't help him much; he had to follow every movement of the fish, and
was in great danger of being drawn into the water. The girls came up just at
the right moment, held him firm, and did all they could to disentangle his
beard from the line; but in vain, beard and line were in a hopeless muddle.
Nothing remained but to produce the scissors and cut the beard, by which a small
part of it was sacrificed.
When the dwarf
perceived what they were about he yelled to them: "Do you call that
manners, you toad- stools! to disfigure a fellow's face? It wasn't enough that
you shortened my beard before, but you must now needs cut off the best bit of
it. I can't appear like this before my own people. I wish you'd been in Jericho
first." Then he fetched a sack of pearls that lay among the rushes, and
without saying another word he dragged it away and disappeared behind a stone.
It happened that
soon after this the mother sent the two girls to the town to buy needles,
thread, laces, and ribbons. Their road led over a heath where huge boulders of
rock lay scattered here and there. While trudging along they saw a big bird
hovering in the air, circling slowly above them, but always descending lower,
till at last it settled on a rock not far from them. Immediately afterward they
heard a sharp, piercing cry. They ran forward, and saw with horror that the eagle
had pounced on their old friend the dwarf, and was about to carry him off. The
tender-hearted children seized hold of the little man, and struggled so long
with the bird that at last he let go his prey.
When the dwarf
had recovered from the first shock he screamed in his screeching voice:
"Couldn't you have treated me more carefully? You have torn my thin little
coat all to shreds, useless, awkward hussies that you are!" Then he took a
bag of precious stones and vanished under the rocks into his cave. The girls
were accustomed to his ingratitude, and went on their way and did their
business in town. On their way home, as they were again passing the heath, they
surprised the dwarf pouring out his precious stones on an open space, for he
had thought no one would pass by at so late an hour. The evening sun shone on
the glittering stones, and they glanced and gleamed so beautifully that the
children stood still and gazed on them.
"What are
you standing there gaping for?" screamed the dwarf, and his ashen-gray
face became scarlet with rage. He was about to go off with these angry words
when a sudden growl was heard, and a black bear trotted out of the wood. The
dwarf jumped up in great fright, but he hadn't time to reach his place of
retreat, for the bear was already close to him. Then he cried in terror:
"Dear Mr. Bear, spare me! I'll give you all my treasure. Look at those
beautiful precious stones lying there. Spare my life! what pleasure would you
get from a poor feeble little fellow like me? You won't feel me between your
teeth. There, lay hold of these two wicked girls, they will be a tender morsel
for you, as fat as young quails; eat them up, for heaven's sake." But the
bear, paying no attention to his words, gave the evil little creature one blow
with his paw, and he never moved again.
The girls had run
away, but the bear called after them: "Snow-White and Rose-Red, don't be
afraid; wait, and I'll come with you." Then they recognized his voice and
stood still, and when the bear was quite close to them his skin suddenly fell
off, and a beautiful man stood beside them, all dressed in gold. "I am a
king's son," he said, "and have been doomed by that unholy little
dwarf, who had stolen my treasure, to roam about the woods as a wild bear till
his death should set me free. Now he has got his well-merited punishment."
Snow-White
married him, and Rose-Red his brother, and they divided the great treasure the
dwarf had collected in his cave between them. The old mother lived for many
years peacefully with her children; and she carried the two rose trees with
her, and they stood in front of her window, and every year they bore the finest
red and white roses.
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