Once upon a time there were seven brothers. As
they were orphans and had no sister, they had to do all the house-work themselves.
One day, however, they all took it into their heads to get married. Because
there were no marriageable young ladies in the village where they lived, they
decided to travel in search of wives, and agreed to leave their youngest
brother, – to whom they promised to bring a fair bride, – to keep house at
home. The youth was quite satisfied with this arrangement, and the six brothers
set out in a high state of delight. After a while they came to a small cottage
standing by itself in a wood. In front of its door sat an old man. He shouted
to the brothers, "Holloa there, you young geese! Where are you going so
merry and quick?"
"We are seeking for wives," answered one
of them, "one for each of us, and another for our youngest brother at
home."
"Oh, you dear young men," said the old
fellow, "bring me a young and pretty bride too; for I live here motherless
and alone."
The brothers walked off after that, wondering what
such a grey old man as he could possibly want with a young and pretty bride.
In the first city they arrived at they found seven
sisters, all as young and good-looking as one could desire. The brothers
persuaded the young ladies to go with them and told the youngest that they had
a brother at home for her.
On their way home they again passed by the cottage
in the wood, and there sat the old man at his door, apparently waiting for
them. "Ah, you brave youths," he cried out, "I am indebted to
you, for I see you have brought a pretty young wife for me."
"No, no," answered the eldest, "she
is not for you, but for our youngest brother at home, as we promised him."
"Oh, oh! promised?" said the old man;
"then I will promise you something too." So saying he took a white
rod and murmuring a few words, touched the brothers and their brides with it,
all except the youngest girl, and changed them into grey stones. But the
youngest girl he led into his cottage and told her she must always keep it in
proper order. She submitted to this with a very good grace, but she got much
troubled when she started to reflect that perhaps the old man soon would die.
Then she would be left motherless and alone in the wild forest, just as the old
man had done before she came.
When she told him of this, he answered, "Do
not trouble yourself; fear not, and do not hope that I shall die, for I have no
heart in my breast. But if I should die, you will find my white rod over the
door, and then if you touch the grey stones with it, your sisters will regain
their right forms and the brothers will too, and then you will have company
enough."
"But where is your heart, if it is not in
your breast?" asked the young bride.
"Must you know everything?" asked the
old man. "Well then, if you must know, my heart is in my
bed-covering."
So, the next time the old man went out on
business, his young wife gathered the most beautiful flowers she could find
while he was gone, and placed them on his bed, so that his heart might be
pleased with them.
When the old man returned, he laughed at her and
said, "It was only a joke when I said my heart was there; my heart is – is
– in the oven."
When the old man went out again, his wife busied
herself in covering the oven-door with beautiful feathers, and fresh flowers
hanging in wreaths and festoons. On his return he asked her what this all
meant; and she told him that she had done it to please his heart.
He laughed at her as before, and said," My
heart is another place than in the oven."
Hearing this made her sad. In a reproachful tone
she exclaimed, "Alas, you still must have a heart, and some day you will
die, and then I shall be all alone."
The old man repeated what he had said before,
while she pressed him to tell her where his heart really was.
At last he told her: "Far, far away from
here, in deep solitude stands an old, old church, shut with iron doors. Round
it runs a broad moat, and there is no bridge over it. In the church flies a
bird to and fro. It neither eats nor drinks, nor will it die, and nobody can
catch it. As long as the bird lives, so long shall I live, for in that bird is
my heart."
The bride got very sad now that she found it was
out of her power to show her love for the old man's heart. Time passed too
slowly for her afterwards, for she used to be alone all day long, until one day
there came past the house a young fellow who greeted her. Then, as he came
nearer, she asked him where he was going and where he came from.
"Alas!" he sighed, "I am mourning,
for once I had six brothers who left me to seek for brides and promised to
bring me a wife too, but they never returned. Now I have come out into the
world to look for them."
"Ah," she exclaimed, "you do not
have to go any farther. Sit down and eat and drink, and I will tell you
something."
Then she told him how his six brothers had come to
the town close by and how they, together with her sisters, had been stopped by
the old man. She went on to tell how the old man had claimed her, although she
was to be the bride of the youngest brother; and how the old man had changed
all the others into grey stones. All this she told him with many tears. She
also told that the old man had no heart in his breast and how it was hidden far
away in the bosom of a bird in an old church.
The young man said, "I will look for the bird
and catch it with Heaven's help."
"That would be good," she said.
"Then your brothers and my sisters will become humans again." So
saying, she hid the youth, for it was evening and the old man would soon be
back.
As soon as the old man was gone the next morning,
she gave the youth a good supply of food and wine for his journey. Wishing him
Heaven's blessing and good fortune, sent him off.
On he travelled, till it occurred to him that it
was time for breakfast. He sat down and said to himself at the sight of the
many good things in his package, "This is a treat. Come who will, he shall
be my guest!"
Scarcely had he spoken, when "Mo,
mo-o-o!" sounded close to his ears, Turning his head, he saw a great brown
ox who said, "You have invited all who will, so I may as well be your
guest."
"You are welcome to the best I have,"
answered the youth.
The ox sat down as carefully as he could; and when
he had finished his meal, he said, "Many thanks. If at any time you want
assistance, summon me and I will come." With these words the ox
disappeared.
The youth packed up. After he had travelled some
distance his short shadow showed it was dinner-time, and his appetite told him
the same. Sitting down on the ground, he spread out his food as before and
invited any guest who chose to come.
Presently he heard a great rustling in the
brushwood, and a huge wild boar rushed out, grunting, "I was called to a
feast, I should say."
"You are welcome," said the youth; and
sitting down together, the youth and the boar had a good meal. When they had
done, the boar said, "Thank you! If you ever need me, call the wild
boar;" and trotted off.
The youth travelled on again, and by evening-time
he had gone a very long distance. Feeling hungry again, he thought to himself
that it was time to have supper. So he spread his cloth with meat and drink,
and said out loud, "I invite anyone who wants to eat with me. It is
worthwhile to come."
As he spoke, he heard a great flapping of wings
over his head, and a shadow was cast on the ground before him. In a minute or
two down came a large vulture. It called out, "I heard anyone was invited
to a feast. All food suits me."
The youth said, "Come, sit down and take what
you like of what is left."
The vulture did. When he had finished he flew off,
saying to the youth, "If you need me, call, and I will come."
"Oh, he is off in a hurry," thought the
youth to himself, "he might have been able to show me the way to the
church, for I may never find it." He walked on another few miles, and
then, to his surprise, came in sight of the church. Hurrying on, he soon
reached the edge of the broad moat which ran around the building. There was no
bridge across the moat. He found a nice resting-place, for he was tired and weary
from his long walk, and soon fell asleep.
The next morning he wished he to get to the other
side of the moat, and thought to himself, "Now if the great brown ox were
here, he could perhaps have drunk this ditch dry for me so that I could get
over without trouble."
At once the ox came to him and began to drink, and
soon they youth was able to cross over and stand on the church-wall. But the
walls were very thick, and the towers were made of stones as hard as iron, and
the youth wished he had a pick-axe with him. "Ah, if the wild boar were here,
he could break through for me," he thought to himself.
No sooner had he said so, than he heard a great
noise. Up rushed the fierce boar. Soon it knocked out with its tusks one stone
and then another till it had made a great hole that he could easily get through.
The youth entered and saw the bird flying about,
but to catch it was more than he was able to. "If the vulture were here
now," said he, "he would soon lay hold of that bird for me."
At once the vulture flew in and seized the bird
that had the old man's heart in its breast. The youth thanked the vulture as
best he could, before it flew away.
Now the youth hastened home to his bride-to-be,
reached the house before evening, and told her all that had happened. She gave
him a good supper, and then hid him under the bed together with the bird, so
that the old man might not see him.
Soon the old man came home. He complained that he
felt very ill, like dying, for his bird was caught. The youth under the bed
heard this and thought to himself that even though the old man had never done
him any harm, he had turned his brothers and their brides into stone, and also
had robbed him of his bride. So he began to squeeze the neck of the bird, and
the old man called out, "Oh, I am dying; someone is strangling me! Oh, I
die!" With these words he fell off his chair dead, for the youth had wrung
the bird's neck.
Then the youth crept out from under the bed. The
maiden took the old man's white staff and struck the twelve grey stones with
it, as he had taught her. In a moment the six brothers and six sisters stood up
as humans again. What joy there was among them! They hugged and embraced one
another, and the old man was as dead as could be.
The seven brothers married the seven sisters, and
for many, many years they all lived together in health and happiness.
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