Wednesday 29 January 2020

Good Readings: "The Old Wizard and the Children" by Ludwig Bechstein (translated into English)



Once on a time there lived a wicked wizard. He had stolen two children of tender age, a boy and a girl. He lived with them in a hollow cave, away from people and hermit-like. There he followed his black art, learnt from a secret book that he guarded as his best treasure.
From time to time the wizard went out and left the children by themselves. At such times the boy would read in the book, for he had spied out where it was hidden. In such a way he learnt many rules and managed to work charms himself.
The old wizard had in mind to keep the children shut up all their lives, so they repeatedly tried to find some means of escape.
One day the wizard went out on a long journey, and soon after he had started, the boy said to his sister, "Now is the time, sister. The wicked man who has kept us prisoners for so long is away. Let us be off at once and travel as far as our feet will carry us." The children set out and walked along the whole day.
By and by, when evening came, the wizard returned home and at once missed them. So he opened his book of enchantments and quickly found out which way they had taken and set off in pursuit.
Long before he was in sight, the children knew he was coming by his heavy breathing and loud shouting. "Dear brother," cried the sister, full of terror and anguish, "We are lost; that wicked man is near us!"
But the boy remembered what he had learned and uttered a charm that transformed him into a large pond and his sister into a fish swimming about in it.
As soon as the old wizard came to the pond, he perceived at once that he was deceived and exclaimed, "Wait, wait, I will have you!" Then he ran back in a rage to his cave to fetch some nets to catch the fish. But as soon as he was gone, the pond and fish became again brother and sister. They congratulated each other on their escape, and then rested for the night.
The next morning they set off again, so when the wizard by and by came to the place with his nets, there was no pond there, but a green meadow with plenty of frogs in it, but no fishes. In a dreadful passion the old man threw his nets away and pursued the children again, for by means of a divining-rod that he carried with him, he knew the route they had taken,.
When evening came he had nearly overtaken them. They heard him in the distance roaring and raging like a wild bull.
"Dear brother!" exclaimed the little girl, "We are lost! The wicked wretch is close behind us!"
The boy repeated another charm he had learnt from the book and changed himself into a chapel and his sister into a beautiful altar-piece within the chapel.
When the wizard came to the chapel, he was forced to run howling away, for he dared not enter any church or chapel. But at some distance he cried, "Though I may not enter you, I can set you on fire and burn you to ashes!" So saying, he ran off to his cave to fetch a light.
As soon as he was gone, the brother and sister became humans again, and after resting for the night, they journeyed on fast.
They got a long way in advance of the wizard, since he had to go back so far. Thus, when he came back to the spot where the chapel had stood, he found nothing there but a great rock. Furious with rage, he ran on in the track of the children.
By the evening he was almost up to them, and for the third time the sister thought all was lost when she heard him close by. But her brother repeated another charm and became a hard threshing-floor, and his sister became a little grain of corn lying among other grains of corn on it.
A little later the wizard came. When he saw the threshing-floor and the grains of corn and no tracks leading away from there, he muttered, "I will not run the long way home and fetch something this time." Then he turned himself into a black cock that ran about the floor to peck at and eat up the grains of corn.
At once the boy repeated another charm and changed himself into a fox. The fox caught the cock before he could eat one grain of corn, and that was the end of the cock.

                

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