Saturday, 29 January 2022

Good Reading: "The Golden Hen" by Ludwig Bechstein (translated into English)

 In a little forest-hut there once lived an old man. Besides several children he also had a golden hen that was so small that it was scarcely bigger than a wren. The old man was fond of this bird and his children loved it too.

When the old man was about to die, he charged them not to sell the hen because it was a luck-bird. But after the old man died, poverty and distress came into the house, although every week the golden hen laid a yellow egg about the size of a pea.

While the father was alive, he had used to carry away these eggs and return with money and food. Now when they were too short of food, the eldest son gathered the eggs that had been laid and took them to market to sell them. But people only laughed at him for offering such things. At last a man, out of compassion, gave him two pennies for the eggs.

When these pennies were spent, hunger stared the poor family in the face again and the lad went a second time to market, this time with only one egg. He met the man that his father had sold the first eggs to, and that man was well aware that they were of pure gold and of great value. But when the man understood that the youth did not know that secret, he said to him, "What shall I do with one egg? Sell the hen to me and I will pay you much for her."

The youth accepted the offer, but his brothers were very against it. Even the bird cried, "Do not sell me! Do not!"

As soon as the hen was sold and gone, misfortune fell on the family and the brothers and sisters were forced to split and beg their own bread.

About the same time the king of the country died. When her weeks of mourning were over, the young and pretty widow got it announced that one day the crown would be hanging in a string, and whoever who let himself be blindfolded and yet pierced the hanging crown with a lance, should be her new husband.

As soon as this was announced, the golden hen cried, "Whoever eats me shall be king! Whoever eats me shall be king!"

Then the man who had bought the hen killed her, although he knew that by doing it there would be no more golden eggs coming. He gave the slaughtered hen to his cook and asked her to prepare and dress the hen for dinner. She was to pay particular attention to the roasting while he himself went and invited some friends.

In the meantime the youth that the hen had first belonged to, came to the door of the kitchen where the hen was roasting and begged the cook for something to eat. "You must do some work for it then," said the cook, and set him to draw water, fetch wood and many other little jobs. Then she left him to watch the bird. When she was out of the kitchen he happened to give the spit an unlucky knock that sent the bird from the spit and into the hearth.

This accident unsettled they youth so that he thoughtlessly and hurriedly snatched up the half-roasted, sooty bird and ate it. When the cook returned, she saw what had happened. First she drove away the beggar for his carelessness, and then she bought another fowl of about the same size and dressed it in the place of the lost one. Soon afterwards, the man came back with his friends and ate up the newly bought bird. He expected to become king shortly afterwards.

Meanwhile the youth who without knowing it had eaten his former lucky hen, travelled on till he came to a miller's house and begged at the door for some food. The miller needed a lad to drive his donkeys at the mill, and therefore hired the youth. He could sleep in the hay in the stable.

The next morning, on going into the stable to strew some fresh straw, the miller found a little golden egg where the lad had slept. The miller then wanted to keep the lad in his service as long as he possibly could.

Soon the day came when the queen should get a new king. The young donkey-driver saw no reason why he should not try his luck with the rest. He begged the miller to lend him a horse and a spear for the occasion, and got a one-eyed, broken-winded mare and a lance.

Everybody laughed when this figure stalked into the place where the trials were held, and the queen felt vexed at the sight of him. Then, after repeated failures on the part of the nobles and knights that had gathered to try, the donkey-driver pierced his lance in the exact spot required.

The reeling queen could not renege, however much she wanted; she had to marry the winner of the competition. But as soon as the wedding ceremony was over, she hastened to a witch for some potion to get rid of her husband. The enchantress gave her one which had the power of turning him who drank it into the form of an animal.

When the new king drank this magic drink, he was gradually changed into a donkey. In that shape he was shooed from the palace and had to experience how a donkey's life was like, while his hooves almost by themselves took him to the mill where he had been used to drive donkeys. The miller could not see any great difference between him and the other donkeys he used, so the donkey man was driven to the mill with the other donkeys and fared with them as they did, now well and now ill.

Now, after they parted, one of his sisters had become a doorkeeper at a convent. The convent got its flour from this miller. One day it fell to the donkey-man's share to carry the sacks to the convent. There he recognised his sister, for although his form was changed, he still kept his human powers and faculties. She got a feeling she knew this donkey - a playmate of her childhood.

The donkey let her know his strange fate by means of signs, and she at once set to work to set him free. She had become learned in many kinds of herbs. Now, going into the convent garden, she plucked one she knew had spell-dispelling powers. She gave it to her brother to eat. No sooner had he tasted it than his false figure fell from him and he became a man again.

With tears of gratitude and joy he embraced his sister and decided to spend the rest of his days in her neighbourhood. He had become wearied with the world and its cares. Close by the convent of his sister he built himself a hut of stones, roots and branches of trees. There he lived the life of a hermit.

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