Once there was a miller. He owned much money and property and lived a pleasant life with his wife. But misfortune came overnight, and the miller became poor. After mortgaging his dear mill, he could hardly call the mill his own any more. During days he walked about in grief, and at night he found no peace either, but remained awake the whole night in gloomy thought.
One morning he got up before daybreak and went out of doors, hoping to get relief in the open air. As he was walking up and down beside the millpond, he suddenly heard splashing. Turning toward the sound he saw a white woman coming up from the pond water. He thought it was the sprite of the millpond and was so scared that he could not decide whether to stay or run away.
As he stood by the pond like that, the sprite called him by name and asked him why he was so sad. When the miller heard such friendly words he took heart and told why he felt downcast. He used to be rich and happy, he said, but now he was so poor and sad that he did not know what to do.
The sprite comforted him, saying that she would make him rich again if he would give her in return a creature that had just been born in his house. The miller thought it was a puppy or kitten she meant, so he agreed to the bargain and hurried cheerfully back to the mill. Just then his servant girl came out of the door of the house and called him in great joy. When she came closer she said his wife had just given birth to a boy.
The miller halted and was unable to rejoice at the news. His child had been born sooner than expected. He walked into the house and sadlytold his wife and family what he had promised the water sprite. "And may all good fortune she promised me, disappear if only I can save my child," he added.
But nobody knew a better advice than keep the child from coming near the millpond.
The boy grew and thrived. Little by little the miller got rich again, and before long he was richer than ever. But he could never enjoy his good fortune, for he kept thinking of his promise and feared that sometime the water sprite would ask him for his son and keep him with her. But year after year passed, and the boy grew big and strong and learnt to hunt. He was such a good hunter that the lord of the village took him into his service. The young hunter dated a young woman, and when they had married, he lived in peace and happiness with her.
One day he was out hunting, he was following a hare. After a little the hare turned away from the open fields. The hunter chased him eagerly and killed him with one shot. He began to skin him at once, without noticing that he was close to the millpond that he had been told to stay away from when he was a child. When he had skinned the hare, he went down to the water's edge to wash the blood from his hands. He had hardly dipped them in when the water sprite rose up, flung her wet arms around him and pulled him down till the water closed over his head.
When the hunter did not return home, his wife became very anxious, and when people searched for him, they found his game bag by the millpond, she did not doubt what had happened to him. Without rest and peace she walked around the millpond day and night, weeping and wailing and calling his name. At last she was so tired that she fell asleep there. Then she dreamed she walked through a flowery field and came to a hut where a witch lived. The witch promised to bring her husband back.
When the young wife woke in the morning, she wanted to act on her dream. Soon she came to the flower meadow and hut where the witch lived. There the hunter's wife told the witch about her grief and anguish, and that in her dream the witch had promised her helping advice.
And the old witch told her what to do. The wife was to go to the millpond when the moon was full, comb her black hair with a golden comb and lay the comb down on the bank.
The young hunter woman paid the witch much money for her advice and went home.
Time passed slowly for her until the moon was full at last and she could go to the millpond and comb her hair with a golden comb. When she had finished, she put the comb on the bank and stared anxiously into the water and waited. The water rushed and a wave from the depths swept the comb from the bank and into the agitated water. Soon her husband raised his head out of the water and looked sadly at her. But another wave came and her husband sank beneath the water, without having said a word. The surface of the millpond became calm once more, glittering in the moonlight, and the hunter's wife was no better off than before.
She waited and watched by the pond for days and nights, until she fell asleep again, fatigued. Then she dreamt she was led to the witch again. And the next morning she walked across the flowery meadow to the hut of the witch and told her sobbingly what had happened. The old witch advised her to go to the millpond at full moon again, and this time blown on a gold pipe and then lay the flute on the brink of the pond.
When the moon was full once again, the hunter's wife went to the millpond and blew on a gold pipe and then lay the pipe down on bank. Again she heard a rushing sound from the water, and a wave swept the pipe into the water. Soon the hunter's head came up from the water, and then his chest. He held his arms out for his wife. Then another rushing wave came and swept him back into the deep water. The hunter woman had been standing full joy and hope at the bank, but when she saw him disappear in the water again, she despaired.
But the same dream came to her again and brought her hope. She went through the flower meadow to the witch again. This time the old witch said: "Go to the pond at full moon, spin on a gold spindle, and then set the gold spindle down on the bank."
When the moon was full again, the hunter's wife followed the advise. She walked to the millpond, sat down, spun on a golden spindle, and then placed the spindle on the bank. The water rushed and swirled, and a wave swept the gold spindle off the bank. Soon the hunter rose higher and higher, first his head, then his chest, and finally the rest of his body. Finally he climbed on to the bank and took his wife in his arms. At that moment the water came rushing and surging and carried them both into the water as they were clasped in each other's arms.
The hunter's wife called on the witch for help, and suddenly she found herself changed into a toad and her husband into a frog, so they were not drowned in the water. When the waves had calmed down, the hunter and his wife became humans again after some hours, but by then the waves in the pond had driven them away from each other and down the river to a part of the country they did not know.
The hunter decided to live as shepherd, and so did his wife. Thus, for some time they herded two flocks of sheep in two fields that were not far from each other until the shepherd one day came to the tract where his wife herded. He liked it there, and saw the pastures in area could very well feed his flock, so he brought his sheep there. He and the shepherdess became good friends, but they did not recognise each other until one evening when they sat sitting together and their sheep were grazing in the light of the full moon. The shepherd played on his pipe. It was a gold pipe. All at once the shepherdess remembered the evening she had played that pipe by the millpond when the moon was full, and could not help bursting into tears.
The shepherd asked her, "Why cry so bitterly?"
She told him what had happened. At that moment he remembered too, and recognised his wife. They went happily home together and there they lived undisturbed and in peace.
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