There was once a boy who had heard so much about witchcraft that he wanted to learn it. But those he asked about it said they did not know it and did not want to know it either. The boy went alone into a dark forest and called out loud several times, "Who will teach me the craft of witches?" An echo sounded back from deep within the forest, "Witches . . . witches."
After a while came an old, little woman crawling through the bushes. She had not one tooth left in her mouth, and her eyes were awfully red. Her back was bent, her hair was white and in tangles that moved friskly in the wind. Her voice sounded like the white bird that cries, "Come, come!" And that was just what she said as she beckoned him to follow her and learn witchcraft.
The boy followed, and she led him deeper and deeper into the forest. At last they came to a marshy bog where there were alder trees and a ramshacle old cottage. The cottage walls were made of peat, with moss pressed into the space between some of pieces of peat. The roof was thatched with reeds. Inside the cottage was a pretty young girl, Liz. The old woman did not say whether it was her daughter or her granddaughter or who she was. There were three large toads there too. In the cauldron that hung over the hearth was a dark broth with meat bones from a hare or something in it.
The woman put one of the toads outside the door to keep watch. The second toad was sent up in the attic to prepare a bed for the boy, the third toad was placed on the table to give light. This toad did its best, but although its green eyes glowed somewhat, it was less than the light of a glowworm.
Then the old woman and Liz ate their supper out of the cauldron, and offered some of the broth to the boy, but he could not touch it. He excused himself and said he was very tired and needed to sleep, so the old woman told him a straw bed was ready for him upstairs. He soon fell asleep on the bed, thinking that next morning he would start learning witchcraft, and that it would be very nice if Liz would give him lessons.
But downstairs the old witch whispered to the girl: "Another prisoner - Wake me up very early tomorrow morning, before the sun rises, for then we will deal with him further, all the way to the pot of broth."
Now they both went to bed, but Liz could not sleep, for she felt so sorry for the handsome boy that the witch wanted to kill while he was asleep. She got up from her bed and stood beside his, gazing at him. He looked like a sleeping angel. Liz detested that she had to serve the old witch who had stolen her from her parents long ago, when she was a little child. The witch had carried her off into the forest. There Liz had learned witchcraft, she too, so she knew how to fly through the air; become invisible; and change her shape as she wanted.
As she stood beside his bed and looked at him, she came to feel so deeply for him that she wanted to save him from the old witch if she could. So she woke him gently, and whispered, "Get up, dear, and follow me! Only death is in store for you here!"
"Won't I learn witchcraft here?" asked the boy, Fredrick.
"It would be better for you never to learn it," answered Liz. "In any case, you do not have time for it here andnow. Escape as fast as you can, and I will come along with you!"
"With you I will do it," said the boy, "I do not want to stay with the nasty old woman and the three toads."
"Come, then!" said Liz and quietly opened the cottage door after she had checked that the old woman was asleep. It was in the middle of the night, and some hours until early morning. While the old witch was asleep, Liz and Fredrick could slip away unnoticed. As Liz walked over the threshold she spat on it for some reason, and then they both ran away.
When they opened and closed the door to the cottage, the door made a little noise. The old woman woke up and called, "Liz! Get up! I think it will be day soon!"
Liz had put a spell on the spittle on the threshold, and the spittle answered the witch, "I'm up already!"
The old woman laid down again, as the fleeing couple hurried away from the cottage as fast as their legs could carry them. But the old woman could not go to sleep again, and some time later she called again, "Liz, is the fire on the hearth burning?"
The spittle on the threshold answered, "No. I have not blown up the fire."
The old woman stayed in bed a little longer while the boy and girl ran farther and farther away from the hut. Meanwhile the sun rose, and the old woman who had dozed off at that time, woke up and got out of bed, calling for Liz, "The sun is rising and you never woke me! Where are you?"
The witch got no answer, for by this time the sun had dried the spittle on the threshold. The witch hurried to find her, first inside the house and then outside. The boy was gone and Liz was gone also. The cottage was not swept and there was no wood burning on the hearth. The old woman got angry, grasped a broomstick and ran out of the house. Well outside, she struck at the door with the broomstick, and the house became invisible. And when she stepped on a puffball, a cloud of spores rose. Then she sat down on her broomstick and travelled through the air in that cloud. From above she could see the footprints of the fleeing couple, and speeded in their direction.
But Liz kept looking around and behind her shoulders, for she knew what the old witch was capable of doing. She said to Fredrick: "Do you see that brown cloud high in the sky behind us? It is the witch. Now it is no use running further, for she will catch up with us soon. I will have to try to outwit her. I will change into a sloe, and you will be a berry on the bush." In the wink of an eye Liz was a sloe with many berries, and the berry furthest down on the bush ws Fredrick.
The flying got thirsty, and when she saw the sloe she said to herself, "The air is so dry today. But here is a fine sloe! I will fly down to it and have some berries!" This she did. She plucked one berry after another until just one berry was left, and that berry was Fredrick. The old woman reached for the last berry many times, but there were so many thorns around it, and they pricked her thin fingers. She did not give up anyway.
But while she kept groping for the last berry among the thorns, it fell off and rolled downwards in the grass. Suddenly the sloe bush changed into a lake and the berre fell into the lake and became a duck. It was all through the magic that Liz had learned from the old woman. Then the old witch threw one of her slippers up in the air, and the slipper changed into a bird of prey that swooped down on the duck. But the duck dived quickly, and as soon as the beak of the bird of prey touched the water, it was hit by a wave that suddenly rose, dragged it down into the deep and drowned it. And then the duck came up again to the surface water-
The furious witch threw her second slipper into the water, and this slipper turned into a crocodile that swam after the duck to eat him. In response the duck flew into the air and settled again in another place in the lake, but the water around the crocodile's jaws turned into stone, so that the crocodile became too heavy to swim, sank and drowned too.
Now the old witch lay down at the water's edge. She wanted to drink up the water, for without it, the duck would not have a chance to escape but turn into a boy again. But the water the old woman drank turned to fire inside her, and she burst with a loud clap.
The duck changed into a boy again, and the fire turned back into Liz. They walked hand in hand to the house where the boy lived, and stayed there until they were grown up. Then they got married and lived happily together.
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