There was once a beautiful girl called Ilsa. She was the only daughter of a rough knight. She loved the woods with their bird songs, flower scents and trickling streams. Happily she used to stroll there, either with her old nurse, who had taken care of Ilsa after her mother's early death, or Ilsa strolled around on her own. She was not afraid, for the woods around her father's castle were quite safe, and she had not been in danger there at all.
One day Ilsa walked alone in the green groves that surrounded her father's castle. There were old trees and rocks covered with ferns, rare plants and flowers, and among the rocks on a hilltop she came across a cave she did not remember was there earlier. From inside the cave sounded a melodic hum, as from a wind harp. The sound lured Ilsa to go deeper and deeper within. Soon the cave became narrower and darker. But just where the passage was at its narrowest and darkest, she saw a stream of soft light and many sparkling lights around it. She did not resist pushing toward the light, squeezed through the cleft in the rock and to her amazement she was in a quite a very different world.
The sounds of the wind harp swelled louder, the light became brighter, and she saw flowers made of precious, sparkling stones with emerald leaves. A great many small creatures were playing in a meadow there. They were no more than two feet tall. Ilsa was soon surrounded by a crowd of them. They welcomed her in a friendly way.
"Who are you?" asked Ilsa amazed. "I have never seen you or heard of you before!"
"We are the mountain people; the little people!" answered one the with fine shrill little voice that sounded quite like cricket chirping. "It is not surprising that you do not know us, for our cave is not open every day. And on the days it is open it is only for a little time that humans may see us."
"I have never heard of the mountain people or the little people," said Ilsa, standing as if in a dream.
"Learn to know us, and you will love us!" replied the little man. "And if you do you will become one of us, perhaps even our queen!"
Queen! The word thrilled the girl's heart. She had heard of queens in her father's castle; she had heard they were rich and beautiful too, and that everyone served and obeyed them. Her nurse had told her many stories about queens. Why not become a queen?
She looked around. All the splendour and wealth blinded her with delight. She let her new friends show her around. The light in their world was mellow, and not as bright as sunlight. The music was wonderful and blended with the murmur of brooks and waterfalls in the distance. Ilso throught the friendly little people would make good playmates; she could play wonderful games with them. She wanted to stay in this realm. There was little to draw her back to the upper world. Her father was a rough, fierce knight who had never taken much notice of her, and her nurse no longer had any hold on the young girl's heart. Besides, the nurse was very old, and could not live much longer. When she died, Ilsa would be alone in her father's castle, for it was avoided by most people.
The little people went on whispering enticing and luring words, "Stay with us, and you will never grow old. Then your life becomes like a sunny spring. Each day will be a celebration day. You will have what you wish for, and the best of everything!"
Ilsa now saw a flock of sheep that were not bigger than lambs, but each of them had a golden fleece, and the lively little dog who jumped round the flock had golden hair. Ilsa did not see any shepherd, but there was a golden shepherd's staff lying on the ground.
Ilsa longed to keep this flock of sheep. Thinking that this was a chance to test the little people's good faith, she said to test them, "If I were to stay with you and ask for this golden flock to be mine to herd and care for, would you give it to me?"
"Yes, yes!" said a chorus of delicate little voices, and the only condition was that Ilsa should not enter the world of humans again, and that she lost none of the dwarf sheep. Then they handed her the golden staff, decorated it with silver ribbons and welcomed her into their kingdom with loud cheers.
Ilsa now stayed in the other world without noticing days and years that passed by. There was neither winter nor spring there; all the seasons were similar.
At home in the castle they missed her and searched for her, but when they did not find her, they thought she was dead and mourned her. Then her nurse died and her father was killed in a fewd, his enemies ravaged and destroyed his castle till it only its lonely ruin was left on the mountain peak it had been built on. The old trees were cut down and new ones planted in their stead. A new forest was greening, and the tree stems were already fairly strong.
And Ilsa was forgotten. She still guarded her golden herd, playing with the childlike litte people, and learned many of nature's and the other world's secrets from them. Greadually the memories of the world she had lived in earlier, faded till they were like dreams, but they did not fade away entirely. They even grew stronger, and she started to long for being in the world of humans again.
She often noticed one or another of the little people setting off for the human world, while she herself was strictly forbidden to return. It made her see she was not really free. The insight damaged her innocent gladness. "What good does my flock do me, after all?" Ilsa thought. "I herd and care for it, but I cannot do with it what I will, since it is not really mine. I would be a queen, and was promised I could be theirs, but I am just the opposite: I have become a poor shepherdess. Oh, to get up into the sunlight, seeing the blue sky, smelling the air of spring, flowers, large trees! I want to see the sky again - I will, I will!"
Ilsa told the little people that she wanted to go to the human world again.
"But you promised us always to stay with us!"
"You promised to fulfill all my wishes,"protested Ilsa.
"That was on condition that you do not go back to the world of men," said the little people.
"I do not want to return for ever," said Ilsa, "but to see the sky and feel the wind of spring."
"Then you will not be not one of us any more," the little people told her. "If you feel the breeze of that world, you become human again, wither, get old and die, for that is the ordinary human lot."
Ilsa said no more, but she mourned, and her longing grew stronger and stronger. She neglected her flock of golden sheep, nothing pleased her and she did not talk with the little people any longer.
"She is lost to us one way or the other," they said sadly to each other, "we might as well grant her wish."
Ilsa returned to the sunlight through the same hilltop cave. She paused at the mouth of the cave and gazed at woods and hills. It was a beautiful, sunny day, but there was something strange about the scenery. She recognised the hills and mountains, but the old forests were gone. The path from the cave to her father's castle was too overgrown. Ilsa looked for her father's castle on its ridge, but all she could see was a part of its enclosing wall, and the watchtower had become a ruin. Over the tower a couple of falcons were soaring, and owls had settled in the broken spire. "Well, well," Ilsa thought. "I thought I stayed with the good people for only for a very short time, and obviously many years have passed! How old am I?"
Ilsa looked some more and saw newly built places, new castles in the distance, and could not see some other castles that she remembered on some of the hills. They were no more.
Ilsa did not go further, but stayed in the cave for many days, serious and thoughtful. She had promised the little people not to go further than the cave, in the same. She had been allowed to let her sheep graze in the fields of the human world on special days and hourse, such as Midsummer Day at noon, when the sun was at its highest, or in the midnight hours. Around Midsummer Day some of the humans who lived in the area, walked in the mountain heights in search of medicinal herbs and potent roots. At times they happened to see Ilsa in the mouth of the cave. She had become a stranger to the people, a pale, quiet and sombre lady in snow-white, ever-new dress. Some people also saw her herd of golden, tiny sheep, but were never able to catch any of them, for the golden-haired dog was always vigilant, and if he made the slightest sound, Ilsa lifter her golden shepherd's staff, and at once the dog and the sheep disappeared from sight.
If good and pure people saw Ilsa and ventured near her, she answered their sincere questions. At times her answers had double meanings, at times she foretold what would come to pass later. And all the time Ilsa hoped to be saved from the spell of the dwarves.
One day as Ilsa was sitting as usual in the mouth of the cave and let her sheep graze in front of it, a pretty woman came to the grassy field below the entrance of the cave and called, "Why are you always by yourself in this cave? Why not mingle and share with local people? Why not love and be loved?" Ilsa said mournfully, "I am bound by a promise I gave. Otherwise I would like to go down into the valley with my herd."
"You can do it!" cried the woman. "Strike with your shepherd's staff against the little hole deep in your cave, and it will collapse. Then the dwarves cannot come out, and you will be free."
Ilsa hesitated, "Is this advice the answer to my prayer?" As she sought to discern what would be the proper thing to do, a handsome youth showed up and said to her: "Trust me, and I will rebuild your father's castle. You and I will reign over this beautiful countryside together. The woman you have been speaking with is my mother, and we are mighty." Ilsa did not understand the woman and her son were witches, and struck with the golden shepherd's staff against the rocks around the hole at the back of the cave, as the woman had told her to. The gentle music from deep within stopped: Only the weeping and wailing of the little people could be heard. They were cheated, and had lost their flock of tiny, golden sheep! The witch yelled triumphantly, and her son suddently came forward and tried to take Ilsa into his arms. Ilsa was not used to that sort of behaviour. Scared and bewildered she held out her staff and traced a cross on the young man. At that instant the magic of the witch and her son was broken. The young man suddenly turned ugly and repulsive, and the woman fell to the ground in a fit, and was changed into an ugly, old witch.
When she rose, she ran past to Ilsa to the bottom of her cave and placed a herb there. The herb grew extremely fast, became bigger and bigger and opened the hole again by pushing the gravel into the other side. When the gap was big enough the witch shouted, "Dwarves, come out and take back your flock of sheep and punish the girl for closing the entrance!"
The little people came swarming out and surrounded Ilsa. They cut her off from the woman and her son.
"That was a bad thing you did," said the eldest of the ever-young little people. "It is perhaps best that you remain ours until this hag and her son are dead."
And then they tied Ilsa with magic chains. She was still free to go out into the cave, but there the chains stopped her from going further. So it was for some time, until one day the chains suddenly fell off her. The old witch and her son must be dead, said Ilsa hopefully to herself. Now she was free to walk in the sun and sing happy songs as she liked, but she could not bring with her the golden sheep and dog.
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