148 BLUEBEARD

herself to a very worthy man, who banished the memory of the mis­
erable days she had spent with Bluebeard.

Moral

Curiosity, in spite o f its many charms,

C a n bring with it serious regrets;
You can see a thousand examples o f it every day.
W o m e n succumb, but it's a fleeting pleasure;
As soon as you satisfy it, it ceases to be.
And it always proves very, very costly.

Another Moral

If you just take a sensible point o f view,

And study this grim little story,
You will understand that this tale
Is one that took place many years ago.
No longer are husbands so terrible,
Demanding the impossible,
Acting unhappy and jealous.
With their wives they toe the line;
And whatever color their beards might be,
It's not hard to tell which of the pair is master.

BROTHERS GRIMM

Fitcher's Birdt

There was once a sorcerer who would disguise himself as a poor

man, then go begging from door to door in order to capture pretty girls.
No one knew what he did with them, for they were never seen again.
One day he appeared at the door of a man who had three beautiful
daughters. He looked like a poor, weak beggar and had a basket on his
back, as if to collect alms. He asked for something to eat, and when
the eldest girl went to the door and was about to hand him a piece of
bread, he just touched her and she jumped into his basket. Then he
made long legs and rushed off to get her to his house, which was in
the middle of a dark forest.
Everything in the house was splendid. He gave the girl everything
she wanted, and said: "My darling, I'm sure you'll be happy here with
me, for you'll have everything your heart desires." After a few days went
t Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, "Fitchers Vogel," in Kinder- und Hausmdrchen, 7th ed. (Berlin:
Dieterich, 1857; first published: Berlin: Realschulbuchhandlung, 1812). Translated for this
Norton Critical Edition by Maria Tatar. Copyright © 1999 by Maria Tatar.
 BROTHERS GRIMM / FITCHER'S BIRD 149

by, he said: "I have to take a journey and must leave you alone for a
short while. Here are the keys for the house. You can go anywhere you
want and look around at everything, but don't go into the room that
this little key opens. I forbid it under penalty of death."
He also gave her an egg and said: "Carry it with you wherever you
go, because if it gets lost, something terrible will happen." She took
the keys and the egg and promised to do exactly what he had said. After
he left, she went over the house from top to bottom, taking a good look
at everything. The rooms glittered with silver and gold, and it seemed
to her that she had never before seen such magnificence. Finally she
came to the forbidden door and planned to walk right by it, but curi­
osity got the better of her. She examined the key, and it was just like
the others. When she put it in the lock and just turned it a little bit,
the door sprang open.
But what did she see when she entered! In the middle of the room
was a large, bloody basin filled with dead people who had been
chopped to pieces. Next to the basin was a block of wood with a gleam­
ing ax on it. She was so horrified that she dropped the egg she was
holding into the basin. She took it right out and wiped off the blood,
but to no avail, for the stain immediately returned. She wiped it and
scraped at it, but it just wouldn't come off.
Not much later the man returned from his journey, and the first
things he demanded were the keys and the egg. She gave them to him,
but she was trembling, and when he saw the red stains, he knew she
had been in the bloody chamber. "You entered the chamber against
my wishes," he said. "Now you will go back in against yours. Your life
is over."
He threw her down, dragged her in by the hair, chopped her head
off on the block, and hacked her into pieces so that her blood flowed
all over the floor. Then he tossed her into the basin with the others.
"Now I'll go and get the second one," said the sorcerer, and he went
back to the house dressed as a poor man begging for alms. When the
second daughter brought him a piece of bread, he caught her as he
had the first just by touching her. He carried her off, and she fared no
better than her sister. Her curiosity got the better of her: she opened
the door to the bloody chamber, looked inside it, and when he returned
she had to pay with her life.
The man went to fetch the third daughter, but she was clever and
cunning. After handing over the keys and egg, he went away, and she
put the egg in a safe place. She explored the house and entered the
forbidden chamber. And what did she see! There in the basin were her
two sisters, cruelly murdered and chopped to pieces. But she set to
work gathering all their body parts and put them in their proper places:
heads, torsos, arms, legs. When everything was in place, the pieces
began to move and joined themselves together. T h e two girls opened
150 BLUEBEARD

their eyes and came back to life. Overjoyed, they kissed and hugged
each other.
On his return, the man asked at once for the keys and egg. When
he could not find a trace of blood on the egg, he declared: "You have
passed the test, and you shall be my bride." He no longer had any
power over her and had to do her bidding. "Very well," she replied.
"But first you must take a basketful of gold to my father and mother,
and you must carry it on your own back. In the meantime, I'll make
the wedding arrangements."
She ran to her sisters, whom she had hidden in a little room and
said: "Now is the time when I can save you. That brute will be the one
who carries you home. But as soon as you get home, send help for
me."
She put both girls into a basket and covered them with gold until
they could not be seen. Then she summoned the sorcerer and said:
"Pick up the basket and go. But don't you dare stop to rest along the
way. I'll be looking out of my little window, keeping an eye on you."
T h e sorcerer lifted the basket onto his shoulders and set off with it.
But it weighed so much that sweat began to pour down his face. He
sat down to rest for a moment, but right away one of the girls cried out
from the basket: "I'm looking out my little window, and I see that you're
resting. Get a move on." He thought his bride was calling to him, and
he went on his way. A second time he wanted to sit down, but again
the voice called out: "I'm looking out my little window and I see that
you're resting. Get a move on." Whenever he stopped, the voice called
out and he had to move along until finally, gasping for breath and
groaning, he carried the basket with the gold and the two girls in it
into their parent's house.
Back at home the bride was preparing the wedding celebration to
which she had invited all the sorcerer's friends. She took a skull with
grinning teeth, crowned it with jewels and a garland of flowers, carried
it upstairs and set it down at an attic window, facing out. When every­
thing was ready, she crawled into a barrel of honey, cut open a feath­
erbed and rolled in the feathers until she looked like a strange bird that
not a soul would recognize. She left the house and on her way met
some wedding guests, who asked:

"Oh, Fitcher's feathered bird, where are you from?"

"From feathered Fitze Fitcher's house I've come."
"And the young bride there, what has she done?"
"She's swept the house all the way through,
And from the attic window, she's looking right at you."

She met the bridegroom, who was walking back home very slowly. He
too asked:
 BROTHERS GRIMM / T H E ROBBER BRIDEGROOM 151

"Oh, Fitcher's feathered bird, where are you from?"

"From feathered Fitze Fitcher's house I've come."
"And my young bride there, what has she done?"
"She's swept the house all the way through,
And from the attic window, she's looking right at you."

The bridegroom looked up and saw the decorated skull. He thought it

was his bride, nodded, and waved to her. But when he got to the house
with his guests, the brothers and relatives who had been sent to rescue
the bride were already there. They locked the doors to the house so
that no one could escape. Then they set fire to it so that the sorcerer
and his crew burned to death.

BROTHERS GRIMM

The Robber Bridegroom t

There was once a miller who had a beautiful daughter, and when
she was grown, he wanted to make sure that she was provided for and
well married. He thought: "If the right kind of suitor comes along and
asks for her hand, I shall give her to him."
Not much later a suitor turned up who seemed to be rich, and since
the miller could find nothing wrong with him, he promised him his
daughter. But the girl didn't care for him as a girl should care for her
betrothed, and she didn't trust him. Whenever she looked at him or
thought of him, her heart filled with dread.
One day he said to her: "You're engaged to me, and yet you've never
once visited me."
The girl replied: "I don't know where you live."
The bridegroom answered: "My house is out in the dark forest."
The girl made excuses and claimed that she couldn't find the way
there. But the bridegroom said: "Next Sunday you have to come to my
place. I've already invited the guests, and I'll put ashes on the path so
that you can find your way through the woods."
When Sunday came and the girl was supposed to leave, she became
dreadfully frightened without knowing why, and she filled both her
pockets with peas and lentils to mark the way. At the entrance to the
woods she found the trail of ashes and followed it, but at every step she
threw some peas on the ground, first to the right and then to the left.
She walked almost the entire day until she got to the middle of the
t Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, "Der Ràuberbrâutigam," In Kinder- und Hausmdrchen, 7th ed.
(Berlin: Dieterich, 1857; first published: Berlin: Realschulbuchhandlung, 1812). Translated
for this Norton Critical Edition by Maria Tatar. Copyright © 1999 by Maria Tatar.