Maiden Bright-eye

Maiden Bright-eye

From the Danish

Once, upon a time there was a man and his wife who had two children, a

boy and a girl. The wife died, and the man married again. His new

wife had an only daughter, who was both ugly and untidy, whereas her

stepdaughter was a beautiful girl, and was known as Maiden Bright-eye.

Her stepmother was very cruel to her on this account; she had always to

do the hardest work, and got very little to eat, and no attention paid

to her; but to her own daughter she was all that was good. She was

spared from all the hardest of the housework, and had always the

prettiest clothes to wear.

Maiden Bright-eye had also to watch the sheep, but of course it would

never do to let her go idle and enjoy herself too much at this work, so

she had to pull heather while she was out on the moors with them. Her

stepmother gave her pancakes to take with her for her dinner, but she

had mixed the flour with ashes, and made them just as bad as she could.

The little girl came out on the moor and began to pull heather on the

side of a little mound, but next minute a little fellow with a red cap

on his head popped up out of the mound and said:

‘Who’s that pulling the roof off my house?’

‘Oh, it’s me, a poor little girl,’ said she; ‘my mother sent me out

here, and told me to pull heather. If you will be good to me I will give

you a bit of my dinner.’

The little fellow was quite willing, and she gave him the biggest share

of her pancakes. They were not particularly good, but when one is hungry

anything tastes well. After he had got them all eaten he said to her:

‘Now, I shall give you three wishes, for you are a very nice little

girl; but I will choose the wishes for you. You are beautiful, and much

more beautiful shall you be; yes, so lovely that there will not be your

like in the world. The next wish shall be that every time you open your

mouth a gold coin shall fall out of it, and your voice shall be like the

most beautiful music. The third wish shall be that you may be married to

the young king, and become the queen of the country. At the same time

I shall give you a cap, which you must carefully keep, for it can save

you, if you ever are in danger of your life, if you just put it on your

head.

Maiden Bright-eye thanked the little bergman ever so often, and drove

home her sheep in the evening. By that time she had grown so beautiful

that her people could scarcely recognise her. Her stepmother asked her

how it had come about that she had grown so beautiful. She told the

whole story--for she always told the truth--that a little man had come

to her out on the moor and had given her all this beauty. She did not

tell, however, that she had given him a share of her dinner.

The stepmother thought to herself, ‘If one can become so beautiful by

going out there, my own daughter shall also be sent, for she can well

stand being made a little prettier.’

Next morning she baked for her the finest cakes, and dressed her

prettily to go out with the sheep. But she was afraid to go away there

without having a stick to defend herself with if anything should come

near her.

She was not very much inclined for pulling the heather, as she never was

in the habit of doing any work, but she was only a minute or so at it

when up came the same little fellow with the red cap, and said:

‘Who’s that pulling the roof off my house?’

‘What’s that to you?’ said she.

‘Well, if you will give me a bit of your dinner I won’t do you any

mischief,’ said he.

‘I will give you something else in place of my dinner,’ said she. ‘I

can easily eat it myself; but if you will have something you can have

a whack of my stick,’ and with that she raised it in the air and struck

the bergman over the head with it.

‘What a wicked little girl you are!’ said he; ‘but you shall be none the

better of this. I shall give you three wishes, and choose them for you.

First, I shall say, “Ugly are you, but you shall become so ugly that

there will not be an uglier one on earth.” Next I shall wish that every

time you open your mouth a big toad may fall out of it, and your voice

shall be like the roaring of a bull. In the third place I shall wish for

you a violent death.’

The girl went home in the evening, and when her mother saw her she was

as vexed as she could be, and with good reason, too; but it was still

worse when she saw the toads fall out of her mouth and heard her voice.

Now we must hear something about the stepson. He had gone out into the

world to look about him, and took service in the king’s palace. About

this time he got permission to go home and see his sister, and when he

saw how lovely and beautiful she was, he was so pleased and delighted

that when he came back to the king’s palace everyone there wanted to

know what he was always so happy about. He told them that it was because

he had such a lovely sister at home.

At last it came to the ears of the king what the brother said about his

sister, and, besides that, the report of her beauty spread far and

wide, so that the youth was summoned before the king, who asked him if

everything was true that was told about the girl. He said it was quite

true, for he had seen her beauty with his own eyes, and had heard with

his own ears how sweetly she could sing and what a lovely voice she had.

The king then took a great desire for her, and ordered her brother to

go home and bring her back with him, for he trusted no one better to

accomplish that errand. He got a ship, and everything else that he

required, and sailed home for his sister. As soon as the stepmother

heard what his errand was she at once said to herself, ‘This will never

come about if I can do anything to hinder it. She must not be allowed to

come to such honour.’

She then got a dress made for her own daughter, like the finest robe for

a queen, and she had a mask prepared and put upon her face, so that she

looked quite pretty, and gave her strict orders not to take it off until

the king had promised to wed her.

The brother now set sail with his two sisters, for the stepmother

pretended that the ugly one wanted to see the other a bit on her way.

But when they got out to sea, and Maiden Bright-eye came up on deck,

the sister did as her mother had instructed her--she gave her a push and

made her fall into the water. When the brother learned what had happened

he was greatly distressed, and did not know what to do. He could not

bring himself to tell the truth about what had happened, nor did he

expect that the king would believe it. In the long run he decided to

hold on his way, and let things go as they liked. What he had expected

happened--the king received his sister and wedded her at once, but

repented it after the first night, as he could scarcely put down his

foot in the morning for all the toads that were about the room, and when

he saw her real face he was so enraged against the brother that he had

him thrown into a pit full of serpents. He was so angry, not merely

because he had been deceived, but because he could not get rid of the

ugly wretch that was now tied to him for life.

Now we shall hear a little about Maiden Bright-eye When she fell into

the water she was fortunate enough to get the bergman’s cap put on

her head, for now she was in danger of her life, and she was at once

transformed into a duck. The duck swam away after the ship, and came to

the king’s palace on the next evening. There it waddled up the drain,

and so into the kitchen, where her little dog lay on the hearth-stone;

it could not bear to stay in the fine chambers along with the ugly

sister, and had taken refuge down here. The duck hopped up till it could

talk to the dog.

‘Good evening,’ it said.

‘Thanks, Maiden Bright-eye,’ said the dog.

‘Where is my brother?’

‘He is in the serpent-pit.’

‘Where is my wicked sister?’

‘She is with the noble king.’

‘Alas! alas! I am here this evening, and shall be for two evenings yet,

and then I shall never come again.’

When it had said this the duck waddled off again. Several of the servant

girls heard the conversation, and were greatly surprised at it, and

thought that it would be worth while to catch the bird next evening and

see into the matter a little more closely. They had heard it say that it

would come again.

Next evening it appeared as it had said, and a great many were present

to see it. It came waddling in by the drain, and went up to the dog,

which was lying on the hearth-stone.

‘Good evening,’ it said.

‘Thanks, Maiden Bright-eye,’ said the dog.

‘Where is my brother?’

‘He is in the serpent-pit.’

‘Where is my wicked sister?’

‘She is with the noble king.’

‘Alas! alas! I am here this evening, and shall be for one evening yet,

and then I shall never come again.’

After this it slipped out, and no one could get hold of it. But the

king’s cook thought to himself, ‘I shall see if I can’t get hold of you

to-morrow evening.’

On the third evening the duck again came waddling in by the drain, and

up to the dog on the hearth-stone.

‘Good evening,’ it said.

‘Thanks, Maiden Bright-eye,’ said the dog.

‘Where is my brother?’

‘He is in the serpent-pit.’

‘Where is my wicked sister?’

‘She is with the noble king.’

‘Alas! alas! now I shall never come again.’

With this it slipped out again, but in the meantime the cook had posted

himself at the outer end of the drain with a net, which he threw over it

as it came out. In this way he caught it, and came in to the others with

the most beautiful duck they had ever seen--with so many golden feathers

on it that everyone marvelled. No one, however, knew what was to be

done with it; but after what they had heard they knew that there was

something uncommon about it, so they took good care of it.

At this time the brother in the serpent-pit dreamed that his right

sister had come swimming to the king’s palace in the shape of a duck,

and that she could not regain her own form until her beak was cut off.

He got this dream told to some one, so that the king at last came to

hear of it, and had him taken up out of the pit and brought before

him. The king then asked him if he could produce to him his sister as

beautiful as he had formerly described her. The brother said he could if

they would bring him the duck and a knife.

Both of them were brought to him, and he said, ‘I wonder how you would

look if I were to cut the point off your beak.’

With this he cut a piece off the beak, and there came a voice which

said, ‘Oh, oh, you cut my little finger!’

Next moment Maiden Bright-eye stood there, as lovely and beautiful as he

had seen her when he was home. This was his sister now, he said; and the

whole story now came out of how the other had behaved to her. The wicked

sister was put into a barrel with spikes round it which was dragged

off by six wild horses, and so she came to her end.:But the king was

delighted with Maiden Bright-eye, and immediately made her his queen,

while her brother became his prime minister.