Read The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics) for Free Online Page B

game and sleeping beneath trees.
    One day they discovered a cozy little cottage, where they were able to sleep more comfortably. The first night they watched a spark leap up from the hearth, and a tiny little woman began cooking milk in a thimble. The huntsmen forced the wood sprite to leave the hut. Now and then she could be seen perched on the fence post, singing a mourning song and weaving a brushwood crown into her hair.
    When the men caught the unhappy woman and put her towork as a maid, she trembled and wept, repeating the words: “Don’t jail me; don’t slay me. I can bring your little sister back to you.” The huntsmen were overjoyed, and in a few days Katie, white as milk and red as blood, appeared in the hut. She told the brothers that a little gray man had been visiting her. He frightened her with his teasing and forced her to suck on his little finger. The brothers ambushed the little man, murdered him, and buried him in the garden. Before long three flowers with long stalks began growing on his grave. Katie marveled at the splendid colors and the sweet aroma of the bright blossoms. Whenever she bent the stalks down toward her nose, the wood sprite cried out: “Don’t break the stalks!”
    One day an adorable little white dog found its way to Katie and would not leave her side. The dog barked three times and a tall handsome stranger appeared in the woods. “What a beautiful maiden!” he exclaimed, and he walked toward her to take her hand.
    “I want you to be my wife,” he said. “My castle is just beyond those mountains in the distance, and I’ll come to fetch you in three days.” The young woman was astonished, but she nodded her agreement. The hunter left.
    The brothers warned their sister about the stranger who was courting her, but she threw caution to the winds. Three days later the fair-haired hunter arrived in a splendid carriage, and their marriage was celebrated. The brothers came running up to the carriage, but their sister had already rushed down into the garden and picked the flowers. When the stems snapped, the brothers froze right in place and turned into deer. Katie stood there, as pale as snow and cold as ice. The wood sprite whispered in her ear: “For seven years you must be as still and quiet as the grave!”
    The hunter was still in love with Katie, even though she could not speak. He took her with him in the carriage and traveled back to the castle, where the two lived in prosperity and plenty. The hunter’s mother was an evil woman who disliked Katie. She was constantly scolding the young woman and making her life miserable.
    When the time came for Katie to deliver a child, she bore ason, whom the old woman took and choked to death. She took some of the child’s blood and smeared it on the mother’s mouth. Then she rushed to tell her son: “Take a good look at the woman you married. She has devoured her own child!” Frightened and horrified, he entered his wife’s room and found her asleep. The three flowers were still there, untouched. He knew from the wood sprite that the living flowers were proof of her innocence and fidelity.
    Katie gave birth to two more sons, each of whom became victims of the bloodthirsty old woman, who had also discovered the truth about the flowers. She tore them to pieces and bewitched her son so that he finally trusted her and agreed to summon the executioner.
    Katie went to the place of execution like a walking dead woman. Just a word was all she needed to save her life. Pale as a sheet, she was seated in a chair with her neck exposed. The sword above her head was flashing in the daylight. Suddenly a cloud of dust appeared in the distance, and three riders mounted on three stags shouted as loudly as possible: “Seven years have passed. Now you can finally speak again, dear sister!”
    The punishment was visited on the bloodthirsty woman rather than the innocent wife. The castle was bursting with good cheer. Every year the matron of the castle