I saw two roasted fowls flying; they flew
quickly and had their breasts turned to heaven and their backs to hell,
and an anvil and a mill-stone swam across the Rhine prettily, slowly,
and gently, and a frog sat on the ice at Whitsuntide and ate a
ploughshare. Three fellows who wanted to catch a hare, went on crutches
and stilts; one of them was deaf, the second blind, the third dumb, and
the fourth could not stir a step. Do you want to know how it was done? First, the blind man saw the hare running across the field, the dumb
one called to the lame one, and the lame one seized it by the neck. There were certain men who wished to sail on dry land, and they set
their sails in the wind, and sailed away over great fields. Then they
sailed over a high mountain, and there they were miserably drowned. A
crab was chasing a hare which was running away at full speed, and high
up on the roof lay a cow which had climbed up there. In that country
the flies are as big as the goats are here. Open the window, that the
lies may fly out. 160 A Riddling Tale

Three women were changed into flowers which grew in the field, but one
of them was allowed to be in her own home at night. Then once when day
was drawing near, and she was forced to go back to her companions in
the field and become a flower again, she said to her husband, “If thou
wilt come this afternoon and gather me, I shall be set free and
henceforth stay with thee.” And he did so. Now the question is, how did
her husband know her, for the flowers were exactly alike, and without
any difference? Answer: as she was at her home during the night and not
in the field, no dew fell on her as it did on the others, and by this
her husband knew her. 161 Snow-White and Rose-Red

There was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage. In front of
the cottage was a garden wherein stood two rose-trees, one of which
bore white and the other red roses. She had two children who were like
the two rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white, and the other
Rose-red. They were as good and happy, as busy and cheerful as ever two
children in the world were, only Snow-white was more quiet and gentle
than Rose-red. Rose-red liked better to run about in the meadows and
fields seeking flowers and catching butterflies; but Snow-white sat at
home with her mother, and helped her with her house-work, or read to
her when there was nothing to do. The two children were so fond of each another that they always held
each other by the hand when they went out together, and when Snow-white
said, “We will not leave each other,” Rose-red answered, “Never so long
as we live,” and their mother would add, “What one has she must share
with the other.”

They often ran about the forest alone and gathered red berries, and no
beasts did them any harm, but came close to them trustfully. The little
hare would eat a cabbage-leaf out of their hands, the roe grazed by
their side, the stag leapt merrily by them, and the birds sat still
upon the boughs, and sang whatever they knew. No mishap overtook them; if they had stayed too late in the forest, and
night came on, they laid themselves down near one another upon the
moss, and slept until morning came, and their mother knew this and had
no distress on their account. Once when they had spent the night in the wood and the dawn had roused
them, they saw a beautiful child in a shining white dress sitting near
their bed. He got up and looked quite kindly at them, but said nothing
and went away into the forest. And when they looked round they found
that they had been sleeping quite close to a precipice, and would
certainly have fallen into it in the darkness if they had gone only a
few paces further. And their mother told them that it must have been
the angel who watches over good children. Snow-white and Rose-red kept their mother’s little cottage so neat that
it was a pleasure to look inside it. In the summer Rose-red took care
of the house, and every morning laid a wreath of flowers by her
mother’s bed before she awoke, in which was a rose from each tree. In
the winter Snow-white lit the fire and hung the kettle on the wrekin. The kettle was of copper and shone like gold, so brightly was it
polished. In the evening, when the snowflakes fell, the mother said,
“Go, Snow-white, and bolt the door,” and then they sat round the
hearth, and the mother took her spectacles and read aloud out of a
large book, and the two girls listened as they sat and span. And close
by them lay a lamb upon the floor, and behind them upon a perch sat a
white dove with its head hidden beneath its wings. One evening, as they were thus sitting comfortably together, some one
knocked at the door as if he wished to be let in. The mother said,
“Quick, Rose-red, open the door, it must be a traveller who is seeking
shelter.” Rose-red went and pushed back the bolt, thinking that it was
a poor man, but it was not; it was a bear that stretched his broad,
black head within the door. Rose-red screamed and sprang back, the lamb bleated, the dove
fluttered, and Snow-white hid herself behind her mother’s bed. But the
bear began to speak and said, “Do not be afraid, I will do you no harm! I am half-frozen, and only want to warm myself a little beside you.”

“Poor bear,” said the mother, “lie down by the fire, only take care
that you do not burn your coat.” Then she cried, “Snow-white, Rose-red,
come out, the bear will do you no harm, he means well.” So they both
came out, and by-and-by the lamb and dove came nearer, and were not
afraid of him. The bear said, “Here, children, knock the snow out of my
coat a little;” so they brought the broom and swept the bear’s hide
clean; and he stretched himself by the fire and growled contentedly and
comfortably. It was not long before they grew quite at home, and played
tricks with their clumsy guest. They tugged his hair with their hands,
put their feet upon his back and rolled him about, or they took a
hazel-switch and beat him, and when he growled they laughed. But the
bear took it all in good part, only when they were too rough he called
out, “Leave me alive, children,

“Snowy-white, Rosy-red,
Will you beat your lover dead?”


When it was bed-time, and the others went to bed, the mother said to
the bear, “You can lie there by the hearth, and then you will be safe
from the cold and the bad weather.” As soon as day dawned the two
children let him out, and he trotted across the snow into the forest. Henceforth the bear came every evening at the same time, laid himself
down by the hearth, and let the children amuse themselves with him as
much as they liked; and they got so used to him that the doors were
never fastened until their black friend had arrived. When spring had come and all outside was green, the bear said one
morning to Snow-white, “Now I must go away, and cannot come back for
the whole summer.” “Where are you going, then, dear bear?” asked
Snow-white. “I must go into the forest and guard my treasures from the
wicked dwarfs.