[This is not a tale as actually found anywhere in German oral tradition, but rather a creation of Wilhelm Grimm. The first version of the story as the Grimms published it in 1812 was obtained on 10 March, 1811, from the old nanny, Marie, in the household of the Grimms’ next-door neighbours in Cassel, the Wild family. For the re-publication of the tale in the 1819 edition however, Wilhelm merged Marie’s narrative with another story obtained on 27 August, 1813, from Frau Viehmann, and it is the descendent of that composite as it later appeared in the edition of 1856 which has been translated in the English text before you here. About the Grimm Collection.]
A miller had gradually been getting poorer and had nothing left but his mill and a big apple tree behind it. Once when he’d gone into the forest to fetch wood, an old man whom he’d never seen before came up to him and said, “Why do you slave away at woodcutting; I’ll make you rich if you’ll promise to give me what’s behind your mill.” “What else can that be,” thought the miller, “but my apple tree?” said “yes,” and made it over to the stranger. The latter laughed mockingly and said, “In three years I’ll come and fetch what’s mine,” and went away. When the miller got home, his wife came to meet him, saying, “Tell me, miller, where does the sudden wealth in our house come from? All at once all the chests and boxes are full. Nobody brought it, and I don’t know how it happened.” “It comes,” he answered, “from a stranger whom I met in the forest and who promised me much treasure. In return I made over to him what’s behind our mill; we can well afford to give the big apple tree in exchange.” “Oh, husband,” said the woman greatly frightened, “that was the Devil, and he didn’t mean the apple tree but our daughter. She was behind the mill sweeping the yard.”
The miller’s daughter was a pretty and devout girl and for those three years lived in fear of God and without sin. When the time was up and the day came that the Evil One was going to fetch her, she washed herself clean and with chalk drew a circle around herself. The Devil appeared very early in the morning but couldn’t get near her. Angrily he said to the miller, “Take all water away from her, so that she’ll no longer be able to wash herself, for otherwise I have no power over her.” The miller was frightened and did so. Next morning the Devil came again, but she’d wept on her hands, and they were quite clean. Again he couldn’t get near her and said to the miller furiously, “Cut off her hands, otherwise I can’t get at her.” The miller was horrified and answered, “How could I cut off my own child’s hands!” Then the Evil One threatened him, saying, “If you don’t do it, you’re mine and I’ll fetch you yourself.” The father got frightened and promised to obey him, went to the girl and said, “My child, if I don’t cut off both your hands, the Devil will carry me off, and in my fright I promised him to do it. Please help me in my need and forgive me the wrong I’m doing you.” She replied, “Father dear, do with me what you will; I’m your child.” Then she stretched out both hands and let them be cut off. The Devil came a third time, but she’d wept so much and so long on the stumps that even so they were quite clean. Then he had to give her up and lost all claim to her.
The miller said to her, “I’ve gained great wealth through you and I’ll keep you in the greatest luxury for the rest of your life,” but she answered, “I can’t stay here; I want to go away. Charitable people will give me whatever I need.” Then she had her mutilated arms tied to her back and at sunrise started out and walked the whole day till nightfall. Then she came to a royal garden and in the moonlight saw there three trees laden with fruit, but she couldn’t get in, for there was a stream of water around it. And since she’d been walking all day and hadn’t had a bite to eat and was tormented by hunger, she thought, “Oh, if I were only inside, that I might eat a little of the fruit! Otherwise I’m bound to perish.” Then she knelt down, called on the Lord God, and prayed. Suddenly an angel came and closed one of the locks in the stream, so that the moat got dry and she could walk through it.
Now she went into the garden, and the angel went with her. She saw a tree laden with fruit; they were fine pears but they’d all been counted. Then she stepped up and to still her hunger ate one off the tree with her mouth, but only one. The gardener was looking on, but because the angel was standing by her, he was afraid and thought the girl was a ghost, kept quiet and didn’t dare call out or address the ghost. When she’d eaten the pear, her hunger was satisfied, and she went and hid in the bushes. But the king who owned the garden came down next morning, counted the fruit, and noticed that one of the pears was missing. He asked the gardener what had become of it: it wasn’t lying under the tree and yet was gone. Then the gardener answered, “Last night a ghost came in; it had no hands and ate one pear off the tree with its mouth.” “How did the ghost get in across the water,” said the king, “and where did it go after eating the pear?” “Someone came from Heaven in a snow-white dress,” answered the gardener, “closed the lock and dammed up the water so that the ghost could walk through the moat. And because it must have been an angel, I was afraid, asked no questions, and didn’t call out. When the ghost had eaten the pear, it went back again.” “If it’s as you say,” said the king, “I’ll mount watch with you tonight.”
When it got dark, the king came into the garden and brought along a priest, who was to address the ghost. All three sat down under the tree and watched. At midnight the girl came creeping out of the bushes, stepped up to the tree, and again ate a pear off it with her mouth. The angel dressed in white stood beside her. Then the priest stepped up and said, “Have you come from God or from the World? Are you a ghost or a human being?” “I’m not a ghost,” she replied, “but a poor human being, forsaken by all save God.” “If you’re forsaken by the whole world,” said the king, “I shan’t forsake you,” took her with him to his royal mansion and, since she was so beautiful and devout, he loved her with all his heart, had silver hands made for her, and took her as his wife.
A year later the king had to go on a journey and commended the young queen to his mother, saying, “When she bears a child, take good care of her and write me a letter about it at once.” In time she gave birth to a fine boy. Then the queen-mother at once wrote him a letter, telling him the joyful news. On the way, however, the messenger stopped to rest by a brook and, tired from the long walk, fell asleep. Then the Devil, who was still plotting harm against the devout queen, appeared and exchanged the letter for another, in which it said that the queen had given birth to a changeling. On reading the letter the king was frightened and very sad, but in his reply ordered the queen to be well cared for until his arrival. The messenger went back with the letter, rested at the same spot, and again fell asleep. Then the Devil again appeared and put a different letter into his pouch; this said that the queen and her child were to be put to death. The queen-mother was terribly frightened on receiving the letter, couldn’t believe it, and wrote the king once more. But she got the same answer, because each time the Devil substituted a false letter. And the last letter added that, as proof, they were to keep the queen’s tongue and eyes.
Then the queen-mother wept at the thought that such innocent blood should be shed, had a hind fetched in the night, cut out its tongue and put out its eyes, and kept them. Then she said to the queen, “I can’t have you killed as the king commands, but you mustn’t stay here any longer. Go out into the world with your child and never come back again.” She tied the child to her back, and the poor woman went away with tears in her eyes. She got into a big, wild forest. There she knelt down and prayed to God, and the angel of the Lord appeared to her and led her to a cottage with a little sign saying, “Anyone may lodge here free.” A maiden in a snow-white dress stepped out of the cottage and said, “Welcome, Lady Queen,” and led her indoors. Then she untied the little boy on her back, nursed him at her breast, and then laid him in a pretty crib that was all ready. The poor woman said, “How do you know that I was a queen?” The maiden in white replied, “I’m an angel sent by God to care for you and your child.” She stayed in that house for seven years and was well cared for, and through the grace of God and because of her piety her hands that had been cut off grew again.
The king finally came back from the wars and the first thing he wanted to see was his wife and child. Then his old mother began to weep, saying, “You wicked man, why did you write me to put two innocent souls to death?” She showed him the two letters which the Evil One had forged and went on to say, “I did as you ordered,” and displayed the tokens—the tongue and the eyes. Then the king began to weep even more bitterly over his poor wife and his little son, until his mother took pity and said, “Console yourself, she’s still alive. I had a hind killed secretly and the tokens taken from it. As for your wife, I tied her child on her back and bade her go out into the world, and she promised never to come back, since you were so angry with her.” Then the king said, “I’ll go as far as the sky is blue and neither eat nor drink until I’ve found my dear wife and child again, unless they’ve perished in the meantime or died of hunger.”
Then the king went roaming abroad for some seven years, looking for her on every cliff and in every cave, but didn’t find her and thought she’d perished. He neither ate nor drank during this long time, but God sustained him. At last he got into a big forest and there found the cottage with the sign reading, “Anyone may lodge here free.” Then the maiden in white came out, took him by the hand, and led him inside, saying, “Welcome, Lord King.” She asked him whence he came. He replied, “I’ve been roaming about nearly seven years, looking for my wife and child, but I can’t find them.” The angel offered him food and drink, but he didn’t accept it and only wanted to rest a bit. Then he lay down to sleep and covered his face with a cloth.
Then the angel went into the chamber where the queen was sitting with her son, whom she usually called Little Woe-Begone and said to her, “Go out with your child; your husband’s come.” She went to where he was lying, and the cloth fell from his face. Then she said, “Little Woe-Begone, lift up your father’s cloth and cover his face again.” The child lifted it up and covered his face with it again. The king heard this in his sleep and on purpose dropped the cloth again. Then the little boy lost patience and said, “Mother dear, how can I cover my father’s face? You know I have no father in this world. I’ve learned the prayer, ‘Our Father that art in Heaven,’ and you told me that my Father is in Heaven and is our good Lord. How am I to acknowledge such a fierce-looking man? He isn’t my father.”
When the king heard this, he sat up and asked her who she was. Then she told him, “I’m your wife, and this is your son Little Woe-Begone.” He saw her hands, which were whole, and said, “My wife had silver hands.” She replied, “Our gracious Lord let my natural hands grow again,” and the angel went into the other room, fetched the silver hands and showed them to him. Only then did he feel perfectly sure that it was his dear wife and his darling child and kissed them and was happy, saying, “A heavy load has fallen from my heart.” Then the angel of the Lord gave them all one last meal, and then they went home to his old mother. There was much rejoicing everywhere, and the king and the queen celebrated a second wedding and lived happily to their dying day.
