WORLD OF STORIES FOR KIDS
NORWEGIAN FOLK TALES
Bushy bride
ONCE there was a widower who had a son and a daughter by his first
marriage. Both were good
children, and loved each other dearly. Some time after the man married a
widow, who had a
daughter by her first husband. and she was both ugly and bad, like her
mother. So from the
day the new wife came into the house there was no peace for her
stepchildren in any corner;
and at last the boy thought he'd best go out into the world and try to
earn his own bread.
And when he had wandered a while he came to a king's palace, and got a
place under the
coachman, and quick and willing he was, and the horses he looked after
were so sleek and
clean that their coats shone again.
But the sister who stayed at home was treated
worse than bad; both her stepmother and
stepsister were always at her, and wherever she went, and whatever she
did, they scolded and
snarled so, the poor lassie hadn't an hour's peace. All the hard work she
was forced to do,
and early and late she got nothing but bad words, and little food besides.
So one day they had sent her to the burn to fetch
water; and what do you think? up popped
an ugly, ugly head out of the pool, and said,
"Wash me, you lassie."
"Yes, with all my heart, I'll wash you," said the
lassie.
So she began to wash and scrub the ugly head; but
truth to say she thought it nasty work.
Well, as soon as she had done washing it, up
popped another head out of the pool, and this
was uglier still.
"Brush me, you lassie," said the head.
"Yes, with all my heart, I'll brush you."
And with that she took in hand the matted locks,
and you may fancy she hadn't very
pleasant work with them.
But when she had got over that, if a third head
didn't pop up out of the pool, and this
was far more ugly and loathsome than both the others put together.
"Kiss me, you lassie!"
"Yes, I'll kiss you," said the lassie, and she
did it too, though she thought it the worst
work she had ever had to do in her life.
Then the heads began to chatter together, and
each asked what they should do for the
lassie who was so kind and gentle.
"'That she be the prettiest lassie in the world,
and as fair as the bright day," said the
first head.
"That gold shall drop from her hair every time
she brushes it," said the second head.
"That gold shall fall from her mouth every time
she speaks," said the third head.
So when the lassie came home looking so lovely,
and beaming as the bright day itself, her
stepmother and her stepsister got more and more cross, and they got worse
still when she
began to talk, and they saw how golden guineas fell from her mouth. As for
the stepmother,
she got so mad with rage, she chased the lassie into the pigsty. That was
the right place for
all her gold stuff, but as for coming into the house she wouldn't hear of
it.
Well, it wasn't long before the stepmother wished
her own daughter to go to the burn to
fetch water. So when she came to the water's edge with her buckets, up
popped the first head.
"Wash me, you lassie," it said.
"The Deil wash you," said the stepdaughter.
So the second head popped up.
"Brush me, you lassie," it said.
"The Deil brush you," said the stepdaughter.
So down it went to the bottom, and the third head
popped up.
"Kiss me, you lassie," said the head.
"The Deil kiss you, you pig's-snout," said the
girl.
Then the heads chattered together again, and
asked what they should do to the girl who was
so spiteful and cross-grained; and they all agreed she should have a nose
four ells long, and
a snout three ells long, and a pine-bush right in the midst of her
forehead, and every time
she spoke ashes were to fall out of her mouth.
So when she got home with her buckets, she bawled
but to her mother -
"Open the door."
"Open it yourself, my darling child," said the
mother.
"I can't reach it because of my nose," said the
daughter.
So when the mother came out and saw her, you may
fancy what a way she was in, and how she
screamed and groaned; but, for all that, there were the nose and the snout
and the pine-bush,
and they got no smaller for all her grief.
Now the brother, who had got the place in the
king's stable, had taken a little sketch of
his sister, which he carried away with him, and every morning and every
evening he knelt down
before the picture and prayed to The first bigwig for his sister, whom he
loved so dearly.
The other grooms had heard him praying, so they peeped through the
key-hole of his room, and
there they saw him on his knees before the picture. So they went about
saying how the boy
every morning and every evening knelt down and prayed to an idol which he
had, and at last
they went to the king himself and begged him only to peep through the
key-hole, and then his
Majesty would see the boy, and what things he did. At first the king
wouldn't believe it, but
at last they talked him over, and he crept on tiptoe to the door and
peeped in. Yes, there
was the boy on his knees before the picture, which hung on the wall,
praying with clasped hands.
"Open the door!" called out the king; but the boy
didn't hear him.
So the king called out in a louder voice, but the
boy was so deep in his prayers he
couldn't hear him this time either.
"Open the door, I say!" roared the king;
"It's I who want to come in."
Well, up jumped the
boy and ran to the door, and
unlocked it, but in his hurry he forgot
to hide the picture. So when the king came in and saw the picture, he
stood there as if he
were fettered, and couldn't stir from the spot, so lovely he thought the
picture.
"So lovely a woman there isn't in all the wide
world," said the king.
But the boy told him she was his sister whom he
had drawn, and if she wasn't prettier than
that, at least she wasn't uglier.
"Well, if she's so lovely," said the king, "I'll
have her for my queen;" and then he
ordered the boy to set off in haste. The boy paced as best he could, and
started off from the
king's palace.
When the brother came home to fetch his sister,
the stepmother and stepsister said they
must go too. So they all set out, and the good lassie had a casket in
which she kept her
gold, and a little dog, whose name was "Little Flo" - those two
things
were all her mother
left her. And when they had gone a while, they came to a lake which they
had to cross; so the
brother sat down at the helm and the stepmother and the two girls sat in
the bow in the
front, and so they sailed a long, long way.
At last they caught sight of land.
"There," said the brother, "where you see the
white strand yonder, there's where we're to
land;" and as he said this he pointed across the water.
"What is it my brother says?" asked the good
lassie.
"He says you must throw your casket overboard,"
said the stepmother.
"Well, when my brother says it, I must do it,"
said the lassie, and overboard went the casket.
When they had sailed a bit farther, the brother
pointed again across the lake.
"There you see the castle we're going to."
"What is it my brother says?" asked the lassie.
"He says now you must throw your little dog
overboard," said the stepmother.
Then the lassie wept and was sore grieved, for
Little Flo was the dearest thing she had in
the world, but at last she threw him overboard.
"When my brother says it, I must do it, but
heaven knows how it hurts me to throw you
over, Little Flo," she said.
So they sailed on a good bit still.
"There you see the king coming down to meet us,"
said the brother, and pointed towards the
strand.
"What is it my brother says?" asked the lassie.
"Now he says you must make haste and throw
yourself overboard," said the stepmother.
Well, the lassie wept and moaned; but when her
brother told her to do that, she thought
she ought to do it, and so she leapt down into the lake.
But when they came to the palace, and the king
saw the horrible bride, with a nose four
ells long, and a snout three ells long, and a pine-bush in the midst of
her forehead, he was
quite scared out of his wits; but the wedding was all ready, both in
brewing and baking, and
there sat all the wedding guests, waiting for the bride; and so the king
couldn't help
himself, but was forced to take her for better for worse. But angry he
was, that any one can
forgive him, and so he had the brother thrown into a pit full of snakes.
Well, the first Thursday evening after the
wedding, about midnight, in came a lovely lady
into the farm kitchen, and begged the kitchen-maid, who slept there, so
prettily to lend her
a brush. That she got, and then she brushed her hair, and as she brushed,
down dropped gold.
A little dog was at her heel, and to him she said,
"Run out, Little Flo, and see if it will soon be
day."
This she said three times, and the third time she
sent the dog it was just about the time
the dawn begins to peep, Then she had to go, but as she went she sang,
"Out on you, ugly Bushy Bride,
Lying so warm by the king's
left side
While I on
sand and gravel sleep,
And over my brother adders creep,
And all
without a
tear. "
"Now I come twice more, and then never again," she said.
So next morning the kitchen-maid told what she
had seen and heard, and the king said he'd
watch himself next Thursday night in the kitchen, and see if it were true,
and as soon as it
got dark, out he went into the kitchen to the kitchen-maid. But all he
could do, and however
much he rubbed his eyes and tried to keep himself awake, it was no good;
for the Bushy Bride
chanted and sang till his eyes closed, and so when the lovely lady came,
there he slept and
snored. This time, too, as before, she borrowed a brush, and brushed her
hair till the gold
dropped, and sent her dog out three times, and as soon as it was grey
dawn, away she went
singing the same words, and adding,
"Now I come once more, and then never again."
The third Thursday evening the king said he would
watch again; and he set two men to hold
him, one under each arm, who were to shake and jog him every time he
wanted to fall asleep;
and two men he set to watch his Bushy Bride. But when the night wore on,
the Bushy Bride
began to chant and sing, so that his eyes began to wink, and his head hung
down on his
shoulders. Then in came the lovely lady, and got the brush and brushed her
hair, till the
gold dropped from it; after that she sent Little Flo out again to see if
it would soon be
day, and this she did three times. The third time it began to get grey in
the east; then she
sang -
"Out you go, ugly Bushy Bride,
Lying by the king's side;
While I sleep on sand and gravel
creeping over my brother adders,
all without tears."
"Now I come back never more," she said, and went towards the door. But the
two men who held
the king under the arms clenched his hands together, and put a knife into
his grasp; and so,
somehow or other, they got him to cut her in her little finger, and drew
blood. Then the true
bride was freed, and the king woke up, and she told him now the whole
story, and how her
stepmother and sister had deceived her. So the king sent at once and took
her brother out of
the pit of snakes, and the adders hadn't done him the least harm, but the
stepmother and her
daughter were thrown into it in his stead.
And now no one can tell how glad the king was to
be rid of that ugly Bushy Bride, and to
get a queen who was so lovely and bright as the day itself. So the true
wedding was held, and
every one talked of it over seven kingdoms; and then the king drove to
bakery in their coach,
and little Flo went inside with them too, and when the best of wafers was
given they drove
back again, and after that I saw nothing more of them.
Cosmetic surgery had its counterpart.
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