A widow had two daughters; one was pretty and industrious, the other was ugly and lazy. And as the ugly one was her own daughter, she loved her much the best, and the pretty one was made to do all the work, and be the drudge of the house. Every day the poor girl had to sit by a well on the high road and spin until her fingers bled. Now it happened once that as the spindle was bloody, she dipped it into the well to wash it; but it slipped out of her hand and fell in. Then she began to cry, and ran to her step-mother, and told her of her misfortune; and her stepmother scolded her without mercy, and said in her rage,
"As you have let the spindle fall in, you must go and fetch it out again!"
Then the girl went back again to the well, not knowing what to do, and in the despair of her heart she jumped down into the well the same way the spindle had gone. ...
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Posts
I like fairy tales & don't they always seem to involve the wicked step mother! (col).
ReplyDeleteAlways the wicked step-mother...
Delete...this is one that is new to me.
ReplyDeleteIt was in a collection of fairy tales I had as a child.
DeleteWhen I saw the title, a little bell was going off in my head. Was this name from Dickens? Now I see it was a Grimm brothers tale. No one why I recognized it. I loved these as a kid too, and now I see they are not as sweet as I once pictured them.
ReplyDeleteThey read differently when you're an adult.
DeleteI enjoy fairy tales. This by the Brothers Grimm was mild to their usual fair. At the end, ugly step sisters usually have their eyes poked out by birds 😺
ReplyDeleteCinderella as it was supposed to be lol The soft-peddling of the step-sister comeuppance always made me wonder... I want a film version that shows them cutting of parts of their feet to make them fit into fur slippers ;)
DeleteThe Grimm fairy tales were the most savage of any I've ever read. They scared kids straight!
ReplyDeleteI was a fan starting very young. I think they appeal to a child's sense of just deserts ;)
DeleteI've always liked fairy tales too. This one sounds good.
ReplyDeleteFYI: The Curse of Humpty Dumpty (2021) - British horror movie. Good and creepy. Perhaps a little slow. But I was okay with the pace.
Googling... Oooo, it's about a doll, which I may or may not be able to tolerate ;) I'll have to give it a try. Thanks!
DeleteMy daughter was always a fan of Humpty Dumpty and collected them for a while.
Oh this sounds like one I would really enjoy.
ReplyDeleteIt's not as well-known as some of the others, but I've always liked it.
DeleteAs a child nothing seemed strange. Fall down a well and wake up in a meadow? Why not? The strangest part is that the tales collected by the Grimm brothers were actually not just for children. They were the stories that amused a pre-literate village society. Now our illiterates have TV.
ReplyDeleteBest… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
I think people give up fairy tales too soon. They read a lot different as an adult, speaking to a different level for us.
DeleteVery good tale! The old ones didn't sugar coat anything--LOL! ;)
ReplyDelete"Fairness" means something to a child ;)
DeleteI love this one, too, my daughter thought it was sooooo sad when she was small! Valerie
ReplyDeleteThis isn't one of the ones I thought was sad, but I can see how people would see sadness in it.
DeleteI don't know Mother Hulda. But the Grimms were definitely grim! I loved them and am surprised I missed this one. The beginning sounds a bit like Rumplestiltskin with the spindle. When I was a kid I had a fairy tale book with the most gorgeous illustrations. Just when you thought you got to the happy ending it went on -- and not so happy! I'm reminded of Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods," one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteI can´t remember the big teeth!
ReplyDeleteEvery Sunday we watch a fairy tale after "Die Maus" :-)