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Grimms' Fairy Tales
The
Three Snake Leaves
There was once on a time a poor man, who could
no longer support his only son. Then said the son, "Dear
father, things go so badly with us that I am a burden to
you. I would rather go away and see how I can earn my bread."
So the father gave him his blessing, and with great sorrow
took leave of him. At this time the King of a mighty empire
was at war, and the youth took service with him, and with
him went out to fight. And when he came before the enemy,
there was a battle, and great danger, and it rained shot
until his comrades fell on all sides, and when the leader
also was killed, those left were about to take flight, but
the youth stepped forth, spoke boldly to them, and cried,
"We will not let our fatherland be ruined!" Then
the others followed him, and he pressed on and conquered
the enemy. When the King heard that he owed the victory
to him alone, he raised him above all the others, gave him
great treasures, and made him the first in the kingdom.
The King had a daughter who was very beautiful, but she
was also very strange. She had made a vow to take no one
as her lord and husband who did not promise to let himself
be buried alive with her if she died first. "If he
loves me with all his heart," said she, "of what
use will life be to him afterwards?" On her side she
would do the same, and if he died first, would go down to
the grave with him. This strange oath had up to this time
frightened away all wooers, but the youth became so charmed
with her beauty that he cared for nothing, but asked her
father for her. "But dost thou know what thou must
promise?" said the King. "I must be buried with
her," he replied, "if I outlive her, but my love
is so great that I do not mind the danger." Then the
King consented, and the wedding was solemnized with great
splendour.
They lived now for a while happy and contented with each
other, and then it befell that the young Queen was attacked
by a severe illness, and no physician could save her. And
as she lay there dead, the young King remembered what he
had been obliged to promise, and was horrified at having
to lie down alive in the grave, but there was no escape.
The King had placed sentries at all the gates, and it was
not possible to avoid his fate. When the day came when the
corpse was to be buried, he was taken down into the royal
vault with it and then the door was shut and bolted.
Near the coffin stood a table on which were four candles,
four loaves of bread, and four bottles of wine, and when
this provision came to an end, he would have to die of hunger.
And now he sat there full of pain and grief, ate every day
only a little piece of bread, drank only a mouthful of wine,
and nevertheless saw death daily drawing nearer. Whilst
he thus gazed before him, he saw a snake creep out of a
corner of the vault and approach the dead body. And as he
thought it came to gnaw at it, he drew his sword and said,
"As long as I live, thou shalt not touch her,"
and hewed the snake in three pieces. After a time a second
snake crept out of the hole, and when it saw the other lying
dead and cut in pieces, it went back, but soon came again
with three green leaves in its mouth. Then it took the three
pieces of the snake, laid them together, as they ought to
go, and placed one of the leaves on each wound. Immediately
the severed parts joined themselves together, the snake
moved, and became alive again, and both of them hastened
away together. The leaves were left lying on the ground,
and a desire came into the mind of the unhappy man who had
been watching all this, to know if the wondrous power of
the leaves which had brought the snake to life again, could
not likewise be of service to a human being. So he picked
up the leaves and laid one of them on the mouth of his dead
wife, and the two others on her eyes. And hardly had he
done this than the blood stirred in her veins, rose into
her pale face, and coloured it again. Then she drew breath,
opened her eyes, and said, "Ah, God, where am I?"
"Thou art with me, dear wife," he answered, and
told her how everything had happened, and how he had brought
her back again to life. Then he gave her some wine and bread,
and when she had regained her strength, he raised her up
and they went to the door and knocked, and called so loudly
that the sentries heard it, and told the King. The King
came down himself and opened the door, and there he found
both strong and well, and rejoiced with them that now all
sorrow was over. The young King, however, took the three
snake-leaves with him, gave them to a servant and said,
"Keep them for me carefully, and carry them constantly
about thee; who knows in what trouble they may yet be of
service to us!"
A change had, however, taken place in his wife; after she
had been restored to life, it seemed as if all love for
her husband had gone out of her heart. After some time,
when he wanted to make a voyage over the sea, to visit his
old father, and they had gone on board a ship, she forgot
the great love and fidelity which he had shown her, and
which had been the means of rescuing her from death, and
conceived a wicked inclination for the skipper. And once
when the young King lay there asleep, she called in the
skipper and seized the sleeper by the head, and the skipper
took him by the feet, and thus they threw him down into
the sea. When the shameful deed was done, she said, "Now
let us return home, and say that he died on the way. I will
extol and praise thee so to my father that he will marry
me to thee, and make thee the heir to his crown." But
the faithful servant who had seen all that they did, unseen
by them, unfastened a little boat from the ship, got into
it, sailed after his master, and let the traitors go on
their way. He fished up the dead body, and by the help of
the three snake-leaves which he carried about with him,
and laid on the eyes and mouth, he fortunately brought the
young King back to life.
They both rowed with all their strength day and night,
and their little boat flew so swiftly that they reached
the old King before the others did. He was astonished when
he saw them come alone, and asked what had happened to them.
When he learnt the wickedness of his daughter he said, "I
cannot believe that she has behaved so ill, but the truth
will soon come to light," and bade both go into a secret
chamber and keep themselves hidden from every one. Soon
afterwards the great ship came sailing in, and the godless
woman appeared before her father with a troubled countenance.
He said, "Why dost thou come back alone? Where is thy
husband?" "Ah, dear father," she replied,
"I come home again in great grief; during the voyage,
my husband became suddenly ill and died, and if the good
skipper had not given me his help, it would have gone ill
with me. He was present at his death, and can tell you all."
The King said, "I will make the dead alive again,"
and opened the chamber, and bade the two come out. When
the woman saw her husband, she was thunderstruck, and fell
on her knees and begged for mercy. The King said, "There
is no mercy. He was ready to die with thee and restored
thee to life again, but thou hast murdered him in his sleep,
and shalt receive the reward that thou deservest."
Then she was placed with her accomplice in a ship which
had been pierced with holes, and sent out to sea, where
they soon sank amid the waves.
From Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, trans. Margaret
Hunt (London: George Bell, 1884), 1:69-72. |
