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Grimms' Fairy Tales
The
Wonderful Musician
There was once a wonderful musician, who went
quite alone through a forest and thought of all manner of
things, and when nothing was left for him to think about,
he said to himself, "Time is beginning to pass heavily
with me here in the forest, I will fetch hither a good companion
for myself." Then he took his fiddle from his back,
and played so that it echoed through the trees. It was not
long before a wolf came trotting through the thicket towards
him. "Ah, here is a wolf coming! I have no desire for
him!" said the musician; but the wolf came nearer and
said to him, "Ah, dear musician, how beautifully thou
dost play. I should like to learn that, too." "It
is soon learnt," the musician replied, "thou hast
only to do all that I bid thee." "Oh, musician,"
said the wolf, "I will obey thee as a scholar obeys
his master." The musician bade him follow, and when
they had gone part of the way together, they came to an
old oak-tree which was hollow inside, and cleft in the middle.
"Look," said the musician, "if thou wilt
learn to fiddle, put thy fore paws into this crevice."
The wolf obeyed, but the musician quickly picked up a stone
and with one blow wedged his two paws so fast that he was
forced to stay there like a prisoner. "Stay there until
I come back again," said the musician, and went his
way.
After a while he again said to himself, "Time is beginning
to pass heavily with me here in the forest, I will fetch
hither another companion," and took his fiddle and
again played in the forest. It was not long before a fox
came creeping through the trees towards him. "Ah, there's
a fox coming!" said the musician. "I have no desire
for him." The fox came up to him and said, "Oh,
dear musician, how beautifully thou dost play! I should
like to learn that too." "That is soon learnt,"
said the musician. "Thou hast only to do everything
that I bid thee." "Oh, musician," then said
the fox, "I will obey thee as a scholar obeys his master."
"Follow me," said the musician; and when they
had walked a part of the way, they came to a footpath, with
high bushes on both sides of it. There the musician stood
still, and from one side bent a young hazel-bush down to
the ground, and put his foot on the top of it, then he bent
down a young tree from the other side as well, and said,
"Now little fox, if thou wilt learn something, give
me thy left front paw." The fox obeyed, and the musician
fastened his paw to the left bough. "Little fox,"
said he, "now reach me thy right paw" and he tied
it to the right bough. When he had examined whether they
were firm enough, he let go, and the bushes sprang up again,
and jerked up the little fox, so that it hung struggling
in the air. "Wait there till I come back again,"
said the musician, and went his way.
Again he said to himself, "Time is beginning to pass
heavily with me here in the forest, I will fetch hither
another companion," so he took his fiddle, and the
sound echoed through the forest. Then a little hare came
springing towards him. "Why, a hare is coming,"
said the musician, "I do not want him." "Ah,
dear musician," said the hare, "how beautifully
thou dost fiddle; I too, should like to learn that."
"That is soon learnt," said the musician, "thou
hast only to do everything that I bid thee."
"Oh, musician," replied the little hare, "I
will obey thee as a scholar obeys his master." They
went a part of the way together until they came to an open
space in the forest, where stood an aspen tree. The musician
tied a long string round the little hare's neck, the other
end of which he fastened to the tree. "Now briskly,
little hare, run twenty times round the tree!" cried
the musician, and the little hare obeyed, and when it had
run round twenty times, it had twisted the string twenty
times round the trunk of the tree, and the little hare was
caught, and let it pull and tug as it liked, it only made
the string cut into its tender neck. "Wait there till
I come back," said the musician, and went onwards.
The wolf, in the meantime, had pushed and pulled and bitten
at the stone, and had worked so long that he had set his
feet at liberty and had drawn them once more out of the
cleft. Full of anger and rage he hurried after the musician
and wanted to tear him to pieces. When the fox saw him running,
he began to lament, and cried with all his might, "Brother
wolf, come to my help, the musician has betrayed me!"
The wolf drew down the little tree, bit the cord in two,
and freed the fox, who went with him to take revenge on
the musician. They found the tied-up hare, whom likewise
they delivered, and then they all sought the enemy together.
The musician had once more played his fiddle as he went
on his way, and this time he had been more fortunate. The
sound reached the ears of a poor wood-cutter, who instantly,
whether he would or no, gave up his work and came with his
hatchet under his arm to listen to the music. "At last
comes the right companion," said the musician, "for
I was seeking a human being, and no wild beast." And
he began and played so beautifully and delightfully that
the poor man stood there as if bewitched, and his heart
leaped with gladness. And as he thus stood, the wolf, the
fox, and the hare came up, and he saw well that they had
some evil design. So he raised his glittering axe and placed
himself before the musician, as if to say, "Whoso wishes
to touch him let him beware, for he will have to do with
me!" Then the beasts were terrified and ran back into
the forest. The musician, however, played once more to the
man out of gratitude, and then went onwards.
From Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, trans. Margaret
Hunt (London: George Bell, 1884), 1:35-37. |
