The king said, ‘Well, you’ve had your three nights. Where did my daughters dance their shoes to pieces?’
And the soldier replied, ‘In a castle under the ground, your majesty. They met twelve princes who rowed them across a lake.’
He told the whole story, and showed the king the branches from the silver tree, the golden tree and the diamond tree, and also the goblet he’d brought from the castle. The king called his daughters before him.
‘I expect you’ve heard what this man told me,’ he said. ‘Now then: was he telling the truth?’
The princesses had no choice: they had to admit everything.
‘So you’ve done it,’ said the king to the soldier. ‘Now, which of these daughters of mine would you like for a wife?’
‘Well, I’m not as young as I used to be,’ said the soldier, ‘so I reckon the oldest would do me best.’
‘You shall have her,’ said the king, and their wedding was celebrated the very same day.
The king promised that the soldier would succeed him to the throne, and as for the princes under the ground, they were placed under a spell for as many nights as they had danced with the twelve princesses.
***
Tale type: ATU 306, ‘The Danced-out Shoes’
Source: a story told to the Grimm brothers by Jenny von Droste-Hülshoff
Similar stories: Alexander Afanasyev: ‘The Secret Ball’ (Russian Fairy Tales)
Sometimes known as ‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses’, this tale has the charm that belongs to any account of the marvels that lie under the ground, especially those that include little boats, pretty lights, trees with precious foliage, music and dancing. It lends itself, of course, to beautiful illustration. I have done little to the story except make the old woman’s gifts (of advice, and of the cloak) a reward for the soldier’s charity.
FORTY-FOUR
IRON HANS
There was once a king who had a great forest near his castle, where there lived all kinds of wild animals. One day he sent out his senior huntsman to shoot a deer, but the huntsman didn’t come back.
‘Perhaps he’s had an accident,’ said the king, and next day he sent two more huntsmen after the first, but they didn’t come back either.
On the third day he called all his huntsmen together and said, ‘Search through the whole forest, and don’t give up till you’ve found all three.’
But none of those huntsmen came back, and nor did any of the hounds from the pack they took with them. From that day on, no one dared to go into the forest, and it lay in deep silence and solitude, and the only life that was seen was an occasional eagle or hawk flying above the trees.
For many years things remained like that, until one day a huntsman no one knew, a stranger, presented himself to the king saying he was looking for a job, and volunteered to go into the dangerous woods. However, the king didn’t allow him to go.
‘There’s something uncanny in there,’ he said. ‘The place is probably under a spell. I don’t see how you can do any better than the others; I’m afraid you’d get lost like them.’
But the huntsman said, ‘I’m willing to risk it, your majesty. I know nothing of fear.’
So the huntsman set off with his hound into the forest. It wasn’t long before the hound picked up a scent and started to follow it, but he hadn’t run more than a few steps when he came to the edge of a deep pool and could go no further.
Then a naked arm reached up out of the water, seized the hound and dragged him below the surface.
When the huntsman saw that, he went back and got three men to go with him and bring buckets to empty the pool. They did so, and when it was nearly empty they found a wild man lying on the bottom. His skin was brown like rusty iron, and his hair hung down over his face and fell right to his knees. They bound him tightly with ropes and led him away to the castle.
Everyone was amazed to see the wild man. The king ordered him to be put into an iron cage in the courtyard, and forbade anyone to unlock the door of the cage, on pain of death; and he gave the key into the care of the queen herself. From that time on, people could go safely into the forest again.
Now the king had a son who was eight years old. One day he was playing in the courtyard when his golden ball bounced through the bars and into the wild man’s cage.
The boy ran over to it and said, ‘Give me my ball.’
‘Not until you open the door for me,’ said the wild man.
‘No, I can’t do that,’ said the boy. ‘Papa’s forbidden it.’
And he ran away. Next day he came back and asked for his ball, but the wild man only said, ‘Open my door.’ Again the boy refused.
On the third day, when the king had gone out hunting, the boy came to the cage and said, ‘Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t open your cage. I haven’t got the key.’
The wild man said, ‘It’s under your mother’s pillow. You could easily get it.’
The boy desperately wanted his ball back, so he threw caution to the winds and got the key. The lock was hard to turn, and the boy pinched his finger; but when the door was open the wild man came out, gave the boy his ball, and hurried away.
The boy was frightened. He cried out, ‘Oh, wild man, don’t run away, or they’ll beat me!’
The wild man turned back, picked the boy up and set him on his shoulders, and strode off quickly towards the forest.
When the king came home he noticed the empty cage and asked the queen at once what had happened. She didn’t know anything about it, so she looked for the key, and found it gone. Then they realized the boy was missing, and called him, but no one answered. The king and the queen sent servants to look in the royal park around the castle, and in the fields and meadows beyond, but they didn’t find the boy; and then his parents guessed what had happened, and the court fell into deep mourning.
Once the wild man had reached the dark forest he set the boy down and said, ‘You’ll never see your father and mother again. But I’ll look after you, because you set me free, and I feel sorry for you. Do as I tell you, and everything will be all right. I’ve got plenty of treasure and gold, more than anyone else in the world, in fact.’
He gathered some moss and made a bed for the boy, who soon fell asleep. Next morning the wild man led him to a spring and said, ‘See this? This is my golden spring. It’s clear and bright, and I want it to stay like that. You sit here and guard it, and make sure nothing falls in that shouldn’t, because I don’t want it polluted by anything at all, you understand? I’ll come back every evening to see if you’ve done as I tell you.’
The boy sat down at the side of the spring, and watched the water. Sometimes he saw a golden fish or a golden snake deep down under the surface, and he took care to let nothing fall in. But as he sat there, the finger that he’d pinched in the cage door began to hurt so badly that he couldn’t help dipping it into the water. He pulled it out again at once, but he saw that it had turned to gold, and no matter how hard he tried to wipe it off his skin, it was gold all through.
That evening when Iron Hans came home, he looked at the boy and said, ‘What’s happened to the spring?’
‘Nothing, nothing,’ said the boy, holding the finger behind his back so Iron Hans couldn’t see it.
But the man said, ‘You’ve dipped your finger in the water. Well, I’ll let it go this time, but be very careful you don’t let anything else fall in.’
Early in the morning the boy got ready and went to the spring to keep watch. His finger hurt again, and this time he rubbed it across his head; but as he did so a hair unluckily fell out into the water. He snatched it out as quickly as he could, but it was already covered in gold.
By the time he came home, Iron Hans already knew what had happened. ‘You let a hair fall into the spring,’ he said. ‘That’s the second time. I’ll over
look it just once more, but if it happens again the spring will be polluted, and you won’t be able to stay here any more.’
On the third day the boy sat there carefully and didn’t move his finger, no matter how much it hurt. But the time went by very slowly, and for want of anything else to do, he bent over and looked at his reflection in the water. He bent his head lower and lower, trying to see his eyes, and then his long hair fell forwards from behind his head and down into the water. He jerked his head back at once, but it was too late: all his hair had turned gold, and it shone like the sun. You can imagine how frightened the poor boy felt. The only thing he could think of was to wrap his handkerchief around his head so that Iron Hans wouldn’t see it.
But of course as soon as he came home, that was the thing he noticed first of all.
‘Untie that handkerchief,’ he said.
The boy had to. All his golden hair fell down around his shoulders, and he couldn’t even think of an excuse.
‘You’ve failed the test,’ said Iron Hans. ‘You can’t stay here any longer. You’ll have to go out into the world, and there you’ll learn what it feels like to be poor. But you’re not a bad boy, and I wish you well, so I’ll grant you one favour: if you’re ever in real need, go into the forest and call out “Iron Hans”, and I’ll come and help you. I’ve got great powers, much more than you think, and more than enough gold and silver.’
So the prince left the forest and wandered along wild paths and well-trodden ones until at last he came to a great city. There he looked for work, but he couldn’t find any, because he’d never learned a trade to earn his living with. Finally he went to the palace and asked if they’d give him a job.
The palace officials didn’t know how they could make use of him, but he was a likeable boy, and they took him in. In the end the cook said he could find things for him to do, and set him to carrying wood and water, and raking out the ashes of the fire.
One day when the other waiters were busy, the cook told the boy to carry a dish to the royal table. The boy didn’t want anyone to see his golden hair, so he kept his cap on. Naturally the king was astonished at this, and said, ‘Boy, when you come to the royal table, you must always take your cap off.’
‘I better not, your majesty,’ said the boy, ‘because my scalp’s all covered in dandruff.’
The king summoned the cook and told him off for letting a boy with a condition like that serve at the royal table. He was to dismiss him at once. However, the cook felt sorry for the boy, and let him change places with the gardener’s assistant.
Now it was his job to plant and water, to prune and hoe, and put up with the wind and the rain. One summer’s day when he was working alone in the garden, it happened to be so hot that he took off his hat to let the breeze cool him down. As the sun shone on his golden hair, it sparkled and gleamed so much that the reflections shone into the princess’s bedroom.
She jumped up to see what it was, and saw the boy and called out: ‘Boy! Bring me a bouquet of flowers.’
He quickly put his cap back on, picked some wildflowers, and tied them together. As he was climbing the steps out of the garden the head gardener saw him, and said, ‘What d’you think you’re doing, taking the princess a bunch of common flowers like those? Throw them away, quick, and get her some of the rare ones. That pink rose has just come out – take her a bunch of those.’
‘Oh, no,’ said the boy, ‘that rose has got no scent. But these wild ones are so fragrant – I’m sure she’ll like them better.’
When he entered the princess’s room, she said, ‘Take your cap off. It’s not polite to leave it on in my presence.’
‘I can’t do that, your royal highness,’ he said. ‘My head’s all covered in scurf.’
At that the princess grabbed his cap and pulled it off. At once his golden hair fell down to his shoulders, and a beautiful sight it was. He wanted to run out, but she held his arm; and then she gave him a handful of ducats, and let him go. He took the ducats away, but he didn’t want them, so he gave them to the gardener.
‘Something for your children to play with,’ he said.
Next day the princess called for him again, demanding another bouquet of wildflowers. When he took it in, she grabbed at his cap at once, trying to take it away, but he held on tightly. Again she gave him some ducats, and again he gave them to the gardener for his children. It all happened once more on the third day: she couldn’t get his cap; he didn’t want the gold.
Not long after that, the country found itself at war. The king called his councillors together, but they couldn’t decide whether to fight or to give in, because the enemy had a large and powerful army.
The gardener’s boy said, ‘I’m grown up now. Just give me a horse, and I’ll go to war and fight for the country.’
The other young men laughed and said, ‘Don’t you worry, you can have a horse after we’ve left. We’ll leave one in the stable for you.’
So he waited till they’d gone and then looked in the stable for his horse. He found it had a lame foot, and it could only walk hobbledy-clop, hobbledy-clop.
All the same, he mounted it and rode off towards the thick forest. When he came to the edge of the trees, he stopped and called out ‘Iron Hans!’ three times, so loudly that it echoed all around.
The wild man appeared at once and said, ‘What do you need?’
‘I’m going to war,’ said the boy, ‘and I need a good horse.’
‘Then you shall have it, and much more besides.’
The wild man went back into the woods, and very soon afterwards a stable-boy came out of the trees, leading a magnificent horse that snorted and stamped and could hardly be controlled. What was more, behind him came a regiment of knights in iron armour, their swords flashing in the sun.
The boy left his lame horse with the stable-boy, mounted the other horse, and set off at the head of the knights. When they reached the battlefield they found that many of the king’s men had already fallen, and that the rest would soon have to give way as well. So the young man galloped up with his iron regiment and fell on the enemy like a storm, striking down every man in their path. The enemy fell back in confusion, but the young man was merciless, and didn’t stop until they were all either dead or in flight.
When the battle was over, he didn’t return to the king. Instead he led his iron army by a roundabout way into the forest, and once again called for Iron Hans.
‘What do you need?’ said the wild man.
‘Take back your horse and your knights, and give me my lame old hack.’
Iron Hans did just as he asked, and the young man rode home on the hobbledy-clop horse.
As for the king, when he arrived back at the palace his daughter ran out to meet him, and congratulated him on the great victory.
‘I had little to do with it,’ he said. ‘We were saved by a strange knight who rode to our rescue with his regiment of iron-clad knights.’
The princess was keen to know who the mysterious knight was, but the king couldn’t tell her.
‘All I know,’ he said, ‘is that he put the enemy to flight, and then he rode away.’
She went to the gardener and asked where his boy was, and the gardener laughed.
‘He’s just come back on his three-legged horse,’ he said. ‘The others are all making fun of him. “Look, here’s old hobbledy-clop!” they says. And they asks, “What hedge have you been sleeping under, then?” and he says, “I did better’n any of you. If it wasn’t for me, you’d have lost the battle,” he says. And then they split their sides.’
The king said to his daughter, ‘I’m going to announce a great tournament. It’s going to last for three days, and you can throw a golden apple for the knights to catch. Perhaps the unknown knight will turn up. You never know.’
When he heard about the tournament, the young man w
ent out into the forest and called Iron Hans.
‘What do you need?’
‘To catch the princess’s golden apple.’
‘It’s as good as done,’ said Iron Hans. ‘And what’s more, you shall wear a suit of red armour, and ride a proud chestnut horse.’
When the tournament opened, the young man galloped up and took his place among the knights, and no one recognized him. Then the princess came and threw a golden apple among the knights, and he was the one who caught it, and as soon as he had it safe, he galloped away.
Next day Iron Hans gave him white armour and a snow-white horse. Once more he caught the apple, and once more he rode away at once.
But now the king lost his temper. ‘If that knight rides away again without leaving his name,’ he announced, ‘everyone else must chase after him, and if he doesn’t come back willingly, they can use their spears and swords. I won’t have that sort of behaviour.’
On the third day, Iron Hans gave him black armour and a horse as black as night, and again he caught the apple. This time, though, the other knights chased after him, and one of them got close enough to stab him in the leg. He must have stabbed the horse as well, for it leaped so high that in trying to control it the young man lost his helmet. It fell to the ground, and they all saw that he had hair like gold. But that was all they saw, for he managed to make his escape; and they rode back and reported it to the king.
Next day the princess asked the gardener about his boy.
‘He’s pruning the roses, your royal highness. He’s a strange fellow. He’s been at the tournament, and all. He come home yesterday evening, and he showed my children three golden apples. He said he’d won ’em, but I don’t know.’
The king had him summoned, and he came before the court still wearing his cap. The princess went up to him and took it off, and his golden hair fell down on to his shoulders; and he was so handsome that everyone was astonished.
‘Young man, are you the knight who came to the tournament each day in different-coloured armour, and who caught the three golden apples?’
Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm Page 34
