The two children loved each other so dearly that they always walked
about hand in hand, and when Snow-white said, “We will never desert each
other,” Rose-red answered: “No, not as long as we live”; and the mother
added: “Whatever one gets she shall share with the other.” They often
roamed about in the woods gathering berries and no beast threatened to
hurt them. In fact, animals loved and trusted the two girls. The
little hare would eat a cabbage leaf from their hands, the deer grazed
beside them, the stag would bound past them merrily, and the birds
remained on the branches and sang to them with all their might.
No evil ever befell them; if they stayed late in the wood and night
overtook them, they lay down together on the moss and slept till
morning, and their mother knew they were quite safe, and never felt
anxious about them. Once, when they had slept all night in the wood and
had been wakened by the morning sun, they saw a beautiful child in a
shining white robe sitting close to their resting-place. The figure got
up, looked at them kindly, but said nothing, and vanished into the wood.
And when they looked round about them they realised that they had slept
quite close to a deep crater in the ground. If they had gone a few
steps further in the darkness, they would have fallen into it. When
they told their mother of their adventure, she said what they had seen
must have been the angel that guards good children.
Snow-white and Rose-red kept their mother’s cottage so beautifully
clean and neat that it was a pleasure to go into it. In summer Rose-red
looked after the house, and every morning before her mother awoke she
placed a bunch of flowers before the bed, from each tree a rose. In
winter Snow-white lit the fire and put on the kettle, which was made of
brass, but so beautifully polished that it shone like gold. In the
evening when the snowflakes fell their mother said: “Snow-white, go and
close the shutters,” and they drew round the fire, while the mother put
on her spectacles and read aloud from a big book and the two girls
listened and sat and span. Beside them on the ground lay a little lamb,
and behind them perched a little white dove with its head tucked under
its wings.
One evening as they sat cosily together someone knocked at the door
as though he wanted to come in. The mother said: “Rose-red, open the
door quickly; it must be some traveler seeking shelter.” Rose-red
hastened to unbar the door, and thought she saw a poor man standing in
the darkness outside; but it was no such thing, only a bear, who poked
his thick black head through the door. Rose-red screamed aloud and
sprang back in terror, the lamb began to bleat, the dove flapped its
wings, and Snow-white ran and hid behind her mother’s bed. But the bear
began to speak, and said: “Don’t be afraid: I won’t hurt you. I am half
frozen, and only wish to warm myself a little.”
“My poor bear,” said the mother, “lie down by the fire, only take
care you don’t burn your fur.” Then she called out: “Snow-white and
Rose-red, come out; the bear will do you no harm; he is a good, honest
creature.”
So they both came out of their hiding-places, and gradually the lamb
and dove drew near too, and they all forgot their fear. The bear asked
the children to beat the snow a little out of his fur, and they fetched a
brush and scrubbed him till he was dry. Then the beast stretched
himself in front of the fire, and growled quite happily and comfortably.
The children soon grew quite at their ease with him, and teased him
and played with him quite roughly. They tugged his fur with their hands,
put their small feet on his back, and rolled him about here and there,
or took a hazel wand and beat him with it; and if he growled they only
laughed. The bear submitted to everything with the best possible
good-nature, only when they went too far he cried:
“Oh! children, spare my life!
“Snow-white and Rose-red,
Don’t beat your lover dead.”
“Snow-white and Rose-red,
Don’t beat your lover dead.”
When it was time to retire for the night, and the others went to bed,
the mother said to the bear: “You can lie there on the hearth, in
heaven’s name; it will be shelter for you from the cold and wet.”
As soon as day dawned the children led him out, and he trotted over
the snow into the wood. From this time on the bear came every evening at
the same hour, and lay down by the hearth and let the children play
what pranks they liked with him; and they got so used to him that the
door was never shut till their friend had made his appearance.
When spring came, and all outside was green, the bear said one
morning to Snow-white: “Now I must go away, and not return again the
whole summer.” “Where are you going to, dear bear?” asked Snow-white. “I
must go to the wood and protect my treasure from the wicked dwarfs. In
winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they are forced to remain
underground, for they can’t work their way through; but now, when the
sun has thawed and warmed the ground, they break through and come up
above to spy the land and steal what they can; Anything that falls into
their hands and into their caves is not easily found again.”
Snow-white was quite sad that their friend was leaving, and when she
unbarred the door for him, the bear, stepping out, caught a piece of
his fur in the door-knocker, and Snow-white thought she saw glittering
gold beneath it, but she couldn’t be certain of it; and the bear ran
hastily away, and soon disappeared behind the trees.
A short time after this, the mother sent the children into the wood
to collect twigs to start the fire. As they wandered, they came upon a
big tree which lay felled on the ground, and on the trunk among the long
grass they noticed something jumping up and down, but what it was they
couldn’t be certain. When they approached nearer they saw a dwarf with a
wizened face and a beard a yard long. The end of the beard was jammed
into a cleft of the tree, and the little man sprang about like a dog on a
chain, and didn’t seem to know what he was to do. He glared at the
girls with his fiery red eyes, and screamed out:
“What are you standing there for? Can’t you come and help me?”
“What were you doing, little man?” asked Rose-red.
“You stupid, inquisitive goose!” replied the dwarf; “I wanted to
split the tree to get little chips of wood for our kitchen fire. My
beautiful white beard has got caught in a cleft, so here I am stuck
fast, and I can’t get away; and you silly, smooth-faced, milk-and-water
girls just stand and laugh! Ugh! what wretches you are!”
The children did all in their power, but they couldn’t get the beard out; it was wedged in far too firmly.
“I will run and fetch somebody,” said Rose-red.
“Crazy blockheads!” snapped the dwarf; “what’s the good of calling
anyone else? You’re already two too many for me. Does nothing better
occur to you than that?”
“Don’t be so impatient,” said Snow-white, and taking her scissors
out of her pocket she cut off the end of his beard. As soon as the dwarf
felt himself free he seized a bag full of gold which was hidden among
the roots of the tree, lifted it up, and muttered aloud:
“Curse these rude wretches, cutting off a piece of my splendid
beard!” With these words he swung the bag over his back, and disappeared
without as much as looking at the children again.
Shortly after this Snow-white and Rose-red were out again, walking
along the bank of a stream. They saw something which looked like an
enormous grasshopper springing toward the water as if it were going to
jump in. They ran forward and recognized their old friend the dwarf.
“Where are you going to?” asked Rose-red; “you’re surely not going to jump into the water?”
“I’m not such a fool,” screamed the dwarf. “Don’t you see that cursed fish is trying to drag me in?”
The little man had been sitting on the bank fishing, when
unfortunately the wind had entangled his beard in the line. Immediately
afterward a big fish bit, and the feeble little creature had no
strength to pull it out. The fish dragged the dwarf toward him. He
clung on with all his might to every reed and blade of grass.
The girls came up just in the nick of time, held him firm, and did
all they could to free his beard from the line; but in vain, beard and
line were in a hopeless muddle. All they could do was to take out the
scissors again to cut the beard.
The little man was far from grateful to the girls for rescuing him. He yelled to them:
“Do you call that manners, you toad-stools! to disfigure a fellow’s
face? It wasn’t enough that you shortened my beard before, but you must
now cut off the best bit of it.”
Then he fetched a sack of pearls that lay among the rushes, and
without saying another word he dragged it away and disappeared behind a
stone.
It happened that soon after this the mother sent the two girls to the
town to buy needles, thread, laces, and ribbons. Their road led over a
heath where huge boulders of rock lay scattered here and there. While
trudging along they saw a big bird hovering in the air, circling slowly
above them, but always swooping lower, till at last it settled on a rock
not far from them.
Immediately afterward they heard a sharp, piercing cry. They ran
forward, and saw with horror that the eagle had pounced on their old
friend the dwarf, and was about to carry him off. The tender-hearted
children seized hold of the little man, and struggled so long with the
bird that at last he let go his prey. When the dwarf had recovered from
the first shock he screamed in his screeching voice: “Couldn’t you have
treated me more carefully? You have torn my thin little coat all to
shreds!”
Then he took a bag of precious stones and vanished under the rocks
into his cave. The girls were used to his ingratitude, and went on their
way and did their business in town. On their way home, as they were
again passing the heath, they surprised the dwarf pouring out his
precious stones on an open space, for he had thought no one would pass
by at so late an hour. The evening sun shone on the glittering stones,
and they glanced and gleamed so beautifully that the children stood
still and gazed on them.
“What are you standing there gaping for?” screamed the dwarf, and his
ashen-gray face became scarlet with rage. He was about to go off with
these angry words when a sudden growl was heard, and a black bear
trotted out of the wood. The dwarf jumped up in great fright, but he
hadn’t time to escape down his hole, for the bear was already close to
him. Then he cried in terror: “Dear Mr. Bear, spare me! I’ll give you
all my treasure. Look at those beautiful precious stones lying there.
Spare my life! what pleasure would you get from a poor feeble little
fellow like me? You won’t feel me between your teeth. There, lay hold of
these two wicked girls, they will be a tender morsel for you, as fat as
young quails; eat them up, for heaven’s sake.” But the bear, paying no
attention to his words, gave the evil little creature one blow with his
paw, and he never moved again.
The girls had run away, but the bear called after them: “Snow-white
and Rose-red, don’t be afraid; wait, and I’ll come with you.” Then they
recognized his voice and stood still, and when the bear was quite close
to them his skin suddenly fell off, and a beautiful man stood beside
them, all dressed in gold. “I am a king’s son,” he said, “and have been
doomed by that unholy little dwarf, who had stolen my treasure, to roam
about the woods as a wild bear till his death should set me free. Now he
has got his well-merited punishment.”
In due course, when the girls were old enough, Snow-white married the
prince who had been a bear, and Rose-red his brother, and they divided
the great treasure the dwarf had collected in his cave between them. The
old mother lived for many years peacefully with her children; and she
carried the two rose trees with her, and they stood in front of her
window, and every year they bore the finest red and white roses.
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