A Peaceable Farmer Understands the Language of Animals

(Lucas Cranach, the Farmer)

The Difference between Speaking and Communicating Sorted Out in this Fairy Tale from Lithuania

A Retelling of the Fairy Tale The Peaceable Farmer

A peaceable farmer had the ability to understand the language of animals. But he had to promise not to tell anyone about his powers. For if he revealed a single secret of the animals, he would die.
One evening the farmer sat at his table for the evening meal. His chair was not far from the crib where his ox ate the hay. As daylight waned, a farmhand was just coming home from the field and tied an ass next to the ox. The ass was tired and grumpily complained to the ox about his misfortune. Oh the burdens he had to endure! The ox gave the ass the following piece of advice:
“As soon as they give you something to eat, ignore the food and pretend to be sick! You won’t have to work then.”

The farmer sitting nearby heard it all. The next morning when the farmhand announced that the ass was ill, the farmer ordered him to take the ox instead of the ass to accomplish the day’s work. When evening came the farmer was once again sitting at his table, but this time the ass was tied to the manger. The ox came home from working in the field and he was not at all happy. He complained to the ass he should stop acting sick because he had heard that the farmer had promised to slaughter him if he did not return to work. The ass had become worthless and the farmer planned to buy a new beast of burden. The farmer heard this all and burst out laughing. His wife asked him why he was laughing but he only replied, that he could not reveal the reason.
Since that day the farmer’s wife needled him mercilessly about the reason for his amusement. He knew he would have to die if he revealed the real reason, so he remained silent. Finally she became so angry, that she refused to eat with him. In her rage, she ceased loving him and could barely wait for him to die. But the farmer loved his wife dearly and said he wanted to tell her the reason for his laughter, but then he would have to die. Immediately his wife cheered up. They once more ate their evening meal together and full of joy the wife awaited the promised hour, when her husband would tell the reason of his laughter.

The farmer called together his entire household to say farewell. All were deeply moved and saddened because he was going to die. They all wished to convince his wife to turn away from her evilness and abandon her curiosity. But their pleas went unheard.

The farmer had a special love for his chickens, ducks, and feathered fowl. He decided to give each and every bird one last meal before he died. The rooster crowed happily and came strutting, as if he were a king. The dog came bounding out of his doghouse but rebuked the chicken: “Why are you so happy? Don’t you know our master is readying himself for death?”

The rooster replied: “Our master need only learn the language of his wife. If he did, he wouldn’t have to die a premature death. I myself have seventy wives and know how to talk to each and every one of them. The farmer heard it all. He led his wife into an empty room and decided to try this language understood only by wives. No one knows exactly what was said, but when he emerged, he told the entire household his wife was no longer curious about the reason for his laughter. He had avoided death. The couple lived to a ripe old age, until finally in their dotage a natural death divided them.


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Fairy Tale of Spindle, Shuttle and Needle

Grimm’s Fairy Tale No. 188: Spindle, Shuttle and Needle

There once lived a young maiden, whose father and mother had died when she was a small girl. Her godmother; who earned her living by spinning, weaving and sewing; lived at the end of the village in a little hut. The old woman took in the abandoned child, instilled in her the virtues of this work and raised her in utmost piety. When the girl was fifteen, the woman fell ill, called the child to her bedside and said: “Dear daughter, I feel that my end is approaching. I leave you my little hut, which shall protect you from wind and weather. Also, my spindle, shuttle and needle so you can earn your bread. She placed her hands on the girl’s head, blessed the child and said “Keep God in your heart and things shall go well for you.” Then the woman closed her eyes and when she was buried in the ground, the girl cried bitter tears as she walked behind the coffin paying her last respects. The girl now lived in the hut all alone, was diligent and hard-working, spun, wove and sewed. And everything that she did was blessed by the beneficent old woman. It seemed like the flax in her chamber multiplied on its own and when she had woven a small cloth or carpet or had sewn a shirt, she immediately found a buyer who paid her handsomely. In this way she did not suffer want and could even give something to others. Around this time, the king’s son traveled through the countryside looking for a bride. He was not to select a poor one and a rich girl he did not want. He said: “She shall be my bride, who is both the poorest and the richest.” When he arrived in the village where the girl lived, he asked as he did everywhere else, who in the village was the richest and the poorest. First, the villagers mentioned the richest one. The poorest, they said, was the girl who lived in the small hut at the end of the village. The rich girl sat at the front of her house dressed in her finery. When the king’s son approached, she stood up, walked up to him and bowed. He looked upon her, spoke not a word and rode on. When he came to the house of the poor girl, the maiden was not sitting at the door but was inside instead. He stopped his horse and looked through the window, through which the sun shone. He saw the girl sitting at her spinning wheel, working industriously. She looked up and noticed that the king’s son was peering inside. She blushed deeply, lowered her eyes and continued spinning. Whether or not the thread at that moment was spun evenly, I do not know, but the girl continued spinning until the king’s son rode away again. Then she went to the window, opened it and said “It is hot in the chamber,” but she watched him as he rode away, until she could only see the white feathers in his hat. The girl went back to work again in the chamber and continued spinning. She remembered a saying the old woman had often recited when she sat working. The girl sang it now:

“Spindle, spindle, now go out,
Bring the suitor to my house.”

What happened? The spindle immediately jumped out of the girl’s hand and went through the door. When the girl stood up in amazement and followed the spindle with her eyes, she saw that it had merrily run into the field where it danced, pulling a shiny golden thread with it. It wasn’t long before it vanished altogether. Because the girl didn’t have a spindle any more, she took up the shuttle, sat by the loom and began to weave. But the spindle continued dancing and when the thread came to an end, it had reached the king’s son. “What do I see here?” he cried, “the spindle wants to show me the way.” He turned his horse and followed the golden thread. The girl sat at her work and sang:

“Shuttle, shuttle, weave so fine,
Bring to me the suitor mine.”

The shuttle immediately jumped from her hand and ran through the door. Before the threshold it began to weave a carpet, more beautiful than anyone had ever seen. On both sides roses and lilies bloomed and in the middle sprang forth a trellised flower on a golden background. Rabbits and hares were woven into the fabric, stag and deer stretched their necks in between. Colorful birds sat in the branches above. Everything she had sung about was included in the design. The shuttle wove back and forth effortlessly on its own. Because the shuttle was now gone, the girl sat down to sew. She held the needle in her hand and sang:“Needle, needle, sharp and keen,
Make for my suitor the house so clean.”

The needle now slipped from her fingers and flew back and forth in the room as fast as lightening. It seemed as if invisible ghosts worked the room. One set the table, one spread a green cloth on the bench, covered the chairs in satin and hung silk curtains on the windows. The needle had barely finished the last stitch when the girl looked through the window and saw the white feathers on the hat of the king’s son, who was carrying the spindle by the golden thread. He dismounted from his horse, walked across the carpet into the house and when he entered the room, the girl stood there in her poor dress, but she was as brilliant as a fresh rose blossom on the bush. “You are the poorest but also the richest,” he said to her, “Come with me, you shall be my bride.” She was silent but extended her hand. He then gave her a kiss and led her out, lifted her onto his horse and brought her to the royal palace, where the wedding was celebrated in great happiness. Spindle, shuttle and needle were kept in the treasury and were always held in high regard.

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Men Who Become Wolves

Men Who Become Wolves

A fairy tale from Lithuania: The Man Who Became a Wolf

There once lived a farmer who led his horses out into the field. When he dismounted from his steed, he tied it to the fence rail. At once the animal began to snort through his nostrils and ran away. But the farmer mulled it over to himself “Why is the horse shying so? “ he wondered. Then he looked down and, saw he had become a wolf. What to do? The poor man ran home to his wife. When she saw the wolf coming, she screamed out “A wolf! A wolf!” The wolf didn’t know where to go and ran into the forest. There he found animals to eat and could scrape by.

But in winter there was nothing left for sustenance. And so he had to run after horses and nourish himself with their dung or the occasional lost stirrup he found in the snow. He ran around as wolf for four years. During this time his wife waited for him, but finally she decided he was not coming home. She decided to marry another.

The wolf had just fallen asleep when he heard a voice, as if in a dream, say to him: “Go home! Your wife wants to marry again!” The wolf hurried home. He saw his courtyard filled with horses. When the horses caught sight of the wolf, they all fled from the yard, dragging their wagons with them. The wedding guests noticed the horses running from the yard and saw the reason why. There stood a wolf. They immediately fell upon the animal and the wolf soon understood things were going badly for him and he would soon meet a woeful end. He tried jumping over the fence, but his buckle became caught on the wooden post. The belt was ripped open by the fall and behind the fence now stood a man.

The wedding guests departed when they saw the bridegroom had returned home. The man now told his wife everything that had happened. The belt had been given him by an old woman. As soon as he put on the belt and had fastened the buckle, he was transformed into a wolf.


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The Long Man in Murder Lane

Grimm’s Saga No. 168: The Long Man in Murder Lane (in Hof)

Before the plague came to Hof in 1519, a large, dark, long man could be seen at night in Murder Lane. His long legs touched down on both sides of the narrow street, where he walked with head held high above the rooftops. My ancestor, Frau Walburg Widmaennin, saw this man one evening as she walked along the old passageway. She saw how he placed one foot near the entrance of the pub but placed his other foot on the opposite side of the street next to the big house there. Out of terror she knew not what to do, whether to go back the way she had come or to continue along the street. So she continued on her way and walked down the center of the lane, crossing herself and commending herself to God. She walked straight through the long man’s legs and thought to herself, that such a ghost might hasten after her. She had hardly passed underneath him, when the ghost slammed his legs shut so hard, that a shudder reverberated off the walls of the buildings and it sounded as if they all were about to collapse. Terrible plague then came to the land and the people in Murder Lane were the first to die.

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