Betty and the Wood-Lady - Part Seven

Betty then looked at the basket in her hands. She removed the spindle and the unspun flax to see the birch wood leaves that she had left in the basket.

Both Betty and her mother were stunned because the remaining birch leaves had turned to gold!

Betty studied her mother. “She asked me not to look now and look after I had reached home.” Betty was unhappy. “I was hasty and I looked at the forest and found that they were only birch leaves and threw them away.”

The next day Betty went to the woods to look for the birch leaves that she had thrown away from her basket, but there was nothing in the forest but fresh birch leaves.

But the riches that Betty brought from the few golden leaves were sufficient for Betty and her mother.

Betty’s mother bought an estate and they had many cattle. Betty had pretty clothes and she did not need to take her goats to the woods everyday.

Betty tried to be as cheerful as always but still nothing gave her as much joy as remembering her dance with the Wood Lady. 

But Betty never saw the beautiful maiden ever again.

Adapted from Slavonic Folktales

Betty and the Wood-Lady - Part Six

Betty’s mother was anxious. “What sort of spool did you bring home yesterday, Betty?”

“Why?”

Betty’s mother was shocked. “When you left for the woods, I started reeling the skein. I kept on reeling and the spool still was full.” Betty’s mother shook her head. “I have reeled in three skeins and the spool still remained full.” Betty’s mother looked anxious again. “I wondered to myself about what sort of evil spirit has spun this. Then the entire yarn vanished!” Betty’s mother finished looking shocked. 

Betty then told her mother everything.

Betty’s mother was astonished. “That was a wood-lady. At around mid-day or mid-night they come out to dance. If you had been a boy, then you would not have come out of her arms alive, because they would dance till there was breath in the boy’s body or would have tickled them to death!” Betty’s mother studied the girl. “But wood-ladies like girls and they often give rich presents to girls.” Betty’s mother sighed to herself. “If I had not had such wrong thoughts about the skein when I was reeling it, I would have had a room full of yarn by now.”

Adapted from Slavonic Folktales

Betty and the Wood-Lady - Part Five

 

This time too at mid-day, after Betty had had her food, the maiden appeared. 

They danced till the sun went down.

Betty then looked at her undone work and again miserable.

The maiden smiled at Betty. “Give me your basket.”

Betty did as she was told and the maiden disappeared for a second. She came back in a moment and handed over the basket to Betty. “Do not look into the basket now. Look into it, after you have gone home.”

Immediately after the maiden had said this, the maiden disappeared as if she had been blown away by the wind.

Betty took her basket and she did not dare look into it immediately.

However, Betty was half-way home and she could not curb her curiosity.

The basket was light and Betty wondered whether the maiden has tricked her.

Finally when Betty looked into the basket, she was sad because it had nothing but birch leaves.

Betty was angry with herself for believing the maiden and in anger she threw away two handfuls of leaves from her basket.

She was about to empty the basket when she realized that she could give the leaves to her goat.

So she left some of the leaves in the basket and walked home.

But Betty was again afraid because she had not done any work for the day. 

The goats also wondered why their shepherdess was not cheerful as always.

Betty slowly came home and found her mother waiting for her.

Adapted from Slavonic Folktales

Betty and the Wood-Lady - Part Four

 

The maiden took the flax from Betty’s hands and twined it around the stem of a slender birch tree and she took the spindle and began to spin.

Betty stopped crying and was amazed because before the sun had set, the maiden spun the yarn not only for that day, but even for the day before.

The maiden smiled and handed over the spool to Betty. “Remember, my words, reel and grumble not.”

After saying that, the maiden nearly vanished from there.

But Betty was happy. She realized that even her dancing had not caused any harm and she was determined that if the maiden came the next day, she would dance with her.

Betty happily sang and went home with her goats.

But her mother was annoyed. “Why did you not finish your task yesterday, Betty?”

Betty shook her head. “Yesterday I danced a little too long.” Betty’s eyes brightened. “But I have made up for it today.”

On seeing the yarn, Betty’s mother said nothing else.

Betty wanted to tell her mother about the maiden and her adventures in the forest, but finally Betty decided against it. She decided that if the maiden came again, she would ask the maiden who she was and then after learning everything, Betty decided to tell her mother everything.

So the third day too Betty went to the forest with her goats and she spun and sang at the same time.

At mid-day, after her meal, when Betty was about to start dancing, the maiden appeared again.

Adapted from Slavonic Folktales

Betty and the Wood-Lady - Part Three

The next day Betty drove her goats to the forest and today she sang to herself happily. She sat under the tree and started spinning. She sang as she spun the flax and soon it was mid-day.

Betty gave a morsel of bread to the goats and this time went deeper and found some strawberries in the forest and ate her food. 

“I must not dance today.” Betty told herself and her goats and she sighed and placed her left-over bread crumbs on the nearby stone for the birds.

“Why not?” A voice came from beside Betty.

Betty was afraid and she did not answer the maiden who had appeared before her. 

Betty closed her eyes wishing that the maiden disappeared. But the maiden repeated her question.

Betty slowly opened her eyes and studied the maiden. “I cannot dance with you, because then again I would fail my task of spinning. Then my mother would scold me.” Betty nodded unhappily. “I must make up for what I left undone yesterday.”

The maiden smiled mysteriously at Betty. “Come and dance. By sun down, some help will be found for you.”

The maiden tucked her dress and took Betty round the waist and today too the two dancers began to twirl around.

Today the maiden danced even more enchantingly and today too Betty could not take her eyes off the maiden and she forgot her goats and her task.

At last in the evening, the dancers stopped and the sun was on the verge of setting.

Betty then looked at the unspun flax and began to cry.

Adapted from Slavonic Folktales

Betty and the Wood-Lady - Part Two

When they circled, Betty heard music around her. 

Different birds like nightingales, larks, linnets, goldfinches, greenfinches, thrushes, blackbirds and mocking birds all appeared on the trees around them and together the birds created the most beautiful music ever.

As the maiden and Betty danced around the forest, Betty was thrilled and she could think of nothing else. 

She forgot her tasks and her goats. All Betty could think about was her charming partner who danced beautifully well. Though the two of them danced from afternoon till the evening, Betty was neither tired nor did she feel any pain.

All of a sudden, in the evening, the maiden disappeared. The music stopped too.

Then Betty realized that she had spent the entire time dancing and had not done any work and had not spun any of the flax either.

Betty was sad and she realized that she had been duped by the maiden whoever she was. Betty told herself to ignore the maiden if she came again.

Betty walked the she-goats back to her cottage, but this time she was cheerless and the goats themselves seemed puzzled wondering whether this was indeed the shepherdess who usually took care of them.

In the cottage, Betty’s mother immediately realized that something was wrong, because Betty did not sing like she usually did.

“No mother, I am not ill. But my throat is dry today, so I cannot sing.”

Her mother usually did not reel in the yarn that Betty had woven immediately so Betty was not worried. She just promised herself that she would work harder the next day and make up for the work that remained undone today. Betty was sure that if she did that, her mother would never know what had happened today.

Adapted from Slavonic Folktales

Betty and the Wood-Lady - Part One

A widow and her little daughter - Betty, lived in a broken down cottage. All they had other than the cottage were two she-goats.

However, Betty was very cheerful and she took the two goats to graze in the woods, every day. 

That was not all. 

Every day, in the morning, her mother gave her a slice of bread, a spindle and a basket. Just as her mother wanted, while the goats grazed, Betty would spin with the spindle and flax. At mid-day, she would put her spindle aside, call the goats and she gave the goats a morsel of bread. Then she would collect any fruit of the season from the forest and eat it with her bread.

After her meal, Betty danced and sang in the woods. 

Even the goats enjoyed the happy and cheerful Betty dancing around the forest in the sunshine. 

After that, Betty went back to her spinning and till date, her mother never scolded Betty for bringing the spindle empty.

However, all that changed one day.

One day, after having her meal, she was just about to dance when a beautiful maiden appeared before Betty. The maiden had golden hair, a white dress and she wore a garland of flowers.

Betty was stunned.

The maiden smiled at Betty. “Betty, do you like dancing?”

On hearing the melodious words of the maiden, Betty was no longer afraid. “I could dance all day long.”

The maiden smiled. She tucked her dress and took Betty by the waist. “Let us dance together. I will teach you.”

Adapted from Slavonic Folktales

Bushy Bride - Part Seven

The third night, the king went to the kitchen again. This time, the king set two men to hold him and jerk him awake when he fell asleep.

The king also sent two of his men to watch Bushy Bride.

But as the lovely maiden was about to come to the palace, the Bushy Bride began to sing.

The king fell asleep and his head drooped to the side.

The girl came and brushed her hair.

This time, she sent her dog out to see if it had become day. The dog came back twice. However, the king was fast asleep.

The two men with the king tried their best to wake him up. When nothing worked, the two men forced a knife in the king’s grasp.

The knife made a cut in the king’s little finger. When the king’s blood fell, the spell was broken.

The king woke up and the girl told the king all that had happened and how the Bushy Bride and her step-mother had done this.

The brother was immediately removed from the snake pit. Miraculously, none of the snakes harmed the brother.

The step-mother and the Bushy Bride were thrown into the snake pit as punishment.

After that, the king married his real bride and the marriage was spoken about in seven kingdoms.

The king and his bride lived happily ever after.

Adapted fromNorwegian Folktales

Bushy Bride - Part Six

On the night after this happened, a beautiful girl came into the kitchen of the king’s palace.

She asked the kitchen maid who slept there to give her a brush.

The kitchen maid gave her a brush and gold dropped from the women's hair. 

There was a little dog with the girl and the girl turned to the little dog. “Go out, Little Snow and see if it will soon become day.”

After asking the dog to do this three times it was dawn.

It was obvious that the girl had to leave at dawn, but before she left she spoke about the ugly Bushy Bride who slept next to the king, when she had been forced to make her bed on stone and sand and her brother slept with a cold snake.

The girl then turned to the maid. “I will come two more times but never again.”

The next morning the kitchen maid went and told the king what had happened.

The Bushy Bride crooned and sang when the king went to the kitchen. It was because of this that though the king tried his best to stay awake, he fell asleep the next night when the beautiful young girl came to the kitchen.

The young girl sang the same song about the Bushy Bride after the gold dropped from her brush and this time she turned to the kitchen maid and said that she can come only once more and then never again.

Adapted from Norwegian Folktales

Bushy Bride - Part Five

Sometime later the brother who was at the helm pointed at the palace which was in between the land in front of them. “That is the palace that you will live in."

This time too the sister did not hear what the brother had said and she asked the stepmother for guidance. The stepmother proved her cunning again. “He says that you must throw Little Snow into the sea.”

The sister’s heart was broken when she heard the words of the stepmother. She debated with herself on whether to carry out her brother's instruction because Little Snow was one of the closest things to her in her life.

But this time too the sister convinced herself that this was the right thing to do and she threw her dog into the ocean.

The brother kept piloting the ship towards the island and he could see the king come out of the palace.

“The king is coming to see you little sister.” The brother told the sister pointing at the palace again.

This time too the sister did not hear the words of the brother and the stepmother convinced the sister to throw herself into the ocean.

The sister did this too.

Finally when the ship landed on the island the king was aghast to find such an ugly girl in front of him. However the wedding preparations had already been made. 

Angrily the king sent the brother to the snake pits. 

But decided to go through with the wedding with the ugly girl because the preparations for the wedding were already made.

Adapted from Norwegian Folktales

Bushy Bride - Part Four

 

“I have not seen a more beautiful woman than this.” The king murmured inspite of himself.

Finally the brother told the king that the portrait belonged to his sister and that he had painted her. The brother also told the king that his sister was prettier than the picture.

“I will have her as my queen.” The king announced firmly. 

He commanded the brother to go back to his own place and bring his sister to the king’s palace as soon as possible.

The brother followed the orders of the king and he came back home.

When the brother arrived home his stepmother and step sister insisted that they also wanted to come and see the king. The brother found no way to avoid this and so all of them set out together to go to the king’s palace.

The girl had inherited a casket and a dog from her own mother.

The dog was called Little Snow. 

The girl put all the gold that she had in her casket.

It so happened that they had to go back to the king's palace, they had to cross a sea. So they went on a ship.

At the ship the brother was at the helm. The mother and the two sisters were in the fore-part of the vessel and they kept sailing for a long time.

Finally they saw land. 

The brother who was at the helm, pointed at the land across the sea to his sister. “Look at that white patch of land. That is where we will land.”

The sister was far off on the other side of the ship and she could not hear the words of the brother.

“What is my brother saying?” The sister asked her step mother and her step sister.

The stepmother was very cunning and she replied immediately. “Your brother said that you are to throw your casket into the sea.”

The sister did not think how ridiculous the words were and she just nodded. “If that is what my brother says I must do I will do it.” 

And after those words the sister flung her casket into the sea.

Adapted from Norwegian Folktales

Bushy Bride - Part Three

The step-mother was furious when she saw what had happened to her own daughter. But no amount of screaming or lamenting could bring her daughter’s appearance back to what it had been.

Meanwhile, the brother who had gone to work for the king, now had found good work in the King’s stables. 

The brother had a portrait of his sister and the brother kept the portrait in his own room.

Now every night, the brother prayed for the well-being of his sister in front of his sister’s portrait. 

The other stable-boys were curious about the brother’s behaviour and they peered through the key-hole of the brother’s room to see what he did.

The other stable-boys saw that the brother prayed every night before a portrait. But the other stable-boys could not see the face on the portrait clearly from the key-hole.

Finally, the stable boys told the king what the brother was doing every night.

The king was curious.

Finally one night, the king knocked on the brother’s door asking him to open the door.

However, the brother was so deep in his prayer that he heard none of it.

Finally, when the king knocked the door harder, the brother got up from his prayer and hurriedly opened the door of his room. In his hurry, the brother had not been able to hide the portrait of his sister before the king came inside the room.

The king came inside the brother’s room and the king saw the portrait and he was stunned by the beauty of the girl in the portrait.

Adapted from the Norwegian Folktales

Bushy Bride - Part Two

Once the girl had done all the tasks set out for her the three heads began to talk to each other.

All the three heads wanted to give some gifts to the girl who was so kind to them. 

The first head spoke first. “She will be the prettiest girl in the world.”

The second hand made sure that gold would drop from our hair whenever she brushes it and the third head said that gold will drop for a mouth whenever she speaks on seeing the girl come to their home looking even more beautiful than possible her stepmother and her step sister became even more angry they were even more furious when they saw that gold dropped out from her mouth when she spoke. 

The stepmother became so angry that she asked the girl to live in the pic sty. 

Though the girl could live there with her gold, the stepmother did not let her set foot inside the house.

Naturally after this incident the stepmother wanted her own daughter to have all the gifts like her step-daughter and the woman sent her own daughter to the same brook to get some water.

This time to the first head rose out of water and asked the girl to wash her 

However the woman's daughter was disgusted and she shook her head. “You should wash yourself. I will not do it.”

They two other heads also rose up from the water and asked the girl to do the same things. 

However the girl refused to do anything.

This time the three heads talked together and they punished her by making her very ugly and also that ashes would drop from her mouth when she spoke.

Adapted from Norwegian Folktales