Eagles and Bears in a Classic Grimm Tale

Hamachidori/Creative Commons



A while back we were talking about the possibility of eagles flying away on children. Croconut mentioned a Grimm Brothers story in which that happens. I haven't found that one yet, but did come across this one, in which the eagle's prey is a dwarf. There's also a bear attack, sort of. 








SNOW-WHITE AND ROSE-RED




by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm







A poor widow once lived in a little cottage with a garden in
front of it, in which grew two rose trees, one bearing white roses and the
other red. She had two children, who were just like the two rose trees; one was
called Snow-white and the other Rose-red, and they were the sweetest and best
children in the world, always diligent and always cheerful; but Snow-white was
quieter and more gentle than Rose-red. Rose-red loved to run about the fields
and meadows, and to pick flowers and catch butterflies; but Snow-white sat at
home with her mother and helped her in the household, or read aloud to her when
there was no work to do. The two children loved each other so dearly that they
always walked about hand in hand whenever they went out together, 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 offered to hurt them; on the contrary, they came
up to them in the most confiding manner; 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 tarried 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 perceived 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 became aware that they had slept quite close to a
precipice, over which they would certainly have fallen had they gone on a few
steps further in the darkness. And 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 thus cosily together someone knocked
at the door as though he desired admittance. 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 led their helpless guest a fearful life. 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."




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 accustomed to him that the door was never
shut till their black 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 obliged 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; what once falls into their hands and into their
caves is not easily brought back to light." Snow-white was quite sad over
their friend's departure, 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 caught sight of 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 fagots. They came in their wanderings 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 distinguish. When
they approached nearer they perceived 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,
in order to get little chips of wood for our kitchen fire; those thick logs
that serve to make fires for coarse, greedy people like yourselves quite burn
up all the little food we need. I had successfully driven in the wedge, and all
was going well, but the cursed wood was so slippery that it suddenly sprang
out, and the tree closed up so rapidly that I had no time to take my beautiful
white beard out, 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, "I'll see you get help," 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 went out to get a
dish of fish. As they approached the 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; and when immediately afterward a big
fish bit, the feeble little creature had no strength to pull it out; the fish
had the upper fin, and dragged the dwarf toward him. He clung on with all his
might to every rush and blade of grass, but it didn't help him much; he had to
follow every movement of the fish, and was in great danger of being drawn into
the water. The girls came up just at the right moment, held him firm, and did
all they could to disentangle his beard from the line; but in vain, beard and
line were in a hopeless muddle. Nothing remained but to produce the scissors
and cut the beard, by which a small part of it was sacrificed.




When the dwarf perceived what they were about 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
needs cut off the best bit of it. I can't appear like this before my own
people. I wish you'd been in Jericho first." 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 descending 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, useless, awkward hussies that you
are!" Then he took a bag of precious stones and vanished under the rocks
into his cave. The girls were accustomed 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 reach his place of retreat,
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."




Snow-white married him, 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.