Section 79 of 135 - Table of Contents
HALLOWEEN (OCTOBER 31) THE OLD WITCH BY THE BROTHERS GRIMM (TRANSLATED) There was once a little girl who was very willful and who never obeyed when her elders spoke to her; so how could she be happy? One day she said to her parents: ``I have heard so much of the old witch that I will go and see her. People say she is a wonderful old woman, and has many marvelous things in her house, and I am very curious to see them.'' But her parents forbade her going, saying: ``The witch is a wicked old woman, who performs many godless deeds; and if you go near her, you are no longer a child of ours.'' The girl, however, would not turn back at her parents' command, but went to the witch's house. When she arrived there the old woman asked her:-- ``Why are you so pale?'' ``Ah,'' she replied, trembling all over, ``I have frightened myself so with what I have just seen.'' ``And what did you see?'' inquired the old witch. ``I saw a black man on your steps.'' ``That was a collier,'' replied she. ``Then I saw a gray man.'' ``That was a sportsman,'' said the old woman. ``After him I saw a blood-red man.'' ``That was a butcher,'' replied the old woman. ``But, oh, I was most terrified,'' continued the girl, ``when I peeped through your window, and saw not you, but a creature with a fiery head.'' ``Then you have seen the witch in her proper dress,'' said the old woman. ``For you I have long waited, and now you shall give me light.'' So saying the witch changed the little girl into a block of wood, and then threw it on the fire; and when it was fully alight, she sat down on the hearth and warmed herself, saying:-- ``How good I feel! The fire has not burned like this for a long time!''Prev Next All
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