After my last post, several people (mostly storytellers) asked for another of the tales collected by von Schönwerth–tales that were forgotten in a Bavarian archive for a century and a half.

I’m so grateful to my friend, Sigrid Kellenter, for translating them from Prinz Rosszwifl, a recently published selection of those stories.

Sigrid’s interest in German fairytales goes way back. She  taught a popular college course in German folktales for years. I was once lucky enough to work with her and her students on their computer presentations of those stories. What fun. Recently she and I did a presentation on German fairytales that was conceived with the news in 2010 that the stories had been found.

Enjoy the story. It’s odd and abrupt–it’s a literal translation–but I think you’ll find it intriguing.

Belt and Necklace

A count had a daughter. She was, however, very ugly and thus disdained by all. This hurt her deeply and she kept mostly to herself.

Once, alone in her room, when she wept about her fate, a tiny man all of a sudden stood in front of her and offered her three plums. “Go to the water,” he said, “and throw in one of the plums. Two mermaids,  glistening like the sun, will rise up. Then throw in the second plum and one of the mermaids will step out of the water and come to you. Try hard to get her belt. Then throw the third plum into the water and the other mermaid will come and join you. Seek to get her necklace. Adorned with belt and necklace, you will be the most beautiful woman, bright like the sun. If you put them on the wrong way around, you will become invisible. Take care that you do not lose belt and necklace or carelessly take it off. Whatever may come, I will always help you.”

The count’s daughter did as she was told. She went to the water, threw in one plum and two mermaids rose up, so beautiful and shiny, one could hardly look at them. She threw in the second plum and one mermaid stepped out of the water and offered her her belt with the promise she would become queen but would have to let her have her third child when it turned three years old. The daughter threw the third plum into the water and the second mermaid came to her and offered her her necklace if she promised to give her her most beautiful child.

Adorned with belt and necklace the count’s daughter became the most beautiful woman and soon was made queen.When she walked in her garden she was resplendent like the sun and the garden resembled paradise. When she gave birth to her third child, it was a little boy, equally as beautiful as the first two. When this boy was three years old and the maid took him for a walk near the water, a mermaid appeared and pulled him down into the water.

Again she gave birth, and the sixth, another boy, was more beautiful than any of his siblings. The king loved him more than his own life. The queen gave strict orders to keep this child away from the water. One evening an old woman, her head covered with a white veil, came and asked to be given a bed for the night. Her wish was granted. When everyone was asleep, she took the boy and fled with him.

Messengers were sent everywhere but they returned without having found the boy. Then the queen confessed what had happened to both boys and, full of anger, the king  had her thrown into the same water from where she had received her belt and necklace. The water did not hurt her, however. She did not even get wet. She sank down into the magnificent palace of the mermaids and met her two children there.

Once, when the mermaids rose up to the surface of the lake to enjoy a swim, the mother saw an opportunity, turned the belt and necklace the wrong way around and fled, invisible, with her children who already had webbed feet. The mermaids raged terribly and made such huge waves, one could believe everything would be destroyed. But the joy was greater in the castle of the count.

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Translated in 2013 by Sigrid Kellenter.