The Goose Girl
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The Goose Girl is a Brothers Grimm fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. Since the second edition published in 1819, The Goose Girl has been recorded as Tale no. 89.
The story uses the false bride plot with a good-hearted princess being seized by her maid and turned into a common goose girl. It is Aarne-Thompson type 533.
It was first published in 1815 as no. 3 in vol. 2 of the first edition of their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales -- Grimms' Fairy Tales). It was translated by Margaret Hunt in 1884. Andrew Lang included it in The Blue Fairy Book.
[edit] Synopsis
A queen sends her daughter - who is betrothed to a prince in a far-off land - to her bridegroom. She sends her with a trousseau, a waiting-maid, and a horse for each of them; the princess's horse is named Falada, and has the ability to speak. The queen takes a small knife and cuts herself, putting three drops of her blood onto a white handkerchief and bids her daughter to keep it with her, as it will aid her on her journey.
The princess and her waiting-maid travel for a time, then the princess grows thirsty. While stopped at a stream, she tells the waiting-maid to get her some water. The waiting-maid refuses to get water for her, saying "Get it yourself - I don't choose to be your servant". The princess is humble and does not reply, but instead drinks from the stream. The princess sighs and the drops of blood - hidden in the princess's bodice - reply, "If your mother knew this, it would break her heart." The princess and the waiting-maid travel on, and the princess grows thirsty again. She has forgotten the harsh words the woman said to her the first time, and tells the maid to get her some water when they approach a stream.
Again, the maid tells the princess that "if you are thirsty, get off your horse and drink from the stream. I don't choose to be your servant." The princess does so, and the handkerchief with the drops of blood on it falls out of her bodice and into the stream. The princess does not notice this, but the waiting-maid does, and knows she now has power over the princess. The waiting maid makes her exchange clothing, and swear to tell no one about the switch. The princess's horse Falada sees all this. When they arrive at the bridegroom's kingdom, the waiting maid is taken for the bride, who tells the king to give the princess some work to do so she is not idle, and arranges to have Falada's head cut off, saying that it angered her on the way. In truth, she is afraid the horse will speak of her ill treatment of the true princess.
The princess - now a goose girl - promises the butcher a piece of gold if he would hang Falada's head up on a wall in an alley that she passes each day, so she could see it. The butcher does so. Every morning, as she drives out the geese with Curdken, the gooseherd, she and Falada's head exchange greetings; every day, she combs her hair in the pasture. Curdken always tries to steal some of the golden locks, and she charms the wind to blow his hat far away, so he can not return until she is finished.
Curdken goes to the king and declares he will not herd geese with her any longer because of the strange things that happen. The king tells him to do it one more time and watches; when they return, the king asks the princess to tell him her story. She explains that she took an oath not to tell. He tells her to tell her troubles to the iron stove and eavesdrops while she does so. The princess, in her sorrow, tells the entire story - that she is a princess and that her waiting-maid has conspired against her.
Upon learning this, the king causes royal garments to be given to her as befits her station, and brings her to the prince's attention. At dinner later that evening, everyone has eaten and drunk and are quite merry. The princess and the waiting-maid are present, although the waiting-maid does not recognize the princess in her new finery. The king tells the princess's story without naming any names, and asks the waiting-maid what the appropriate punishment would be. The waiting-maid answers that such a person should be put naked into a barrel lined with nails, which should be dragged by horses from street to street until the person is dead. The sentence is carried out on her, and the prince marries the true princess.
[edit] See also
- The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward
- The Sleeping Prince
- The White and the Black Bride
- Udea and her Seven Brothers
