Page:Grimm's Household Tales, vol.1.djvu/503

Rh the deer and the bear behind the door of the room, and the three dogs in the stable. The robbers come, pretend to be friendly, and invite him to eat with them. They sit down to table; the robbers lay their knives with the points turned round towards themselves; the huntsman's is laid with the point turned from him, as it ought to be. The robbers say, "Why do you not lay your knife as we lay ours?" "I lay mine like a huntsman, but you lay yours like thieves!" They jump up, and are about to kill him, when the hare knocks at the window, and immediately the deer opens the door, and the three dogs rush in, and the bear likewise, and tear the twelve thieves to pieces. Then the youth goes onwards and reaches a town, which is hung on the first day with white, on the second with red, and on the third with black cloth. He kills the dragon by means of his three dogs, goes away for a year and three days, and then returns and receives the king's daughter. In other respects it agrees with our story, only here it ends with the wedding and the deliverance of the three animals. They urgently entreat the youth to cut off their heads, but for a long time he will not consent to do it; when at last he does, the hare is transformed into a beautiful princess, the deer into a queen, and the bear into a king. This story occurs in Lina's Story Book, by A. L. Grimm, pp. 191–311. The twins are called Gentle Spring and Strong Spring. They are Peter and Paul in Zingerle, p. 131, where also a second story is given, p. 260. In Pröhle's Kindermärchen, No. 5, we have Luck-bird and Pitch-bird. In Meier it is Hans and the Princess, Nos. 29 and 58; and there is another version, p. 306. In Wolf's Hausmärchen, p. 369. In Kuhn und Schwartz, No. 10. The story is widely spread. In India, compare Somadeva, 2, 142. In Danish, Etlar, p. 18. In Swedish, Cavallius, pp. 78, 85. In Flemish, the Wodana, p. 69. In Hungarian, Gaal, No. 9, and Slier, p. 67. In Wallachian, Schott, No. 11. The Merchant (1, 7) and The Doe, (1, 9), in the Pentamerone, also belong to this group, and so does the third story of the tenth night in Straparola; also the beginning of The Golden Bird in a French fairy-tale by Count Caylus (Cabinet des Fées, 24, 267), and in Bohemian, see The Twins, Gerle, 2. 2. Allied to this are The Gold Children (No. 85), and a Servian story given by Wuk, No. 29. The Persian saga of Lohrasp in Firdusi (Görres, 2, 142) has much affinity with the whole of it.

In this remarkable story two different lines are to be indicated. In the first place the saga of Sigurd is visible in it. The incident of putting the newly-born children in the water, with which the other stories begin, coincides with the tradition in the Wilkinasage, according to which Siegfried was laid by his mother in a little glass coffer that rolled into the river and was carried away (compare the story of The Golden Mountain). And now comes the cunning and wicked goldsmith, the Reigen of the Norse saga; then the talking-bird,