Page:Grimm Goblins (1876).djvu/59

 THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE. 21

on her head full two yards high, and on each side of her stood her

guards and attendants in a row, each one smaller than the other, from the

tallest giant down to a little dwarf no bigger than my finger. And

before her stood princes and dukes, and earls : and the fisherman went

up to her and said, " Wife, are you emperor ?" " Yes," said she, " I am

emperor." " Ah !" said the man as he gazed upon her, " what a fine

thing it is to be emperor!" "Husband," said she, "why should we

stay at being emperor ? I will be pope next." " wife, wife !" said he,

•* how can you be pope ? there is but one pope at a time in

Christendom." "Husband," said she, "I will be pope this very day."

" But," replied the husband, " the fish cannot make you pope* • " What

nonsense !" said she, " if he can make an emperor, he can make a pope,

go and try him." So the fisherman went. But when he came to the

shore the wind was raging, and the sea was tossed up and down like

boiling water, and the ships were in the greatest distress and danced

upon the waves most fearfully ; in the middle of the sky there was a

little blue, but towards the south it was all red as if a dreadful storm

was rising. At this the fisherman was terribly frightened, and

trembled, so that his knees knocked together; but he went to the

ahore and said, »

" man of the sea !

Come listen to me,

For Alice my wife,

The plague of my life,

Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee ! ^

" What does she want now ?" said the fish. " Ah I" said the fisher- man, " my wife wants to be pope." " Go homo," said the fish, " she is pope already."

Then the fisherman went home, and found his wife sitting on a throne that was two miles high ; and she had three great crowns on her head, and around stood all the pomp and power of the Church;