1. “The White Snake”
The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers
Grimm
Translated by Jack Zipes
Presented by Victoria Harkavy

2. A long time ago there lived a king who was famous throughout the
entire country for his wisdom. Nothing remained hidden from him, and
it seemed as if he could obtain news of the most secret things through
the air. However, he had one strange custom. Every day at noon, after
the table was cleared of food and nobody else was present, a trusted
servant had to bring him one more dish. This dish was always
covered, and the servant himself did not know what was in it, nor did
anyone else, for the king did not take the cover from the dish and eat
until he was all alone.The king continued this custom for quite some
time, until one day the servant, while removing the dish, was overcome
by curiosity. He took it into his room, and after he had carefully locked
the door, he lifted the cover and found a white snake lying inside.
Once he laid eyes on it, though, he had an irresistible desire to taste it.
So he cut off a little piee and put it in his mouth. No sooner did his
tongue touch it than he heard a strange whispering of exquisite voices
outside his window. He went over to it to listen and noticed some
sparrows talking to one another, telling what they had seen in the
fields and forest. Tasting the snake had given him the power to
understand the language of animals.
http://www.pxleyes.com/photoshop-picture/4b29c6af8ffb2/The-White-Snake.html

3. Now, it so happened that on this very day the queen lost her
most beautiful ring, and the trusted servant was suspected of
committing the theft because he had access to everything. The
king summoned the servant and with harsh words threatened
him, saying that if he was not able to name the guilty person by
morning, he himself would be considered the thief and would be
executed. It was to no avail that the servant protested his
innocence, for he was given a curt dismissal.
Distressed and afraid, he went down into the courtyard and tried
to think of a way out of his predicament. Some ducks were
peacefully sitting and resting by a running brook, preening
themselves and chatting in a confidential tone. The servant
stopped and listened to them as they told each other where they
had been waddling about all morning and what good pickings
they had found. But one of the ducks was irritable and said,
“There’s something heavy in my stomach. I was eating too fast
and swallowed a ring that was lying under the king’s window.”
Right away the servant grabbed the duck by its neck, carried it
into the kitchen, and said to the cook, “This one’s well-fed. It’s
time you killed it!”
http://cakelurking.blogspot.com/2012/06/grimm-tales-posh-grounds.html

4. “All right,” said the cook, weighing it in his hands. “it certainly
hasn’t been shy about stuffing itself. Besides, it’s been waiting
long enough for its roasting.”
So he cut off the duck’s neck, and when it was being cleaned,
the queen’s ring was found in its stomach. Now the servant
could easily prove his innocence, and since the king wanted to
make amends for having wronged his servant, he granted him a
favor and promised him whatever royal post of honor he desired.
The servant declined all of this. His only request was for a horse
and some travel money, for he had a desire to travel about for a
while and see the world.
When his wish had been granted, he set out on his way, and
one day, as he was passing a pond, he noticed three fish
trapped in the reeds and gasping for water.Though it is said that
fish cannot talk, he heard them crying in distress and wailing that
they had to die so miserably. Since he felt sorry for them, he got
down from his horse and put the three trapped fish back into the
water. They wriggled for joy, stuck their heads out of the water,
and cried out to him, “We’ll remember you for saving our lives,
and one day we’ll repay you.”
http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/03/28/the-world-turned-upside-down-18th-century/

5. He rode on, and a while later it seemed to him that he heard a voice in the sand at his feet. He listened and
heard an ant king complaining, “If only people with their clumsy beasts would keep away from us! That stupid
horse is mercilessly trampling my people to death with his heavy hooves!”
The servant turned his horse onto a side path, and the ant king cried out to him, “We’ll remember this, and
one day we’ll repay you.”
The servant’s path led into a forest, and there he saw a father and mother raven standing near their nest and
pushing their young ones out of the nest.
“Get out! You’re nothing but freeloaders! they were exclaiming. “We can’t find enough food to feed you
anymore, and now you’re big enough to feed yourselves.”
The poor young birds lay on the ground, flapped their wings, and began crying, “We’re just helpless children!
How are we supposed to feed ourselves when we can’t fly? All we can do is stay here and starve.”
<a href="http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=31923&picture=raven-on-the-branch">Raven
On The Branch</a> by George Hodan

6. The the kind young man dismounted, killed his horse
with his sword, and left it for the young ravens to feed
on They hopped over to the horse, ate their fill, and
cried out, “We’ll remember this, and one day we’ll
repay you.”
Now the servant had to use his own legs. After he had
walked a long way, he reached a big city where there
was a great deal of noise and a large crowd in the
streets. A man on horseback rode by and announced
that the king’s daughter was looking for a husband, but
whoever declared himself a suitor would have to
perform a difficult task, and if he did not complete it
successfully, he would forfeit his life. Many men had
already tried and had risked their lives in vain. When
the young man saw the princess, he was so dazzled
by her great beauty that he forgot all about the danger,
went before the king, and declared himself a suitor. He
was promptly led to the sea, and a gold ring was
thrown into it before his eyes. The king told him that he
was to fetch the ring from the depths of the sea, and
he added, “If you come up without it, you’ll be
continually pushed back down until your perish in the
waves.”
http://folklorehorse.tumblr.com

7. Everyone felt sorry for the handsome young man and left him
alone by the sea. He was standing on the shore thinking about
what to do when he suddenly saw three fish swimming toward
him. They were none other than the three fish whose lives he
had saved. The one in the middle held a shell in its mouth, which
it set down on the beach at the feet of the young man, who
picked it up. When he opened the shell, he found the gold ring,
and bursting with joy, he brought it to the king expecting that he
would receive the promised reward. But when the proud king’s
daughter discovered that he was not her equal in birth, she
scorned him and demanded that he first perform another task.
She went down into the garden, and she herself scattered ten
sacks full of millet in the grass.
“He must pick them all up before the sun rises tomorrow,” she
said. “And not a single grain may be missing.”
The young man sat down in the garden and tried to think of a
way to accomplish the task, but nothing occurred to him, and he
sat there quite sadly, expecting to be led to his death at the
break of dawn. But when the first rays of the sun fell on the
garden, he saw ten sacks all filled to the top and standing side
by side. Not a single grain was missing. The ant king had come
during the night with thousands and thousands of ants, and the
grateful insects had picked up the millet seeds with great
diligence and gathered them into the sacks. The princess herself
went down to the garden and was amazed to see that the young
man had accomplished the task. http://artofnarrative.blogspot.com/2012/02/rie-cramer-grimms-fairy-tales-1927.html

8. But her proud heart could not be tamed, and she said, “Even if he has accomplished the first two tasks,
he shall not become my husband until he has brought me an apple from the Tree of Life.”
The young man did not know where the Tree of Life was. Therefore, he set out with the intention of
going as far as his legs could carry him, even though he had no hope of finding it. One evening, after he
had traveled through three kingdoms and reached a forest, he sat down beneath a tree and wanted to
sleep. But he heard a noise in the tree, and a golden apple fell into his hand. At the same time three
ravens flew down to him, landed on his knees, and said, “We’re the three young ravens whom you
saved from starvation. When we grew up, we heard you were looking for the golden apple. So we flew
across the sea to the end of the world, where the Tree of Life is standing, and we’ve fetched the apple.
http://whisperingbooks.com/Show_Page/?book=Fairy_Tales_From_The_Brothers_Grimm&story=White_Snake

9. Now the young man was full of joy and
started on his way home. He brought the
golde apple to the beautiful princess, who no
longer had any excuses to make. They
divided the apple of life and ate it together,
and her heart filled with love for him. In time
they reached a ripe old age in peace and
happiness.
http://chawedrosin.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/walter-cranes-illustrations-for-grimms-fairy-tales/

10. Reference List
Zipes, Jack, trans. and ed. 2003. The complete fairy tales of the
Brothers Grimm. New York: Bantam Books.