My Book of Favorite Fairy Tales

Project Gutenberg's My Book of Favorite Fairy Tales, by Edric Vredenburg

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Title: My Book of Favorite Fairy Tales

Author: Edric Vredenburg

Release Date: February 22, 2005 [EBook #15145]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BOOK OF FAVORITE FAIRY TALES ***

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Transcriber's note: Larger versions of the color plates may be viewed by clicking on the images.

MY BOOK OF

FAVOURITE FAIRY TALES

ILLUSTRATED BY JENNIE HARBOUR.

Painted by Jennie Harbour

THE GOOSE GIRL

MY BOOK OF

FAVOURITE FAIRY TALES

RETOLD BY THE EDITOR

& OTHERS

ILLUSTRATED BY JENNIE HARBOUR

EDITED BY CAPT. EDRIC VREDENBURG

RAPHAEL TUCK &. SONS. LTP

Publishers in Their Majesties the King & Queen

LONDON & PARIS

DESIGNED & PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

PHILADELPHIA

DAVID MCKAY COMPANY

WASHINGTON SQUARE

From THE GOOSE GIRL

From THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

CONTENTS

From THE WHITE FAWN

The Old, Old Stories   7

The Goose Girl   9

Little Snow-White   17

Cinderella   25

Princess Goldenhair   34

Little Red Riding Hood   42

The White Fawn   48

Hansel and Grethel   60

Snow-White and Rose-Red   69

The Sleeping Beauty   79

Prince Chéri   85

The White Cat   93

Bluebeard   103

Beauty and the Beast   109

Tufty Riquet   117

Thumbling   125

From PRINCESS GOLDENHAIR

LIST OF COLOUR PLATES

The Goose Girl  Frontispiece

The Magic Mirror  18

Cinderella  28

Little Red Riding Hood  42

The White Fawn  54

Hansel and Grethel  64

Snow-White and Rose-Red  76

The Sleeping Beauty  84

Zélie and the Fairy Candide  88

Bluebeard  106

Beauty and the Beast  114

The Beautiful Princess  124

From CINDERELLA

THE OLD, OLD STORIES

Here they are again, the old, old stories, the very best; dear Cinderella, wicked old Bluebeard, tiny Thumbling, beautiful Beauty and the ugly Beast, and a host of others. But the old stories, I may tell you, are always new, and always must be so, because there are new children to read them every day, and to these, of course, these old tales might have been written yesterday.

But the stories in this book are new in another way. Look how they are clothed, look at their beautiful setting, the wonderful pictures! Have you ever seen such charming princes and lovely princesses, such dainty grace and delicate feeling?

What would our grandfathers and grandmothers have said of such a book! They would have thought there was magic in the brush and pencil.

Surely we are favoured in this generation when we see before us, the old, old fairy tales, which are ever new, dressed in such a beautiful and splendid fashion!

EDRIC VREDENBURG.

From HANSEL AND GRETHEL

THE GOOSE GIRL

An old queen, whose husband had been dead some years, had a beautiful daughter. When she grew up, she was betrothed to a prince who lived a great way off; and as the time drew near for her to be married, she got ready to set off on her journey to his country. Then the queen, her mother, packed up a great many costly things—jewels, and gold, and silver; trinkets, fine dresses, and, in short, everything that became a royal bride; for she loved her child very dearly: and she gave her a waiting-maid to ride with her, and give her into the bridegroom's hands; and each had a horse for the journey. Now the princess's horse was called Falada, and could speak.

When the time came for them to set out, the old queen went into her bed-chamber, and took a little knife, and cut off a lock of her hair, and gave it to her daughter, and said, Take care of it, dear child; for it is a charm that may be of use to you on the road. Then they took a sorrowful leave of each other, and the princess put the lock of her mother's hair into her bosom, got upon her horse, and set off on her journey to her bridegroom's kingdom. One day, as they were riding along by the side of a brook, the princess began to feel very thirsty, and said to her maid, Pray get down and fetch me some water, in my golden cup, out of yonder brook, for I want to drink. Nay, said the maid, if you are thirsty, get down yourself, and lie down by the water and drink; I shall not be your waiting-maid any longer. Then the princess was so thirsty that she got down, and knelt over the brook and drank, for she was frightened, and dared not bring out her golden cup; and then she wept, and said Alas! what will become of me? And the lock of hair answered her, and said—

"Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it,

Sadly, sadly her heart would rue it."

But the princess was very humble and meek, so she said nothing to her maid's ill behaviour, but got upon her horse again.

Then all rode further on their journey, till the day grew so warm, and the sun so scorching, that the bride began to feel very thirsty again; and at last, when they came to a river, she forgot her maid's rude speech, and said, Pray get down and fetch me some water to drink in my golden cup. But the maid answered her, and even spoke more haughtily than before, Drink, if you will, but I shall not be your waiting-maid. Then the princess was so thirsty that she got off her horse and lay down, and held her head over the running stream, and cried, and said, What will become of me? And the lock of hair answered her again—

"Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it,

Sadly, sadly her heart would rue it."

And as she leaned down to drink, the lock of hair fell from her bosom and floated away with the water, without her seeing it, she was so frightened. But her maid saw it, and was very glad, for she knew the charm, and saw that the poor bride would be in her power now that she had lost the hair. So when the bride had drunk, and would have got upon Falada again, the maid said, I shall ride upon Falada and you may have my horse instead; so she was forced to give up her horse, and soon afterwards to take off her royal clothes, and put on her maid's shabby ones.

At last, as they drew near the end of the journey, this treacherous servant threatened to kill her mistress if she ever told anyone what had happened. But Falada saw it all, and marked it well. Then the waiting-maid got upon Falada, and the real bride was set upon the other horse, and they went on in this way till at last they came to the royal court. There was great joy at their coming, the prince hurried to meet them, and lifted the maid from her horse, thinking she was the one who was to be his wife; and she was led upstairs to the royal chamber, but the true princess was told to stay in the court below.

But the old king happened to be looking out of the window, and saw her in the yard below; and as she looked very pretty, and too delicate for a waiting-maid, he went into the royal chamber to ask the bride who it was she had brought with her, that was thus left standing in the court below. I brought her with me for the sake of her company on the road, said she. Pray give the girl some work to do, that she may not be idle. The old king could not for some time think of any work for her to do, but at last he said, I have a lad who takes care of my geese; she may go and help him. Now the name of this lad, that the real bride was to help in watching the king's geese, was Curdken.

Soon after, the false bride said to the prince, Dear husband pray do me one piece of kindness. That I will, said the prince. Then tell one of your slaughterers to cut off the head of the horse I rode upon, for it was very unruly, and plagued me sadly on the road. But the truth was, she was very much afraid lest Falada should speak, and tell all she had done to the princess. She carried her point, and the faithful Falada was killed; but when the true princess heard of it she wept, and begged the man to nail up Falada's head against a large dark gate in the city through which she had to pass every morning and evening, that there she might still see him sometimes. Then the slaughterer said he would do as she wished; cut off the head, and nailed it fast under the dark gate.

Early the next morning, as she and Curdken went out through the gate, she said sorrowfully—

Falada, Falada, there thou art hanging!

and the head answered—

"Bride, bride, there thou art ganging!

Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it,

Sadly, sadly her heart would rue it."

Then they went out of the city, and drove the geese in. And when she came to the meadow, she sat down upon a bank here, and let down her waving locks of hair, which were all of pure gold; and when Curdken saw it glitter in the sun, he ran up, and would have pulled some of the locks out; but she cried—

"Blow, breezes, blow!

Let Curdken's hat go!

Blow, breezes, blow!

Let him after it go!

O'er hills, dales, and rocks.

Away be it whirl'd,

Till the golden locks

Are all comb'd and curl'd!"

Then there came a wind, so strong that it blew off Curdken's hat, and away it flew over the hills, and he after it; till, by the time he came back, she had done combing and curling her hair, and put it up again safe. Then he was very angry and sulky, and would not speak to her at all; but they watched the geese until it grew dark in the evening, and then drove them homewards.

The next morning, as they were going through the dark gate, the poor girl looked up at Falada's head, and cried—

Falada, Falada, there thou art hanging!

and it answered—

"Bride, bride, there thou art ganging!

Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it,

Sadly, sadly her heart would rue it."

Then she drove on the geese and sat down again in the meadow, and began to comb out her hair as before, and Curdken ran up to her, and wanted to