Mother Holle

Mother Holle Once upon a time there was a widow with two daughters. One was beautiful and industrious, the other ugly and lazy. The mother loved the ugly, lazy daughter best as she was hers by birth and the other daughter was only her stepdaughter by her late husband. The stepdaughter was forced to do all the work in the house, and the stepmother also sent her out every day to sit by the road to spin yarn on a spindle until her fingers bled. One day, the blood landed on the spindle and the stepdaughter went to the nearby well to wash it off. While leaning over the well the spindle slipped out of her hands and landed in the water and quickly sunk to the bottom of the well. The stepdaughter ran home crying knowing that she would be in trouble with her stepmother for having lost the spindle in the well. The stepmother yelled at her for having lost the spindle in the well and told her that she would have to get it out of the water herself. The stepdaughter went back to the well. She sat there looking at the well crying not knowing what she was going to do. Finally, she stood up, went to the well and jumped in. The next thing she knew, the stepdaughter woke up in a beautiful meadow full of sunshine and countless flowers blooming everywhere in the meadow! She stood up and started to walk across the meadow and soon she came across a baker’s oven filled with bread. The loaves of bread called out to the stepdaughter to take them out of the oven because they were done baking and would soon burn to a cinder. The stepdaughter took all the loaves out and laid them to cool. The stepdaughter continued on her way and soon came to a tree filled with apples. The tree asked her to shake her as all her apples were ripe. So the stepdaughter shook the tree until all of the apples had fallen off of the tree and laid all over the ground. She carefully picked all the apples up and put them in a pile under the tree all together and went on her way. Soon the stepdaughter came to a little house and saw an old lady looking out of the window at her. The woman had huge teeth that terrified the girl and she turned to run away. But the old woman called out to her asking why she was afraid. Stay with me and help me with my housework and I will make you very happy. The old woman told her that she must be very careful however to make my bed in the proper way. I want you to always shake it thoroughly and make the feathers fly about, because in the other world it will be snowing when you do. My name is Mother Holle. The old woman spoke so kindly to the stepdaughter that she decided to stay and work for the old woman. The stepdaughter made sure that she did everything that the old woman asked, especially the bed making sure that every time she shook it out and made the feathers fly like it was snowing. The old woman was good as her word and treated the stepdaughter with kindness and made sure she had good food to eat. The stepdaughter stayed with Mother Holle for quite a while, but then she started to feel sad and unhappy. The stepdaughter realized that she was homesick, even though she was treated a thousand times better by Mother Holle than she was by her stepmother and her sister. The stepdaughter went to Mother Holle told her that she was so homesick, that I cannot stay with you any longer. Even though I am so very happy here I must return home to my own people. Mother Holle said I am happy that you want to return home to your own people. You have done well here and helped me tremendously, so I will take you home myself. So Mother Holle took the stepdaughter by the hand and led her to a huge gateway. The gate was opened and as the stepdaughter walked through the gate she was showered with gold coins that stuck onto her from head to toes. Mother Holle told the stepdaughter the gold was her reward for all her hard work. She also handed back the spindle that she had dropped into the well. The gate was then closed, and the stepdaughter found herself back in the old world near her home. As she entered the courtyard of her house, the rooster called out cock-a-doodle-doo, your golden daughter has come back to you. She then went into the house where she was warmly welcomed by her stepmother and sister since she was covered in gold. The stepdaughter told them everything that happened to her and the stepmother in her greed sent her ugly, lazy daughter to sit by the well and spin yarn on the spindle. The sister made her finger bleed onto the spindle, she threw the spindle into the well and jumped in herself. Like her sister she too woke up in the beautiful meadow. She stood up and started to walk across the meadow and soon came to the oven filled with bread. The loaves of bread called out to the sister to take them out of the oven because they were done baking and would soon burn to a cinder. The lazy sister said do you think I am going to burn my hands for you? And she walked on. Soon she came to the tree filled with apples. The tree asked her to shake her as all her apples were ripe. The sister answered that she would not as one of the apples might hit her on the head and she walked on. The sister then came to the small house of Mother Holle and since her sister had described the old woman and her huge teeth, she was not afraid and started talking to the old woman. The old woman made the same arrangement as she did with the stepdaughter. The first day the sister did everything just the way Mother Holle liked it and the feathers flew like snow. The second day she did not work as hard and the third day she did even less. By day four the lazy sister decided to just lie in bed all day and not get up and do any work. The worse thing is that she did not make Mother Holle’s bed properly and did not make the feathers fly like snow. Mother Holle got very annoyed with the lazy sister and told the sister that she could leave. The lazy sister got excited thinking of all the gold that she would be showered with. Mother Holle led the lazy sister to the huge gateway and opened the gate for her. As the lazy sister walked through the gate, she was not showered with gold like her sister instead she had a great bucketful of tar poured on her. The old woman told her that is what she deserved for the lack of work she did for the old woman and shut the gate. The lazy sister hurried home crying, covered in tar and as she entered the courtyard the rooster called out cock-a-doodle-doo, your dirty daughter has come back to you. They tried everything to get the tar off, but they could not, so the tar stuck to the ugly, lazy sister all the rest of her life. The End!