germany

This story is called Snow White by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. This is a LibraryCall adaptation and recording. Once upon a time, a baby girl was born to a King and Queen. The child’s hair was as black as obsidian, while her cheeks were red as blood, and her skin as white as snow, so she was called Snow White. Sadly, the Queen died in childbirth, so Snow White never knew her mother. A year later, the King remarried an elegant woman who turned out to be proud and jealous. She could not stand that any one should surpass her in beauty.

This story is called Hansel and Gretel, a traditional tale adapted and recorded by Library Call. In a great forest, a woodcutter lived with his wife and two children, Hansel and Gretel. The family was very poor and had little to eat. At night, . He groaned and said to his wife, “What is to become of us? How are we to feed our poor children, when we no longer have anything even for ourselves? we’ll all die of hunger.” The children were still awake and heard the conversation.

A certain man had a donkey, which had carried the corn sacks to the mill loyally for many a long year; but his strength was going, and he was growing more and more unfit for work. His master began to wonder if it was worth his while by keeping this old donkey much longer. The donkey, seeing that no good wind was blowing, ran away and set out on the road to Bremen. “There,” he thought, “I can surely be a town musician.” When he had walked some distance, he found a dog lying on the road, gasping like one who had run until he was tired.

This story is called Rumpelstiltskin by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. This is a LibraryCall recording. By the side of a wood, in a country a long way off, ran a fine stream of water; and upon the stream there stood a mill. The miller’s house was close by, and the miller, you must know, had a very beautiful daughter. She was also very shrewd and clever; and the miller was so proud of her, that he one day told the king of the land, who used to come and hunt in the wood, that his daughter could spin gold out of straw.

There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world.

This story is called The Elves and the Shoemaker written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and read by Madeline Walton-Hadlock. This is a LibraryCall adaptation and recording. Once upon a time, there was a man who owned a small shoe shop in a village in Germany. His job was to make shoes out of leather and sell them to the villagers. Although the shoemaker was talented and hard-working, it took him many hours to make each pair of shoes, so he never had many shoes ready to sell. For this reason, he was quite poor.