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Title: Grimm's Fairy Tales; Cat-Skin
Date of first publication: 1930
Author: Jacob Grimm (1785-1863)
Author: Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)
Illustrator: Noel Pocock (1880-1955)
Date first posted: September 20 2012
Date last updated: September 20 2012
Faded Page eBook #20120920

This eBook was produced by: David Edwards, Delphine Lettau
& the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net

(This file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)




Cat-Skin


There was once a king, whose queen had hair of the purest gold, and was
so beautiful that her match was not to be met with on the whole face of
the earth. But this beautiful queen fell ill, and when she felt that her
end drew near, she called the king to her and said, "Vow to me that you
will never marry again, unless you meet with a wife who is as beautiful
as I am, and who has golden hair like mine." Then when the king in his
grief had vowed all she asked, she shut her eyes and died. But the king
was not to be comforted, and for a long time never thought of taking
another wife. At last, however, his counsellors said, "This will not do;
the king must marry again, that we may have a queen." So messengers were
sent far and wide, to seek for a bride who was as beautiful as the late
queen. But there was no princess in the world so beautiful; and if there
had been, still there was not one to be found who had such golden hair.
So the messengers came home and had done all their work for nothing.

Now the king had a daughter who was just as beautiful as her mother, and
had the same golden hair. And when she had grown up, the king looked at
her and saw that she was just like his late queen: then he said to his
courtiers, "May I not marry my daughter? she is the very image of my
dead wife: unless I have her, I shall not find any bride upon the whole
earth, and you say there must be a queen." When the courtiers heard
this, they were shocked, and said, "Heaven forbid that a father should
marry his daughter! out of so great a sin no good can come." And his
daughter was also shocked, but hoped the king would soon give up such
thoughts: so she said to him, "Before I marry any one I must have three
dresses; one must be of gold like the sun, another must be of shining
silver like the moon, and a third must be dazzling as the stars: besides
this, I want a mantle of a thousand different kinds of fur put together,
to which every beast in the kingdom must give a part of his skin." And
thus she thought he would think of the matter no more. But the king made
the most skilful workmen in his kingdom weave the three dresses, one as
golden as the sun, another as silvery as the moon, and a third shining
like the stars; and his hunters were told to hunt out all the beasts in
his kingdom and take the finest fur out of their skins: and so a mantle
of a thousand furs was made.

When all was ready, the king sent them to her; but she got up in the
night when all were asleep, and took three of her trinkets, a golden
ring, a golden necklace, and a golden brooch; and packed the three
dresses of the sun, moon, and stars, up in a nutshell, and wrapped
herself up in the mantle of all sorts of fur, and besmeared her face
and hands with soot. Then she threw herself upon heaven for help in her
need, and went away and journeyed on the whole night, till at last she
came to a large wood. As she was very tired, she sat herself down in the
hollow of a tree and soon fell asleep: and there she slept on till it
was mid-day: and it happened, that as the king to whom the wood belonged
was hunting in it, his dogs came to the tree, and began to snuff about
and run round and round, and then to bark. "Look sharp," said the
king to the huntsmen, "and see what sort of game lies there." And the
huntsmen went up to the tree, and when they came back again said, "In
the hollow tree there lies a most wonderful beast, such as we never saw
before; its skin seems of a thousand kinds of fur, but there it lies
fast asleep." "See," said the king, "if you can catch it alive, and
we will take it with us." So the huntsmen took it up, and the maiden
awoke and was greatly frightened, and said, "I am a poor child that has
neither father nor mother left; have pity on me and take me with you."
Then they said, "Yes, Miss Cat-skin, you will do for the kitchen; you
can sweep up the ashes and do things of that sort." So they put her in
the coach and took her home to the king's palace. Then they showed her a
little corner under the staircase where no light of day ever peeped in,
and said, "Cat-skin, you may lie and sleep there." And she was sent into
the kitchen, and made to fetch wood and water, to blow the fire, pluck
the poultry, pick the herbs, sift the ashes, and do all the dirty work.

Thus Cat-skin lived for a long time very sorrowfully. "Ah! pretty
princess!" thought she, "what will now become of thee!" But it happened
one day that a feast was to be held in the king's castle; so she said to
the cook, "May I go up a little while and see what is going on? I will
take care and stand behind the door." And the cook said, "Yes, you may
go, but be back again in half an hour's time to rake out the ashes."
Then she took her little lamp, and went into her cabin, and took off the
fur skin, and washed the soot from off her face and hands, so that her
beauty shone forth like the sun from behind the clouds. She next opened
her nutshell, and brought out of it the dress that shone like the sun,
and so went to the feast. Every one made way for her, for nobody knew
her, and they thought she could be no less than a king's daughter. But
the king came up to her and held out his hand and danced with her, and
he thought in his heart, "I never saw any one half so beautiful."

When the dance was at an end, she curtsied; and when the king looked
round for her, she was gone, no one knew whither. The guards who stood
at the castle gate were called in; but they had seen no one. The truth
was, that she had run into her little cabin, pulled off her dress,
blacked her face and hands, put on the fur-skin cloak, and was Cat-skin
again. When she went into the kitchen to her work, and began to rake
the ashes, the cook said, "Let that alone till the morning, and heat the
king's soup; I should like to run up now and give a peep; but take care
you don't let a hair fall into it, or you will run a chance of never
eating again."

As soon as the cook went away, Cat-skin heated the king's soup and
toasted up a slice of bread as nicely as ever she could; and when it was
ready, she went and looked in the cabin for her little golden ring, and
put it into the dish in which the soup was. When the dance was over, the
king ordered his soup to be brought in, and it pleased him so well, that
he thought he had never tasted any so good before. At the bottom he saw
a gold ring lying, and as he could not make out how it had got there, he
ordered the cook to be sent for. The cook was frightened when she heard
the order, and said to Cat-skin, "You must have let a hair fall into the
soup; if it be so, you will have a good beating." Then she went before
the king, and he asked her who had cooked the soup. "I did," answered
she. But the king said, "That is not true; it was better done than you
could do it." Then she answered, "To tell the truth, I did not cook it,
but Cat-skin did." "Then let Cat-skin come up," said the king: and when
she came, he said to her, "Who are you?" "I am a poor child," said she,
"who has lost both father and mother." "How came you in my palace?"
asked he. "I am good for nothing," said she, "but to be scullion girl,
and to have boots and shoes thrown at my head." "But how did you get the
ring that was in the soup?" asked the king. But she would not own that
she knew anything about the ring; so the king sent her away again about
her business.

After a time there was another feast, and Cat-skin asked the cook to let
her go up and see it as before. "Yes," said she, "but come back again in
half an hour, and cook the king the soup that he likes so much." Then
she ran to her little cabin, washed herself quickly, and took the dress
out which was silvery as the moon, and put it on; and when she went in
looking like a king's daughter, the king went up to her and rejoiced at
seeing her again, and when the dance began, he danced with her. After
the dance was at an end, she managed to slip out so slily that the king
did not see where she was gone; but she sprang into her little cabin
and made herself into Cat-skin again, and went into the kitchen to cook
the soup. Whilst the cook was above, she got the golden necklace, and
dropped it into the soup; then it was brought to the king, who ate it,
and it pleased him as well as before; so he sent for the cook, who was
again forced to tell him that Cat-skin had cooked it. Cat-skin was
brought again before the king; but she still told him that she was
only fit to have the boots and shoes thrown at her head.

But when the king had ordered a feast to be got ready for the third
time, it happened just the same as before. "You must be a witch,
Cat-skin," said the cook; "for you always put something into the soup,
so that it pleases the king better than mine." However, she let her go
up as before. Then she put on the dress which sparkled like the stars,
and went into the ballroom in it; and the king danced with her again,
and thought she had never looked so beautiful as she did then: so whilst
he was dancing with her, he put a gold ring on her finger without her
seeing it, and ordered that the dance should be kept up a long time.
When it was at an end, he would have held her fast by the hand; but she
slipt away and sprang so quickly through the crowd that he lost sight
of her; and she ran as fast as she could into her little cabin under
the stairs. But this time she kept away too long, and staid beyond the
half-hour; so she had not time to take off her fine dress, but threw her
fur mantle over it, and in her haste did not soot herself all over, but
left one finger white.

Then she ran into the kitchen, and cooked the king's soup; and as soon
as the cook was gone, she put the golden brooch into the dish. When the
king got to the bottom, he ordered Cat-skin to be called once more, and
soon saw the white finger and the ring that he had put on it whilst they
were dancing: so he seized her hand, and kept fast hold of it, and when
she wanted to loose herself and spring away, the fur cloak fell off a
little on one side, and the starry dress sparkled underneath it. Then he
got hold of the fur and tore it off, and her golden hair and beautiful
form were seen, and she could no longer hide herself: so she washed the
soot and ashes from off her face, and showed herself to be the most
beautiful princess upon the face of the earth. But the king said, "You
are my beloved bride, and we will never more be parted from each other."
And the wedding feast was held, and a merry day it was.


[The end of _Grimm's Fairy Tales: Cat-Skin_ by the Brothers Grimm]