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Title: Grimm's Fairy Tales: Rose-Bud
Date of first publication: 1930
Author: Jacob Grimm (1785-1863)
Author: Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)
Illustrator: Noel Pocock (1880-1955)
Date first posted: February 19 2013
Date last updated: February 19 2013
Faded Page eBook #20130215

This ebook was produced by: David Edwards, Delphine Lettau
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net

This file was produced from images generously made available by
the University of Toronto Libraries - Robarts Library (http://www.ourroots.ca)




Rose-Bud


Once upon a time there lived a king and queen who had no children; and
this they lamented very much. But one day as the queen was walking by
the side of the river, a little fish lifted its head out of the water,
and said, "Your wish shall be fulfilled, and you shall soon have a
daughter." What the little fish had foretold soon came to pass; and the
queen had a little girl that was so very beautiful that the king could
not cease looking on it for joy, and determined to hold a great feast.
So he invited not only his relations, friends and neighbours, but
also all the fairies, that they might be kind and good to his little
daughter. Now there were thirteen fairies in his kingdom, and he had
only twelve golden dishes for them to eat out of, so that he was obliged
to leave one of the fairies without an invitation. The rest came, and
after the feast was over they gave all their best gifts to the little
princess: one gave her virtue, another beauty, another riches, and so on
till she had all that was excellent in the world. When eleven had done
blessing her, the thirteenth, who had not been invited, and was very
angry on that account, came in, and determined to take her revenge.
So she cried out, "The king's daughter shall in her fifteenth year be
wounded by a spindle, and fall down dead." Then the twelfth, who had not
yet given her gift, came forward and said, that the bad wish must be
fulfilled, but that she could soften it, and that the king's daughter
should not die, but fall asleep for a hundred years.

But the king hoped to save his dear child from the threatened evil, and
ordered that all the spindles in the kingdom should be bought up and
destroyed. All the fairies' gifts were in the meantime fulfilled; for
the princess was so beautiful, and well-behaved, and amiable, and wise,
that every one who knew her loved her. Now it happened that on the very
day she was fifteen years old the king and queen were not at home, and
she was left alone in the palace. So she roved about by herself, and
looked at all the rooms and chambers, till at last she came to an old
tower, to which there was a narrow staircase ending with a little door.
In the door there was a golden key, and when she turned it the door
sprang open, and there sat an old lady spinning away very busily. "Why,
how now, good mother," said the princess, "what are you doing there?"
"Spinning," said the old lady, and nodded her head. "How prettily that
little thing turns round!" said the princess, and took the spindle and
began to spin. But scarcely had she touched it, before the prophecy was
fulfilled, and she fell down lifeless on the ground.

However, she was not dead, but had only fallen into a deep sleep; and
the king and the queen, who just then came home, and all their court,
fell asleep too; and the horses slept in the stables, and the dogs in
the court, the pigeons on the house-top and the flies on the walls. Even
the fire on the hearth left off blazing, and went to sleep; and the meat
that was roasting stood still; and the cook, who was at that moment
pulling the kitchen-boy by the hair to give him a box on the ear for
something he had done amiss, let him go, and both fell asleep; and so
everything stood still, and slept soundly.

A large hedge of thorns soon grew round the palace, and every year it
became higher and thicker, till at last the whole palace was surrounded
and hid, so that not even the roof or the chimneys could be seen. But
there went a report through all the land of the beautiful sleeping
Rose-Bud (for so was the king's daughter called); so that from time to
time several kings' sons came, and tried to break through the thicket
into the palace. This they could never do; for the thorns and bushes
laid hold of them as it were with hands, and there they stuck fast and
died miserably.

After many many years there came a king's son into that land, and an
old man told him the story of the thicket of thorns, and how a beautiful
palace stood behind it, in which was a wondrous princess, called
Rose-Bud, asleep with all her court. He told, too, how he had heard from
his grandfather that many many princes had come, and had tried to break
through the thicket, but had stuck fast and died. Then the young prince
said, "All this shall not frighten me, I will go and see Rose-Bud." The
old man tried to dissuade him, but he persisted in going.

Now that very day were the hundred years completed; and as the prince
came to the thicket, he saw nothing but beautiful flowering shrubs,
through which he passed with ease, and they closed after him as firm
as ever. Then he came at last to the palace, and there in the court lay
the dogs asleep, and the horses in the stables, and on the roof sat the
pigeons fast asleep with their heads under their wings; and when he
came into the palace, the flies slept on the walls, and the cook in the
kitchen was still holding up her hand as if she would beat the boy, and
the maid sat with a black fowl in her hand ready to be plucked.

Then he went on still further, and all was so still that he could hear
every breath he drew; till at last he came to the old tower and opened
the door of the little room in which Rose-Bud was; and there she lay
fast asleep, and looked so beautiful that he could not take his eyes
off, and he stooped down and gave her a kiss. But the moment he kissed
her she opened her eyes and awoke, and smiled upon him. Then they went
out together, and presently the king and queen also awoke, and all the
court, and they gazed on each other with great wonder. And the horses
got up and shook themselves, and the dogs jumped about and barked; the
pigeons took their heads from under their wings, and looked about and
fled into the fields; the flies on the walls buzzed away; the fire in
the kitchen blazed up and cooked the dinner, and the roast meat turned
round again; the cook gave the boy the box on his ear so that he cried
out, and the maid went on plucking the fowl. And then was the wedding of
the prince and Rose-Bud celebrated, and they lived happily together all
their lives long.


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