Prevod

A miller had gradually fallen into poverty until he had nothing left but his mill and a large apple tree behind it. One day he went into the forest to fetch wood, and an old man whom he had never seen before came up to him and said, “Why do you wear yourself out chopping wood? I will make you rich if you promise me whatever stands behind your mill.” “What else can that be but my apple tree?” thought the miller. He said yes and signed it over to the stranger. But the man laughed mockingly and said, “In three years I shall come and claim what is mine,” and went away. When the miller came home, his wife met him and said, “Tell me, miller, where has all this sudden wealth in our house come from? All at once every chest and cupboard is full. No one has brought anything in, and I cannot imagine how it happened.” He answered, “It comes from a stranger I met in the forest, who promised me great treasures. In return I signed over to him whatever stands behind the mill. We can surely spare the great apple tree for that.” “Oh, husband,” said his wife in horror, “that was the devil! He did not mean the apple tree, but our daughter, who was standing behind the mill, sweeping the yard.”

The miller’s daughter was a beautiful and devout girl, and for those three years she lived in the fear of God and without sin. When the time was up and the day came for the Evil One to fetch her, she washed herself clean and drew a circle of chalk around herself. The devil appeared very early, but he could not come near her. Angrily he said to the miller, “Take away all her water so that she can no longer wash, for otherwise I have no power over her.” The miller was afraid and did as he was told. The next morning the devil came again, but she had wept upon her hands, and they were quite clean. Once more he could not approach her, and he said furiously to the miller, “Chop off her hands, or I can do nothing to her.” The miller was appalled and answered, “How could I chop off my own child’s hands?” Then the Evil One threatened him, saying, “If you do not, you are mine, and I shall take you instead.” The father grew afraid and promised to obey him. He went to the girl and said, “My child, unless I chop off both your hands, the devil will carry me away, and in my fear I have promised him I will do it. Help me in my distress, and forgive me for the evil I am about to do to you.” She answered, “Dear Father, do with me as you will. I am your child.” Then she laid out both her hands and let him chop them off. The devil came a third time, but she had wept so long and so bitterly over the stumps that they too were quite clean. So he had to retreat, and he had lost all claim to her.

The miller said to her, “Through you I have gained such riches that I will keep you in the greatest comfort all your life.” But she answered, “I cannot stay here. I will go away. Kindhearted people will surely give me as much as I need.” Then she had her maimed arms bound behind her back, and at sunrise she set out and walked all day until nightfall. At last she came to a royal garden, and by the light of the moon she saw trees laden with beautiful fruit. But she could not enter, for there was a moat around it. Having walked all day without eating a morsel, she was tormented by hunger and thought, “Oh, if only I were inside, so that I could eat some of the fruit, or I shall starve.” She knelt down, called upon the Lord God, and prayed. Suddenly an angel appeared and closed a sluice gate, so that the moat ran dry and she could walk through it. She went into the garden, and the angel went with her. She saw a tree bearing beautiful pears, but they had all been counted. She went up to it and ate one straight from the branch with her mouth to still her hunger, but no more. The gardener saw it all, but because the angel stood beside her, he was afraid and thought the girl must be a spirit. He kept silent, not daring to call out or speak to her. When she had eaten the pear, her hunger was satisfied, and she went and hid in the bushes. The king to whom the garden belonged came down the next morning, counted the pears, and saw that one was missing. He asked the gardener what had become of it, for it was not lying beneath the tree, and yet it was gone. The gardener answered, “Last night a spirit came into the garden. It had no hands and ate a pear from the tree with its mouth.” The king said, “How did the spirit cross the water? And where did it go after it had eaten the pear?” The gardener answered, “Someone in a snow-white robe came down from heaven and closed the sluice gate, stopping the water so that the spirit could walk through the moat. And because it must have been an angel, I was afraid and neither asked any questions nor called out. When the spirit had eaten the pear, it went back again.” The king said, “If things are as you say, I will keep watch with you tonight.”

When darkness fell, the king came into the garden and brought a priest with him, who was to speak to the spirit. All three sat down beneath the tree and kept watch. At midnight the girl crept out of the bushes, went up to the tree, and again ate a pear from it with her mouth, while beside her stood the angel in its white robe. Then the priest stepped forward and said, “Have you come from God or from this world? Are you a spirit or a human being?” She answered, “I am no spirit, but a poor human being, forsaken by everyone but God.” The king said, “Though all the world has forsaken you, I will not forsake you.” He took her with him to his royal palace, and because she was so beautiful and devout, he loved her with all his heart, had silver hands made for her, and took her as his wife.

After a year the king had to go away to war, and he entrusted the young queen to his mother, saying, “When her child is born, look after her well and write to me at once.” In time she gave birth to a beautiful son. The king’s mother hastily wrote a letter to tell him the happy news. But on his way the messenger rested beside a stream, and, weary from his long journey, he fell asleep. Then the devil, who was always seeking to harm the devout queen, came and exchanged the letter for another, saying that the queen had given birth to a changeling. When the king read the letter, he was horrified and deeply grieved, yet he wrote back that they should tend the queen and care for her well until his return. The messenger set out with the letter, rested in the same place, and fell asleep again. Once more the devil came and slipped another letter into his pocket, saying that they were to kill the queen and her child. The king’s mother was terribly frightened when she received the letter. She could not believe it and wrote to the king once more, but she received no different answer, for each time the devil slipped a false letter into the messenger’s keeping. And the last letter added that they were to preserve the queen’s tongue and eyes as proof.

But the king’s mother wept at the thought that such innocent blood should be shed. During the night she had a doe brought to her, cut out its tongue and eyes, and put them aside. Then she said to the queen, “I cannot have you killed as the king commands, but you may stay here no longer. Go out into the wide world with your child, and never return.” She bound the child to the queen’s back, and the poor woman went away with tearful eyes. She came to a great wild forest, where she sank to her knees and prayed to God. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and led her to a little house with a sign that read, “Here all may dwell freely.” A maiden dressed in snow-white came out of the little house and said, “Welcome, my lady queen,” and led her inside. She untied the little boy from the queen’s back and held him to his mother’s breast so that he could drink, then laid him in a neatly made little bed. The poor woman said, “How do you know that I was a queen?” The white maiden answered, “I am an angel, sent by God to care for you and your child.” She stayed in the house for seven years and was well cared for, and through God’s grace, because of her piety, her severed hands grew back.

At last the king came home from the war, and the first thing he wished to do was see his wife and child. Then his mother began to weep and said, “You wicked man, how could you write and tell me to put two innocent souls to death?” She showed him the two letters the Evil One had falsified and went on, “I have done as you commanded,” showing him the tongue and eyes as proof. Then the king began to weep still more bitterly for his poor wife and little son, until his mother took pity on him and said, “Take comfort. She is still alive. I had a doe killed in secret and took these tokens from it. But I bound your wife’s child to her back and told her to go out into the wide world. She had to promise never to return, because you were so angry with her.” Then the king said, “I will go as far as the blue heavens reach, and neither eat nor drink until I have found my dear wife and child again, unless by now they have perished or died of hunger.”

Then the king wandered for nearly seven years, searching for her among every rocky crag and in every cavern, but he could not find her and thought she must have starved. All that time he neither ate nor drank, but God sustained him. At last he came to a great forest and found the little house with the sign that read, “Here all may dwell freely.” The white maiden came out, took him by the hand, led him inside, and said, “Welcome, my lord king,” and asked where he had come from. He answered, “For nearly seven years I have wandered in search of my wife and her child, but I cannot find them.” The angel offered him food and drink, but he would take nothing and wished only to rest a little. So he lay down to sleep and covered his face with a cloth.

Then the angel went into the room where the queen sat with her son, whom she called Schmerzenreich, and said to her, “Come out with your child. Your husband has arrived.” She went to where he lay, and the cloth fell from his face. Then she said, “Schmerzenreich, pick up your father’s cloth and cover his face again.” The child picked it up and laid it over his face once more. The king heard this in his sleep and deliberately let the cloth fall again. Then the little boy grew impatient and said, “Dear Mother, how can I cover my father’s face? I have no father in this world. I have learned to pray, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven,’ and you told me that my father was in heaven and was the good Lord himself. How should I know a man who looks so wild? He is not my father.” When the king heard this, he sat up and asked who she was. She said, “I am your wife, and this is your son, Schmerzenreich.” But he looked at her living hands and said, “My wife had silver hands.” She answered, “In his mercy, God has let my natural hands grow back.” The angel went into the room, fetched the silver hands, and showed them to him. Only then was he certain that this was his dear wife and his dear child. He kissed them with joy and said, “A great weight has fallen from my heart.” Then the angel of God gave them one more meal together, and afterward they went home to the king’s mother. There was great rejoicing everywhere, and the king and queen celebrated their wedding once more, and lived happily until their blessed end.