Prevod

Once upon a time there was a king who had twelve sons. When they were grown, he told them to go out into the world and each find a wife, but she must be able to spin and weave and sew a shirt in a single day, or he would not have her for a daughter-in-law. He gave each of them a horse and a new suit of armour, and off they went into the world to look for wives. But when they had gone some way, they said they would not take Askepot with them, for he was no good for anything. So Askepot had to stay behind, and he did not know what to do or which way to turn. He grew so sorrowful that he got off his horse and sat down in the grass to cry. But when he had been sitting there a little while, one of the grassy tussocks began to stir, and out of it came a little white thing. As it drew nearer, Askepot saw that it was a pretty little girl, but so very, very tiny. She came up to him and asked whether he would come down and visit the Doll in the Grass. Yes, he would, and so he did.

When he came down, the Doll in the Grass was sitting on a chair. She was so lovely and so finely dressed, and she asked Askepot where he was going and what errand had brought him on his travels.

He told her that there were twelve brothers, and that the king had given them horses and armour and told them to go out into the world and find wives who could spin and weave and sew a shirt in a single day. “But if you will agree to that and be my wife, I shall travel no farther,” Askepot said to the Doll in the Grass. Yes, she would gladly do so, and she hurried to spin and weave and sew the shirt, but it was so very, very tiny, no longer than this—.

Askepot took it home with him, but when he brought it before the king, he felt ashamed because it was so small. Even so, the king said he might marry her, and Askepot went back, happy and content, to fetch his little sweetheart. When he came to the Doll in the Grass, he wanted to lift her onto the horse beside him, but no, she would not have that. She said she would ride in a silver spoon, and that she had two little white horses to draw her. So off they went, he on his horse and she in the silver spoon, and the two horses that drew her were two little white mice. But Askepot always kept to the other side of the road, for he was so afraid of riding over her, she was so very tiny. When they had gone some way, they came to a great lake. There Askepot’s horse took fright, shied across to the other side of the road, and overturned the spoon, so that the Doll in the Grass fell into the water. Askepot was terribly distressed, for he had no idea how to get her out again. But after a little while a merman rose from the water with her, and now she had grown as tall as any grown woman, and was far lovelier than before. So he seated her in front of him on his horse and rode home.

When Askepot arrived, all his brothers had returned too, each with his sweetheart. But these women were so ugly and hideous and so ill-tempered that they had fought with their sweethearts along the way;

on their heads they wore hats smeared with tar and soot, which had run down from the hats over their faces, making them uglier and more hideous still. When the brothers saw Askepot’s sweetheart, they were all jealous of him. But the king was so fond of the pair of them that he drove all the others away. Then Askepot married the Doll in the Grass, and they lived happily and contentedly for a long, long time, and if they have not died, they are living still.