Fitcher's Bird

There was once a wizard who used to disguise himself as a poor man and go to houses begging. He caught pretty girls, and no one knew where he took them, for they were never seen again.

One day he came to the door of a man who had three pretty daughters. He looked like a poor, weak beggar, and carried a basket on his back, as if he meant to collect charity gifts in it. He begged for a little food. When the eldest daughter came out and was just handing him a piece of bread, he only touched her, and she was forced to jump into his basket. Then he hurried away with long strides and carried her into a dark forest to his house, which stood in the middle of it.

Everything in the house was magnificent. He gave her whatever she could desire and said, "My darling, you will certainly be happy with me, for you have everything your heart can wish for." After a few days, he said, "I must journey away and leave you alone for a short time.

Here are the keys of the house. You may go everywhere and look at everything except into one room, which this little key here opens. I forbid you to go there on pain of death." He also gave her an egg and said, "Preserve the egg carefully for me, and carry it always with you, for a great misfortune would come from losing it."

She took the keys and the egg and promised to obey him in everything. When he was gone, she went all around the house from the bottom to the top and examined everything. The rooms shone with silver and gold, and she thought she had never seen such splendor. At last she came to the forbidden door. She wanted to pass it by, but curiosity gave her no rest. She looked at the key; it looked just like any other. She put it in the keyhole and turned it a little, and the door sprang open.

But what did she see when she went in? In the middle of the room stood a great bloody basin, and inside lay human beings, dead and cut to pieces. Nearby were a block of wood and a gleaming axe. She was so terribly frightened that the egg she held in her hand fell into the basin. She got it out and washed the blood off, but in vain. It appeared again at once. She washed and scrubbed, but she could not get it out.

It wasn't long before the man came back from his journey. The first things he asked for were the key and the egg. She gave them to him, but she trembled as she did so, and he saw at once by the red spots that she had been in the bloody chamber.

"Since you have gone into the room against my will," he said, "you shall go back into it against your own. Your life is ended." He threw her down, dragged her by her hair into that room, cut her head off on the block, and hewed her in pieces so that her blood ran on the ground.

Then he threw her into the basin with the rest.

"Now I will go get the second one," said the wizard. He went back to the house in the shape of a poor man and begged. Then the second daughter brought him a piece of bread. He caught her like the first, by simply touching her, and carried her away. She did no better than her sister. She let her curiosity lead her, opened the door of the bloody chamber, looked in, and had to pay for it with her life when the wizard returned.

Then he went and brought the third sister, but she was clever and crafty. When he had given her the keys and the egg and had left her, she first put the egg away with great care. Then she examined the house, and at last she went into the forbidden room.

Alas, what did she behold! Both her sisters lay there in the basin, cruelly murdered and cut in pieces. But she began to gather their limbs together and put them in order: head, body, arms, and legs. When nothing was missing, the limbs began to move and join together.

Both the maidens opened their eyes and were once more alive. Then they rejoiced, kissed, and hugged each other.

When the wizard returned, he at once demanded the keys and the egg. As he could see no trace of blood on it, he said, "You have passed the test. You shall be my bride." He now had no power over her and was forced to do whatever she wanted.

"Oh, very well," she said. "First you must take a basket of gold to my father and mother, and carry it yourself on your back. Meanwhile I will prepare for the wedding." Then she ran to her sisters, whom she had hidden in a little chamber, and said, "The moment has come when I can save you.

The wretch himself shall carry you home again. But as soon as you are home, send help to me." She put both of them in a basket and covered them completely with gold so that nothing of them could be seen.

Then she called the wizard and said, "Now carry the basket away. But I will look through my little window and watch to see if you stop on the way to stand or to rest."

The wizard lifted the basket onto his back and went away with it. But it weighed him down so heavily that sweat streamed from his face. He sat down and wanted to rest for a while, but immediately one of the girls in the basket cried out, "I am looking through my little window, and I see that you are resting.

Will you go on at once?" He thought it was his bride who called to him, so he got to his feet again. Once more he was about to sit down, but at once she cried, "I am looking through my little window, and I see that you are resting.

Will you go on directly?" And whenever he stopped, she cried this, and he had to walk on until, groaning and out of breath, he carried the basket with the gold and the two maidens to their parents' house.

At home, the bride prepared the wedding feast and sent invitations to the wizard's friends. Then she took a skull with grinning teeth, put some ornaments on it and a wreath of flowers, carried it up to the attic window, and let it look out from there. When all was ready, she got into a barrel of honey, then cut open the feather bed and rolled herself in it until she looked like a wondrous bird, so that no one could recognize her. Then she went out of the house. On her way she met some of the wedding guests, who asked,

"Oh, Fitcher's bird, how come you here?"

"I come from Fitcher's house quite near."

"And what may the young bride be doing?"

"From cellar to attic she's swept all clean, and now from the window she's peeping, I ween."

At last she met the bridegroom, who was coming slowly back. He, like the others, asked,

"Oh, Fitcher's bird, how come you here?"

"I come from Fitcher's house quite near."

"And what may the young bride be doing?"

"From cellar to attic she's swept all clean, and now from the window she's peeping, I ween."

The bridegroom looked up, saw the decorated skull, thought it was his bride, and nodded to her, greeting her kindly. But when he and his guests had all gone into the house, the brothers and kinsmen of the bride, who had been sent to rescue her, arrived. They locked all the doors of the house so that no one could escape, set fire to it, and the wizard and all his crew burned to death.