Cinderella

From the ashes in the basement to the castle on the hill, it's not that far.

Well, there was a rich man who lived happily with his wife for a long time, and they had one little girl together. The wife became ill, and as she got worse, she called her daughter and said, “Child, I have to leave you, but after I’m gone, I’ll still look after you. Plant a little tree on my grave, and whenever you wish for something, shake it, and you’ll have what you wish. And whenever you’re in strife, I’ll send you help. Just stay good and true.”

Almost immediately, she closed her eyes and died.

One time, later the father was going to the fair, and asked his daughter, ‘what will you have me get for you while I’m away?’ ‘Dad, bring me the first twig that brushes against your hat when you turn back towards home,’ she said.

Sure enough on his way home, as he rode through a green copse, a hazel twig brushed against him, and almost pushed off his hat: so he broke it off tucked it into his bag; and when he got home he gave it to his daughter. Then she took it, and went to her mother’s grave and planted it there; and cried so much that it was watered with her tears; and there it grew and became a fine tree.

She went to it often and cried; and before long a little bird came and built its nest upon the tree, and talked with her, and watched over her.

Before two years had passed her Dad had married a second wife. However, the stepmother already had two daughters from her first husband. They were fine looking but had dark hearts. After the wedding, and all three moved in, things turned bad for the poor child.

“What’s this useless girl doing in our rooms?” the step-mother said. “Get off into the kitchen. You need to earn your keep, you can be our maid.”

The stepsisters took away her good clothes and dressed her in an old grey smock.

“That suits you!” they said, taking the mickey out of her while taking her down to the kitchen, where the poor child had to do heavy work: she had to get up before dawn, carry the water into the house, make the fire, cook, and wash. Meanwhile, her sisters did everything they could to cause her grief and make her look ridiculous. They upset sacks of peas and lentils into the ashes of the hearth so she had to sit there the whole day and separate them. In the evening, when she was shattered, there was no bed for her, and she had to lie next to the hearth in the ashes. Since she was always working in dust and looked dirty, they called her Cinderella.

Now then, some time later, the King announced a magnificent ball that was to last three days, and his son was to choose a bride at this event. The two stepsisters were also invited.

“Cinderella,” they called to her, “Come up here! Comb out our hair, brush our shoes, and fasten our buckles and save us bending over in these frocks! We’re going to see the prince at the ball.”

Cinderella did as best she could but the stepsisters continually scolded her, and when they’d finished dressing, they asked her in a mocking tone: “Cinderella, I bet you’d like to go to the ball?”

“Oh, so much,” Cinderella replied. “But how can I? I don’t have any clothes.”

“No,” said the eldest daughter. “That’s all we’d need for you turn up! If people heard you were our sister, we’d be shown up. No ball for you, get back to the kitchen and sort the bowl of lentils. When we come back, we’ll check and there’d better not be any bad ones. Otherwise, you know what you’ll get.”

After that the stepsisters left, and Cinderella stood there watching them go, and when they were out of sight, she went sadly into the kitchen and shook the lentils on to the hearth, and they formed a very large pile.

“Oh,” she sighed and said, “This will take me all night and my eyes are going to be so sore. If only my mother knew about this!”

Then she knelt down in the ashes in front of the hearth to start sorting. All at once two white pigeons flew through the window and landed next to the lentils on the hearth. They nodded with their little heads and said, “Do you want a hand with that?”

“Oh! Yes, please” answered Cinderella: “The good ones for the pot, the bad ones for your dinner.”

And peck, peck! Peck, peck! They ate the bad ones and left the good ones. And in fifteen minutes the lentils were so clean that there wasn’t a bad one among them, and Cinderella thought they looked perfect in the pot.

Finally, she was alone and Cinderella went sorrowfully and sat down under the hazel-tree, and cried out:

“Shake and wobble, little tree!

Let beautiful clothes fall down to me.”

Then her friend the bird flew out of the tree, and brought a gold and silver frock for her, and slippers of spangled silk; and she put them on, and followed her sisters to the feast. However, the little bird warned that she must return them by midnight.

At the ball, her step-mother and step-sisters didn’t recognise Cinderella, and thought it must be some strange princess, she looked so fine and beautiful in her rich clothes.

The hall was lit by candles burning in four thousand glittering chandeliers. The king’s son soon came up to her, and took her by the hand and danced with her, and no one else: and he never let go of her hand; and when anyone else came to ask her to dance, he said, ‘This lady is dancing with me.’

So they danced till late; and then she wanted to go home: and the king’s son said, ‘I’ll see you home’; for he wanted to see where the beautiful maiden lived. But she slipped away from him, unawares, and ran off towards home; and as the prince followed her, she jumped up into the pigeon-coop and shut the door.

The prince waited till her father came home, and told him that the unknown maiden, who had been at the feast, had hid herself in the pigeon-coop. But when they opened the door it was empty; and when they came back into the house, Cinderella was lying, as she always did, in her dirty frock by the ashes, and her dim little lamp was burning in the chimney.

She’d run as quickly as she could through the pigeon-coop and on to the hazel-tree, and left her beautiful clothes beneath the tree, so that the bird could take them back, and then lain down again amid the ashes.

The next morning the two sisters went into the kitchen, and when they saw that Cinderella had cleanly sorted the lentils, they were angry because they’d have liked to scold her. Since they couldn’t do that, they began to tell her about the ball and said, “Cinderella, that was so much fun, especially the dance. The prince, who’s the most handsome in the world, led us out onto the dance floor, and one of us will become his bride.”

“Yes,” Cinderella said. “I saw the chandeliers glimmer. That must have been splendid.”

“What! How did you manage that?” the eldest sister asked.

“I climbed up to the pigeon coop.”

When the sister heard this, she was filled with jealousy, and she immediately ordered the pigeon coop to be torn down.

Now Cinderella had to comb and clean again, and the youngest sister, who had a little sympathy in her heart, said, “Cinderella, when it turns dark, you can go to the ball and look in through the windows.”

“No,” said the eldest. “That will only make her lazy. Here’s a sack of sweet peas, Cinderella. Sort the good from the bad and work hard. If you don’t have them sorted cleanly by tomorrow, then I’ll spill them all into the ashes, and you’ll have to starve until you’ve fished them out.”

Cinderella sat down on the hearth in distress and poured the peas out of the sack. Then the pigeons flew into the kitchen once again and asked in a friendly way: “Cinderella, do you want us to sort the peas?”

“Yes, that would be super!”, she said.

“The good ones for the pot, the bad ones for your supper.”

Peck, peck! Peck, peck! It all went so quickly as if twelve hands were there.

Then, Cinderella went back to the grave, shook the little tree, and spoke:

“Shake and wobble, little tree!

Let beautiful clothes fall down to me.”

No sooner had she said all this than a fabulous dress lay right before her along with pearls, silk stockings, silver slippers, and everything else that belonged to the outfit. Cinderella carried everything into the house, and after she had washed and changed, she was as beautiful as a rose washed by the dew. And this time when she stepped outside, a carriage stood there drawn by six black horses adorned with feathers. There were also servants, dressed in blue and silver, who helped her inside. Then off they galloped to the king’s castle.

When the prince saw the carriage arrive at the gate, he thought that a strange princess from afar had come traveling to the ball. So he himself went down the stairs, saw it was Cinderella, and led her happily into the ballroom. And when the glitter of the four thousand chandeliers fell upon her, she was so beautiful that everyone there was amazed, and the sisters also stood there and were annoyed this new young lady was more beautiful than they.

However, it never occurred to them that it might be Cinderella, who was presumably at home in the ashes. Now, the prince danced with Cinderella and showed her royal honour. As he danced, he thought to himself, “I’m supposed to choose a bride, and I know she’s the only one for me.”

For her part, Cinderella had lived for such a long time in ashes and sadness, and now she was in splendour and joy. But when midnight came, before the clock struck twelve, she stood up and bowed good-bye. Even though the prince begged and begged, she refused to remain any longer. So the prince led her down the stairs. The carriage was below and waiting for her, and it drove off in splendour as it had come.

When Cinderella arrived home, she went once again to the little tree on her mother’s grave.

“Shake and wobble, little tree! Take these clothes back from me.”

Then the tree took the clothes, and Cinderella had her grey frock on again. And she returned to the kitchen with it, put some dust on her face, and laid herself down to sleep.

In the morning the sisters came. They looked morose and kept quiet. Then Cinderella said, “You must have had an enjoyable time last night.”

“No, a princess was there, and the prince almost always danced with her. Nobody had ever seen her or knew where she came from.”

“Was it perhaps that lady who arrived in the splendid carriage pulled by six black horses?” Cinderella asked.

“How do you know that?”

“As I was standing in the entrance to the house, I saw her drive by.”

“In the future stay inside working,” said the eldest sister, who looked angrily at Cinderella. “What business do you have to stand in the entrance to the house?”

For a third time Cinderella had to dress up the two sisters, and as a reward they gave her a bowl with peas that she was to sort. “And don’t you dare to leave your work!” the eldest daughter cried out to her.

Cinderella thought, “I so hope my pigeons will return!” And her heart beat anxiously until the pigeons came as they had the previous night and said, “Cinderella, do you want us to sort the peas?”

“Yes, thank you so much.”

“The good ones for the pot, the bad ones for your tea.”

Once more the pigeons pecked the bad ones out, and once they were finished Cinderella went back to her mother’s grave a third time:

“Shake and wobble, little tree!

Let beautiful clothes fall down to me.”

Then a dress fell down, and it was even more glorious and splendid than the previous one. It was made out of gold and precious gems. In addition there were golden silk stockings and gold slippers. And after Cinderella was completely dressed, she really glistened like the sun at midday.

A carriage drawn by six white horses with plumes on their heads stopped in front of the house, and the servants were dressed in red and gold. When Cinderella arrived, the prince was already on the stairs and led her into the ballroom. And if everyone had been astonished by her beauty the day before, they were even more astounded this evening, and the sisters stood in a corner and were pale with envy. If they had known that it was Cinderella, who was supposed to be at home in the ashes, they would have died of envy.

Now the prince wanted to know who the strange princess was, where she came from, and where she drove off to. So he had people stationed on the road, and they were to pay attention to her whereabouts.

Also, he had the stairs coated with cobbler’s wax so that she wouldn’t be able to run so fast.

Cinderella danced and danced with the prince and was filled with so much joy that she didn’t think about midnight. All of a sudden, as she was in the middle of a dance, she heard the clock begin to strike. She was reminded of the little bird’s warning and was terrified. So she rushed to the door and flew down the stairs. However, since they were covered with wax, one of her golden slippers got stuck, and Cinderella didn’t stop to pick it up out of fear. Indeed, just as she reached the last step of the stairs, the clock struck twelve. Consequently, the carriage and horses disappeared, and Cinderella stood in her old frock on the dark road with the remaining slipper still on her foot. In the meantime, the prince had rushed after her, and he found the golden slipper on the steps. He pulled it from the wax and carried it with him, but by the time he made it down the stairs, everything had disappeared. Even the people who had stood guard came and said that they had seen nothing.

Cinderella was relieved that nothing worse had happened, and she went home. Once there she turned on her dim oil lamp, hung it in the chimney, and laid herself down in the ashes. It didn’t take long before the two sisters also returned and called out: “Cinderella, get up and light the way.”

Cinderella yawned and pretended that she had been wakened from her sleep. As she showed them the way, she heard one of the sisters say, “God knows who the princess is. I wish she was dead, to be honest! The prince only danced with her, and after she’d gone, he didn’t want to stay, and the entire ball came to an end.”

“It was like all the lights had suddenly been blown out,” the other said.

Meanwhile, the prince was thinking, “I’ve not covered myself with glory here, not been too smart at all, but, I can use the slipper to help me find my bride.”

So he had a proclamation announced and declared that whichever maiden’s foot fit the golden slipper was to become his wife.

But the slipper seemed to choose its own size and was always much too small for anyone who tried it on.

Finally, it was the turn of the two sisters to take the test. They were confident because they had small beautiful feet and believed they could fool the prince if he could only recognise his girl from her feet.

“Listen,” said the mother secretly. “here’s a knife, and if the slipper’s still too tight for you, then shave off a piece of your foot. It will hurt a bit. But what does that matter? It will soon pass, and one of you will become queen.”

So the eldest sister went into the chamber and tried on the slipper. Her toe slipped inside, but her heel was too large. So, she took the knife and trimmed off a bit of her heel until she could force her foot into the slipper even though it stung like billy-o. Then she went out of the chamber to the prince, and when he saw that she had the slipper on her foot, he said fair enough then, she was to be his bride. And he led her, wincing to his carriage and set off. However, when he came to the gate, the pigeons were perched above and called out:

“Oi!

Looky, look, look at the shoe that she took.

There’s blood all over and the shoe’s too small.

She’s not the bride you met at the ball.”

The prince leaned over and saw that blood was coming out of the slipper, and he realised that he’d been deceived. So he brought the false bride back to the house.

However, the mother gave her second daughter the same instruction.

So the sister took the slipper into her chamber, and since her foot was too large, she bit her lips and nipped off a large part of her toes. Then she quickly slipped her foot into the slipper and came out of her chamber. The prince scratched his head but thought, OK she must be the right bride, and drove off with her. However, when he came to the gate, the pigeons called out again:

“Looky, look, look at the shoe that she took.

There’s blood all over and the shoe’s too small.

She’s not the bride you met at the ball.”

The prince looked down and saw that the stockings of the bride were stained with the blood from her damaged foot. So the prince brought her to her mother and said, “Not again Mrs. Is there another daughter in your house?”

“No,” said the mother, “there’s just a nasty Cinderella. She’s downstairs in the ashes. I’m sure the slipper won’t fit her.”

The mother didn’t want to have her summoned, but the prince demanded that she do so. Therefore, Cinderella was alerted, and when she heard that the prince was there, she washed her face and hands quickly so that they were fresh and clean. When she entered the room, she curtsied. Then the prince handed her the golden slipper and said, “Try it on! If it fits, you’ll become my wife.”

So Cinderella took off the heavy shoe from her left foot and put this foot into the golden slipper. It fit like a glove. Cinderella then reached into her pocket and produced the second slipper and put that on too. And when she stood up, the prince looked at her face and recognised the beautiful princess once again, slapped his forehead and cried: “This is my bride, she’s the one!”

The stepmother and the two haughty sisters were horrified and became pale, they also recognised Cinderella from the ball but the prince led Cinderella away. He helped her into the carriage, and as they drove off through the gate, the pigeons called out:

“Looky, look, look, there’s no blood at all.

The golden shoe fits her feet so small.

She’s definitely the one you met at the ball.”

Cinderella forgave her sisters in spite of everything. She found them husbands who weren’t overly fussy about manners. And they all lived happily ever after although the sisters could never run for a bus again.