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Frau Trude
Tales Collected by the Brothers Grimm
There was once a little girl who was obstinate and inquisitive,
and when her parents told her to do anything, she did not obey
them, so how could she fare well? One day she said to her
parents, "I have heard so much of Frau Trude, I will go to her
some day. People say that everything about her does look so
strange, and that there are such odd things in her house, that
I have become quite curious!" Her parents absolutely forbade
her, and said, "Frau Trude is a bad woman, who does wicked things,
and if thou goest to her; thou art no longer our child." But the maiden
did not let herself be turned aside by her parent's prohibition,
and still went to Frau Trude. And when she got to her, Frau
Trude said, "Why art thou so pale?" "Ah," she replied, and her whole
body trembled, "I have been so terrified at what I have seen." "What
hast thou seen?" "I saw a black man on your steps." "That was a
collier." "Then I saw a green man." "That was a huntsman." "After
that I saw a blood-red man." "That was a butcher." "Ah, Frau
Trude, I was terrified; I looked through the window and saw
not you, but, as I verily believe, the devil himself with a head
of fire." "Oho!" said she, "then thou hast seen the witch in her
proper costume. I have been waiting for thee, and wanting thee a long time already; thou shalt
give
me some light." Then she
changed the girl into a block of wood, and threw it into the
fire. And when it was in full blaze she sat down close to it,
and warmed herself by it, and said, "That shines bright for once
in a way."
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