Fitcher's Bird (Grimm)
Short summary
A wizard disguised himself as a poor beggar and kidnapped young women. He captured the eldest daughter of a man with three daughters and took her to his house in the forest.
He gave her keys and an egg, forbidding her to enter one room. Unable to resist curiosity, she opened the forbidden door.
A great bloody basin stood in the middle of the room, and therein lay human beings, dead and hewn to pieces, and hard by was a block of wood, and a gleaming axe lay upon it.
The egg fell into the blood and couldn't be cleaned. The wizard killed her for disobedience. The second sister met the same fate. But the third sister was clever.
She reassembled her sisters' bodies, bringing them back to life. She tricked the wizard into carrying them home in a gold-covered basket. Disguising herself as a feathered bird and placing a skull at the window, she escaped. When the wizard returned, his house was set on fire with him inside.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The wizards trap and the first daughters fate
A mysterious wizard disguised himself as a poor beggar and went from house to house, capturing pretty young women who were never seen again. One day he appeared at the home of a man with three beautiful daughters, carrying a basket and asking for food. When the eldest daughter brought him bread, he touched her and she was magically compelled to jump into his basket.
The wizard carried her to his magnificent house in a dark forest, where he gave her everything she desired. After a few days, he prepared to leave on a journey and gave her the keys to the house, warning her she could go anywhere except one forbidden room. He also gave her an egg to carry at all times, saying great misfortune would come from losing it.
there are the keys of the house; thou mayst go everywhere and look at everything except into one room, which this little key here opens, and there I forbid thee to go on pain of death.
Overcome by curiosity, the first daughter explored the house and eventually opened the forbidden door. Inside she found a bloody basin filled with dismembered human bodies and a gleaming axe on a wooden block. In her terror, she dropped the egg into the basin. Though she washed it repeatedly, the bloodstains would not come off. When the wizard returned and saw the stained egg, he knew of her disobedience. He dragged her to the bloody chamber, beheaded her, and threw her remains into the basin with the other victims.
The second daughter meets the same end
The wizard returned to the same house and captured the second daughter in exactly the same manner. Like her sister, she received the keys and the egg, and was given the same warning about the forbidden room.
Unable to resist her curiosity, the second daughter also opened the forbidden door and discovered the gruesome chamber. She too dropped the egg, staining it with blood that could not be washed away. Upon the wizard's return, she met the same fate as her elder sister, murdered and added to the collection of victims in the bloody basin.
The clever third daughter saves her sisters
The wizard then captured the third sister, but she proved to be clever and crafty. Before exploring the house, she carefully hid the egg in a safe place. When she eventually entered the forbidden room and discovered the horrific scene, including the dismembered bodies of her two sisters, the egg remained unstained.
But she began to gather their limbs together and put them in order, head, body, arms and legs. And when nothing further was wanting the limbs began to move and unite themselves together.
Miraculously, both sisters came back to life and opened their eyes. They rejoiced and embraced each other. When the wizard returned and found no blood on the egg, he declared that the third sister had passed the test and would become his bride. Having lost his power over her, he was now forced to do whatever she desired.
The wedding ruse and escape
The clever sister devised an escape plan. She told the wizard he must first carry a basket of gold to her parents, bearing it on his own back while she prepared for the wedding. She hid her resurrected sisters in the basket, covering them completely with gold, then commanded the wizard to carry it without stopping to rest. Whenever he tried to pause, one of the sisters would call out, pretending to be the bride watching from her window, forcing him to continue until he delivered them safely to their parents' house.
Meanwhile, the bride prepared for the wedding by placing a decorated skull in the garret window to look like herself. She then disguised herself by rolling in honey and feathers until she resembled a strange bird that no one could recognize.
Then she got into a barrel of honey, and then cut the featherbed open and rolled herself in it, until she looked like a wondrous bird, and no one could recognize her.
The wizards destruction
In her bird disguise, she encountered the wedding guests and the returning bridegroom on the road. When they asked about the bride, she told them the bride had swept the house clean and was now peeping from the window. The wizard looked up, saw the decorated skull, and mistook it for his bride, greeting it kindly.
After the wizard and his guests entered the house for the wedding feast, the brothers and kinsmen of the three sisters arrived as planned. They locked all the doors to prevent anyone from escaping, then set the house on fire. The wizard and all his accomplices perished in the flames, finally ending his reign of terror.