The Hare's Bride (Grimm)
Division into chapters is editorial.
The hares repeated visits and invitations
A woman and her daughter lived together in a house with a beautiful garden where they grew cabbages. During the harsh winter months, a small hare discovered their garden and began visiting regularly to eat their precious cabbages. The persistent theft of their winter food supply prompted the mother to take action against the unwelcome visitor.
On the first day, the mother instructed her daughter to go into the garden and chase the hare away. The girl obediently went outside and addressed the little creature, telling it to stop eating all their cabbages. To her surprise, the hare spoke back, inviting her to sit on his tail and come with him to his hut.
Says the hare, "Come, maiden, and seat yourself on my little hare's tail, and come with me into my little hare's hut." The girl will not do it.
The same pattern repeated on the second day. The hare returned to feast on the cabbages, the mother again sent her daughter to drive the creature away, and once more the little hare extended his invitation to the maiden. Again, she refused his offer and returned to the house. The magical talking hare showed remarkable persistence in his courtship attempts.
The wedding preparations and the girls sadness
On the third day, the hare came once again to eat the cabbages. The mother repeated her instruction to hunt the hare away, and the daughter went out to confront the persistent creature. This time, however, when the little hare made his familiar invitation, the girl finally agreed.
The girl seats herself on the little hare's tail, and then the hare takes her far away to his little hut, and says, "Now cook green cabbage and millet-seed, and I will invite the wedding-guests."
Soon all the wedding guests assembled for the ceremony. The wedding party consisted entirely of forest animals, creating a magical and surreal scene.
They were all hares, and the crow was there as parson to marry the bride and bridegroom, and the fox as clerk, and the altar was under the rainbow.
Despite the festive preparations, the girl felt deeply unhappy and isolated in this strange world. The little hare repeatedly came to her, asking her to open the doors and take off the lid because the wedding guests were merry and hungry, but each time the bride remained silent and wept. Her sadness grew as she realized her predicament, trapped far from home with no escape from this unwanted marriage.
The deception and escape
When the little hare came for the third time demanding that she serve the wedding guests, the clever girl devised a plan to escape her unwanted fate. Instead of continuing to weep in silence, she took action to free herself from the magical marriage.
Then the bride says nothing, and the hare goes away, but she dresses a straw-doll in her clothes, and gives her a spoon to stir with, and sets her by the pan with the millet-seed, and goes back to her mother.
The resourceful girl created a perfect decoy by dressing a straw doll in her own clothes and positioning it by the cooking pot with a spoon, making it appear as though she was dutifully preparing the wedding feast. With this clever ruse in place, she managed to escape the hare's hut and return safely to her mother's house.
When the little hare returned once more, demanding that the lid be taken off, he grew impatient with the lack of response. In his frustration, he struck what he believed to be his bride on the head, causing her cap to fall off and revealing the deception. The hare immediately realized that the figure before him was not his intended bride but merely a straw doll.
Then the little hare sees that it is not his bride, and goes away and is sorrowful.