The Three Little Men in the Wood (Grimm)
Short summary
A fairy tale kingdom. A widower with a daughter married a widow who also had a daughter.
The stepmother treated her stepdaughter cruelly while favoring her own child. In winter, she sent the girl in a paper dress to find strawberries.
The girl found three little men in a forest house, shared her bread, and swept for them. They granted her beauty, gold from her mouth, and a king for a husband. She found strawberries. The stepmother's daughter was rude to the men and got cursed with ugliness and toads. The stepdaughter married a king and had a son. When the stepmother visited,
The wicked woman seized the Queen by the head, and her daughter seized her by the feet, and they lifted her out of the bed, and threw her out of the window
into a stream. The queen returned as a duck until the king freed her. The evil women were sealed in a barrel and rolled into the river.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The widowers marriage and the stepmothers initial deception
A widowed man and a widowed woman each had a daughter. The girls knew each other and often walked together. One day, the woman made a proposal to the man's daughter: she should tell her father that the woman wished to marry him. In return, the girl would wash in milk every morning and drink wine, while the woman's own daughter would only have water for washing and drinking.
When the girl told her father about the proposal, he was uncertain about remarrying. Unable to decide, he devised a test: he took off his boot, which had a hole in the sole, hung it on a nail in the loft, and poured water into it. If the boot held water, he would remarry; if it leaked, he would not. The water drew the hole together, filling the boot completely, so he married the widow.
The cruel stepmothers winter test with the paper dress
Initially, the stepmother kept her promise, but gradually she reversed the treatment. The man's daughter received only water while the woman's daughter enjoyed milk and wine. The stepmother became bitterly cruel to her beautiful and lovable stepdaughter, envious of her charm compared to her own ugly and repulsive daughter.
One winter day, when everything was frozen hard and covered with snow, the stepmother made a dress of paper and ordered her stepdaughter to go into the woods to fetch strawberries. She gave the girl only a piece of hard bread, thinking cruelly:
This will last thee the day, and thought, Thou wilt die of cold and hunger outside, and wilt never be seen again by me.
The three little men reward kindness with magical gifts
Despite the freezing cold and paper dress, the obedient girl went into the forest. She discovered a small house where three little men lived. She greeted them politely and asked to warm herself by their stove. When the elves asked for food, she generously shared her meager bread with them.
Willingly, she said, and divided her bit of bread in two and gave them the half.
The little men gave her a broom to sweep the snow behind their house. While she worked, they decided on gifts for her kindness. The first granted that she would grow more beautiful each day, the second that gold pieces would fall from her mouth when she spoke, and the third that a king would marry her. When she finished sweeping, she found real ripe strawberries growing beneath the snow and filled her basket.
The stepsisters selfish attempt and terrible punishment
When the girl returned home and spoke, gold pieces fell from her mouth, filling the room. Her stepsister became envious and wanted to seek strawberries too. Despite the cold, the mother dressed her daughter in a magnificent fur coat and gave her bread-and-butter and cake.
The selfish girl found the same house but behaved rudely to the little men. She refused to greet them, wouldn't share her food, and when asked to sweep, she replied arrogantly:
There is not enough for myself, so how can I give it away to other people?
The little men punished her wickedness with terrible gifts: she would grow uglier each day, toads would spring from her mouth when she spoke, and she would die miserably. When she returned home and tried to tell her story, toads leaped from her mouth with every word, horrifying everyone.
Meeting the king and royal marriage
The stepmother's rage intensified, and she forced her stepdaughter to rinse yarn in the frozen river. While cutting a hole in the ice, a splendid carriage arrived carrying the king. Moved by compassion at seeing the beautiful girl's plight, he asked her to come away with him. She gladly accepted, and they celebrated their wedding at his palace with great pomp. A year later, the queen bore a son.
The stepmothers final revenge, the queens return, and ultimate justice
When the stepmother learned of the queen's good fortune, she and her daughter visited the palace. While the king was away, they threw the queen out the window into the stream and put the ugly daughter in her bed. The queen, transformed into a duck, visited her baby for three nights. On the third night, she told the scullion to have the king swing his sword over her three times, which restored her to life. The king punished the wicked women by rolling them down a hill in a nail-studded barrel into the river.