Bride Tests
folktales of Aarne-Thompson types 1451, 1452, and 1453
about choosing a bride
translated and/or edited by
D. L. Ashliman
© 2000
folktales of Aarne-Thompson types 1451, 1452, and 1453
about choosing a bride
translated and/or edited by
D. L. Ashliman
© 2000
Return to D. L. Ashliman's folktexts, a library of folktales, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology.
Once upon a time there was a girl who was beautiful, but lazy and negligent. When she had to spin she was so ill tempered that if there was a little knot in the flax, she at once pulled out a whole heap of it, and scattered it about on the ground beside her. Now she had a servant who was industrious, and who gathered together the discarded flax, cleaned it, spun it well, and had a beautiful dress woven out of it for herself.
A young man had courted the lazy girl, and the wedding was about to take place. On the eve of the wedding, the industrious girl was dancing merrily about in her beautiful dress, and the bride said,
|
Ach, wat kann das Mäken springen |
Ah, how that girl can jump about, |
The bridegroom heard this, and asked the bride what she meant by it. So she told him that the girl was wearing a dress made from the flax which she had thrown away. When the bridegroom heard this, and saw how lazy she was, and how industrious the poor girl was, he gave her up and went to the other girl, and chose her as his wife.
A man wanted to select a wife for himself from among three sisters, all of whom pleased him greatly. He invited them all to eat their noon meal with him at an inn. Wanting to find himself an industrious and efficient housewife, he decided to test them on how they ate cheese.
When her cheese was served the eldest cut the rind off so thick that it included a lot of good cheese, which was thus lost. "She will waste too much and throw out everything," thought the man. "You cannot choose her."
Then the second sister received her cheese, and she ate her piece without cutting off any of the rind. "She is not the wife for you either," thought the man. "She will be disorderly."
Then the youngest sister was served her cheese. She scraped her piece off cleanly and carefully, and then ate it. Thus the suitor thought, "She is the right one!" and he did indeed marry her.
A young herdsman wanted to get married. Now he knew three sisters. All were equally beautiful, and he liked them all equally well, so he could not decide which of them he should choose as his bride. His mother noticed this, and she said to him, "Let me give you some good advice. Invite all three sisters to eat with you at the same time. Serve them some cheese and pay attention to what they do with it."
The son followed this advice. He invited the girls to his house and served them cheese. The first one greedily ate her piece, complete with the rind, so that not a trace of it was left. The second one, to the contrary, cut off the rind so thick that she wasted a lot of good cheese. The third one neatly peeled off just the right amount of rind.
The herdsman told his mother what had happened with the cheese, and she said, "Choose the third one. She will bring you luck."
That is what he did, and as long as he lived, he never regretted having followed his mother's advice.
There was once a rich farmer's son who went out to woo. He had heard of a lass who was fair and gentle, and who was both clever in the house and good at cooking. Thither he went, for it was just such a wife he wanted. The people on the farm knew, of course, on what errand he came, so they asked him to take a seat near to them, and they talked and chatted with him, as the custom is, and beside offered him a drink and asked him to stop to dinner. They went in and out of the room, so the lad had time to look about him, and over in a corner he saw a spinning wheel with the distaff full of flax.
"Whose spinning wheel is that?" asked the lad.
"Oh, that's our daughter's," said the woman of the house.
"There's a deal of flax on it," said the lad. "I suppose she takes more than a day to spin that," said he.
"No, not at all," said the woman. "She does it easily in one day and perhaps less than that."
That was more than he had ever heard of anyone being able to spin in such a short time.
When they were going to carry in the dinner they all went out of the room and he was left alone. He then saw an old key lying in the window, and this he took and stowed well away among the flax on the distaff. So they ate and drank and got on well together, and when the lad thought he had been there long enough, he said good-bye and went his way. They asked him to come soon again, which he promised, but he did not speak of the matter he had at heart, although he liked the lass very well.
Some time after, he came again to the farm, and they received him still better than the first time. But just as they were chatting at their best, the farmer's wife said, "Last time you were here something very remarkable happened. Our storehouse key disappeared all at once, and we have never been able to find it since."
The lad went over to the spinning wheel, which stood in the corner with just as much flax on it as when last he was there. He put his hand in among the flax and said, "Here is the key! Much cannot be made by the spinning when the spinning day lasts from Michaelmas to Easter."
So he said good-bye, and did not speak of the matter he had at heart that time either.
Return to D. L. Ashliman's folktexts, a library of folktales, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology.
Revised January 3, 2000.