The Yellow Fairy Book

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THE YELLOW FAIRY BOOK

Edited by
ANDREW LANG

Dedication

TO

JOAN, TODDLES, AND TINY

Books Yellow, Red, and Green and Blue,
All true, or just as good as true,
And here's the Yellow Book for YOU!

Hard is the path from A to Z,
And puzzling to a curly head,
Yet leads to Books--Green, Blue, and Red.

For every child should understand
That letters from the first were planned
To guide us into Fairy Land

So labour at your Alphabet,
For by that learning shall you get
To lands where Fairies may be met.

And going where this pathway goes,
You too, at last, may find, who knows?
The Garden of the Singing Rose.

PREFACE

The Editor thinks that children will readily forgive him for
publishing another Fairy Book. We have had the Blue, the Red,
the Green, and here is the Yellow. If children are pleased, and
they are so kind as to say that they are pleased, the Editor does
not care very much for what other people may say. Now, there is
one gentleman who seems to think that it is not quite right to
print so many fairy tales, with pictures, and to publish them in
red and blue covers. He is named Mr. G. Laurence Gomme, and he
is president of a learned body called the Folk Lore Society.
Once a year he makes his address to his subjects, of whom the
Editor is one, and Mr. Joseph Jacobs (who has published many
delightful fairy tales with pretty pictures)[1] is another.
Fancy, then, the dismay of Mr. Jacobs, and of the Editor, when
they heard their president say that he did not think it very nice
in them to publish fairy books, above all, red, green, and blue
fairy books! They said that they did not see any harm in it,
and they were ready to 'put themselves on their country,' and be
tried by a jury of children. And, indeed, they still see no harm
in what they have done; nay, like Father William in the poem,
they are ready 'to do it again and again.'

[1] You may buy them from Mr. Nutt, in the Strand.

Where is the harm? The truth is that the Folk Lore Society--made
up of the most clever, learned, and beautiful men and women of
the country--is fond of studying the history and geography of
Fairy Land. This is contained in very old tales, such as country
people tell, and savages:

'Little Sioux and little Crow,
Little frosty Eskimo.'

These people are thought to know most about fairyland and its
inhabitants. But, in the Yellow Fairy Book, and the rest, are
many tales by persons who are neither savages nor rustics, such
as Madame D'Aulnoy and Herr Hans Christian Andersen. The Folk
Lore Society, or its president, say that THEIR tales are not so
true as the rest, and should not be published with the rest. But
WE say that all the stories which are pleasant to read are quite
true enough for us; so here they are, with pictures by Mr. Ford,
and we do not think that either the pictures or the stories are
likely to mislead children.

As to whether there are really any fairies or not, that is a
difficult question. Professor Huxley thinks there are none. The
Editor never saw any himself, but he knows several people who
have seen them--in the Highlands--and heard their music. If ever
you are in Nether Lochaber, go to the Fairy Hill, and you may
hearthe music yourself, as grown-up people have done, but you
must goon a fine day. Again, if there are really no fairies, why
dopeople believe in them, all over the world? The ancient Greeks
believed, so did the old Egyptians, and the Hindoos, and the Red
Indians, and is it likely, if there are no fairies, that so many
different peoples would have seen and heard them? The Rev. Mr.
Baring-Gould saw several fairies when he was a boy, and was
travelling in the land of the Troubadours. For these reasons,
the Editor thinks that there are certainly fairies, but they
never do anyone any harm; and, in England, they have been
frightened away by smoke and schoolmasters. As to Giants, they
have died out, but real Dwarfs are common in the forests of
Africa. Probably a good many stories not perfectly true have
been told about fairies, but such stories have also been told
about Napoleon, Claverhouse, Julius Caesar, and Joan of Arc, all
of whom certainly existed. A wise child will, therefore,
remember that, if he grows up and becomes a member of the Folk
Lore Society, ALL the tales in this book were not offered to him
as absolutely truthful, but were printed merely for his
entertainment. The exact facts he can learn later, or he can
leave them alone.

There are Russian, German, French, Icelandic, Red Indian, and
other stories here. They were translated by Miss Cheape, Miss
Alma, and Miss Thyra Alleyne, Miss Sellar, Mr. Craigie (he did
the Icelandic tales), Miss Blackley, Mrs. Dent, and Mrs. Lang,
but the Red Indian stories are copied from English versions
published by the Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology, in America.
Mr. Ford did the pictures, and it is hoped that children will
find the book not less pleasing than those which have already
been submitted to their consideration. The Editor cannot say
'good-bye' without advising them, as they pursue their studies,
to read The Rose and the Ring, by the late Mr. Thackeray, with
pictures by the author. This book he thinks quite indispensable
in every child's library, and parents should be urged to purchase
it at the first opportunity, as without it no education is
complete.

A. LANG.

CONTENTS

The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership
The Six Swans
The Dragon of the North
Story of the Emperor's New Clothes
The Golden Crab
The Iron Stove
The Dragon and his Grandmother
The Donkey Cabbage
The Little Green Frog
The Seven-headed Serpent
The Grateful Beasts
The Giants and the Herd-boy
The Invisible Prince
The Crow
How Six Men travelled through the Wide World
The Wizard King
The Nixy
The Glass Mountain
Alphege, or the Green Monkey
Fairer-than-a-Fairy
The Three Brothers
The Boy and the Wolves, or the Broken Promise
The Glass Axe
The Dead Wife
In the Land of Souls
The White Duck
The Witch and her Servants
The Magic Ring
The Flower Queen's Daughter
The Flying Ship
The Snow-daughter and the Fire-son
The Story of King Frost
The Death of the Sun-hero
The Witch
The Hazel-nut Child
The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus
Prince Ring
The Swineherd
How to tell a True Princess
The Blue Mountains
The Tinder-box
The Witch in the Stone Boat
Thumbelina
The Nightingale
Hermod and Hadvor
The Steadfast Tin-soldier
Blockhead Hans
A Story about a Darning-needle

THE YELLOW FAIRY BOOK

THE CAT AND THE MOUSE IN PARTNERSHIP

A cat had made acquaintance with a mouse, and had spoken so much
of the great love and friendship she felt for her, that at last
the Mouse consented to live in the same house with her, and to go
shares in the housekeeping. 'But we must provide for the winter
or else we shall suffer hunger,' said the Cat. 'You, little
Mouse, cannot venture everywhere in case you run at last into a
trap.' This good counsel was followed, and a little pot of fat
was bought. But they did not know where to put it. At length,
after long consultation, the Cat said, 'I know of no place where
it could be better put than in the church. No one will trouble
to take it away from there. We will hide it in a corner, and we
won't touch it till we are in want.' So the little pot was
placed in safety; but it was not long before the Cat had a great
longing for it, and said to the Mouse, 'I wanted to tell you,
little Mouse, that my cousin has a little son, white with brown
spots, and she wants me to be godmother to it. Let me go out
to-day, and do you take care of the house alone.'

'Yes, go certainly,' replied the Mouse, 'and when you eat
anything good, think of me; I should very much like a drop of the
red christening wine.'

But it was all untrue. The Cat had no cousin, and had not been
asked to be godmother. She went straight to the church, slunk to
the little pot of fat, began to lick it, and licked the top off.
Then she took a walk on the roofs of the town, looked at the
view, stretched herself out in the sun, and licked her lips
whenever she thought of the little pot of fat. As soon as it was
evening she went home again.

'Ah, here you are again!' said the Mouse; 'you must certainly
have had an enjoyable day.'

'It went off very well,' answered the Cat.

'What was the child's name?' asked the Mouse.

'Top Off,' said the Cat drily.

'Topoff!' echoed the Mouse, 'it is indeed a wonderful and curious
name. Is it in your family?'

'What is there odd about it?' said the Cat. 'It is not worse
than Breadthief, as your godchild is called.'

Not long after this another great longing came over the Cat. She
said to the Mouse, 'You must again be kind enough to look after
the house alone, for I have been asked a second time to stand
godmother, and as this child has a white ring round its neck, I
cannot refuse.'

The kind Mouse agreed, but the Cat slunk under the town wall to
the church, and ate up half of the pot of fat. 'Nothing tastes
better,' said she, 'than what one eats by oneself,' and she was
very much pleased with her day's work. When she came home the
Mouse asked, 'What was this child called?'

'Half Gone,' answered the Cat.

'Halfgone! what a name! I have never heard it in my life. I
don't believe it is in the calendar.'

Soon the Cat's mouth began to water once more after her licking
business. 'All good things in threes,' she said to the Mouse; 'I
have again to stand godmother. The child is quite black, and has
very white paws, but not a single white hair on its body. This
only happens once in two years, so you will let me go out?'

'Topoff! Halfgone!' repeated the Mouse, 'they are such curious
names; they make me very thoughtful.'

'Oh, you sit at home in your dark grey coat and your long tail,'
said the Cat, 'and you get fanciful. That comes of not going out
in the day.'

The Mouse had a good cleaning out while the Cat was gone, and
made the house tidy; but the greedy Cat ate the fat every bit up.

'When it is all gone one can be at rest,' she said to herself,
and at night she came home sleek and satisfied. The Mouse asked
at once after the third child's name.

'It won't please you any better,' said the Cat, 'he was called
Clean Gone.'

'Cleangone!' repeated the Mouse. 'I do not believe that name has
been printed any more than the others. Cleangone! What can it
mean?' She shook her head, curled herself up, and went to sleep.

From this time on no one asked the Cat to stand godmother; but
when the winter came and there was nothing to be got outside, the
Mouse remembered their provision and said, 'Come, Cat, we will go
to our pot of fat which we have stored away; it will taste very
good.'

'Yes, indeed,' answered the Cat; ' it will taste as good to you
as if you stretched your thin tongue out of the window.'

They started off, and when they reached it they found the pot in
its place, but quite empty!

'Ah,' said the Mouse,' 'now I know what has happened! It has all
come out! You are a true friend to me! You have eaten it all
when you stood godmother; first the top off, then half of it
gone, then----'

'Will you be quiet!' screamed the Cat. 'Another word and I will
eat you up.'

'Cleangone' was already on the poor Mouse's tongue, and scarcely
was it out than the Cat made a spring at her, seized and
swallowed her.

You see that is the way of the world.

THE SIX SWANS

A king was once hunting in a great wood, and he hunted the game
so eagerly that none of his courtiers could follow him. When
evening came on he stood still and looked round him, and he saw
that he had quite lost himself. He sought a way out, but could
find none. Then he saw an old woman with a shaking head coming
towards him; but she was a witch.

'Good woman,' he said to her, 'can you not show me the way out of
the wood?'

'Oh, certainly, Sir King,' she replied, 'I can quite well do
that, but on one condition, which if you do not fulfil you will
never get out of the wood, and will die of hunger.'

'What is the condition?' asked the King.

'I have a daughter,' said the old woman, 'who is so beautiful
that she has not her equal in the world, and is well fitted to be
your wife; if you will make her lady-queen I will show you the
way out of the wood.'

The King in his anguish of mind consented, and the old woman led
him to her little house where her daughter was sitting by the
fire. She received the King as if she were expecting him, and he
saw that she was certainly very beautiful; but she did not please
him, and he could not look at her without a secret feeling of
horror. As soon as he had lifted the maiden on to his horse the
old woman showed him the way, and the King reached his palace,
where the wedding was celebrated.

The King had already been married once, and had by his first wife
seven children, six boys and one girl, whom he loved more than
anything in the world. And now, because he was afraid that their
stepmother might not treat them well and might do them harm, he
put them in a lonely castle that stood in the middle of a wood.
It lay so hidden, and the way to it was so hard to find, that he
himself could not have found it out had not a wise-woman given
him a reel of thread which possessed a marvellous property: when
he threw it before him it unwound itself and showed him the way.
But the King went so often to his dear children that the Queen
was offended at his absence. She grew curious, and wanted to
know what he had to do quite alone in the wood. She gave his
servants a great deal of money, and they betrayed the secret to
her, and also told her of the reel which alone could point out
the way. She had no rest now till she had found out where the
King guarded the reel, and then she made some little white
shirts, and, as she had learnt from her witch-mother, sewed an
enchantment in each of them.

And when the King had ridden off she took the little shirts and
went into the wood, and the reel showed her the way. The
children, who saw someone coming in the distance, thought it was
their dear father coming to them, and sprang to meet him very
joyfully. Then she threw over each one a little shirt, which
when it had touched their bodies changed them into swans, and
they flew away over the forest. The Queen went home quite
satisfied, and thought she had got rid of her step-children; but
the girl had not run to meet her with her brothers, and she knew
nothing of her.

The next day the King came to visit his children, but he found no
one but the girl.

'Where are your brothers?' asked the King.

'Alas! dear father,' she answered, 'they have gone away and left
me all alone.' And she told him that looking out of her little
window she had seen her brothers flying over the wood in the
shape of swans, and she showed him the feathers which they had
let fall in the yard, and which she had collected. The King
mourned, but he did not think that the Queen had done the wicked
deed, and as he was afraid the maiden would also be taken from
him, he wanted to take her with him. But she was afraid of the
stepmother, and begged the King to let her stay just one night
more in the castle in the wood. The poor maiden thought, 'My
home is no longer here; I will go and seek my brothers.' And
when night came she fled away into the forest. She ran all
through the night and the next day, till she could go no farther
for weariness. Then she saw a little hut, went in, and found a
room with six little beds. She was afraid to lie down on one, so
she crept under one of them, lay on the hard floor, and was going
to spend the night there. But when the sun had set she heard a
noise, and saw six swans flying in at the window. They stood on
the floor and blew at one another, and blew all their feathers
off, and their swan-skin came off like a shirt. Then the maiden
recognised her brothers, and overjoyed she crept out from under
the bed. Her brothers were not less delighted than she to see
their little sister again, but their joy did not last long.

'You cannot stay here,' they said to her. 'This is a den of
robbers; if they were to come here and find you they would kill
you.'

'Could you not protect me?' asked the little sister.

'No,' they answered, 'for we can only lay aside our swan skins
for a quarter of an hour every evening. For this time we regain
our human forms, but then we are changed into swans again.'

Then the little sister cried and said, 'Can you not be freed?'

'Oh, no,' they said, 'the conditions are too hard. You must not
speak or laugh for six years, and must make in that time six
shirts for us out of star-flowers. If a single word comes out of
your mouth, all your labour is vain.' And when the brothers had
said this the quarter of an hour came to an end, and they flew
away out of the window as swans.

But the maiden had determined to free her brothers even if it
should cost her her life. She left the hut, went into the
forest, climbed a tree, and spent the night there. The next
morning she went out, collected star-flowers, and began to sew.
She could speak to no one, and she had no wish to laugh, so she
sat there, looking only at her work.

When she had lived there some time, it happened that the King of
the country was hunting in the forest, and his hunters came to
the tree on which the maiden sat. They called to her and said
'Who are you?'

But she gave no answer.

'Come down to us,' they said, 'we will do you no harm.'

But she shook her head silently. As they pressed her further
with questions, she threw them the golden chain from her neck.
But they did not leave off, and she threw them her girdle, and
when this was no use, her garters, and then her dress. The
huntsmen would not leave her alone, but climbed the tree, lifted
the maiden down, and led her to the King. The King asked, 'Who
are you? What are you doing up that tree?'

But she answered nothing.

He asked her in all the languages he knew, but she remained as
dumb as a fish. Because she was so beautiful, however, the
King's heart was touched, and he was seized with a great love for
her. He wrapped her up in his cloak, placed her before him on
his horse. and brought her to his castle. There he had her
dressed in rich clothes, and her beauty shone out as bright as
day, but not a word could be drawn from her. He set her at table
by his side, and her modest ways and behaviour pleased him so
much that he said, 'I will marry this maiden and none other in
the world,' and after some days he married her. But the King had
a wicked mother who was displeased with the marriage, and said
wicked things of the young Queen. 'Who knows who this girl is?'
she said; 'she cannot speak, and is not worthy of a king.'

After a year, when the Queen had her first child, the old mother
took it away from her. Then she went to the King and said that
the Queen had killed it. The King would not believe it, and
would not allow any harm to be done her. But she sat quietly
sewing at the shirts and troubling herself about nothing. The
next time she had a child the wicked mother did the same thing,
but the King could not make up his mind to believe her. He said,
'She is too sweet and good to do such a thing as that. If she
were not dumb and could defend herself, her innocence would be
proved.' But when the third child was taken away, and the Queen
was again accused, and could not utter a word in her own defence,
the King was obliged to give her over to the law, which decreed
that she must be burnt to death. When the day came on which the
sentence was to be executed, it was the last day of the six years
in which she must not speak or laugh, and now she had freed her
dear brothers from the power of the enchantment. The six shirts
were done; there was only the left sleeve wanting to the last.

When she was led to the stake, she laid the shirts on her arm,
and as she stood on the pile and the fire was about to be
lighted, she looked around her and saw six swans flying through
the air. Then she knew that her release was at hand and her
heart danced for joy. The swans fluttered round her, and hovered
low so that she could throw the shirts over them. When they had
touched them the swan-skins fell off, and her brothers stood
before her living, well and beautiful. Only the youngest had a
swan's wing instead of his left arm. They embraced and kissed
each other, and the Queen went to the King, who was standing by
in great astonishment, and began to speak to him, saying,
'Dearest husband, now I can speak and tell you openly that I am
innocent and have been falsely accused.'

She told him of the old woman's deceit, and how she had taken the
three children away and hidden them. Then they were fetched, to
the great joy of the King, and the wicked mother came to no good
end.

But the King and the Queen with their six brothers lived many
years in happiness and peace.

THE DRAGON OF THE NORTH[2]

[2] 'Der Norlands Drache,' from Esthnische Mahrchen. Kreutzwald,

Very long ago, as old people have told me, there lived a terrible
monster, who came out of the North, and laid waste whole tracts
of country, devouring both men and beasts; and this monster was
so destructive that it was feared that unless help came no living
creature would be left on the face of the earth. It had a body
like an ox, and legs like a frog, two short fore-legs, and two
long ones behind, and besides that it had a tail like a serpent,
ten fathoms in length. When it moved it jumped like a frog, and
with every spring it covered half a mile of ground. Fortunately
its habit, was to remain for several years in the same place, and
not to move on till the whole neighbourhood was eaten up.
Nothing could hunt it, because its whole body was covered with
scales, which were harder than stone or metal; its two great eyes
shone by night, and even by day, like the brightest lamps, and
anyone who had the ill luck to look into those eyes became as it
were bewitched, and was obliged to rush of his own accord into
the monster's jaws. In this way the Dragon was able to feed upon
both men and beasts without the least trouble to itself, as it
needed not to move from the spot where it was lying. All the
neighbouring kings had offered rich rewards to anyone who should
be able to destroy the monster, either by force or enchantment,
and many had tried their luck, but all had miserably failed.
Once a great forest in which the Dragon lay had been set on fire;
the forest was burnt down, but the fire did not do the monster
the least harm. However, there was a tradition amongst the wise
men of the country that the Dragon might be overcome by one who
possessed King Solomon's signet-ring, upon which a secret writing
was engraved. This inscription would enable anyone who was wise
enough to interpret it to find out how the Dragon could be
destroyed. Only no one knew where the ring was hidden, nor was
there any sorcerer or learned man to be found who would be able
to explain the inscription.

At last a young man, with a good heart and plenty of courage, set
out to search for the ring. He took his way towards the
sunrising, because he knew that all the wisdom of old time comes
from the East. After some years he met with a famous Eastern
magician, and asked for his advice in the matter. The magician
answered:

'Mortal men have but little wisdom, and can give you no help, but
the birds of the air would be better guides to you if you could
learn their language. I can help you to understand it if you
will stay with me a few days.'

The youth thankfully accepted the magician's offer, and said, 'I
cannot now offer you any reward for your kindness, but should my
undertaking succeed your trouble shall be richly repaid.'

Then the magician brewed a powerful potion out of nine sorts of
herbs which he had gathered himself all alone by moonlight, and
he gave the youth nine spoonfuls of it daily for three days,
which made him able to understand the language of birds.

At parting the magician said to him. 'If you ever find Solomon's
ring and get possession of it, then come back to me, that I may
explain the inscription on the ring to you, for there is no one
else in the world who can do this.'

From that time the youth never felt lonely as he walked along; he
always had company, because he understood the language of birds;
and in this way he learned many things which mere human knowledge
could never have taught him. But time went on, and he heard
nothing about the ring. It happened one evening, when he was hot
and tired with walking, and had sat down under a tree in a forest
to eat his supper, that he saw two gaily-plumaged birds, that
were strange to him, sitting at the top of the tree talking to
one another about him. The first bird said:

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