The Violet Fairy Book

The Violet Fairy Book

by Andrew Lang

PREFACE

THE Editor takes this opportunity to repeat what he has often said before, that he is not the author of the stories in the Fairy Books; that he did not invent them `out of his own head.' He is accustomed to being asked, by ladies, `Have you written anything else except the Fairy Books?' He is then obliged to explain that he has not written the Fairy Books, but, save these, has written almost everything else, except hymns, sermons, and dramatic works.

The stories in this Violet Fairy Book, as in all the others of the series, have been translated out of the popular traditional tales in a number of different languages. These stories are as old as anything that men have invented. They are narrated by naked savage women to naked savage children. They have been inherited by our earliest civilised ancestors, who really believed that beasts and trees and stones can talk if they choose, and behave kindly or unkindly. The stories are full of the oldest ideas of ages when science did not exist, and magic took the place of science. Anybody who has the curiosity to read the `Legendary Australian Tales,' which Mrs. Langloh Parker has collected from the lips of the Australian savages, will find that these tales are closely akin to our own. Who were the first authors of them nobody knows -- probably the first men and women Eve may have told these tales to amuse Cain and Abel. As people grew more civilised and had kings and queens, princes and princesses, these exalted persons generally were chosen as heroes and heroines. But originally the characters were just `a man,' and `a woman,' and `a boy,' and `a girl,' with crowds of beasts, birds, and fishes, all behaving like human beings. When the nobles and other people became rich and educated, they forgot the old stories, but the country people did not, and handed them down, with changes at pleasure, from generation to generation. Then learned men collected and printed the country people's stories, and these we have translated, to amuse children. Their tastes remain like the tastes of their naked ancestors, thousands of years ago, and they seem to like fairy tales better than history, poetry, geography, or arithmetic, just as grown-up people like novels better than anything else.

This is the whole truth of the matter. I have said so before, and I say so again. But nothing will prevent children from thinking that I invented the stories, or some ladies from being of the same opinion. But who really invented the stories nobody knows; it is all so long ago, long before reading and writing were invented. The first of the stories actually written down, were written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, or on Babylonian cakes of clay, three or four thousand years before our time.

Of the stories in this book, Miss Blackley translated `Dwarf Long Nose,' `The Wonderful Beggars,' `The Lute Player,' `Two in a Sack,' and `The Fish that swam in the Air.' Mr. W. A. Craigie translated from the Scandinavian, `Jasper who herded the Hares.' Mrs. Lang did the rest.

Some of the most interesting are from the Roumanion, and three were previously published in the late Dr. Steere's `Swahili Tales.' By the permission of his representatives these three African stories have here been abridged and simplified for children.

A TALE OF THE TONTLAWALD

LONG, long ago there stood in the midst of a country covered with lakes a vast stretch of moorland called the Tontlawald, on which no man ever dared set foot. From time to time a few bold spirits had been drawn by curiosity to its borders, and on their return had reported that they had caught a glimpse of a ruined house in a grove of thick trees, and round about it were a crowd of beings resembling men, swarming over the grass like bees. The men were as dirty and ragged as gipsies, and there were besides a quantity of old women and half-naked children.

One night a peasant who was returning home from a feast wandered a little farther into the Tontlawald, and came back with the same story. A countless number of women and children were gathered round a huge fire, and some were seated on the ground, while others danced strange dances on the smooth grass. One old crone had a broad iron ladle in her hand, with which every now and then she stirred the fire, but the moment she touched the glowing ashes the children rushed away, shrieking like night owls, and it was a long while before they ventured to steal back. And besides all this there had once or twice been seen a little old man with a long beard creeping out of the forest, carrying a sack bigger than himself. The women and children ran by his side, weeping and trying to drag the sack from off his back, but he shook them off, and went on his way. There was also a tale of a magnificent black cat as large as a foal, but men could not believe all the wonders told by the peasant, and it was difficult to make out what was true and what was false in his story. However, the fact remained that strange things did happen there, and the King of Sweden, to whom this part of the country belonged, more than once gave orders to cut down the haunted wood, but there was no one with courage enough to obey his commands. At length one man, bolder than the rest, struck his axe into a tree, but his blow was followed by a stream of blood and shrieks as of a human creature in pain. The terrified woodcutter fled as fast as his legs would carry him, and after that neither orders nor threats would drive anybody to the enchanted moor.

A few miles from the Tontlawald was a large village, where dwelt a peasant who had recently married a young wife. As not uncommonly happens in such cases, she turned the whole house upside down, and the two quarrelled and fought all day long.

By his first wife the peasant had a daughter called Elsa, a good quiet girl, who only wanted to live in peace, but this her stepmother would not allow. She beat and cuffed the poor child from morning till night, but as the stepmother had the whip-hand of her husband there was no remedy.

For two years Elsa suffered all this ill-treatment, when one day she went out with the other village children to pluck strawberries. Carelessly they wandered on, till at last they reached the edge of the Tontlawald, where the finest strawberries grew, making the grass red with their colour. The children flung themselves down on the ground, and, after eating as many as they wanted, began to pile up their baskets, when suddenly a cry arose from one of the older boys:

`Run, run as fast as you can! We are in the Tontlawald!'

Contents: A TALE OF THE TONTLAWALD THE WOODCUTTER IN THE TONTLAWALD The Tontlawald Now The OLD MAN Disappeared after Dinner THE FINEST LIAR IN THE WORLD THE BEST BEE THE STORY OF THREE WONDERFUL BEGGARS THE FAIRIES CATCH THE BABY THE BEAUTIFUL WOMAN SOOTHES THE SERPENT-KING SCHIPPEITARO DEFEAT OF THE MOUNTAIN-SPIRIT BY THE YOUTH AND SCHIPPEITARO THE THREE PRINCES AND THEIR BEASTS (LITHUANIAN FAIRY TALE) The LION & THE FOX COME TO THE RESCUE The faithful Beasts wept round The dead body of The Prince The Witch and The Prince THE GOAT'S EARS OF THE EMPEROR TROJAN THE NINE PEA-HENS AND THE GOLDEN APPLES UnDER The GOLDEn APPLE TREE The Dragon flies off with the Empress. THE LUTE PLAYER THE LUTE PLAYER THE GRATEFUL PRINCE The Prince meets a Strange man in the wood HOW THE BLACK COW WAS TRICKED The FLIGHT ALONG THE Hedge OF PEAS DANGERS FOLLOWING THE CHILD WHO CAME FROM AN EGG Your heart is heavy with two sorrows THE FAIRY AND DOTTERINE PASS UNSEEN THROUGH THE CAMP OF THE ENEMY STAN BOLOVAN STAN BOLOVAN MEETS HIS FAMILY STAN BOLOVAN OUTWITS THE DRAGON THE DRAGON ALARMED THE TWO FROGS THE STORY OF A GAZELLE THE GAZELLE BRINGS THE DIAMOND TO THE SULTAN THE GAZELLE BRINGS CLOTHES TO HIS MASTER The Gazelle cuts off the Serpent's Heads ThE GAZELLE HOW A FISH SWAM IN THE AIR AND A HARE IN THE WATER. TWO IN A SACK Two Out of a Sack IN FUTURE LEAVE THE STICK ALONE; TWO OUT OF THE SACK THE ENVIOUS NEIGHBOUR THE FAIRY OF THE DAWN The EMPEROR Whose RIGhT eye LaUGHeD while his LeFT eye wept PETRU HAS TO TURN BACK THE BATTLE WITH THE WELWA IN THE COPPER WOOD Among the Flowers were lovely maidens calling to him with soft voices The Whirlwind seizes the wreath PETRU WAKES THE GIANT UP} MORNING-GLORY THE FAIRY OF THE DAWN THE ENCHANTED KNIFE The Princess at the curtain THE ENCHANTED KNIFE JESPER WHO HERDED THE HARES A hare for a kiss THE UNDERGROUND WORKERS THE UNDERGROUND WORKERS THE HISTORY OF DWARF LONG NOSE JEM FOLLOWS THE OLD WOMAN HANNAH DOES NOT RECOGNISE JEM THE GOOSE FINDS THE MAGIC HERB THE NUNDA, EATER OF PEOPLE The Nunda, Eater of People the PRince FinDs the Nunda THE STORY OF HASSEBU Hassebu to the Serpent-King THE MAIDEN WITH THE WOODEN HELMET THE IMPUDENT YOUNG MEN THE GIRL WITH THE WOODEN HELMET THE MONKEY AND THE JELLY-FISH THE MONKEY BROUGHT TO OTOHIME THE HEADLESS DWARFS A DWARF WAS IN THE BELL Hans fights the headless Dwarfs THE YOUNG MAN WHO WOULD HAVE HIS EYES OPENED What The Young Man Saw in The Wood THE BOYS WITH THE GOLDEN STARS The Stepmother digs a Grave for the Babies The Boys With The Golden Stars The Punishment of the Stepmother THE FROG THE WITCHES LAUGHING THE PRINCESS WHO WAS HIDDEN UNDERGROUND THE GIRL WHO PRETENDED TO BE A BOY THE PRINCESS CHARGES THE LION Fet-FRuneRs & ILiAne escpe from the Mother of the Genius THE STORY OF HALFMAN THE PRINCE WHO WANTED TO SEE THE WORLD The Prince feeds the baby from his flask FOR A MOMENT THE DOVE'S HEAD BECOMES THAT OF A BEAUTIFUL GIRL VIRGILIUS THE SORCERER VIRGILIUS AND THE EVIL SPIRIT FEBILLA'S PUNISHMENT THE COPPER HORSE VIRGILIUS THE SORCERER CARRIES AWAY THE PRINCESS OF BABYLON MOGARZEA AND HIS SON MOGARZEA & HIS SON ``WHERE DO YOU COME FROM?'' The BOY PIPeS TO the Elves MOGARZEA & HIS SON RETURN HOME

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