Short Fairy Tales Fundevogel
Once upon a time, there was a forest man who went into the forest to hunt animals. As soon as he entered the forest, he heard a scream as if a child were there. He followed the sound and came to a tall tree, at the top of which a child was sitting, for the mother had slept under the tree with the child, and a bird of prey had seen it in her arms. , flew down, grabbed it and placed it on a high tree.
The ranger climbed up, picked up the child and thought: ‘I will take him home and raise him with my daughter Lina’.
So he brought it home, and the two children grew up together. And the one he found on the tree was called Fundevogel because a bird carried it away.
Fundevogel and Lina love each other so dearly that when they don’t see each other, they are unfortunate.
The forestry people had an old cook. One evening, he took two buckets and started carrying water, and went not just once but many times to the stream. Lina saw this and said, ‘Listen, old Sanna, why are you taking so much water?’
‘If you never do that to anyone again, I’ll tell you why.’
So Lina said no, she would never do that to anyone again, and then the chef said:
‘Early tomorrow morning, when the forester goes hunting, I will boil water, and when the water boils in the kettle, I will put Fundevogel in and boil him in it.’
Early the following day, the ranger got up and went hunting. When he left, the children were still in bed. Lina told Fundevogel: ‘If you never leave me, I will never leave you.’
Fundevogel said: ‘Not now, and I will never leave you.’
Then Lina said: ‘Then I will tell you. Last night, Sanna’s mother carried so many buckets of water into the house that I asked her why she did that. She said if I promised not to tell anyone that tomorrow morning when Dad went hunting, she would fill it up with water. Into the kettle, throw you in and boil you, but we will quickly get up, dress, and go together.’
So the two children stood up, quickly dressed and left. When the water in the kettle boiled, the cook went into the bedroom to get the Fundevogel and threw it there. But when she entered and went to the bed, both children were gone. Then she was terrified and said to herself: ‘What will I say now when the forester comes home and finds the children gone? They must be tracked down immediately to bring them back.”
The cook then sent three servants after them to run after the children. However, the children were sitting outside in the forest, and upon seeing the three servants running in the distance, Lina said to Fundevogel: ‘Never leave me, and I will never leave you.’
Fundevogel said: ‘Not now, not ever.’
Then Lina said: ‘Will you become a rose tree, and I will be the rose on it.’
When the three servants entered the forest, there was nothing but a rose tree and a rose on it, but the children were nowhere to be seen. Then they said: ‘There’s nothing to do here’, then they went home and told the cook that they saw nothing in the forest but a small rose bush with a rose on it.
Then the old cook scolded: ‘You fools, you should have cut the rose bush in half, broken the rose and brought it home; go and do it now.”
So they had to go out and search a second time. However, the children saw them coming from afar.
Then Lina said: ‘Fundevogel, never leave me, and I will never leave you.’
Fundevogel said: ‘Not now, nor ever.”
Lina said: ‘Then you will become a church, and I will be the chandelier in it.’
So when the three servants arrived, there was nothing there but a church with a chandelier in it. They said to each other: ‘We can’t do anything here, let’s go home.’
When they got home, the cook asked if they had found it, so they said no. They found nothing but a church, and in it, there was a chandelier.
And the cook scolded them and said: ‘You fools! Why don’t you smash the church and bring the chandelier home?’
And now the old cook got up and went with three servants to chase the children. However, the children saw from afar that three servants were coming, and the cook waddled after them.
Then Lina said: ‘Fundevogel, never leave me, and I will never leave you.’
Then Fundevogel said: ‘Not now, not ever.’
Lina said: ‘Become a fish pond, and I will be the duck on it.’
However, the cook approached them, and when she saw the pond, she lay down on its side and intended to drink the water. But the duck swam quickly to her, grabbed her head with its beak and pulled her into the water, where the old witch drowned.
Then, the children went home together and were overjoyed.
