Week 14 Reading B: A Clever Lass

• Shepherd finds a golden mortar and wants to give to the king
• Daughter says that the king will want a pestle, which shepherd doesn't have
• Shepherd gives mortar to king and he gives shepherd 3 days to give pestle
• Shepherd laments, telling king about his daughter's words
• King says he will marry the shepherd's daughter and not ask for the pestle if she comes to him:
• Neither walking nor riding
• Neither clothed nor unclothed
• Neither by day nor by night/at noon nor in the morning
• Daughter goes to king at the fall of dusk (not noon or morning), dressed in fishnets (neither clothed nor unclothed), partly rode on the goat and partly walked
• King married her but told her that she must part with him if she gives advice to anybody
• One day a farmer's mare had a foal at the market and the foal ran away to another farmer
• King decided that since every animal runs to its mother, that the gelding had the foal instead
• Queen told farmer in secret to take a fishing net and fish the road in front of the king
• When the king asked why the farmer was doing it, queen told the farmer to respond "It's as hopeful as expecting a gelding to foal"
• Farmer does so, but king realizes that someone else told him to do so
• Interrogated farmer until he gave up the queen's name
• King told the queen she must leave the next day, but could take the thing she like best with her
• Queen puts opium in king's wine, tells him to drink to her health, and then takes king back to her father's old hut
• When king wakes, queen tells him that she took him as the thing she liked best
• King relented and told her she could give advice to anybody

Bibliography: A Clever Lass from The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis. Web Source.

Image:  Gold Mortar by valdist torms. Web Source.

Week 14 Reading A: The Waternick

•  Two children with a widowed mother
• Children sent off to get firewood, used wool thread to mark the trail home
• Wild creatures broke the thread and they were lost in the forest
• Found a pond and walked around it
• Waternick finds children, takes them to his home by force
• Waternick and his wife enslave the children as servants and put them to work for years
• When Waternick leaves to catch human souls one day, wife falls asleep and children realize that they can try to escape
• First attempt to run while she sleeps fails, she catches them
• Waternick then puts the children to work felling trees, but the tools he gives them break
• Waternick forgets to give them another task for the next day
• Children release all the souls that the Waternicks caught
• Next attempt to escape works, and children get out of the pond before the wife catches them
• Children fall asleep and forester finds them, returns them to their mother
• Happy ending, live together for the rest of their lives

Bibliography: The Waternick from The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis. Web Source.


Image: Underwater view in Dumbea river in the vicinity of Nakutakoin from IHA. Web Source.