The fifth story little robber girl

They rode through the dense woods. But the car shone like a torch, and blinded the eyes of some of the robbers, and they could not bear it any longer.

"That's gold! That's gold! They shouted. They rushed forward, stopped the horses, killed the riders, the coachmen, and the servants, and dragged Gerda off the cart.

"She's very fat...... She's beautiful...... She grew up eating walnut pits! The old female robber said. Her beard was long and stiff, and her puffy eyebrows covered her eyes.

"She's like a fat little lamb! Oh, it's delicious! ”

So she drew a knife that shone brightly—it shone terribly.

"Ouch!" The old woman screamed at the same time as her own daughter crawled on her back and bit her ear; She is a naughty and savage child who loves to find this kind of pleasure. "You mischievous kid!" Mom said that then she would not have time to kill Gerda.

"I want her to play with me!" Said the little robber girl. "She has to give me her hand warmer and beautiful clothes, and sleep with me in bed!"

Then the boy bit her again, and the old robber jumped up and whirled again; The other robbers laughed and said, "Look, how well she dances with her imps!" ”

"I'm going to get in that car!" Said the little robber girl.

She can do whatever she wants, because she is a very presumptuous and stubborn child. She and Gerda sat in the car, scurrying over the stumps and thorns, all the way to the forest. Little Bandit Girl is the same age as Gerda, but she is physically stronger and has broader shoulders. Her skin was brown and her eyes were dark, almost gloomy. She hugged little Gerda by the waist and said:

"As long as I'm not mad at you, they can't kill you. I guess you're a princess, right? ”

"It's not." Tiny Gerda said. So she told her what had happened to her, and how much she liked little Gay.

The little robber girl gave her a serious look, nodded slightly, and said, "Even if I am angry with you, they can't kill you, because then I will do it myself." ”

So she wiped away Gerda's tears and put her hands in the soft, warm hand warmer.

Now the carriage has finally stopped. They came into the courtyard of the robber's palace. The palace was full of cracks from the top to the ground. The dodo and the crow flew out of the open hole, and the dogs, each as if they could swallow a man, jumped very high, but they did not bark, for it was not permissible.

In a large, old, smoky room, a fire burned on the stone-paved floor. Smoke swirls beneath the ceiling, trying to find a way out. There was a large jar of soup boiling, and many rabbits and hares were roasting on the irons.

"You sleep with me and my little animal tonight." Said the little robber girl.

They ate and drank something, and then went to a corner where straw and carpet were laid. There are more than 100 pigeons perched on the slats and perches. They were all about to fall asleep. But when the two girls arrived, they turned their heads and looked at them.

"It's all mine," said the little robber girl. So she grabbed one at hand, and shook it a few times by the legs until it flapped its wings. "Kiss it!" She exclaimed, slapping Gerda in the face at the same time, "There are a couple of bastards from the woods sitting there," she continued, pointing to a hole in the wall barricade with a bar. "Both of these things are bastards in the woods. If you don't keep them closed, they'll fly away right away. Now look at my old love 'Horn'. She grabbed the horns of a reindeer and dragged it out. It's sleeved; He wears a shiny copper ring around his neck. "We've got to keep it on hold or it's going to get away. Every night I tickle it on its neck with a sharp knife – it's terrified of this hand. ”

The little girl then pulled out a long knife from the crack in the wall and slid it on the reindeer's neck a few times. The poor creature flicked its legs. The little robber girl laughed and dragged Gerda into the bed.

"Do you keep this knife by your side when you sleep?" Gerda asked, looking at the knife in horror.

"I always sleep with my knife!" The little robber girl replied, "Because no one knows what will happen." But tell me more about Gay and why you came to this world. ”

Gerda said it again from the beginning. The turtledove cooed in the cage above, while the other turtledoves fell asleep. The little robber girl put her arms around Gerda's neck with one hand and a knife in the other, and also fell asleep - people could hear these movements. But Gerda couldn't close her eyes anyway - she didn't know if she was going to live or die.

The robbers sat around the fire, singing and drinking. The robber old woman turned her head. A little girl was so frightened to see this.

So the turtledoves said, "Goo! Mutter! We saw little Gay. A white hen carries his sleigh on his back: he sits in the Snow Queen's car. While we were in the nest, the car flew low over the woods. She blew on our little turtledove: everyone is dead except the two of us. Mutter! Mutter! ”

"What are you talking about?" Gerda asked, "Where did the Snow White travel?" Did you know? ”

"She probably went to Lapland (1) because it was snow and ice all year round. Ask the reindeer with the rope. ”

"There's ice and snow there, there's magnificence there!" "There, people can jump freely in the glittering valley!" There, the Snow Queen set up her summer tent, but the palace where she often stayed was on an island called Spitsbergen (2) near the North Pole. ”

"Ah, Gay, little Gay!" Gerda sighed.

"You must lie still," said the little robber girl, "or I will stab you in the belly!" ”

The next morning, Gerda told her everything the turtledove had said. The little robber girl looked very serious, but she nodded and said, "It doesn't matter! It doesn't matter! Do you know where Lapland is? She asked the reindeer.

"Who knows better than I do?" The reindeer said, one of its eyes rolling on its head. "I was born and raised there. I've jumped on the snow there. ”

"Listen!" The little robber girl said to Gerda. "You know: our men are gone. Only Mom remains, and she's going to stay here. But it's almost noon when she's going to have something to drink from that big bottle, and she's going to take a nap, and I'll do you a favor then! ”

She jumped out of bed, put her arms around her mother's neck, pulled her beard, and said, "Good morning, my dear old she-goat." ”

Her mother knocked her on the nose a few times, and the knock made her red and blue - but it was all out of true maternal love.

Mom drank something from the bottle and fell asleep. The little robber girl went to the reindeer and said, "I'd love to stab you a few more times with a sharp knife, because that's how funny you're looking." But it doesn't matter, I'm going to untie you and let you out so you can run to Lapland. But you'll have to use your legs well enough to take this little girl to the Snow Queen's palace, where her playmate is. You've heard what she said to me, because her voice was loud, and you're eavesdropping! ”

The reindeer jumped high with joy. The little robber girl carried little Gorda to its back, and fastened her very carefully, even giving her a small cushion to sit on.

"It doesn't matter," she said, "you're going to put on your boots, because it's getting cold." I'm going to leave this hand warmer behind though, because it's cute! But you still won't feel cold. This is a pair of my mother's big gloves that go all the way up to your elbows. Put it on! Your hands are now like those of my ugly mother. ”

Gerda cried with joy.

"You shed a big pool of tears, I can't get used to it!" Said the little robber girl. "You should be happy now. Take these two loaves of bread and a piece of ham, lest you starve. ”

These things are all tied to the backs of the reindeer. The little robber girl opened the door and coaxed some of the big dogs into the house. So she cut the rope with a knife and said to the reindeer:

"Run! But please take good care of this little girl! ”

Gerda stretched out her big gloved hands to the little robber girl and said, "Goodbye! So the reindeer galloped up on the stumps and bushes, through the woods, over the marshes and savannahs, and galloped as fast as they could. The jackals are whistling, and the crows are croaking. "Shhhh Hush! "It's a sound from the air. The sky seemed to be on fire.

"That's my dear old Northern Lights!" The reindeer said, "Look, how bright it is!" So it ran faster, day and night.

The bread was finished, the ham was finished, and at this time they arrived in Lapland.

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(1) Lapland is a part of Sweden, Norway and northern Finland and is very cold.

(2) Spiyzbergen is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean that belongs to Norway.

The sixth story is a Lapland woman and a Finnish woman

They stopped in front of a small room. The house was very simple; Its roof is so low that it almost touches the ground; Its door is so low that when the family wants to go out and walk in, they have to crawl on the ground. There was no one in the room except an old woman, who was frying fish on an oil lamp. The reindeer told Gerda all of his experiences, but he spoke first of his own, because he felt that it was the most important. Gerda was so cold that she didn't have the strength to speak.

"Alas, you poor things!" The Lapland woman said, "You have a long way to go!" You have to travel more than 300 Danish miles to reach Finnmark (1), because the Snow White is on vacation in the countryside there. She sets off blue fireworks every night (2). I'm going to write a few words on a dried cod, because I don't have paper, you can take it to an old Finnish woman - she'll tell you more. ”

When Gerda had warmed up and eaten and drunk something, the Lapland woman wrote a few words on a dried cod, told Gerda to hold it, and tied her to the back of the reindeer, which immediately jumped away, "Whew! Call! It said from high in the air. The most beautiful, azure Northern Lights shine all night long.

So they got to Finnmark, and they knocked on the Finnish woman's chimney, because she didn't even have a door.

The heat in the house was so great that the Finnish woman lived there almost naked. She is small and dirty. She immediately unbuttoned Gerda's clothes and took off her big gloves and boots, otherwise Gerda would feel too hot. She put a piece of ice on the reindeer's head and read the words written on the cod — three times in a row. When she had memorized all the words, she threw the fish into a soup pot and boiled it, for it was edible, and she was a person who never wasted anything.

The reindeer first told her own story, then the story of little Gorda, and the Finnish woman blinked her clever eyes and said nothing.

"You are very clever," said the reindeer, "and I know that you can sew together all the winds in the world with a single stitch." If the captain unties a knot, he can have a good wind; If he loosens the second knot, then the wind blows harder; But when he untied the third and fourth knots, there would be a storm that would blow the woods down. Can you give this little girl something to drink so that she can have the strength of 12 men to subdue the Snow Queen? ”

"That's the power of 12 people!" The Finnish woman said, "It works!" ”

She walked over to the cupboard, took a large bundle of skins, and opened it. It has a lot of strange letters written on it. The Finnish woman read until beads of sweat dripped from her forehead.

But the reindeer pleaded very earnestly for little Gorda, and Gerda herself looked at the Finnish woman with a pleading eye full of tears. The woman began to blink as well, and led the reindeer to a corner, placing a piece of fresh ice on its back, and said, "Of course little Gay lives with the Snow Queen." There he felt that everything was to suit his appetite and his thoughts. He thought it was the most beautiful place in the world. But it's because he has a fragment of a mirror in his heart and a fragment of a mirror in his eyes. They must be taken out first, or he will never be human. But the Snow White will do everything in her power to keep him! ”

"But can you give little Gerda something that will give her the strength to overcome all odds?"

"I can't give her more power than all the power she has now: don't you see how great it is? Don't you see how people and animals serve her? Don't you see how much she ran in the world with a pair of bare feet? She doesn't need to know her own power from us. Her strength is in her heart; She's an innocent and lovely child – that's her power. If she can't go to the Snow White and get the glass shards out of little Gay herself, then there's nothing we can do to help her! The Snow Queen's garden begins at the same place where it was two miles away. You can take this little girl there: put her next to a large bush full of safflower berries in the snow. Don't stay there and gossip, come back here! ”

So the Finnish woman carried Gerda to the reindeer's back. It flew away as quickly as possible.

"Oops, I didn't put on my boots! Didn't wear big gloves! Little Gerda cried.

She immediately felt a piercing cold; But the reindeer did not dare to stop: it ran to the bush full of red berries. It put Gerda down and kissed her on the mouth, and big sparkling tears flowed down her face. It ran back as fast as it could. Poor Gerda stood there, in that terrible, cold Finnmark, without shoes and without big gloves.

She ran forward desperately. A snowflake rolled in. It didn't fall from the sky, because it was very clear and there were also Northern Lights. Snowflakes are rolled along the ground. The closer it gets, the bigger it becomes. Gerda remembered how big and beautiful the snowflakes used to be when she looked out through the hot glass. But here they are very big and terrifying - they are alive. They are the sentinels of the Snow Queen, and they are oddly shaped. Some look like big ugly hedgehogs; Some are like many serpents with their heads stretched out and twisted together; Some resemble chubby bears with erect fur. They were all shiny white, living snowflakes.

Little Gerda recites the Lord's Prayer. It was so cold that she could see her breath coming out of her mouth like smoke. The exhaled breath grew thicker and thicker, forming a bright little Angel. As soon as they touch the ground, they get bigger and bigger. They all wore helmets and carried spears and shields. Their numbers are growing. When Gerda finished praying, a large army appeared around her. These soldiers pierced these terrible snowflakes with their spears, breaking them into countless pieces. So little Gerda moved forward steadily and courageously. Angel stroked her hands and feet, so she felt less cold. She hurried towards the Snow Queen's palace.

But for now, we'll see what Gay is doing. He didn't think at all of little Gerda, and he didn't think that she was standing at the door of the palace.

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(1) Finnmark is the northernmost county in Norway and the northernmost region in Europe, and it is extremely cold.

(2) Refers to the Northern Lights.

The seventh story is what happened and what happened in the Snow Queen's palace and what happened

The walls of the palace were made of snow, and the biting cold wind served as its windows and doors. There are more than 100 houses in it, all formed by snowflakes blowing together. The largest of them is a few Danish miles long. The intense Northern Lights illuminate them; They are very large, very empty, very cold and very bright. There was never much joy here, not even the bears' balls. In fact, it's likely that the blizzard will play a little music here, allowing the polar bears to stand on their hind legs and perform their great gestures. They don't even have gadgets to beat their mouths or tap their feet. The young white fox girls never had any small tea parties.

The halls of the Snow Queen were hollow, vast and cold. The Northern Lights shine so accurately that you can figure out when it's at its highest and when it's lowest. In the middle of this hollow, boundless hall of snow was a frozen lake—it had broken into a thousand pieces; But each piece is exactly the same shape as the other pieces, so it's a perfect piece of art. When the Snow Queen was at home, she sat in the middle of the lake. She herself said that she was sitting in the mirror of reason, and that it was the only mirror that was the best in the world.

Little Gay was blue from the cold—indeed, almost black—but he didn't feel it, for the Snow Queen had kissed the shivers off his body. His heart was like a block of ice. He was moving a few flat, sharp pieces of ice, putting them together to make something. It's as if we want to put together a pattern out of a few pieces of wood – the so-called Chinese toy (1). Gay is also putting together patterns – the most intricate of them.

It's called the sane ice cube game. In his eyes, these patterns are the most remarkable and very important things; It's all because of the mirror shard in his eye. He laid out the patterns and formed them into one word—but he couldn't form the word he hoped for—"eternity." So the Snow Queen said, "If you can spell this pattern, then you are your own master." I'm going to give you the whole world and a new pair of skates as a gift. ”

But he couldn't spell it.

"Now I'm anxious to fly to the land of warmth!" The Snow Queen said, "I'm going to see those black jars!" "She's referring to the volcanoes, which we call Mount Etna and Mount Vesuvius (2)." I'm going to make them a little whiter! There is a need for this; This is good for grapes and lemons. ”

So the Snow Queen flew away. Gay sat alone in the large, empty ice hall that was a few miles away, staring at his ice cubes. He fell into deep thought, almost breaking his head. He sat upright, motionless, and people might think he was frozen to death.

At this moment little Gerda happened to enter the gate and came to the palace. The wind here was sharp, but when she had finished her evening prayer, it calmed down, as if she had fallen asleep. She walked into the wide, hollow, cold room and saw Gay. She recognized him right away. She fell on top of him, embraced him, hugged him tightly, and cried out:

"Gay, dear little Gay! I've finally found you! ”

But he sat motionless, straight and cold. So little Gerda shed many tears. Tears flowed down his chest and seeped into his heart, melting the snow and breaking down a small fragment of the mirror inside. He looked at her, and she sang a hymn:

The valley is full of roses,

There we meet the Child Jesus.

Then Ghai burst into tears. He cried so hard that even the mirror powder in his eyes flowed out. Now he recognized her, so he cried out happily: "Gerda, dear Gerda! Where have you been for so long? Where have I been? He glanced around. How cold it is here! How vast and hollow it is! ”

He hugged Gerda tightly. She was so happy that she cried and laughed. They were so happy that they danced with joy even on the ice around them. When they lay down from exhaustion, the two formed a pattern of exactly one word - the Snow Queen once said that if he could spell this pattern, he would become his own master, and she would give him the whole world and a new pair of ice boots.

Gerda kissed his cheeks: cheeks like open flowers; She kissed his eyes: they shone like her own; She kissed his hands and feet, and he became healthy and lively again. The Snow Queen could have returned home by this time, but the note of his liberation was already shining on the ice.

Holding hands, they walked out of the huge ice palace. They talked about grandmothers, about roses on the roof. Wherever they went, the wind died down, and the sun showed its face. When they came to the red berry bush, the reindeer were waiting for them there. It also brought another doe cub. The doe's ** was full of bulge, so she gave the two little ones warm milk to eat while kissing them on the mouth. They sent Gay and Gerda to the Finnish woman first. They warmed up in her warm room for a while and were given some instructions on the way home. Then they went to the Lapland women. The woman had made new clothes for them, and had repaired her sleigh.

Reindeer and baby doe bounced beside them, escorting them all the way to the border. The plants here in early spring are already sprouting green shoots. They said goodbye to the two reindeer and the Lapland woman. "Goodbye!" Everybody says. The birds of early spring began to murmur and sing; The woods are covered with a layer of green shoots. There was a beautiful horse running out of the woods. Gerda knew it because it was the same horse that used to pull the golden chariot. A young girl rides it. She wears a shiny red hat on her head, and she carries a pistol. This is the little robber girl. She was tired of being at home and wanted to go north first; If she doesn't like that place, go somewhere else. She recognized Gerda right away; Gerda recognized her as well. They were very happy to meet.

"You're such a lovely bum!" She said to little Gay. "I'd like to ask, are you worth it for a man to come to you?"

But Gerda touched her face and asked about the prince and the princess.

"They've all traveled to foreign countries!" Said the little robber girl.

"But what about the crow?" Little Gerda asked.

"Well, the raven is dead," replied the little robber girl, "and the tame lover is a widow with a black velvet on her leg!" It's sad, but it doesn't make any sense at all! Now tell me what happened to you, how did you find him? ”

Both Gerda and Gay told the story.

"Shh Said the little robber girl. So she shook the hands of both of them and promised that if she walked through their city, she would come to visit them. Then she rode out into the vast world. Gerda and Gye walked arm in arm. What they saw on the road was a beautiful spring full of green leaves and flowers. The church bells rang, and they recognized the steeples of the churches and the big city where they lived. They went into the city until they reached the door of their grandmother's house; They climbed the stairs and walked into the room, where everything was in its original place. The big clock was ticking-ticking, and the needle was turning. But as soon as they walked out the door, they found that they had grown into adults. The roses on the water dustpin are blooming in front of the open window. There are several chairs for children to sit on. Gay and Gerda each sat in their chairs, shaking each other's hands. As if in a big dream, they had forgotten all about the coldness and empty grandeur of the Snow Queen. Sitting in the bright light of God's sun, my grandmother read the Bible aloud: "Unless you become a child, you will never enter the kingdom of God!" ”③

Gay and Gerda looked at each other face to face, and immediately understood the meaning of the hymn—

The valley is full of roses,

There we meet the Child Jesus.

The two of them sat there, already adults, but at the same time children - still children at heart. It's summer, a warm, pleasant summer.