Grimms Fairy Tales Brier Rose
briar rose from grimm’s fairy tales
by jacob and wilhelm grimm translated by
edgar taylor and
marian edwards this librivox recording
is in the public domain
read by bob nefeld
a king and queen once upon a time
reigned in a country a great way off
where there were in those days fairies
now this king and queen had plenty of
money and plenty of fine clothes to wear
and plenty of good things to eat and
drink and a coach to ride out in every
day
but though they had been married many
years they had no
children and this grieved them very much
indeed
but one day as the queen was walking by
the side of the river
at the bottom of the garden she saw a
poor little
fish that had thrown itself out of the
water and lay gasping and nearly dead on
the bank
then the queen took pity on the little
fish and threw it back again into the
water
and before it swam away it lifted his
head out of the water and said
i know what your wish is and it shall be
fulfilled in return for your kindness to
me
you will soon have a daughter
what the little fish had foretold soon
came to pass
and the queen had a little girl so very
beautiful
that the king could not cease looking on
her for joy
and said he would hold a great feast and
make mary
and show the child to all the land
so he asked his kinsmen and nobles and
friends and neighbors
but the queen said i will have the
fairies also
that they might be kind and good to our
little daughter
now there were thirteen fairies in the
kingdom
but as the king and queen had only 12
golden dishes for them to eat out of
they were forced to leave one of the
fairies without asking her
so 12 fairies came each with a high red
cap on her head
and red shoes with high heels on her
feet and a long white wand in her hand
and after the feast was over they
gathered round in a ring and gave all
their best gifts to the little princess
one gave her goodness another beauty
another riches and so on till she had
all that was good in the world
just as eleven of them had done blessing
her a great noise was heard in the
courtyard
and word was brought that the thirteenth
fairy was come
with a black cap on her head and black
shoes on her feet
and a broomstick in her hand and
presently
up she came into the dining hall
now where she had not been asked to the
feast
she was very angry and scolded the king
and queen very much
and set to work to take her revenge
so she cried out the king’s
daughter shall in her fifteenth year be
wounded by a spindle and fall down
dead then the twelfth of the friendly
fairies
who had not yet given her gifts came
forward
and said that the evil wish must be
fulfilled but
that she would soften its mischief so
her gift was that the king’s daughter
when the spindle wound in her
should not really die but should only
fall asleep for a hundred
years however the king hoped still to
save his dear child altogether from a
threatened evil
so he ordered that all the spindles in
the kingdom should be brought up and
burnt but all the gifts of the first
eleven fairies were in the meantime
fulfilled
for the princess was so beautiful and
well-behaved and
good and wise that everyone who knew her
loved her it happened that
on the very day she was 15 years old the
king and queen were not at home
and she was left alone in the palace so
she roved about by herself and looked at
all the rooms and chambers
till at last she came to an old tower to
which there was a narrow staircase
ending with a little door in the door
was a
golden key and when she turned it the
door sprang open
and there sat an old lady spinning away
very busily why
how now good mother said the princess
what are you doing there spinning
said the old lady and nodded her head
humming a tune while
buzz went the wheel
how prettily that little thing turns
around said the princess
then took the spindle and began to try
and spin
but scarcely had she touched it before
the fairy’s prophecy was fulfilled
a spindle wounded her and she fell down
lifeless on the ground
however she was not dead but had only
fallen into
a deep sleep and the king and the queen
who had just come home
and all their court fell asleep too and
the horses slept in the stables and the
dogs in the court
the pigeons on the housetop and the very
flies
slept upon the walls even the fire on
the hearth
left off blazing and went to sleep the
jack stopped
and the spit that was turning about with
a goose upon it for the king’s dinner
stood still
and the cook who was at that moment
pulling the kitchen boy by the hair to
give him a box on the air for something
he had done amiss
let him go and both fell asleep
the butler who was slyly tasting the ale
fell asleep with the jug at his lips and
thus
everything stood still and slept soundly
a large hedge of thorns soon grew around
the palace
and every year it became higher and
thicker till at last
the old palace was surrounded and hidden
so that not even the roof or the
chimneys could be seen
but there went a report through all the
land of the beautiful
sleeping briar rose for so the king’s
daughter was called
so that from time to time several king’s
sons came and tried to break through the
thicket into the palace
this however none of them could ever do
for the thorns and bushes laid hold
of them as it were with hands and there
they stuck fast and died wretchedly
after many many years there came a
king’s son into the land
and an old man told him the story of the
thicket of thorns
and how a beautiful palace stood behind
it and how a wonderful princess
called briar rose lay in it asleep with
all her court
he told two that he had heard from his
grandfather
that many many princes had come and had
tried to break through the thicket
but that they had all stuck fast in it
and died
then the young prince said all this
shall not frighten me
i will go and see this briar rose
the old man tried to hinder him but he
was
bent upon going now that
very day the hundred years were ended
and as the prince came to the thicket he
saw nothing but beautiful flowering
shrubs
through which he went with ease and they
shut
in after him as thick as ever then he
came
at last to the palace and there in the
court lay the dogs
asleep and the horses were standing in
the stables
and on the roof sat the pigeons fast
asleep
with their heads under their wings and
when he came into the palace
the flies were sleeping on the walls the
spit was standing still
the butler had the jug of ale at his
lips going to drink a draft
the maid sat with a fowl in her lap
ready to be plucked
and the cook in the kitchen was still
holding up her hand
as if she was going to beat the boy
then he went on still farther and all
was so
still that he could hear every breath he
drew
till at last he came to the old tower
and opened the door of the little room
in which briar rose was
and there she lay fast asleep on a couch
by the window
she looked so beautiful that he could
not take his
eyes off her so he stooped down and gave
her a kiss
but the moment he kissed her she opened
her eyes and awoke
and smiled upon him and they went out
together
and soon the king and queen also awoke
and all the court
and gazed on each other with great
wonder
and the horses shook themselves and the
dogs jumped up and barked
the pigeons took their heads from under
their wings and looked about and flew
into the fields
the flies on the walls buzzed again the
fire in the kitchen blazed up
brown went the jack and round went the
spit with the goose for the king’s
dinner upon it
the butler finished his draft of ale the
maid went on plucking the fowl
and the cook gave the boy the box on his
ear
and then the prince and briar rose were
married
and the wedding feast was given and they
lived happily together
all their lives long
end of briar rose
you