Frau Trude
By the Brothers Grimm
Once upon a time there was a little girl. She was very smart and very curious. When her parents told her to do something, she did not obey them.
One day, the little girl said to her parents, “I have heard so much about Frau Trude. I want to go see her some day. People say that she is so strange, and there are odd, strange things in her cottage in the woods. I am so curious!”
Her parents were furious. They did not want the little girl to go to Frau Trude’s cottage in the woods. “Frau Trude is a bad woman, who does wicked things, and if you go to her house, you are not our daughter anymore. You cannot come back to our home!”
The little girl did not obey her parents. That night, she walked through the woods to Frau Trude’s cottage.
When she arrived, Frau Trude said, “Why are you so pale, so white, little girl?”
“Ah,” the girl replied. She was so afraid. She was terrified. Her whole body trembled, “I am so terrified at what I just saw on your steps.”
“What did you see, little girl?” asked Frau Trude
The girl replied, “I saw a black man on your steps.”
“Ah! That was the coal miner!” said Frau Trude.
“Then I saw a green man,” said the little girl.
“Ah! That was a huntsman,” replied Frau Trude.
“After that I saw a blood-red man.”
“Ah! That was a butcher,” said Frau Trude
“But Frau Trude….I am so terrified. I looked through the window and saw not you, but the devil himself! His head was on fire!” said the little girl. She trembled with fear.
“Oh no!” said Frau Trude. “You just saw a witch in her costume. I have been waiting a long time for you. You will give me some light, little girl.”
Frau Trude changed the girl into a block of wood, and threw it into the fire. And when the fire was big and hot, she sat down next to the fire to warm herself. She said, “Ahhhhh. That shines bright for once!”
The End!