Tales

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The tale from Portugal:
THE LITTLE BOTTLE – GOURD

Once upon a time there was a very old lady.The old lady's daughter was going to marry and she was going to live near the vilage.

A few moments before the wedding breakfast was going to be realized.

In the same time a hungry wolf, of shining eyes and with is tongue out of his mouth, was walking trough the fields. When the wolf saw the old lady, he hides himself behind a tree and waited for her to eat her. “Oh, old lady, you're about to kill my hungry!” – the wolf shouted, jumping out of his hiding place.

“Mr. Wolf …” – the old lady said, shaking – “… I don't want to watch you spoiling your teeth in my hard carcass. Let me go to my daughter's wedding breakfast, at the near village. When I come back, I will be fat and then you can eat me.”

“You tricky lady, you want to cheat me, but I don't fall in that one!” - answered the wolf.

But the old lady insisted: “If you swallow me now it will be to dangerous because I'm not to fat right now. I'll promise you that when I came back I'll be fatter!”

The wolf, convinced, let the old lady go to her daughter's wedding breakfast. Happy to see her daughter so well married, the old lady ate and danced like a girl. But … at dawn, she remembered that the wolf was waiting for her, and then she cried. The daughter, thinking that she was going to miss her, started to comfort her. “It's nothing of that!” – said the old lady. – “It's the wolf who has long teeth and such big ears that …” - and she told her daughter what was happening. “Don't cry more” – said her daughter – “I will get a big bottle-gourd and you will take her, and when you see the wolf you'll put yourself inside it.”

The daughter went to the garden and brought the biggest bottle-gourd there was. Mother and daughter said good-bye and the old woman went away with the bottle-gourd.

Little after, the old woman saw the wolf that was waiting for her and was walking from one side to another in the horizon. The old lady opened the bottle-gourd, and put herself into it and locked herself with caution.

But, the wolf was hungry and asked: “Pretty bottle-gourd, have you seen a old lady very wrinkly like small passes and very curved?” And the bottle-gourd answered: “Mr. Wolf, Mr. Wolf, Mr. of high dignity, I haven't seen lady or old lady, I haven't seen man or old man ! Run, run bottle-gourd, run, run bootle-gourd!”

And the bottle-gourd went home, jumping the rocks on the way and leaving the wolf with his mouth opened.From one way to another, the hungry and mad wolf waited for the lady who, by the time, was faraway and secure.

When the old lady, her daughter and her husband remember the story of the wolf and the little bottle gourd, they laugh of the wolf's ingenuousness, who fell in that trick.



Tale from Hollan:
THE NIMPHS OF AMSLTE

Once there was a boatsman in one off the most famous canals of Amsterdam. He used them for freight and moving things for other people. We are tlaing about the Amstel. Amsterdan thanks it's name to this canal. Everey day the boats were cleaned and put firmly on a rope so the boats wouldn't float a way. For years and years this was no problem untill this day he saw his boats floating everywhere. Very angry he put them back together and went to work

But the next day he saw the same thing have happened. This had to stop. He wanted to catch these boys who did this in the act. So that night he went for a steak-out.

It was a beuatiful warm night but the boss, standing behind a tree, couldn't help falling a sleep. Suddenly he woke up as he heard the clock strike twelve.

He immediatly looked to his boats but he couldn't believe the things he saw there. Little girls with wings were dancing on his boats and made them loose one by one. The boss got angry of course and ran to the waterside. He could just jump on the boat and grabbed a liitle nimf. She was very scared. She told the man crying that she and her sisters were the elves of the Amstel and they wre just playing, meanining no harm at all.

She promised the man that when the man wouldt let her go he wouldn get a boat full of gold. Totally amazed he let her go and saw the elves hurrying away. Then at the same time the water looked as if it was boiling heavily. Then it happened. A boat came up from under water and itwas loaded with the promised gold.

And with this same gold he builded 13 identical houses in a row at the Amstel. He named them after the months and the sun.

And even today when you walk through this capital of Holland you can find these 13 houses.



The tales from Slovenia:
A GOLDEN NUT TWIG

Once upon a time there lived four musicians, who walked from village to village and earned money by playing their instuments in Inns. One night they came to a ruined castle. The moon was shining across the ruins. One of the musicians said: “My fellow friends, let’s play a serenade to the people who once lived here.”

They all agreed and started to play joyfully. When they stopped playing an old man came out of the ruin castle an gave to each of them a nut twig and said: “Take these twigs to your children!” The musicians took the twigs but they threw them away and made fun of the old man: “He could have given us something else. What shall our kids use them for? They’ve got plenty of such twigs at home.”

Only one put a twig into his pocket, when he went home.

Next morning all the kids were very surprised. They went to him and said:” Dad why did you bring us these hard nuts that we can’t break. And we have never seen such shiny yellow nuts before.” The musician was surprised as he looked at the nut twig full of golden nuts. He ran to his friends and told them what happened. When the other musicians heard this, they went to get their twigs.

They were looking for them all day, but they had to return home empty- handed.

The children of the grateful musician sold the gold nuts and they were never poor again. This fairy tale teaches us not to throw away even the smallest present we are given.

THE LITTLE SHEPPARD

Once upon a time there lived a small boy on the Istrian coast near the sea. One day he saw three beautiful girls lying on the grass. They were fairies, resting on the sun. The boy thought that the sun would burn them. He climbed on the nearest tree, gathered some branches and covered the fairies with them.

Not long after that the fairies woke up. They were asking themselves who protected them from the sun but actually they knew what happened as fairies never slept. They were just wondering would the little sheppard told them he helped. He was so afraid of them that he started to run but the fairies caught him. They asked him if he wanted anything in exchange for his help. They realised he didn't want anything from them.

They told him that when he would be walking home he'd hear the sea and the bells but he should not look back. Then they disappeared. When he was walking home he forgot what the fairies told him. He looked back. Suddenly there was an endless line of cows and sheep behind him. In the moment he looked back the line stopped walking from the sea. He lived happily ever after.

GOLDHORN - ZLATOROG

Once upon a time the Triglav mountains were covered with meadows fill of flowers. They were the home of the white fairies and the white goats. They were all protected by the white goat with golden horns - the invulnerable Zlatorog. If anybody should wound Zlatorog, a secret flower - "triglavska roža" would spring forth from his blood and cure him. Zlatorog's golden horns were the key to hidden treasures under the mountain of Bogatin. All these secrets were known to a brave, young hounter who lived in these days in Trenta valley. He was in love with a girl named Jerica. She was an innkeeper's daughter, a lovely girl whom many young men wanted to marra, but Jerica heartily loved the hunter from Trenta. He was the best hunter in the valley and people saind he was under the protection of the fairies.

One day a merchant from Venice came to the village where Jerica lived. He gave her a ring, earrings and other golden jewellry. Jerica took the gold from the foreigner.

Being stung by the hurtful words of his beloved girl who was enchanted with the presents that the merchant from Venice had given her, the Trenta hunter decided to find the Bogatin treasure.

Sad and unhappy he thought that the only thing he could do at the moment was to kill Zlatorog, take his horn and open the underground cave under Bogatin where the treasure was hidden. The hunter found Zlatorog and shot him. He wounded him, but from his blood the mirauclous flower - triglavska roža - sprang up. When Zlatorog ate it, he became well and strong again. In his rage he butted the hunter over the cliffs.

The fairies and white goats then left our mountains. Zlatorog led them away, nobody knows where. But before departing, Zlatorog devastated the sunny mountain meadows with his golden horns and turned them into a rocky wasteland, full of dangerous precipes. Many traces of his horns can be seen today in our mountains.

We still have a little flower - "triglavska roža" - growing on the Triglav splopes. The fairy treasure is still hidden under the mountain of Bogatin. We still have a rocky path that traverses the Triglav north face - "Zlatorogove police". We still have the wild beauty of the "Zlatorog kingdom" in the mountains of Triglav.



The tale from Sweeden:
THE GARDENERS DAUGHTER

Once upon a time, there was a gardener who had a big and beautiful garden but often thieves came to his garden and took a lot of cabbage.

So finally, he asked his oldest daughter to watch the cabbage during a night. She was standing on guard and then suddenly she heard something among the cabbages and she cried out, do not take my fathers cabbage. A voice out in the dark answered her telling her to be quiet or otherwise I will put you into my sack.

The daughter once again told him to go away, but then something came up behind her and grabbed her and put her into the sack and off he went. After a while, he put down the sack and took her out and she found herself standing on the floor in a troll's house. He did not look too nice but he told her to clean the house and if she did it well, he would marry her.

Therefore, when he went out the next morning he gave her an apple made of glass and a key, which led into a room but she was not allowed to go into that room. As soon as he went away the girl went to the door and opened it and when she saw what was in the room she screamed and dropped the apple and of cause it crashed into pieces. The sight that met her when she opened the door was just terrible. She saw many dead people lying on the shelves She did not know what to do, so she closed the door. After a while the troll came back and at once he wanted to see the apple and he got so angry when he found it was broken so he killed her and put her also in the room.

Meanwhile the gardener was a little upset about his daughter's disappearance but his middle-daughter now wanted to watch the cabbages. However, the same thing happened to her as well and now the gardener had only his youngest sister still at home.

Not knowing what had happened to his two daughters he let his youngest one out to watch the cabbages and of cause the same thing happened to her. The next morning the troll went away. He gave her the key and an apple made of glass and he gave her the same instructions as he had done to her sisters.

Off he went. This girl was as much curious as her sisters but she was a little more intelligent. Before she opened the door, she laid down the apple very carefully on a blanket. Also, she saw the terrible sight and her two sisters as well lying there dead. However, she did not panic. When the troll came back in the evening he was very satisfied finding the apple not broken.

The troll was satisfied with the girl and one day he ordered hen to dinner. The girl went out to the henhouse, but she felt sorry for the hens so she decided to kill the oldest cock instead. When the troll saw that she has killed his cock, he kept calm, and he took a little bottle and dropped a few drops on the cock and the cock became alive.

The next day when the troll went away, she took the bottle, and went into the room and dropped a few drops on her oldest sister who at once became alive and very happy to see her sister. The youngest sister put her oldest sister into a sack and tied up the sack. When the troll came back home she told him that she wanted to give her parents some potatoes and he had to promise not to look into the sack, if he did it she would leave him at once and marry him. The instructions she gave to her sister was, just say - I can see you!

The day after, she sent home her next oldest sister in the same way. On the third day, she told the troll that he had to go with on more sack to her parent's house. The sack would be ready when you come home in the evening, but you are not suppose to see me, because I will stay in my room for about a week to be able to sew my bridal dress and I don't want you to see it before the wedding.

When the troll went away she hurried to wake up all the rest and told them to hurry back home. Then she put many gold and silver things in the sack and finally she went into the sack herself. In the afternoon when he came home, he found the sack and he took it to the gardener, he was very curious but he was so afraid to miss her so he did not look into the sack. He went back home and he was so afraid to disturb her. After eight days, he went into the room and of cause, he found it empty. He went into the other room, where all the dead people were, but they were gone as well and also his gold and silver things. Now he realised that the girl had cheated him and he became so angry so he broke into pieces.