Stranica 52 [52]
28 GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES.
the matter with him, and if he wanted to die, that he would
neither eat nor drink; but he answered,
‘‘T neither can nor will eat and drink.”
But she brought the dishes of food and the cup of wine,
and placed them before him, and when the smell came in his
nostrils he could not refrain, but took a deep draught. When
the hour drew near, he went into the garden and stood on the
tan-heap to wait for the king’s daughter ; as time went on he
grew more and more weary, and at last he laid himself down
and slept like a stone. At two oclock came the raven with
four black horses, and the car and all was black; and she was
sad, knowing already that he was sleeping, and would not be
able to set her free; and when she came up to him, there he
lay and slept. She shook him and called to him, but she
could not wake him. Then she laid a loaf by his side and
some meat, and a flask of wine, for now, however much he ate
and drank, it could not matter. And she took a ring of gold
from her finger, and put it on his finger, and her name was
engraven on it. And lastly she laid by him a letter, in which
was set down what she had given him, and that all was of no
use, and further also it said,
“T see that here thou canst not save me, but if thy mind
is to the thing, come to the golden castle of Stromberg: I
know well that if thou willst thou canst.” And when all this
was done, she got again into her car, and went to the golden
castle of Stromberg.
When the man waked up and perceived that he had been
to sleep, he was sad at heart to think that she had been, and
gone, and that he had not set her free. Then, catching sight
of what lay beside him, he read the letter that told him all.
And he rose up and set off at once to go to the golden castle of
Stromberg, though he knew not where it was. And when he
had wandered about in the world for a long time, he came to
a dark wood, and there spent a fortnight trying to find the way
out, and not being able. At the end of this time, it being
towards evening, he was so tired that he laid himself down
under a clump of bushes and went to sleep. ‘The next day
he went on again, and in the evening, when he was going to lie
down again to rest, he heard howlings and lamentations, so
that he could not sleep. And about the hour when lamps