Tuesday 18 January 2011

The Three Spinners or How To Profit From Idleness And Deceit


WILLOW's MAGPIE No. 49




A long time ago, a poor hard-working mother was cursed with an idle daughter who simply refused to bolster the household finances by helping her mother at the spinning wheel.

Finally mother lost all patience and smacked her daughter until she cried. The Queen happened to be riding by at that exact moment. She heard the girl cry and, being soft-hearted, came to inquire the reason for the racket.

Mother was ashamed of her lazy daughter. Instead of owning up, she said that her daughter wanted to spin all day but that she didn’t have the money to provide the flax.

“Poor girl”, said the Queen. “Come with me to the palace, I have plenty of flax and you’ll be able to spin to your heart’s content”.

At the palace the Queen showed the girl three rooms filled with flax.

“Spin me this flax”, she said, “ and when you have done so, you shall have my eldest son for a husband. You may be a poor peasant girl, but you are wonderfully industrious; that’s dowry enough”.

Left to get on with it, the girl burst into tears. She was even worse off here than at home. She went to the window, weeping desperately.

Three old women were standing outside, gossiping. One had a broad, flat foot, the second had a long, drooping underlip and the third had a huge thumb. “Why are you crying such bitter tears, pretty girl”, they asked.

The girl sobbed out her story.

“Well, here’s what we’ll do for you”, said the ugly women, “we’ll do the spinning for you if you invite us to your wedding to the Queen’s son. You’ll have to promise, mind”.

Instantly, the girl’s tears dried up. “Come in, come now”, she said, “don’t delay, you could start right away. I promise to do as you ask and invite you to the wedding.

No sooner said than done. The women came in and began their spinning. One drew the thread and trod the wheel, the next wetted the thread, the third twisted it and struck the table with her finger, and as often as she spun it a skein of thread fell to the ground, spun in the finest manner possible. When they were not working the girl hid the women in her own chamber where nobody else was allowed to enter.

One after the other the rooms were emptied of flax. Every time the Queen came to check on progress, the girl showed her the great quantity of thread spun. When all the work had been done, the three women left. “Don’t forget your promise and invite us to the wedding. It will make your fortune.

The Queen was delighted, mightily she praised the girl for her industriousness. “It shall be as I promised, you shall marry the crown prince. We will prepare for the wedding immediately”.

“May I ask a favour”, the girl said. “I have three dear old aunts who have been very kind to me. May I invite them to the wedding?”

The Queen consulted her son. “We don’t see why not”, they said.

In due course the wedding feast began and three old women entered, dressed in strange apparel; the girl embraced them and said “welcome, dear aunts”.

The Prince saw them, saw how ugly they were and looked at his new bride.  Could they really be closely related? His pretty girl and these ugly old crones?

“Hello there, ladies,” he said politely, not wanting them to see that he was in shock. “Welcome and all that, but do tell me how you came by the massive foot, the lip hanging down to your chest and the malformed hand”, looking at each of them in turn.

“By treading the spinning wheel”, the first one said.
“By licking the thread”, the second one said.
“By twisting the thread”, the third one said.

Hearing that, the Prince instantly decided that he’d be the man in his household, to put his foot down and forbid his pretty new bride ever to touch a spinning wheel again, no matter how much she cried and pined for it.




57 comments:

  1. yeah no more spinning around here, grins...nice tale...

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  2. She is one lucky young woman! Fate certainly smiled upon her. :)

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  3. Such a lovely tale... and yes, she was industrious to invite the three to do her work, wasn't she? And so the supervisor was made! LOL

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  4. I love your stories Friko - you're a born storyteller!

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  5. Ah, a wonderful tale Friko. I was expecting a twist at the end but you let them all live happily ever after... I shall go about my day happy now ;-)

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  6. Another Friko special! Well written and very entertaining.

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  7. Such a fun tale, Friko, what a clever mind you have.

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  8. "Welcome and all that"!! Oh, Friko, you are priceless.
    -- K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  9. I'm pleased with the ending too.
    Man, that girl really stepped in it, didn't she?

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  10. Now I call that a happy ending. Wonderful tale.

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  11. Lucky girl with opportunity endlessly knocking..will he ever discover her ill gotten gains? ..but that's another story..which you could do so well!!

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  12. oh this is so really good and hilarious and for goodness sakes friko - publish!!! steven

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  13. ha! anything but the briar patch!!
    terrific Friko

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  14. ALRIGHT. Definitely a publishable story. Perhaps elementary school level. Get going!!

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  15. Great tale, beautifully crafted!

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  16. Friko ~ this is clever and wonderful.

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  17. I would call her spoiled, but I'd indite myself. . . well told, Friko



    Aloha from Waikiki

    Comfort Spiral

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  18. If a fairy tale can hold the interest of an Octogenarian it has to be good. Kudos for a great story with a twist.

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  19. So clever! I did not see that ending coming at all (of course I am a bit slow when it comes to these things). Nicely done!

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  20. And the moral of the story is....? If you are lazy and sly you will prosper?? I'm sure you don't believe that Friko! But a rivetingly told tale nonetheless.....

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  21. Oh I just adored this, from the title on. Very, very well done.

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  22. I loved this! Very good story!

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  23. What an artful story you weave. I couldn't wait to read the outcome...very worthy of publishing. BlessYourTalentedHeart

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  24. Friko, FABulous story! I'm not sure that I'll do this Magpie, but I enjoyed reading your take. :)

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  25. Oh you spin a fine tale! I see a fractured fairy tale book in your future.

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  26. And , in centuries to come , historians would date the rise in the fortunes of this minor Principality to a morganatic marriage to a simple spinster and the subsequent change in the country's succession laws , giving the region so many Queens , noted for their ruthless skills in the battle for power .

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  27. Have you been channeling Hans Christian Anderson??? No, no, he was dark and this was most definitely not. Absolutely fabulous, Friko. Brilliant, in fact. I was, without a syllable of exaggeration, on the edge of my seat waiting to see how it would end and you delighted me. Yes, you did. You're damn good at these, and if my kids were still little, this would hecome part of the beddtime store of stories. Bravo!

    (You might think this comment over the top, but I'm just tellin' it like it is, dear Friko.)

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  28. Another great tale well told. Were the women's names Rumple, Stilt, and Skin?

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  29. I can hear your mind rejoicing at the opportunity to spread such a tale before your appreciative audience of Bloggers! Super stuff!

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  30. Your imagination and craft are as broad as the first's flat foot, as long as the second's drooping lip, and as big as the third's thumb!! Just fabulous.

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  31. ich fühle mich in meine Kindheit versetzt, in der ich das Ende des Märchens kaum erwarten konnte :-)! Ein wundervoller Schluss, den man niemals erwartet hätte! Ein Rätsel, Deine unglaubliche Fantasie...!
    Ich wünsche Dir einen märchenhaften Tag!
    Renée

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  32. I had to come back and say congratulations on POTW at Hilary's...very well deserved as this post is great!

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  33. Friko, you're a story-teller extraordinaire!

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  34. That's a great story! I love the twist at the end.

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  35. I love this story. For once, the girl triumps and the three old ladies are not witches. Thank you for the story. Dianne

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  36. That daughter has a charmed life!

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  37. I remember this story from when I was a wee lass!!! I have always loved it!!!

    Thanks for coming by to visit me!!!

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  38. Once upon a time, there was an old, fat woman named Ethelmae, who lived with three dogs and a cat and spent most of her days sitting at the computer. She wrote some, she read some, she did the necessities of running a home in the 21st century. She dutifully went to work in the city at night, came home to play a bit with the dogs, and settled down in her recliner with the cat and the computer, where she would always fall asleep.

    Oh, and she had a husband.

    One day, she followed her friend Hilary from the Smitten Image to a magical place called Friko's World, where she found a kindred spirit, a woman who was as addicted to blogging as was she, who worried should any of her family discover themselves within her characters, and who was bitterly tired of SNOW.

    The old fat woman, who spent far too many hours reading various blogs, pondered a moment, then slowly moved the little arrow that was the mouse to the side of the page, faltered for only a moment, then with a single CLICK, hit FOLLOW.

    What the hell.

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  39. I think I saw another version of that picture today -- at Jinksy's.

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  40. Great story! I'm never disappointed by a visit here, Friko. Although I don't think I'll pass this one on to my daughters.

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  41. I love your stories :) There's always a moral. What a great outcome for the girl.

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  42. Hello Friko, thank you for your comment and congrats to you too for Hilary's POTW ... haha I like your version of this yarn*!*

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  43. Another successful tale - very enjoyable reading!!! As others have said you really should take a stab at putting your tales together into a book - I am sure that it would be a big success.

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  44. This went a totally unexpected way--cheers. I expected the indolent daughter to also be an ingrate, but you show that there are many kinds of virtues. Very enjoyable mag.

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  45. Brilliant twist on an old tale, Friko. Clever girl, eh?

    Congrats on POTW

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  46. You are indeed a born storyteller. I hope you are getting your tales published for a wider audience as well. Thanks for the quirkiness.

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  47. This is a clever story and I enjoyed it but I would not read it to my daughters as a bedtime story as Deborah said. It would be hard then to make them work as they would say that hard work is not rewarded. You are a good story teller.

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  48. I see my husband got here before me - he sloped off after breakfast and I might have known he was gallivanting around the blogosphere. But I am mortally wounded that you did not recognise Ada's wit immediately, without questioning authorship of the skating libretto!
    May the warp and weft of your spinners never tangle...

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  49. Reflections cracked me up!!! Let's hear it for management!!!

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  50. Ah the art of story telling. My paternal aunt told this to me when I was little and later to my daughters. I wonder if they will pass it on too? Originally I heard it inGerman but my girls got an English version because we emigrated to NA.

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  51. Delightfully done! I can't begin to say how much joy your posts bring.

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  52. Friko . . you never disappoint.

    (? typo in first line of last para. Do you mean - "so" put his foot down, etc)

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  53. Friko, this is a tale I would love to have been told as a very young girl. It is also a tale that I was delighted to read as an almost, but not quite, old lady. xo

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Comments are good, I like to know what you think of my posts. I know you'll keep it civil.