Monday, June 19, 2017

Grimm Reviews – “The Three Spinners”




“The Three Spinners”

There once was a lazy girl who would not do her spinning, no matter what her mother said.  One day, the mother beat her, making her cry out.  The queen was going by, and came in to ask what was going on.

The mother, not wanting to admit to having a lazy daughter, said that the girl would not stop spinning and she was too poor to supply her with enough flax.

But the queen enjoyed the sound of a spinning wheel and had plenty of flax, so she offered to take the girl to the castle.  At the castle the queen showed the girl three rooms filled with flax and told her that when she had spun it all she could marry the prince.

The girl didn’t know what to do and cried for three days.  The queen showed up and was surprised nothing had been done, but the girl said she was sad at leaving her mother.  The queen understood, but said she must begin work the next day.

The girl, still not knowing what to do, looked out the window.  She saw three women go by.  The first had a broad foot, the second a “big under-lip that hung down over her chin,” and the third a broad thumb.  They asked the girl what the problem was, and the girl told them.  The women said that they would do the spinning, as long as the girl invited them to the wedding, called them cousins, and wasn’t ashamed of them.  The girl agreed.

The three women came in and started spinning, their odd attributes helping them.  The girl hid them whenever the queen came around and praised the girl for the fine yarn.  Eventually, all three rooms were done, and the three women left.

So there was a wedding, and the girl invited her three “cousins.” The husband thought them ugly and asked how they came by their attributes and they replied with by spinning.  So he made sure his wife never spun again.

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A nice tale of laziness being rewarded.

You’d think the neighbors would already know that the daughter was lazy.  So what really was the point of the mother trying to hide that?

I enjoy the sound of spinning, but let me leave you for three days instead of listening to you work.

I enjoy the sound of spinning, but let me never be around when people are actually doing the spinning.

If the queen had rooms of flax and enjoyed the sound of spinning, you’d think such fantastic spinners would have already gotten employment with her.

We’ll do all this work, but all we ask in return is to be invited to the wedding?  Were open bars that hard to come by?

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