“Fitcher’s Bird”
There once was a wizard who disguised
himself as a beggar to kidnap pretty girls. One day he came to a house where
three girls lived. The eldest went to give him some food, but at a touch she
jumped into his basket and he carried her to his home in the woods.
He gave her everything she could have
wanted. But after a few days he said he needed to leave. So he gave her the
keys to all the rooms of the house, but told her not to go into one room on
pain of death. He also gave her an egg to keep safe.
After he left, she set out to explore the
house, and eventually came to the forbidden room. She went in anyway, and saw a
bloody basin with body parts and an ax. She was so frightened that she dropped
the egg into the basin. She fished it out, but no matter how often she cleaned
it, the blood came back.
When the wizard returned, he saw by the
egg that she had disobeyed him, so he dragged her into the room, cut off her
head and chopped her body up.
The wizard returned to the girl’s home and
captured the second sister. She suffered the same fate.
But the youngest sister was clever. When
the wizard left her with the egg and keys, she set the egg down and went to the
forbidden room. When she saw her older sisters there, she gathered together the
parts and they rejoined and came back to life.
When the wizard returned and could find no
blood on the egg, he said that she had passed his test and would be his bride.
She commanded that he carry a basket of gold to her parents. She hid her
sisters in a basket and covered them with gold. She told the wizard to go, and
she would watch from a window to make sure he didn’t stop. Whenever he tried to
rest, one of the older sisters would call out why he was resting, so he hurried
on.
The younger sister sent out invitations to
all the wizard’s friends. She also took a skull and set it looking out a
window. She then rolled herself in honey and covered herself in feathers from
the bed so she looked like a great bird.
She then walked home, and whenever she met
someone going to the wedding, she told them the bride was watching from a
window. Even the wizard was fooled by her.
Once the wizard and all his friends were
in the house, the girl’s brothers and kin (sent by the older sisters) locked
all the doors and set fire to the house with everyone inside.
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Why do I have the feeling this is another
fairy tale that won’t be made into a kids’ movie anytime soon? I wonder, did
the youngest sister try putting together any of the other victims? Or did she
just let them burn up with the wizard and his friends?
How quickly did the invitations go out and
the guests arrive? That all happened
while the wizard was carrying the older sisters home.
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