Monday, March 20, 2017

Grimm Reviews – “One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes”




“One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes”

There were once three sisters. The eldest had one eye in the middle of her forehead, and the youngest had three eyes, the two normal ones and the third in the middle of her forehead. Because they were different they – and their mother – looked down on the middle sister since she only had two, normal, boring eyes.

This abuse included not giving Two-Eyes enough to eat. One day while she was tending to the family goat, she cried over how hungry she was. Then a woman appeared who told her a spell that would make the goat bleat out a table covered in wondrous food.

So Two-Eyes feasted for several day before her sisters and mother grew suspicious. The mother sent One-Eye out with her the next day to learn her secret, but Two-Eyes sang a song that put the one eye to sleep, so she could eat in peace before waking her sister and going home.

So the next day the mother sent Three-Eyes out with her. But Two-Eyes made a mistake and only put two of Three-Eyes’ three eyes asleep. So Three-Eyes’ third eye saw how Two-Eyes got her meals. When she told her mother, the mother killed the goat to stop Two-Eyes from eating.

Two-Eyes went to the field and cried, and again the woman appeared. She told Two-Eyes to bury the goat entrails in front of the house. So Two-Eyes did this and next morning a wondrous tree had grown with silver leaves and gold fruit.

The mother sent first One-Eye then Three-Eyes to pick the fruit, but every time they got near, the branches would move away. Even the mother couldn’t pick any.  So finally Two-Eyes went up the tree and she had no difficulty picking the fruit. This just made the mother and her sisters hate her even more.

One day, a young knight came by and the sisters made Two-Eyes hide under a barrel. When the knight asked who the tree belong to, the sisters claimed it was theirs, but they were unable to get a branch for him. But then Two-Eyes came out and easily gave him a branch. He fell in love with her beauty, and asked what she wanted. She said she wanted to leave, so he took her as a wife.

At first, the mother and sisters didn’t mind her being gone, thinking they at least still had the tree even if they couldn’t pick any of the fruit. But the tree transported itself to the castle Two-Eyes now lived in. Years later, two beggar women came to the castle and Two-Eyes recognized them as her sisters. But instead of kicking them out, she treated them well and they were sorry for how they had treated her.

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What is it about magical tables covered in food?  And why are some people so … eager to give them away?  

How do you only sing some eyes asleep?

If you have a magic goat that can make a table full of food appear, why would you kill it?

It must have been good to be a knight in the olden days. You just rode around waiting to come across a fair maiden with a magical tree. Romance was so much easier back then.

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