Fairytales of Famous Authors Compared to Disney Cartoons with proper respect etc

Story 46: The White Snake Brothers' Grimm (1812)

The White Snake

To those Who Love Animals This Might Be Triggering in parts you have been warned read at your own risk if you dare, this may make you even more queasy than before.
Long ago there lived a king who was famed far and wide for his wisdom. Nothing remained hidden from him, and it was as though knowledge of the most secret things came to him through the air. But he had a strange custom. When the noonday meal had been cleared away and there was no one else at the table, a trusted servant had to bring him one more dish. This dish was covered; the servant himself didn't know what was in it, and neither did anyone else, for the king didn't take the cover off and eat until he was all alone. One day after this had been going on for some time the servant was overpowered by curiosity while removing the dish. He took it secretly to his room, and when he had carefully locked the door, he raised the lid and saw that a white snake was inside. Once he had seen it, he couldn't help wanting to taste it, so he cut off a little piece and put it in his mouth.
And no sooner had it touched his tongue, than he heard strange sweet whisperings outside his window. When he went over and listened it turned out that the whispering voices were those of sparrows, who were having a chat, telling each other about all sorts of things they had seen in the woods and fields. Tasting the snake had given him the power to understand the language of the birds and beasts.
Now it so happened that just that day the queen's best ring disappeared and the trusted servant, who was free to go where he pleased in the palace, was suspected of stealing it. The king summoned him and spoke angrily, saying that unless he named the thief by the following day he would be pronounced guilty and beheaded. It did him no good to protest his innocence, the king dismissed him without a word of comfort.
In his fear and distress he went down into the courtyard and racked his brains for a way out of his difficulty. Some ducks were sitting by a brook, taking it easy, preening themselves and having a private chat. The servant stopped and listened. They told each other about all the places where they had been waddling about that morning and al the good food they had found, and one of them said dejectedly: "There's something weighing on my stomach. I was eating so fast that I swallowed a ring that was lying on the ground below the queen's window."

The servant seized her by the neck,
carried her straight to the litchen, and said to the cook: "Here's a wellfed duck. Id kill her if I were you." "Yes indeed," said the cook, hefting the duck in his hand, "she has worked hard at putting on weight and it's high time she was roasted." He cut her throat, and when she was being cleaned the queen's ring was found in her stomach. The servant had no further trouble convincing the king of his innocence. Wanting to make amends for the injustice he had done him, the king asked him if there was anything he desired and offered him any post he might wish for at court.
The servant declined all honors and asked only for a horse and a bit of money to keep him, for he longed to see the world and to travel for a while. This the king granted, and the servant started out.
One day as he was passing a pond, he noticed three fishes who were caught in the rushes and gasping for water. Though fish are said to be mute, he heard them bewailing the miserable death they were facing.
Being a kindhearted man, he got down off his horse and put the three captives back into the water. Wriggling with joy, they stuck out their heads and called: "We shall remember this and reward you for saving us." He rode on, and after a while he thought he heard a voice in the sand at his feet. He listened and heard an ant king complaining:
"If humans would only keep their clumsy beasts away from us! This stupid horse is mercilessly trampling my people with his big heavy hooves!? At that the servant turned into a side path and the ant king called out: "We shall remember this and reward you." The path led into a forest, and there the servant saw a father and mother raven throwing their chicks out of the nest: "Away with you, you gallows birds!" they cried. "We can't fill your bellies any more; you're big enough to find your own food." The poor chicks flapped their wings helplessly and couldn't get off the ground. "We're only helpless chil-dren," they screamed. "How can we find our own food when we can't fly yet? You're leaving us here to starve to death." At that the kindly young man alighted, killed his horse with his sword, and gave it to the young ravens to feed on. They came hopping over, ate their fill, and cried out: "We shall remember this and reward you." From then on he had to use his own legs, and after walking a long way he came to a big city. The streets were full of noise and bustle, and a horseman came along, announcing that the king's daughter was looking for a husband, but that anyone wishing to bid for her hand must perform a difficult task, and that if he failed in it he would lose his life. Many had tried, but had risked their lives to no purpose.
When the young man saw the king's daughter, he was so dazzled by her beauty that he forgot the danger, went to the king and presented himself as a suitor.
He was led straight to the sea, and before his eyes a gold ring was thrown into the water. Then the king bade him retrieve the ring from the bottom, and added: "If you come up without it, you will be thrown back in and so on again and again until you perish in the waves." The courtiers all grieved for the handsome young man, and then they left him alone on the shore. As he stood there wondering what to do, he suddenly saw three fishes swimming toward him, and they were none other than those whose lives he had saved. The middle one had a shell in its mouth. He put it down on the shore at the young man's feet, and when he picked it up and opened it, the gold ring was inside. Full of joy, he brought it to the king, expecting him to grant the promised reward. But when the haughty princess heard that he was not her equal in birth, she scorned him and said he would have to perform a second task. She went down into the garden and strewed ten sacks full of millet in the grass. "You must pick it all up before the sun rises tomorrow morning,' she said, "and there mustn't be a single grain missing." The boy sat down in the garden and searched his mind for a way of performing this task, but nothing occurred to him, and there he sat as sad as sad can be, expecting to be led to his death at daybreak. But when the first rays of sun fell on the arden less tie in ache sanding an king had led to the brim, perdas he ngo grain was mising. The ant king had come during the and ret is thousand and thousands of ants and the grateful ceme right had ailered the millet grain by grain and packed it into the wire tie kings daughter, her very own self, came down into the parten and was amazed to see that the task had been done. But her haughty heart sill refused to be subdued, and she said! "He has indeed performed the two tasks, but he shall not become my husband ded he has brought me an apple from the tree of life.?" The young man didn't know where che tree of life was. He started off, resolved to keep going as long as his legs would carry him, but he had no hope of finding it. One evening after searching three kingdoms, he came to a forest. He sat down under a tree and was just falling asleep when he heard a sound in the branches and a golden apple fell into his hands.
At the same time three ravens flew down, perched on his knees, and said: "We are the three young ravens you saved from starvation.
When we grew up and heard you were looking for the golden apple, we few across the sea to the end of the world, where the tree of life grows, and took the apple." Full of joy, the young man started back home. He brought the beautiful princess the golden apple, and after tar she had no crouse left. They divided the apple of life and are it together. Then her heart was filled with love for him and they lived to a ripe old age with happiness.

Despite the gruesome this story is quite clever and one of my favorites as well of all the Brothers' Grimm stories and the reason for one death of an animal is mellowed out for me because it was done out of an act of mercy to feed another animal,