Today, I’m going to tell you a very classic Grimm’s fairy tale, ‘The Three Spinners’. The story tells of a lazy girl who, by chance, is taken to the palace by the queen. With the help of three strange women, she completes her task and eventually marries the prince. More importantly, she is rewarded with happiness for keeping her promise.
1. The troubles of the lazy girl
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who hated spinning. She found it to be a tiring and boring task, so she always looked for ways to avoid it. One day, she was crying bitterly because she didn’t want to spin and her mother gave her a severe scolding.
Just then, a queen happened to pass by their house and heard the girl’s crying. The queen was curious and went into the house to ask the mother, “Why are you beating your daughter?”
Embarrassed to speak ill of her daughter, the mother made up an excuse, saying, “Alas, I told her not to spin anymore, but she just wouldn’t listen and kept on spinning and spinning! But our family is very poor and simply cannot afford to buy her so much flax.”
After hearing this, the queen laughed and said, ”In that case, why don’t you let your daughter come with me to the palace? I have plenty of flax there for her to spin as much as she likes.”
The mother gladly agreed, so the queen took the girl back to the palace.
2. The task of three warehouses
After arriving at the palace, the queen took the girl upstairs and opened three large warehouses full of linen. The warehouses were full of mountains of linen, and it seemed as if it would never end.
The queen said to the girl, “From now on, you will be responsible for spinning all this linen into thread. When you have finished, I will let you marry my eldest son.”
With that, the queen left. The girl stood in front of the warehouse door, looking at the mountain of linen in front of her, and she felt both scared and worried. How could she possibly complete such a huge amount of work alone?
Just as she was sitting by the window, daydreaming, she suddenly saw three strange-looking women walking outside:
- the first woman had a huge foot;
- the second woman’s bottom lip hung down to her chin;
- and the third woman had a thumb wider than her palm.
The three women came up to the window and asked the girl curiously why she looked so sad. The girl told them about her predicament.
“If you don’t mind being with us,” they said to the girl, ‘we can help you quickly complete this task. But in exchange, you must invite us to your wedding and let us sit at the same table.”
The girl quickly nodded in agreement: ’Of course! Thank you so much!”
So the girl cleared out a corner of one of the warehouses and let them stay. The three women immediately started spinning, working quickly and in perfect harmony. Every time the queen came upstairs to check, the girl would hide them in advance and then show the queen the spun yarn.
In this way, with the help of the three women, all the linen in the three warehouses was finally spun!
3. Keeping promises and unexpected happiness
When all the work was done, the three women were ready to leave. Before they went, they reminded the girl not to forget her promise: “Remember what you said, it concerns your happiness.”
Soon afterwards, the girl showed the queen the three empty barns and the mountain of yarn. The queen was very pleased and decided to give the girl a grand wedding. The prince was also very happy, thinking that he had found a hardworking and dexterous bride.
During the preparations for the wedding, the girl did not forget her original promise. She told the queen and the prince, “I have three cousins who are very kind to me. I would like to invite them to my wedding and have them sit at the same table as us.”
The queen and the prince readily agreed.
On the day of the wedding, the three spinners appeared at the banquet in strange clothes. The bride warmly welcomed them, saying, ”Dear cousins, welcome to my wedding!”
Halfway through the banquet, the prince noticed the strange appearance of the three women and couldn’t help but go up to them and ask:
He first went up to the first woman and asked, “Why are your feet so big?”
The woman replied, ‘This is because I have been trampling the spinning wheel for many years.”
Then the prince asked the second woman, ’Why are your lips hanging down?”
The woman sighed and said, ”This is because I lick the twine every day.”
Finally, the prince turned to the third woman and asked, “And what about your thumb?”
The woman replied with a smile, ‘That’s from all the twirling I did.”
After hearing these answers, the prince was shocked and quickly announced, ’From today on, I will never let my beautiful bride touch a spinning wheel again!”
From then on, the lucky girl never had to spin again and lived a happy life.
4. The moral of the story
This story teaches us an important lesson: to be grateful and keep our promises.
Although the girl was lazy at first, she did not despise the three strange-looking women who helped her, but sincerely invited them to her wedding and fulfilled her promise. Because of this, she received unexpected rewards.
So, children, always learn to respect others, especially those who have helped you. And always keep your promises, because that is how you earn the trust and love of others, and create more opportunities and good fortune for yourself!
