Today we are going to tell an interesting fairy tale called The Three Spinners.It is a short story about promise, kindness and good luck.Although the main character is a girl who doesn’t like to work, she ends up with an unexpected good result because she keeps her promise.
Let’s take a look at this story together!
Once upon a time there was a little girl who particularly disliked spinning.Every day when her mother let her sit beside the spinning wheel to practice, she looked sad and unhappy.
One day, her mother couldn’t stand it any longer, so she beat her.The girl was so aggrieved that she sat at home and cried.
Her cries were heard by the queen who was passing by.Finding it strange, the queen walked into the house and asked, “Why are you hitting your child?”
The girl’s mother was too embarrassed to say directly that her daughter was lazy, so she lied: “I didn’t let her spin yarn, it’s because she likes spinning too much.But the family was poor and could not afford to buy so much flax.”
When the queen heard this, she said, “Then let this child return to the palace with me, I have plenty of flax there, enough for her to spin for a year and a half.”
When the girl’s mother heard this, she hurriedly nodded her head in agreement, and in this way the girl was brought into the palace.
After arriving at the palace, the queen took her upstairs to the three warehouses full of flax, said to her: “All of these hemp to be spun into thread, when you finish spinning, I will let you marry my son.”
When the girl heard this, her heart thumped, and she thought, “My goodness, so much hemp, how long will I have to spin it!”
She sat by the window alone and fretted, not knowing what to do.
Just then, three strange women came outside.The first woman had extraordinarily large feet; the second had long lips that hung down to her chin; the third had extraordinarily thick fingertips, especially her thumbs, which were wider than the palms of her hands.
They went to the window and saw the girl’s sad face, so they asked her what was wrong.
The girl then told them her troubles.
One of the women said, “If you don’t mind that we look a little strange and are willing to invite us to your wedding and let us eat together, we can help you spin all this hemp.”
When the girl heard this, she was overjoyed, “Of course I’m willing!”
So she hurriedly packed up a corner of one of the storehouses, let these three women stay and began to help with the spinning.
These women worked especially fast and cooperated well.They worked and chatted at the same time, and were very efficient.
Every time the queen came to check on the progress, the girls would hide them ahead of time and take out the already spun thread to show the queen.
The queen was very satisfied with what she saw and thought that the girl was really a hardworking and capable person.
In this way, the hemp in the three warehouses was finally spun out.
Before the three women left, they reminded the girl, “Don’t forget what you promised, it’s very important for your future.”
The girl nodded her head repeatedly and promised not to forget.
Shortly afterward, the queen began to prepare for the wedding of the prince and the girl.The prince was happy to hear that his bride was so hardworking and felt that he had married a capable wife.
A few days before the wedding, the girl suddenly said to the queen and the prince, “I have three other cousins who are especially good to me.I would like to invite them to the wedding, and I would also like them to sit at a table with us for dinner.”
Neither the queen nor the prince thought much about it and agreed.
On the day of the wedding, three strangely dressed women walked into the banquet hall.
The girl immediately greeted them and said warmly, “Dear cousins, welcome to my wedding!”
After the three women sat down, the prince curiously walked up to the first woman and asked, “Why are your feet so big?”
The woman smiled and said, “I’ve been stepping on spinning wheels with my feet for decades, and my feet have gotten like this.”
The prince nodded and walked over to the second woman and asked, “Why are your lips so long?”
The woman replied, “It’s from licking the twine from morning to night.”
A little surprised, the prince continued to the third woman and asked, “And what’s with this thumb of yours?”
The women smiled and replied, “This is from twisting the twine every day and grinding it out of my fingers.”
After hearing their answers, the prince was startled.He then realized that these three “cousins” were all spinning women, and they all looked particularly hard.
He quickly said, “From now on, I will never let my wife touch the spinning wheel!She is now my princess, and can no longer do this kind of hard work.”
And so the girl never had to spin again and lived happily ever after.
Questions on First Reading
When I first heard this story, I thought it was a bit unreasonable.A little girl who doesn’t like to work is brought to the palace just because her cries are heard by the queen, and she can rely on others’ help to fulfill her tasks and finally marry the prince?That’s a bit too lucky!
Moreover, those three women were too strange.With feet that big, sagging lips and thick fingers, they don’t look like ordinary people at first glance.Why would they help this girl?Why did they only make one condition – to attend the wedding?Also, how could the queen and the prince have no suspicion of these strange people?
These questions made me feel for a while that the story was more like a made-up fairy tale, just to make children happy, with little deep meaning.
Reflections after re-reading
But then, I read it again and again a few times and realized that it is actually a very interesting story.It is a fairy tale on the surface, but it actually tells a lot of realistic truths.Here I will tell you, in simple words, a few of the inspirations I felt from it.
1. Don’t panic when faced with a difficult problem, there are always more solutions than difficulties.
When the girl was faced with a pile of flax at the beginning, her heart must have crumbled.But she didn’t keep on fretting, instead, she encountered a problem and went to think of a solution.Although she could not spin by herself, she knew how to get help.
It’s just like when we’re in trouble now, we don’t have to carry it off on our own.Sometimes, finding the right person and the right way can easily solve the problem.
2. Appearance doesn’t mean ability, don’t judge a book by its cover!
The three spinning women who help the girls are not good-looking and can even be said to be a little scary.Yet they possessed very impressive craftsmanship and were able to accomplish a great deal of work in a short time.
This tells us one thing: a person’s ability and value should not be based on appearance alone.Some people may look ordinary or even a bit strange, but they may have skills you can’t imagine.So don’t look down on anyone so easily.
3. Grasp the opportunity, but also have the ability to grasp the opportunity.
It is true that there is a certain amount of luck for the girl to get the queen’s favor.But she did not waste the opportunity in vain.When the opportunity came, she knew that she could not do so much work herself, so she decisively asked for help.
This shows that while luck is important, what is more important is whether you can catch that luck.If you don’t have even the most basic way of coping, even if the opportunity comes, it will slip through your hands.
4. Promises should be honored and honesty is important.
The girl promised three women that she would invite them to the wedding and in the end she actually did it.Even though she might be talked about at the wedding, she didn’t go back on her word.
This is very worth learning.The most important thing to be a human being is to keep one’s word.When you promise someone something, you have to do it.Then others will trust you and be willing to continue to help you.
5. “Lazy” can also stimulate creativity.
Many people will think that this girl is too lazy and doesn’t want to do anything.But from another point of view, she is actually “lazy” out of wisdom.
She did not want to do repetitive work, so she thought of asking others to help.This kind of “laziness” is actually a manifestation of innovative thinking.In real life, many times we don’t want to do something, so we will try to find a smarter way, or with the help of tools and the power of the team.
So, being lazy is not necessarily a bad thing, it depends on whether you are too lazy to come up with ideas or too lazy to use your brain.
The Three Spinners in Real Life
If you look at this story in reality, there are three spinners around everyone.They may be friends, coworkers, or experts in a particular field of expertise.These people may look ordinary, but their ability and experience can help us solve many problems.
And that girl, to some extent, can also be seen as ourselves.When we face pressure and challenges, we have to learn to utilize our resources and seek help instead of pushing through to the end.
At the same time, remember to be thankful for those who have helped us, even if they don’t look too impressive, even if what they did was a bit unusual.
To summarize
The Three Spinners may be a fairy tale, but there is nothing childish about what it tells us.It tells us:
Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you are in trouble;
Don’t judge a person’s ability by his appearance;
Don’t judge a person’s ability by his or her appearance; and be able to catch your luck when it comes;
Don’t judge a person’s ability by his or her appearance;
Sometimes “laziness” can lead to innovation.
So the next time you hear a fairy tale like this, don’t be so quick to say it’s just for kids, but maybe there’s some great wisdom in it!
The last word
In fact, many “miracles” in this world don’t just fall from the sky.They are often the result of someone’s advance preparation or someone’s willingness to lend a helping hand.What we need to do is to keep an open mind, learn to cooperate, know how to be grateful, so that good luck will naturally come to you!
These are some of my thoughts after reading The Three Spinners, and I’m sharing them with you.Do you think this story has any other meaning?Welcome to leave a message to exchange Oh!
