Frau Holle auf Englisch

Das Märchen Frau Holle von den Gebrüdern Grimm ist nicht nur im deutschen Sprachraum bekannt. Auch im Englischen kennt man das Märchen. Hier findest du den kompletten Text von Frau Holle auf Englisch zum online Lesen.

Wie heißt Frau Holle auf Englisch?

Frau Holle Text auf Englisch

Once upon a time there was a widow who had two daughters. They were very different from each other. One of them was beautiful and hard-working. The other one was ugly and lazy.

But the widow liked the lazy daughter more and treated her better, because she was her own daughter. The pretty one, who was her stepdaughter, had to take care of all the hard work in the household.

Every day she had to sit at a spinning wheel by the well to spin yarn. One day her fingers were bleeding from all the spinning and the spindle was covered with blood, too. The girl dipped the spindle into the water of the well to wash it clean. But it happened that the spindle fell out of her hand and sank in the water.

When she told her stepmother what had happened, the woman got very angry and spoke: ‘Since you have dropped the spindle into the water, you must fetch it out by yourself.’

The girl went to the well and desperate as she was she jumped into the water. She dived down and tried to reach the ground but suddenly everything around her turned black and she lost consciousness.

***

When she woke up she found herself on a beautiful field, surrounded by lovely flowers. The sun was shining and birds were singing.

She didn’t know where she was. But there was a path so the girl started walking.

When she was walking along the path, she suddenly heard a voice calling: ‘Take us out! Take us out! If you don’t take us out, we will burn.’ The girl looked around and realised the voice came out of an oven filled with loaves of bread. There was a bread-shovel leaning on the oven. The girl grabbed the bread-shovel and one by one she took the breads out of the oven.

As she walked further on the path, she came to a tree full with red apples. ‘Oh shake me, shake me. My apples are all ripe!’ the tree called out to her.

The girl didn’t hesitate. She shook the tree until the last apple was lying on the grass. Then she collected the apples to a pile and went on.

Finally, she arrived at a house. An old woman with long teeth was leaning out of a window. The girl was scared and wanted to run away.

‘Don’t be afraid, my dear child.’ the woman called out with a kind voice. ‘I am Mother Holle. You can stay with me. If you help me with the housework, things will go well for you. You just need to make my bed well and shake it till the feathers fly. Because then there will be snow on earth.’

And as the woman spoke so kindly to her, the girl agreed to stay. Industrious as she was, she fulfilled the wishes of Mother Holle very well. Every single day she shook her bedding so thoroughly that the feathers were flying like snowflakes. Never was an angry word spoken between her and Mother Holle. She had a good life indeed.

Nevertheless, she began to feel homesick after she had spent a long time at Mother Holle’s house.

She spoke to Mother Holle: ‘Although I am very well off here, I miss my home. I need to go back and live with my people.’

The woman answered: ‘I understand your wish to return home to your family. As you have served me so well, I will show you the way home myself.’

She took the hard-working girl by her hand and guided her to a large gate.

When the girl walked under the gate, she was showered in gold. The gold remained sticking to her hair, her body and her clothes.

‘This is the reward for your help.’ spoke Mother Holle. And she also gave her back the spindle that had fallen into the well initially.

When the gate closed behind her, the girl found herself back on earth, close to her stepmother’s house.

As she walked towards the house, the rooster was standing on the well and cried:

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Your golden girl’s come back to you!

The girl entered the house and since she was covered in gold, she was well received by her stepmother and stepsister.

When the stepmother heard what had happened and how her stepdaughter had come to the gold, she wanted the same for her own lazy daughter. So she told her to sit by the well and spin.

***

But instead of spinning till her hands were bleeding she pricked her finger on a thornbush and dropped some blood on the spindle. Then she threw the spindle into the well and jumped in herself.

Like her stepsister, she awoke in the beautiful scenery and followed the path.

As she came by the oven she heard it calling: ‘Take us out! Take us out! If you don’t take us out, we will burn.’

But the lazy girl answered: ‘No, no. Why should I get my hands dirty?’

She walked on and came by a tree full with apples. ‘Oh, shake me, shake me. My apples are all ripe!’ the tree called out to her.

‘Oh no,’ the lazy girl answered. ‘What if an apple falls on my head?’

She finally arrived at the little house. Since she knew about the old woman and her long teeth she felt no fear and started speaking immediately: ‘I am not afraid of you. I know you are Mother Holle. I came to stay with you.’

And so she did. The first day she worked hard and helped in the house thinking of all the gold she would receive as a reward. But the next day she already became lazy. She didn’t want to wake up and she didn’t shake the bedsheets.

The days went on and soon Mother Holle was getting tired of her. ‘I think it is time for you to return home and live with your own people.’ This was just what the lazy girl wanted to hear.

As she walked under the gate she expected to be covered in gold like her sister before. But instead of gold she was covered in black pitch. The pitch covered her hair, her body and her clothes.

‘This is the reward for your help.’ spoke Mother Holle. She returned the spindle back to the lazy girl.

As the gate closed behind her, she was back on earth and returned to her mother’s house.

When the rooster saw her covered in black pitch he cried out:

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Your dirty girl’s come back to you!

The black pitch stuck fast to her. And as long as she lived she couldn’t get it off.

***

Zusammenfassung (Summary)

Once upon a time, there lived a widow with two daughters. One was beautiful and hardworking while the other was ugly and lazy. But the widow treated the lazy daughter better, because she was her own daughter.

She would always give the hardworking one lots of work to do. One day, this girl pricked her finger, and the spindle fell into the well. When her stepmother saw her, she told her to get the spindle from the well.

In her confused state, she fell into the well and woke up to another land. She was kind to everything she met and an older woman named Mother Holle, who lived all by herself. She loved her and allowed her to stay for many days, after which she took her back to her own house and gave her plenty of gold.

The other daughter was jealous and copied the hardworking daughter. She, however, was rather unkind and lazy. She assumed she would get lots of gold too, but when Mother Holle brought her back after some days the lazy daughter was loaded with black pitch. She could never wash it away.

➔ Noch mehr Märchen und Geschichten auf Englisch