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The White Snake

Englische und Amerikanische Flagge als Symbol für die aktuelle Sprachwahl
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Ein Mann und eine weiße Schlange neben ihm.

A servant saves himself from a false accusation and wins princess by understanding the language of animals.

Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich
Katze und Maus in Gesellschaft
Marienkind
Von einem, der auszog, das Fürchten zu lernen
Der Wolf und die sieben jungen Geißlein
Der treue Johannes
Der gute Handel
Der wunderliche Spielmann
Die zwölf Brüder
Das Lumpengesindel
Brüderchen und Schwesterchen
Rapunzel
Die drei Männlein im Walde
Die drei Spinnerinnen
Hänsel und Gretel
Die drei Schlangenblätter
Die weiße Schlange
Strohhalm, Kohle und Bohne
Von dem Fischer und seiner Frau
Das tapfere Schneiderlein
Aschenputtel
Das Rätsel
Von dem Mäuschen, Vögelchen und der Bratwurst
Frau Holle
Die sieben Raben
Rotkäppchen
Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten
Der singende Knochen
Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren
Läuschen und Flöhchen
Das Mädchen ohne Hände
Der gescheite Hans
Die drei Sprachen
Die kluge Else
Der Schneider im Himmel
Tischchen deck dich, Goldesel und Knüppel aus dem Sack
Daumesdick
Die Hochzeit der Frau Füchsin
Die Wichtelmänner
Der Räuberbräutigam
Herr Korbes
Der Herr Gevatter
Frau Trude
Der Gevatter Tod
Daumerlings Wanderschaft
Fitchers Vogel
Von dem Machandelboom
Der alte Sultan
Die sechs Schwäne
Dornröschen
Fundevogel
König Drosselbart
Schneewittchen
Der Ranzen, das Hütlein und das Hörnlein
Rumpelstilzchen
Der liebste Roland
Der goldene Vogel
Der Hund und der Sperling
Der Frieder und das Katherlieschen
Die zwei Brüder
Das Bürle
Die Bienenkönigin
Die drei Federn
Die goldene Gans
Allerleirauh
Häsichenbraut
Die zwölf Jäger
Von dem Sommer- und Wintergarten
Jorinde und Joringel
Die drei Glückskinder
Sechse kommen durch die ganze Welt
Der Wolf und der Mensch
Der Wolf und der Fuchs
Der Fuchs und die Frau Gevatterin
Der Fuchs und die Katze
Die Nelke
Das kluge Gretel
Der alte Großvater und der Enkel
Die Wassernixe
Von dem Tode des Hühnchens
Bruder Lustig
Der Spielhansl
Hans im Glück
Hans heiratet
Die Goldkinder
Der Fuchs und die Gänse
Der Arme und der Reiche
Das singende, springende Löweneckerchen
Die Gänsemagd
Der junge Riese
Das Erdmännchen
Der König vom goldenen Berg
Die Rabe
Die kluge Bauerntochter
Der alte Hildebrand
Die drei Vögelchen
Das Wasser des Lebens
Doktor Allwissend
Der Geist im Glas
Des Teufels rußiger Bruder
Der Bärenhäuter
Der Zaunkönig und der Bär
Der süße Brei
Die klugen Leute
Märchen von der Unke
Der arme Müllerbursch und das Kätzchen
Die beiden Wanderer
Hans mein Igel
Das Totenhemdchen
Der Jude im Dorn
Der gelernte Jäger
Der Dreschflegel vom Himmel
Die beiden Königskinder
Vom klugen Schneiderlein
Die klare Sonne bringts an den Tag
Das blaue Licht
Das eigensinnige Kind
Die drei Feldscherer
Die sieben Schwaben
Die drei Handwerksburschen
Der Königssohn, der sich vor nichts fürchtet
Der Krautesel
Die Alte im Wald
Die drei Brüder
Der Teufel und seine Großmutter
Ferdinand getreu und Ferdinand ungetreu
Der Eisenofen
Die faule Spinnerin
Die vier kunstreichen Brüder
Einäuglein, Zweiäuglein und Dreiäuglein
Die schöne Katrinelje und Pif Paf Poltrie
Der Fuchs und das Pferd
Die zertanzten Schuhe
Die sechs Diener
Die weiße und die schwarze Braut
Der Eisenhans
Die drei schwarzen Prinzessinnen
Knoist und seine drei Söhne
Das Mädchen von Brakel
Das Hausgesinde
Das Lämmchen und Fischchen
Simeliberg
Auf Reisen gehen
Das Eselein
Der undankbare Sohn
Die Rübe
Das junggeglühte Männlein
Des Herrn und des Teufels Getier
Der Hahnenbalken
Die alte Bettelfrau
Die drei Faulen
Das Hirtenbüblein
Die Sterntaler
Der gestohlene Heller
Die Brautschau
Die Schlickerlinge
Der Sperling und seine vier Kinder
Das Märchen vom Schlaraffenland
Das Dietmarsische Lügenmärchen
Rätselmärchen
Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot
Der kluge Knecht
Der gläserne Sarg
Der faule Heinz
Der Vogel Greif
Der starke Hans
Das Bürle im Himmel
Die hagere Liese
Das Waldhaus
Lieb und Leid teilen
Der Zaunkönig
Die Scholle
Rohrdommel und Wiedehopf
Die Eule
Der Mond
Die Lebenszeit
Die Boten des Todes
Meister Pfriem
Die Gänsehirtin am Brunnen
Die ungleichen Kinder Evas
Die Nixe im Teich
Die Geschenke des kleinen Volkes
Der Riese und der Schneider
Der Nagel
Der arme Junge im Grab
Die wahre Braut
Der Hase und der Igel
Spindel, Weberschiffchen und Nadel
Der Bauer und der Teufel
Die Brosamen auf dem Tisch
Das Meerhäschen
Der Meisterdieb
Der Trommler
Die Kornähre
Der Grabhügel
Oll Rinkrank
Die Kristallkugel
Jungfrau Maleen
Die Stiefel von Büffelleder
Der goldene Schlüssel

Long ago there lived a king whose wisdom was famous throughout the land. Nothing remained unknown to him, and it was as if news of the most hidden things were brought to him through the air. But he had a strange custom. Every noon, when the table was empty and no one was present, a trusted servant had to bring another bowl. But it was covered, and the servant himself did not know what was in it, and no one knew, because the king did not uncover it or eat from it until he was all alone. This had been going on for a long time, when one day curiosity overcame the servant who was carrying the bowl away again, so that he could not resist, but took the bowl to his chamber. When he had carefully closed the door, he lifted the lid and there he saw that a white snake was lying inside. At the sight of it he could not restrain the desire to taste it; he cut off a piece of it and put it in his mouth. But no sooner had it touched his tongue than he heard a strange whispering of fine voices outside his window. He went and listened, then he realized that it was the sparrows talking to each other and telling each other all sorts of things they had seen in the field and forest. The pleasure of the snake had given him the ability to understand the language of the animals.

It happened that on this very day the queen lost her most beautiful ring and the suspicion fell on the trusted servant, who had access everywhere, that he had stolen it. The king had him brought before him and threatened him with severe scolding that if he did not know who had stolen it by tomorrow, he would be looked upon and judged. It did not help that he protested his innocence, he was released with no better notice. In his anxiety and fear he went down to the courtyard and considered how he could help himself out of his distress. There the ducks were sitting peacefully next to each other by a flowing water, resting, preening each other with their beaks and holding a confidential conversation. The servant stopped and listened to them. They told each other where they had wiggled around this morning and what good food they had found, then one of them said peevishly, "I have something heavy in my stomach, I swallowed a ring that was lying under the queen's window in the haste." Then the servant immediately grabbed her by the collar, carried her into the kitchen and said to the cook "butcher this one, she is well fed." "Yes," said the cook, weighing her in his hand, "she has spared no pains to fatten herself, and has long been waiting to be roasted." He cut her neck, and when she was gutted, the queen's ring was found in her stomach. The servant could now easily prove his innocence before the king, and since the latter wished to right his wrong, he allowed him to beg a pardon and promised him the greatest position of honor he could wish for at his court.

The servant refused everything and asked only for a horse and travel money, for he felt like seeing the world and wandering around in it for a while. When his request was granted, he set out and one day passed a pond where he noticed three fish caught in the pipe and gasping for water. Although it is said that the fish were mute, he heard their lament that they had to perish so miserably. Because he had a compassionate heart, he dismounted from his horse and put the three prisoners back into the water. They wriggled with joy, stuck out their heads and called out to him, "We want to remember you and repay 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 how an ant king complained "if only the people with the clumsy animals stayed away from us! there the stupid horse with his heavy hooves tramples down my people without mercy!" He turned onto a side path and the Ant King called out to him "we will remember you and repay you." The path led him into a forest and there he saw a father and mother raven standing by their nest and throwing out their young. "Away with you, you gallows swine," they cried, "we can no longer feed you; you are big enough, and can feed yourselves." The poor boys lay on the ground, flapping and flapping their wings, crying out "we helpless children, we are to feed ourselves and cannot yet fly! what is left for us but to die here of hunger!" Then the good youth dismounted, killed the horse with his rapier, and left it for the young ravens to feed on. The ravens hopped over, fed themselves and called out "we will remember you and repay you.

He now had to use his own legs, and when he had gone a long way, he came to a large city. There was a great noise and crowd in the streets, and someone came on horseback and announced that "the king's daughter was looking for a husband, but whoever wanted to apply for her would have to accomplish a difficult task, and if he could not do it happily, he would forfeit his life. Many had already tried it, but in vain had staked their lives on it. The youth, when he saw the king's daughter, was so dazzled by her great beauty that he forgot all danger, stepped before the king and announced himself as a suitor.

Immediately he was led out to the sea and a golden ring was thrown into it before his eyes. Then the king told him to retrieve this ring from the bottom of the sea, and added "if you come up again without it, you will be thrown down again and again until you perish in the waves. Everyone pitied the beautiful youth and then left him lonely by the sea. He stood on the shore and thought about what he should do, when he suddenly saw three fish swimming along, and they were none other than the ones he had saved. The middle one had a shell in his mouth, which he put on the beach at the feet of the young man, and when he picked it up and opened it, the gold ring was inside. Full of joy he brought it to the king and expected that he would grant him the promised reward. The king's proud daughter, however, when she heard that he was not her equal, spurned him and demanded that he solve a second task first. She went down to the garden and scattered ten sacks of millet on the grass herself. "He must have picked them up tomorrow before the sun comes out," she said, "and not a grain must be missing." The young man sat down in the garden and thought about how it would be possible to solve the task, but he could not think of anything, sat there all sad and expected to be led to death at dawn.

But when the first rays of sunlight fell in the garden, he saw the ten sacks all well filled standing next to each other, and not a grain was missing in them. The ant king had arrived during the night with his thousands and thousands of ants, and the grateful animals had read the millet with great diligence and collected it into the sacks. The king's daughter herself came down to the garden and saw with amazement that the young man had accomplished what he had set out to do. But she could not yet subdue her proud heart and said, "Even if he has solved the two tasks, he shall not become my husband until he has brought me an apple from the tree of life." The youth did not know where the tree of life was, he set out and always wanted to go as long as his legs would carry him, but he had no hope of finding it. When he had already wandered through three kingdoms and came to a forest in the evening, he sat down under a tree and wanted to sleep: then he heard a noise in the branches and a golden apple fell into his hand. At the same time three ravens flew down to him, sat down on his knees and said "we are the three young ravens whom you saved from starvation; when we grew up and heard that you were looking for the golden apple, we flew over the sea to the end of the world, where the tree of life stands, and fetched the apple for you." Full of joy, the youth set out on his way home and brought the golden apple to the beautiful king's daughter, who now had no excuse left. They shared the apple of life and ate it together: then their hearts were filled with love for him, and they reached old age in undisturbed happiness.

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