The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales
This collection of "classics" certainly is a departure from the Disney versions. The tales are mostly very dark and pessimistic, as originally recorded by the Brothers. For the more "colourful" children's stories it is better to buy the specific tales from the bookstore instead of a collective book.
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This story is available in the following languages
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English
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French
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German
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The Star Talers
by the Grimm Brothers
There was once upon a time a little girl whose father and
mother were dead, and she was so poor that she no longer had a
room to live in, or bed to sleep in, and at last she had
nothing else but the clothes she was wearing and a little bit
of bread in her hand which some charitable soul had given her.
She was good and pious, however. And as she was thus forsaken
by all the world, she went forth into the open country,
trusting in the good God.
Then a poor man met her, who said, "Ah, give me something
to eat, I am so hungry."
She handed him the whole of her piece of bread, and said,
"May God bless you," and went onwards.
Then came a child who moaned and said, "My head is so
cold, give me something to cover it with."
So she took off her hood and gave it to him. And when she
had walked a little farther, she met another child who had no
jacket and was frozen with cold. Then she gave it her own,
and a little farther on one begged for a frock, and she gave
away that also.
At length she got into a forest and it had already become
dark, and there came yet another child, and asked for a shirt,
and the good little girl thought to herself, "It is a dark
night and no one sees you, you can very well give your shirt
away," and took it off, and gave away that also.
And as she so stood, and had not one single thing left,
suddenly some stars from heaven fell down, and they were
nothing else but hard smooth pieces of money, and although she
had just given her shirt away, she had a new one which was of
the very finest linen. Then she put the money into it, and
was rich all the days of her life.
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