Mythsinger Stories

The story begins with a situation much favored in fairy stories: the King and Queen are looking forward to a child. The birthing moment arrived. The midwife was seated at the foot of the bed, and the first thing that came out of the mother was, to her immense surprise, a tiny snake. There happened to be an open window near her seat, and without saying a word to the Queen, she took the tiny snake and threw it out the window. A few minutes later, a boy child came out, perfectly formed. The midwife and the Queen were glad. The father came in to see his new son. There was much celebration, and that was that.
For a while, nothing unusual happens. The boy grows up the way princes do: he sleeps in a soft bed, he rides horses, he chases geese around, he stands in front of mirrors.
When he is sixteen or so, his father arranges a marriage for him with a princess in a neighboring kingdom. One morning then the prince sets out in a suitor's carriage, driving two handsome horses, down the road to meet his bride for the first time. About five miles from the castle, there is a crossroads.
As the Prince arrived at the crossroads, he saw an enormous snake, a kind of dragon, rearing up in the center of the road and roaring so that the horses became frightened. The Prince said, "Move out of the way! I'm going through." The Würm, in a loud and terrible voice, cried, "A bride for me before a bride for you! I am the older son. A bride for me before a bride for you."

What could he do? The Prince turned the horses around and drove home. He then went to see his father and told him of the event. "He claims he is my older brother. Do I have an older brother?" The King said he never heard of such a thing. The Prince went to his mother. He said to her, "'Dear mother, I have a serious question I must ask you. Am I the firstborn child, or do I have an older brother?" She replied, "I don't know anything about it.
The next morning, he started with his horses and carriage down the road again. At the same crossroads, the same immense dragon, roaring with anger, reared up in the road and cried: "A bride for me before a bride for you! I marry first. A bride for me before a bride for you."
The Prince turned around and drove home for a second time. The Queen remembered the midwife. It turned out she was still alive, living in a little house in the woods. The Prince found his way there. "May I ask you: Do you recall the day my mother gave birth to me?" "Oh, I do. " "'Was there a child born before me?" "'It's true that you were not the flrstborn. It wasn't exactly a child. It was a tiny snake. I thought your mother had enough to do as it was. I tossed it out the window into the grass. That's all that happened. I don't know any more.
The King realizes that his son can never be married until he finds a bride for the Würm. The King sent word out that a bride was required for a King's son. A young woman was chosen out of the numerous applicants, and a date was set for the wedding.
You must know that in this country, an evening ceremony was held for the bride and groorn at night, and the final wedding took place the next morning. The bride arrived at the castle, her parents, her friends, many flowers, many cakes had been baked. When the evening came, the bride stepped to the altar, and the Würm, who had been taken into the castle, appeared from his chamber, came in with his immense length, faced the bride, wrapped his tail seven times, chum! chum! chum! around her body, and claimed her as his own.
The Würm and his bride were escorted to the bridal chamber. No one in the castle slept much that night. When they knocked at the door the next morning, and went in, only the snake was in the room.
A month later, the Prince climbed in his carriage and drove fast along the road away from the castle. But at that same crossroads he found the Würm rearing up, even larger. It cried out: "A bride for me before a bride for you! The ceremony did not happen. A bride for me before a bride for you."
Several months later, the same sequence of events happened again. This bride came from a kingdom a little farther away. Once more she stood at the altar full of expectations. Once more the Würm entered the chapel, stood next to her, wound his tail—chum! chum! chum!—seven times around her body, and claimed her as his own. The maids and attendants who came to the bridal chamber in the morning found only the Würm in the room.
Whenever the Prince tried to leave the castle, the Würm was on the road, his longing for a true marriage still unsatisfied. "A bride for me before a bride for you!"
Ten more brides entered the castle and were eaten by the Würm, who still remained unsatisfied, and declared that no real marriage had taken place.
A woodcutter and his daughter lived in the woods a long way from the castle. The woodcutter had once worked at the castle, and knew all. One morning his daughter said to her father, "Father, I've decided that I will be the next bride." The father couldn't believe his ears. "'Don't worry about me, dear father, " she said. "I know what to do."
A wise old woman lived in the woods whom the young girl had met on one of her walks. She went to this old woman and said to her, "What shall I do?" The old woman told her to postpone the wedding for eight months, and during that time to make seven wedding shirts, each of them elaborately embroidered. The crone said that the bride, when she arrived at the castle, was to ask for a bucket of lye, two brushes with stiff bristles, and a pail of fresh milk. Then the old woman told her what to do with them.
When the thirteenth bride arrived at the castle, she was cheerful and composed. She requested a bucket of lye, the two stiff brushes, and the milk; and they were provided. When evening came, she stood near the altar. The Würm came in his usual way, slipped quickly to the side of his new bride, wrapped his tail seven times around her body, chum! chum! chum!, and claimed her as his own.
The bride and the Würm were escorted to the bridal chamber. The Würm reared up in the room. He was terrible to look at, with his fierce eyes and his savage body. When all was quiet, the Würm spoke to his bride, and in a rough, gravelly voice said, "Take off your wedding shirt." The bride did not move. She replied to him, "I will take off my shirt if you will take off one of your skins. " The Würm was silent and then said: "No one ever asked me to do that before."
The Würm reached up and took hold of some skin over his head and began to pull. Groans and howls intensified as the skin came down off the shoulders and chest. The process took a long time.
When the Würm had finished and was still standing, swaying, the bride removed one of her wedding shirts. The Würm, seeing she was still clothed, said to her, "'Take off your wedding shirt!" She replied as before. "I will take off another of my wedding shirts if you take off another of your skins." He replied, "'No one has ever asked me to do that before."
After he had taken off the seventh of his skins, he lay on the floor exhausted, and he no longer had any shape at all; he was a mass of white flesh with no skin.
The bride then dipped her stiff bristled brush into the bucket of lye, and began scrubbing his flesh. She scrubbed his body so long that she wore out both her two brushes with their wire bristles, wearing them down to the nubs, and used up all the lye.
When that was done, she took the fresh milk and poured it over his body.
The Würm then stood up as a man, and a handsome, well proportioned man. A week or two later the true wedding ceremony took place. No one had seen a wedding so marvelous for many years. I was there too, and I received the best food and drank the best liquor for three days; but where did it go? Now I'm walking around pulling cold air through my teeth like everyone else.