Once upon a time there was a poor cottager who had two children, a son and a daughter. After their father and mother died the children had to divide up their inheritance, since they couldn't go on living in the tiny old house. There wasn't much in the way of riches – only a cow and a cat. The young girl was very upset because all she was getting was the cat.
'Now, don't sulk,' the cat told her, 'because you are getting the best of the bargain.'
So brother and sister made their way into the world, but in separate directions.The boy went off one way with his cow, while the girl and the cat took another path.
After they had wandered for awhile, the girl and the cat came to a royal palace. The Prince happened to catch sight of the girl, who was exceedingly pretty, and he asked where she came from. The cat was right there and whispered to the girl:
'Tell him you come from Such-and-such Castle!'
So she did, and one thing led to another, and after the girl and the prince were married, the cat trained her in everything, so that she grew very fine, and whatever anyone showed her – well, of course she had it much better and much finer in her own castle. The Queen thought she was really a very fine young woman indeed. When she went to make up a bed for the Princess, she took two or three pieces of straw and laid them between the feather beds. Next morning, the Queen asked:
'Were you comfortable in the night? Did you sleep well?'
'Oh, no,' answered the Princess, 'I felt as though I were lying on big tree trunks!'
The cat had taught her to say that. At home in her castle, she said, she rested much better.
The next evening, as the Queen was getting the Princess's bed ready, she took two or three peas and laid them between the feather beds. Next morning, she asked the Princess if she had slept well.
'Not at all!' cried the girl, 'It was just like lying on great pile of stones.'
'My, how very fine she is,' thought the Queen.
Then one day the Prince and the Princess had to make a trip to visit a big castle. When they had been travelling awhile, the cat took off ahead of them. She ran into a magnificent herd of cattle, and said to boy guarding them:
'A carriage will be coming along here after me. When the people ask you who owns these beautiful animals, you must say they belong to the new Princess.'
Sure enough, when the Prince saw the cattle, he wanted to know: 'Who owns the herd here in this meadow?'
'They belong to the new Princess,' said the cowherd.
Then they drove on and the cat ran ahead. She came to a field where especially beautiful grain was being harvested, and spoke to the laborers:
'A Prince will be driving by here soon. When he asks who this grain belongs to, tell him it belongs to the new Princess!'
And when the Prince arrived, he did ask who owned the grain, and was told it belonged to the new Princess. And they drove on further, with the cat running ahead of them.
After awhile she came upon a splendid castle where a Giant lived. As the cat approached, she saw that the Giant had gone out and locked the door behind him.
'Now it would be good if I were an ant!' said the cat. And immediately she turned into an ant and crawled through the keyhole and had a look around the castle. It was nighttime and the Giant was away – he could only go out after sunset. So the time passed until morning was drawing near, and the Giant could be heard coming home with loud footsteps.
'Now it would be good if I were a clump of bread!' said the cat.
And suddenly, a round clump of bread was sticking in the keyhole. The giant arrived and wanted to unlock his door, but he couldn't fit the key into the hole. And the sun was beginning to brighten up the sky. Then suddenly the cat called out:
'Oh, what a beautiful maiden there in the East!'
Of course the giant had to have a look, but as he turned in the direction of the beautiful maiden, he caught sight of the sun instead, and exploded into a thousand pieces.
The cat got rid of the giant's remains just as the Prince and Princess came driving up. And the Prince thought he had never seen anything as glorious as this castle.
And that is the end of the story.
[I have translated this story, called 'Die tüchtige Katze' in German, from Schwedische Volksmärchen, a volume in the series Die Märchen der Welt, © Eugen Diederichs Verlag, München, 1998, ISBN 3-8289-0041-0 - Paula
Editor's note: The theme of 'the cat as helper' is widespread in Sweden and in other parts of Scandinavia as well. The story of the 'Master Cat' appeared already in 1786 in Sweden in a folk book that was reprinted many times afterwards.... The idea of the monster that explodes at the sight of the sun is a part of folk belief in many countries, and first turns up in Scandinavia in the Alvissmàl, a comparatively recent (c. 1200?) poem from the Edda. The combination of this material with the 'Princess and the Pea' story appears often, especially in Sweden and Norway, though hardly at all in Denmark, in spite of Andersen's well-known fairy tale.]
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