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Frau Trude
Grimms Fairy Tales and German Folklore

	
There was once a little girl who was obstinate and inquisitive,
and when her parents told her to do anything, she did not obey
them, so how could she fare well. One day she said to her
parents, I have heard so much of frau trude, I will go to her
some day. People say that everything about her does look so
strange, and that there are such odd things in her house, that
I have become quite curious. Her parents absolutely forbade
her, and said, frau trude is a bad woman, who does wicked things,
and if you go to her, you are no longer our child. But the maiden
did not let herself be turned aside by her parents, prohibition,
and still went to frau trude. And when she got to her, frau
trude said, why are you so pale. Ah, she replied, and her whole
body trembled, I have been so terrified at what I have seen. What
have you seen. I saw a black man on your steps. That was a
collier. Then I saw a green man. That was a huntsman. After
that I saw a blood-red man. That was a butcher. Ah, frau
trude, I was terrified. I looked through the window and saw
not you, but, as I verily believe, the devil himself with a head
of fire. Oho. Said she, then you have seen the witch in her
proper costume. I have been waiting for you, and wanting you
a long time already. You shall give me some light. Then she
changed the girl into a block of wood, and threw it into the
fire. And when it was in a full blaze she sat down close to it,
and warmed herself by it, and said, that shines bright for once
in a way.