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Ice-Maiden and Other Tales - Hans Christian Andersen · Fiction Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of The Ice Maiden and Other Tales. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Elly caat The Ice Maiden
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  Speaker 1: and Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. The Ice Maiden
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  Speaker 1: Chapter one, Little Rudy, let us visit Switzerland and look
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  Speaker 1: around us in this glorious country of mountains, where the
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  Speaker 1: forest rises out of steep rocky walls. Let us ascend
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  Speaker 1: to the dazzling snow fields, and thence descend to the
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  Speaker 1: great plains, where the rivulets and brooks hasten away, foaming
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  Speaker 1: up as if they feared not to vanish. As they
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  Speaker 1: reached the sea, the sun beams upon the deep valley.
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  Speaker 1: It burns also upon the heavy masses of snow, so
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  Speaker 1: that after the lapse of years, they melt into shining
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  Speaker 1: ice blocks and become rolling avalanches and heaped up glaciers.
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  Speaker 1: Two of these lie in the broad clefts of the
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  Speaker 1: rock under the Shrekhorn and Wetterhorn, near the little town
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  Speaker 1: of Grindelwald. They are so remarkable that many strangers come
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  Speaker 1: to gaze at them in the summertime. From all parts
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  Speaker 1: of the world. They come over the high snow covered mountains.
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  Speaker 1: They come from the deepest valleys, and they are obliged
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  Speaker 1: to ascend during many hours. And as they ascend, the
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  Speaker 1: valley sinks deeper and deeper, as though seen from an
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  Speaker 1: air balloon. Far around the peaks of the mountains, the
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  Speaker 1: clouds often hang like heavy curtains of smoke. Whilst down
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  Speaker 1: in the valley where the many brown wooden houses lie
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  Speaker 1: scattered about as sunbeam shines, and here and there brings
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  Speaker 1: out a tiny spot in radiant green, as though it
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  Speaker 1: were transparent. The water roars, froths and foams below, the
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  Speaker 1: water hums and tinkles above, and it looks as if
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  Speaker 1: silver ribbons were fluttering over the cliffs. On each side
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  Speaker 1: of the way as one ascends are wooden houses. Each
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  Speaker 1: house has a little potato garden, and that is a necessity,
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  Speaker 1: for in the doorway are many little mouths. There are
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  Speaker 1: plenty of children, and they can consume abundance of food.
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  Speaker 1: They rush out of the houses and throng about. The
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  Speaker 1: travelers come they on foot or in carriage. The whole
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  Speaker 1: horde of children traffic The little ones offer prettily carved
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  Speaker 1: wooden houses for sale, similar to those they build on
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  Speaker 1: the mountains rain or shine. The children assemble with their wares.
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  Speaker 1: Some twenty years ago there stood here several times a
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  Speaker 1: little boy who wished to sell his toys, but he
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  Speaker 1: always kept aloof from the other children. He stood with
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  Speaker 1: serious countenance and with both hands tightly clasped around his
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  Speaker 1: wooden box, as if he feared it would slip away
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  Speaker 1: from him. But on account of this gravity, and because
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  Speaker 1: the boy was so small, it caused him to be remarked,
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  Speaker 1: and often he made the best bargain, without knowing why.
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  Speaker 1: His grandfather lived still higher in the mountains, and it
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  Speaker 1: was he who carved the pretty wooden houses. There stood
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  Speaker 1: in the room an old cupboard full of carvings. There
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  Speaker 1: were nutcrackers, knives, spoons, and boxes with delicate foliage and
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  Speaker 1: leaping chimoiss. There was everything which could rejoice a married
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  Speaker 1: child's eye. But this little fellow, he was named Rudy,
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  Speaker 1: looked at and desired only the old gun under the rafters.
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  Speaker 1: His grandfather had said that he should have it some day,
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  Speaker 1: but that he must first grow big and strong enough
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  Speaker 1: to use it. Small as the boy was. He was
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  Speaker 1: obliged to take care of the goats, and if he
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  Speaker 1: who can climb with them is a good guardian. While then,
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  Speaker 1: indeed was Rudy why he climbed even higher than they.
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  Speaker 1: He loved to take the bird's nest from the trees
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  Speaker 1: high in the air, for he was bold and daring,
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  Speaker 1: and he only smiled when he stood by the roaring
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  Speaker 1: waterfall or when he heard a rolling avalanche. He never
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  Speaker 1: played with the other children. He only met them when
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  Speaker 1: his grandfather sent him out to sell his carvings, and
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  Speaker 1: Rudy took but little interest in this. He much preferred
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  Speaker 1: to wander about the rocks, or to sit and listen
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  Speaker 1: to his grandfather relate about old times and about the
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  Speaker 1: inhabitants of Murringan, where he came from. He said that
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  Speaker 1: these people had not been there since the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the world. They had come from the far north, where
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  Speaker 1: the race called Swedes dwelt to know. This was indeed
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  Speaker 1: great wisdom, and Rudy knew this, But he became still
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  Speaker 1: wiser through the intercourse which he had had with the
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  Speaker 1: other occupants of the house belonging to the animal race.
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  Speaker 1: There was a large dog Ajola, an heirloom from Rudy's father,
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  Speaker 1: and a cat, And she was of great importance to Rudy,
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  Speaker 1: for she had taught him to climb. Come out on
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  Speaker 1: the roof, said the cat, quite plainly and distinctly. For
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  Speaker 1: when one is a child and cannot yet speak, one
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  Speaker 1: understands the hens and ducks, the cats and dogs remarkably well.
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  Speaker 1: They speak for us as intelligibly as father or mother.
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  Speaker 1: One needs but to be little, and then even grandfather's
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  Speaker 1: stick in nay, and become a horse with head's leg
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  Speaker 1: and tail. With some children, this knowledge slips away later
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  Speaker 1: than with others, And people say of these that they
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  Speaker 1: are very backward, that they remain children fearfully long. People say,
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  Speaker 1: so many things come with me, little Ruddy Out on
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  Speaker 1: the roof was the first thing the cat said that
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  Speaker 1: Rudy understood. It is all imagination about falling. One does
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  Speaker 1: not fall when one does not fear to do. So,
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  Speaker 1: come place your one paw so and yer other. So
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  Speaker 1: take care of your forepaws. Look sharp with your eyes,
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  Speaker 1: and give suppleness to your limbs. If there be a hole,
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  Speaker 1: jump hold fast. That's the way I do. And Rudy
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  Speaker 1: did so, and that was the reason that he sat
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  Speaker 1: out on the roof with the cat. So often he
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  Speaker 1: sat with her in the tree tops. Yes, he sat
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  Speaker 1: on the edge of rocks where the cats could not
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  Speaker 1: come higher. Higher, said the trees and bushes. See how
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  Speaker 1: we climb, how high we go, how firm we hold on,
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  Speaker 1: even on the outermost peaks of the rocks. And Rudy
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  Speaker 1: went generally on the mountain before the sun rose. And
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  Speaker 1: then he got his morning drink, the fresh, strengthening mountain air,
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  Speaker 1: the drink that our Lord only can prepare, and men
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  Speaker 1: can read its recipe. And thus it stands written, the
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  Speaker 1: fresh scent of the herbs of the mountains, and the
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  Speaker 1: mint and time of the valleys. All heaviness is imbibed
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  Speaker 1: by the hanging clouds, and the wind sends it out
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  Speaker 1: like grape shot into the fir woods. The fragrant breeze
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  Speaker 1: becomes perfume, light and fresh, and ever fresher. That was
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  Speaker 1: Rudy's morning drink, the blessing bringing daughters of the sun.
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  Speaker 1: The sunbeams kissed his cheek, and Vertigo stood and watched,
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  Speaker 1: but dared not approach him. And the swallows below from
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  Speaker 1: Grandfather's house, where there were no less than seven nests
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  Speaker 1: flew up to him and the goats and they sang
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  Speaker 1: we and you, and you and we. They brought greetings
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  Speaker 1: from home, even from the two hens, the only birds
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  Speaker 1: in the room, with whom, however, Ruddy never had intercourse.
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  Speaker 1: Little as he was, he had traveled, and not a
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  Speaker 1: little for so small a boy. He was born in
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  Speaker 1: the Canton Valaise, and had been carried from there over
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  Speaker 1: the mountains. Lately he had visited Stebbach, which waves in
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  Speaker 1: the air like a silver goze, before the snow decked,
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  Speaker 1: dazzling white mountain, the Jungfrau, and he had been in Grindelwald,
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  Speaker 1: near the great Glaciers. But that was a sad story.
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  Speaker 1: There his mother had found her death, and little Ruddy,
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  Speaker 1: so said, his grandfather, had lost his childish merriment. When
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  Speaker 1: the boy was not a year old, he laughed more
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  Speaker 1: than he cried, so wrote his mother. But since he
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  Speaker 1: was in the ice gap, quite another mind has come
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  Speaker 1: over him. His grandfather did not like to speak on
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  Speaker 1: the subject, but everyone in the mountain knew all about it.
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  Speaker 1: Rudy's father had been a postilion, and the law a
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  Speaker 1: large dog in the room, had always followed him on
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  Speaker 1: his journeys to the Lake of Geneva over the Simplen
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  Speaker 1: in the valley of the Rhone in Canton Valet. Still
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  Speaker 1: of Rudy's family on his father's side, and his father's
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  Speaker 1: brother was a famous Chamoah hunter and a well known guide.
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  Speaker 1: Rudy was only a year old when he lost his father,
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  Speaker 1: and his mother longed to return to her relations in Berner, Oberland.
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  Speaker 1: Her father lived a few hours walk from Grindelwald. He
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  Speaker 1: was a carver in wood and earned enough by it
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  Speaker 1: to live. In the month of June, Carrying her little child,
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  Speaker 1: she started homewards, accompanied by two Chamoa hunters, intending to
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  Speaker 1: cross the gem on their way to Grindelwald. They already
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  Speaker 1: had accomplished the longer part of their journey had passed
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  Speaker 1: the high ridges, had come to the snow plains. They
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  Speaker 1: already saw the valley of their home with its well
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  Speaker 1: known wooden houses, and had now but to reach the
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  Speaker 1: summit of one of the great glaciers. The snow had
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  Speaker 1: freshly fallen and concealed a cleft which did not lead
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  Speaker 1: to the deepest abyss, where the water roared, but still
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  Speaker 1: deeper than man could reach. The young woman who was
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  Speaker 1: holding her child slipped, sank, and was gone. One heard
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  Speaker 1: no cry, no sigh, no, but a little child weeping.
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  Speaker 1: More than an hour elapsed before her companions could bring
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  Speaker 1: poles and ropes from the nearest house. In order to
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  Speaker 1: afford assistance. After great exertion, they drew from the ice
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  Speaker 1: gap what appeared to be two lifeless bodies. Every means
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  Speaker 1: were employed, and they succeeded in calling the child back
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  Speaker 1: to life, but not the mother. So the old grandfather
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  Speaker 1: received instead of a daughter, a daughter's son in his house,
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  Speaker 1: the little one who laughed more than he wept, but
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  Speaker 1: who now seemed to have lost this custom. A change
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  Speaker 1: in him had certainly taken place in the cleft of
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  Speaker 1: the glacier, in the wonderful cold world, where, according to
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  Speaker 1: the belief of the Swiss peasant, the souls of the
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  Speaker 1: damned were incarcerated until the day of judgment. Not unlike water,
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  Speaker 1: which after long journeying, has been compressed into blocks of
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  Speaker 1: green glass, the glaciers lie here so that one huge
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  Speaker 1: mass of ice is heaped on the other. The rushing
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  Speaker 1: stream roars below and melts snow and ice within hollow
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  Speaker 1: caverns and mighty clefts open. This is a wonderful palace
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  Speaker 1: of ice, and in it dwells the ice Maiden, the
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  Speaker 1: queen of the glaciers. She, the murderess, the destroyer, is
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  Speaker 1: half a child of air and half the powerful ruler
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  Speaker 1: of the streams. Therefore she had received the power to
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  Speaker 1: elevate herself, with the speed of the chimois, to the
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  Speaker 1: highest pinnacle of the snow topped mountains, where the most
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  Speaker 1: daring mountaineer had to hew his way in order to
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  Speaker 1: take firm foothold. She sails up the rushing river on
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  Speaker 1: a slender fir branch, springs from one cliff to another,
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  Speaker 1: with her long snow white hair fluttering around her, and
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  Speaker 1: with her bluish green mantle, which resembles the water of
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  Speaker 1: the deep Swiss lakes. Crush hold fast. The power is mine,
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  Speaker 1: cried she. They have stolen a lovelyabel from me, a
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  Speaker 1: boy whom I had kissed but not kissed to death.
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  Speaker 1: He is again with men. He tends the goats on
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  Speaker 1: the mountains. He climbs up up high, beyond the reach
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  Speaker 1: of all others, but not beyond mine. He is mine.
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  Speaker 1: I shall have him. She ordered Vertigo to fulfill her duty.
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  Speaker 1: It was too warm for the ice Maiden. In summer time,
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  Speaker 1: in the green spots where the mint thrives, Vertigo arose.
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  Speaker 1: One came, three came. For Vertigo had many sisters, very
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  Speaker 1: many of them, and the Maiden chose the strongest among
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  Speaker 1: those that rule within doors and without. They sit on
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  Speaker 1: the balusters and on the spires of the steep towers.
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  Speaker 1: They tread through the air as the swimmer glides through water,
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  Speaker 1: and entice their prey down the abyss. Vertigo and the
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  Speaker 1: ice Maiden sees on men as the polypus catches at
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  Speaker 1: all within its reach. Vertigo was to gain possession of Rudy. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: catch him for me, said Vertigo. I cannot do it
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  Speaker 1: that cat, that dirty thing has taught him. Or as
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  Speaker 1: the child of the race of man possesses a power
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  Speaker 1: that repulses me, I cannot get at the little boy
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  Speaker 1: when he hangs by the branches over the abyss. I
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  Speaker 1: may tickle him on the soles of his feet, or
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  Speaker 1: give him a box on the ear whilst he is
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  Speaker 1: swinging in the air. It is of no avail. I
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  Speaker 1: can do nothing, we can do it, said the ice Maiden.
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  Speaker 1: You or I I I No, No, sounded back. The
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  Speaker 1: echo of the church bells through the mountain like a
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  Speaker 1: sweet melody. Who is like speech, a harmonious chorus of
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  Speaker 1: all the spirits of nature, mild, good, full of love.
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  Speaker 1: For it came from the daughters of the sunbeams, who
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  Speaker 1: encamped themselves every morning in a circle around the pinnacle
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  Speaker 1: of mountains, and spread out their rose colored wings that
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  Speaker 1: grow more and more red as the sun sinks, and
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  Speaker 1: glow over the high Alps. Men call it the Alpine glow.
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  Speaker 1: When the sun is down, they enter the peaks of
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  Speaker 1: the rocks and sleep on the white snow until the
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  Speaker 1: sun rises, and then they sally forth above all. They
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  Speaker 1: love flowers, butterflies, and men, And amongst them they had
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  Speaker 1: chosen little Rudy as their favorite. You will not catch him,
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  Speaker 1: you shall not have him, said they. I have caught
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  Speaker 1: and kept stronger and larger ones, said the ice Maiden.
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  Speaker 1: Then the daughters of the Sun, saying, a lay of
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  Speaker 1: the wanderer, whose cloak the whirlwind had torn off and
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  Speaker 1: carried away. The wind took the covering, but not the man.
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  Speaker 1: Ye children of strength, conceize, but not hold him. He
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  Speaker 1: is stronger, he is more spirit like than we. He
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  Speaker 1: ascends higher than the sun our mother. He possesses the
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  Speaker 1: magic word that restrains wind and water, so that they
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  Speaker 1: are obliged to obey and serve him. So sounded cheerfully
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  Speaker 1: the bell like chorus, And every morning the sunbeams shone
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  Speaker 1: through the tiny window in their grandfather's house. On the
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  Speaker 1: quiet child. The daughters of the sunbeams kissed him. They
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  Speaker 1: wished to thaw him, to warm him, and to carry
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  Speaker 1: away with them the icy kiss which the queenly Maiden
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  Speaker 1: of the Glaciers had given him as he lay on
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  Speaker 1: his dead mother's lap in the deep icy gap. Whence
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  Speaker 1: he was saved through a miracle end of chapter one.
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  Speaker 1: Little Rudy recording by Elli Caat Chapter two of The
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  Speaker 1: Ice Maiden and Other Tales. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by elliecat The Ice Maiden and Other Tales by Hans
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  Speaker 1: Christian Andersen The Ice Maiden, Chapter two, the Journey to
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  Speaker 1: the New Home. Rudy was now eight years old. His
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  Speaker 1: father's brother in Ronethal, the other side of the mountain.
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  Speaker 1: Wished to have a boy, for he thought that with
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  Speaker 1: him he would fare and prosper better. His grandfather perceived
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  Speaker 1: this and gave his consent. Rudy must go. There were
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  Speaker 1: others to take leave of him besides his grandfather. First
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  Speaker 1: there was a Jola, the old dog. Your father was
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  Speaker 1: postboy and I was postdog, said a Jola. We have
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  Speaker 1: traveled up and down. I know dogs and men on
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  Speaker 1: the other side of the mountain. It is not my
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  Speaker 1: custom to speak much, But now that we shall not
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  Speaker 1: have much time to converse with each other, I must
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  Speaker 1: talk a little more than usual. I will relate a
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  Speaker 1: story to you. I shall tell you how I have
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  Speaker 1: earned my bread and how I have eaten it. I
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  Speaker 1: do not understand it, and I suppose that you will
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  Speaker 1: not either. But it matters not, for I have discovered
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  Speaker 1: that the good things of this earth are not equally
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  Speaker 1: divided between dogs or men. All are not fitted to
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  Speaker 1: lie on the lap and sip milk. I have not
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  Speaker 1: been accustomed to it, but I saw a little dog
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  Speaker 1: seated in the coach with us, and it occupied a
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  Speaker 1: person's place. The woman who was its mistress, or who
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  Speaker 1: belonged to his mistress had a bottle filled with milk,
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  Speaker 1: out of which she fed it. It guts sweat, eat
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  Speaker 1: sugar biscuits too, but it would not even eat them,
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  Speaker 1: only snuffed at them, And so the woman ate them herself.
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  Speaker 1: I ran in the mud by the side of the coach,
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  Speaker 1: as hungry as a dog could be. I chewed my
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  Speaker 1: crude thoughts. That was not right, but this is often done.
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  Speaker 1: If I could but have been carried on some one's
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  Speaker 1: knee and have been seated in a coach. But one
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  Speaker 1: cannot have all one's desires. I have not been able
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  Speaker 1: to do so, neither with barking nor with yawning. That
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  Speaker 1: was a Jola's speech. And Rudy seized him by the
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  Speaker 1: neck and kissed him on his moist mouth. And then
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  Speaker 1: he took the cat in his arms. But she was
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  Speaker 1: angry at it. You are getting too strong for me,
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  Speaker 1: and I will not use my claws against you. Just
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  Speaker 1: climb over the mountains I taught you to climb, never
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  Speaker 1: think that you will fall. Then you are secure. Then
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  Speaker 1: the cat ran away without letting Rudy see how her
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  Speaker 1: grief shone out of her eye. The hens ran about
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  Speaker 1: the floor. One had lost her tail. A traveler who
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  Speaker 1: wished to be a hunter had shot it off because
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  Speaker 1: the creature had taken the hen for a bird of prey.
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  Speaker 1: Rudy's going over the mountain, said one hen. He is
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  Speaker 1: always in a hurry, said the other. And I do
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  Speaker 1: not care for leave takings. And so they both tripped away,
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  Speaker 1: and the goats too said farewell, and cried mit mit mah,
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  Speaker 1: And that was so sad. There were two nimble guides
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  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood, and they were about to cross the mountains.
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  Speaker 1: They were to descend to the other side of the Gemmi,
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  Speaker 1: and Rudy followed them on foot. This was a severe
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  Speaker 1: march for such a little chap, but he had strength
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  Speaker 1: and courage and felt not fatigue. The swallows accompanied them.
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  Speaker 1: A part of the way they sang we n you
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  Speaker 1: you an us. The road went over the rapid machine
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  Speaker 1: which rushes forth from the black clefts of the Glacier
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  Speaker 1: of Grindelwald in many little streams, the fallen Timber and
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  Speaker 1: the quarry stone service bridges. They passed the Alder Bush
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  Speaker 1: and descend the mountain, where the glaciers detached itself from
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  Speaker 1: the mountain side. They crossed over the glacier over the
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  Speaker 1: blocks of ice, and go around them. Rudy was obliged
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  Speaker 1: to creep a little, to walk a little. His eyes
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  Speaker 1: sparkled with delight, and he trod as firmly with his
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  Speaker 1: iron shod mountain shoes, as though he wished to leave
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  Speaker 1: his footprints where he had stepped. The black mud which
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: the mountain stream had poured upon the glacier gave it
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: a calcimed appearance, but the bluish green, glassy ice still
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: shone through it. They were obliged to go round the
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: little ponds, which were dammed up by blocks of ice.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: During these wanderings, they came too near a large stone
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: which lay tottering on the brink of a crevice in
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: the ice. The stone lost its equilibrium, It fell, rolled,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: and the echo resounded from the deep hollow paths of
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: the glacier. Up ever, up, the glacier stretched itself on
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: high as a river of wildly heaped up masses of
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: ice compressed among the steep cliffs. For an instant, Rudy
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: thought on what they had told him about his having
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: laid with his mother in one of these cold breathing chasms.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Such thoughts soon vanished. It seemed to him as though
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: it were some other story, one of the many which
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: had been related to him. Now and then, when the
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: men thought that the ascent was too difficult for the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: little lad they would reach him their hand. But he
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: was never weary, and stood on the slippery ice as
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: firm as a shimoui. Now they reached the bottom of
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: the rocks, they were soon among the bare stones, which
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: were void of moss, soon under the low fir trees,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: and again out on the green common, ever changing, ever
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: new around them arose the snow mountains, whose names were
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: as familiar to Rudy as they were to every child
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood, the Jungfrau, the Maunch, and the Eiger.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Rudy had never been so high before, had never before
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: trodden on the vast sea of snow which lay there
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: with its immovable waves. The wind blew single flakes about
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: as it blows the foam upon the waters of the sea.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Glacier stood by glacier, if one may say so, hand
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: in hand. Each one was an ice palace for the
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: ice maiden, whose power and will is to catch and
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: to bury. The sun burned warmly, the snow was dazzling,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: as if sown with bluish white, glittering diamond sparks. Countless insects,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: butterflies and bees mostly lay in masses dead on the snow.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: They had ventured too high, or the wind had borne
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: them thither, but to breathe their last in these cold regions,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: a threatening cloud hung over the water horn like a
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: fine black tuft of wool. It lowered itself slowly, heavily
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: with that which lay concealed within it. And this was
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: the fawn, powerful in its strength. When it broke loose,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: the impression of the entire journey the night quarters above,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: and then the road beyond the deep rocky chasms, where
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the water forced its way through the blocks of stone
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: with terrible rapidity, engraved itself indelibly on Rudy's. On the
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: other side of the sea of snow, a forsaken stone
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: hut gave them protection and shelter for the night. A
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: fire was quickly lighted, for they found within it charcoal
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: and fir branches. They arranged their couch as well as possible.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: The men seated themselves around the fire, smoked their tobacco,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: and drank the warm, spicy drink, which they had prepared
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: for themselves. Rudy had his share too, and they told
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: him of the mysterious beings of the alpine country, of
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the singular fighting snakes in the deep lakes, of the
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: people of night, of the hordes of specters who carried
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: sleepers through the air toward the wonderful floating city of Venice,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: of the wild shepherd who drives his black sheep over
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the meadow. It is true they had never been seen,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: but the sound of the bells and the unhappy bellowing
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: of the flock had been heard. Rudy listened eagerly, but
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: without any fear, for he did not even know what
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: that was. And whilst he listened, he thought he heard
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the ghostlike hollow bell. Yes, it became more and more distinct.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: The men heard it also. They stopped talking, listened, and
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: told Rudy he must not sleep. It was the phone
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: which blew the powerful storm wind, which rushes down the
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: mountains into the valley, and with its strength bends the
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: trees as if they were mere reeds, and lifts the
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: wooden houses from one side of the river to the other,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: as if the move had been made on a chessboard.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: After the lapse of an hour, they told Rudy that
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: the storm had now blown over and that he might
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: rest with this license. Fatigued by his march, he at
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: once fell asleep. They departed early in the morning. The
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: sun showed Rudy new mountains, new glaciers, and snow fields.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: They had now reached Canton Valet and the other side
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: of the mountain ridge, which was visible at Grindelwald, but
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: they were still far from the new home. Other chasms, precipices,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: pasture grounds, forests, and passed through the woods on folded
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: themselves to the view other houses, other human beings. But
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: what human beings? Deformed creatures with unmeaning, fat, yellowish white
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: faces with a large, ugly, fleshy lump on their necks.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: These were Cretans, who dragged themselves miserably along and gazed
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: with their stupid eyes on the strangers who arrived among them.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: As for the women, the greatest number of them were frightful.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Were these the inhabitants of the new home? End of
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: chapter two, Chapter three of The Ice Maiden and Other
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. This LibriVox recording is in
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the public domain recording by Ellie Cat the Ice Maiden,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Chapter three, the father's brother. The people in the uncle's
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: house looked thank heaven, like those whom Roody was accustomed
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: to see. But one cretan was there, a poor, silly lad,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: one of the many misery creatures, who, on account of
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: their poverty and need, always make their home among the
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: families of Canton Valet, and remain with each but a
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: couple of months. The wretched superly happened to be there
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: when Rudy arrived. Rudy's father's brother was still a vigorous hunter,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: and was also a cooper by trade. His wife, a
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: lovely little person, had what is called a bird's face.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Her eyes resembled those of an eagle, and she had
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: a long neck entirely covered with down. Everything was new
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: to Rudy, the dress, manners, and customs, yes, even the language,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: but that is soon acquired and understood by a child's ear.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Here they seemed to be better off than in his
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: grandfather's house. The dwelling rooms were larger, the walls looked
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: gay with their chamois horns and highly polished rifles. Over
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the doorway hung the picture of the Blessed virgin alpine roses,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and a burning lamp stood before it. His uncle was,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: as we have said before, one of the most famous
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: chamma hunters in the neighborhood, and also the most experienced
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: and best guide. Rudy was to be the pet of
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: the household, although there already was one, an old, deaf
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: and blind dog, whom they could no longer use. But
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: they remembered his many past services, and he was looked
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: upon as a member of the family, and was to
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: pass his old days in peace. Ruddy patted the dog,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: but he would have nothing to do with strangers. Rudy
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: did not long remain one, for he soon took firm
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: hold both in house and heart. One is not badly
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: off in canton Valai, said his uncle. We have the chamois.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: They do not die out so soon as the mountain goat.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: It is a great deal better here now than in
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the old times. They may talk about their glory as
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: much as they please. The present time is much better,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: for a hole has been made in the purse, and
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: light and air led into our quiet valley. When old,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: worn out customs die away, something new springs forth, said he.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: When uncle became talkative, he told of the years of
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: his childhood and of his father's active time. When Vollet
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: was still a closed purse, as the people called it,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and when it was filled with sick people and miserable Cretans,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: French soldiers came. They were the right kind of doctors.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: They not only shot down the sickness, but the men also.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: The frenchmen can beat the stones until they surrender. They
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: cut the simpling road out of the rocks. They have
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: hewn notes such a road that I now can tell
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: a three year old child to go to Italy, keep
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: to the highway, and a child may find his way there.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Then the uncle would sing a French song and cry
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Hurrah for Napoleon Bonaparte. Rudy now heard for the first
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: time of France of Lions, the large city of the Rhone,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: for his uncle had been there. I wonder if Rudy
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: will become an agile chamois hunter in a few years.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: He has every disposition for it, said his uncle, and
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: instructed him how to hold a rifle, how to aim,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: and how to fire in the hunting season. He took
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: him with him into the mountains and made him drink
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: the warm chamois blood which prevents the hunter from becoming dizzy.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: He taught him to heed the time when the avalanches
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: roll down the different sides of the mountain at mid
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: day or at nightfall, which depended upon the heat of
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: the rays of the sun. He taught him to notice
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the chimois in order to learn from them how to jump,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: so as to alight steadily upon the feet if there
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: was no resting place in the clefts of the rock
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: for the foot. He must know how to support himself
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: with the elbow, and be able to climb by means
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: of the muscles of the thigh and calf. Even the
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: neck must serve when it is necessary. The chemoi cunning.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: They place out guards, but the hunter must be still
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: more cunning and follow the trail, and he can deceive
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: them by hanging his coat and hat on his alpine stick,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: and so make the chemoin take the coat for the man.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: One day, when Rudy was out with his uncle hunting,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: he tried this sport. The rocky path was not wide, indeed,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: there was scarcely any, only a narrow ledge close to
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the dizzy abyss. The snow was half thigh, the stones
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: crumbled when trodden upon, and his uncle stretched himself out
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: full length and crept along each stone. As it broke away, fell,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: knocked itself, bounded, and then rolled down. It made many
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: leaps from one rocky wall to another until it found
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: repose in the black deep. Rudy stood about a hundred
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: steps behind his uncle on the outermost cliff and saw
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: a huge golden vulture hovering over his uncle and sailing
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: towards him through the air, as though wishing to cast
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: the creeping worm into the abyss with one blow of
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: his wing and to make carrion of him. His uncle
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: had only eyes for the chimoi and its young kid
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: on the other side of the cleft. Rudy looked at
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: the bird, understood what it wanted, and laid his hand
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: on his rifle in order to shoot it. At that moment,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: the chimoa leaped, his uncle fired, the ball hit the animal,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: but the kid was gone, as though flight and danger
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: had been its life's experience. The mom striss bird, terrified
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: by the report of the gun, took flight in another direction,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and Rudy's uncle knew not of his danger until Rudy
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: told him of it. As they now were on their
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: way home, and they gazed spirits, his uncle playing one
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: of his youthful melodies on his flute. They suddenly heard,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: not far from them, a singular sound. They looked sideways.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: They gazed aloof and saw high above them the snow
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: covering the rugged shelf of the rock, waving like an
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: outspread piece of linen. When agitated by the wind, the
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: icy waves cracked like slabs of marble. They broke, dissolved
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: in foaming, rushing water, and sounded like a muffled thunderclap.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: It was an avalanche rolling down, not over Ruddy and
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: his uncle, but near, only too near them. Hold fast,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Rudy cried, He firm with your whole strength. And Rudy
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: clasped the trunk of a tree his uncle climbed into
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: its branches and held fast, whilst the avalanche rolled many
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: fathoms away from them. But the air drift of the
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: blustering storm which accompanied it bowed down the trees and
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: bushes around them like dry reeds, and threw them beyond.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Rudy lay cast on the earth. The trunk of the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: tree on which he had held was as though sawed off,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: and its crown was hurled still further along. His uncle
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: lay amongst the broken branches. With his head shattered, his
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: hands were yet warm, but his face was no longer
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: to be recognized. Rudy stood pale and trembling. This was
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: the first terror of his life, the first hour of
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: fear that he had ever known. Late in the evening
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: he returned with his message of death to his home,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: which was now one of sorrow. The wife stood without words,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: without tears, and not until the corpse was brought home
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: did her sorrow find an outburst. The poor Cretan crept
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: to his bed and was not seen all day. But
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: towards the evening he came to Rudy and said, write
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: a letter for me, superily. Cannot write, superrely can take
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: the letter to the post. Off a letter for you,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: asked Rudy, and to whom, to our Lord Christ, what
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: do you mean? And the half witted creature gave a
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: touching glance at Rudy folded his hands and said, piously
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: and solemnly, Jesus Christ superly wishes to send him a letter,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: praying him to let supperly lie dead and not the
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: man of this house. And Rudy pressed his hand. The
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: letter cannot be sent. The letter will not give him
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: back to us. It was difficult for Rudy to explain
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the impossibility to him. Now you are the stay of
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: the house, said his foster mother, and Rudy became it.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: End of chapter three, chapter four of The Ice Maiden
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: and Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. This LibriVox recording
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Read by Elli Cat The
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Ice Maiden, Chapter four, But bet who is the best
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: shot in Canton Valet. The chamois knew only too well
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: beware of Ruddy. They could say, who is the handsomest hunter?
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: It is Rudy. The young girl said this also, But
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: they did not say beware of Ruddy. No, not even
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the gray of mothers, for he nodded to them quite
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: as amicably as to the young girls. He was so
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: bold and gay. His cheeks were brown, his teeth fresh
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: and white, and his cold black eyes glittered. He was
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: a handsome young fellow, and but twenty years old. The
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: icy water did not sting him when he swam. He
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: could turn round in it like a fish. He could
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: climb as did no one, and he was as firm
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: on the rocky walls as a snail, for he had
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: good sinews and mussels that served him well in leaping.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: The cat had first taught him this, and later the chamois.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: One could not trust one's self to a better guide
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: than to Ruddy. In this way he could collect a fortune.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: But he had no taste for the trade of a cooper,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: which his uncle had taught him. His delight and pleasure
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: was to shoot chimois, and this was profitable. Also, Rudy
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: was a good match if one did not look higher
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: than one station. And in dancing he was just the
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: kind of dancer that young girls dream about, and one
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: or the other were always thinking of him when they
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: were awake. He kissed me whilst dancing, said the schoolmaster's
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: annette to her most intimate friend. But she should not
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: have said this, not even to her dearest friend. But
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: it is difficult to keep such things to one's self.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Like sand in a purse with a hole in it,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: it soon runs out. And although Rudy was so steady
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: and good, it was soon known that he kissed whilst dancing.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Watch him, said an old hunter. He is commenced with
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: a and he will kiss the whole alphabet through a
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: kiss at a dance. Was all they could say in
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: their gossiping. But he had kissed Annette, and she was
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: by no means the flower of his heart. Down near Beck's,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: between the great walnut trees, close by a rapid little stream,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: dwelt the rich miller. The dwelling house was a large,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: three storied building, with little towers covered with wood and
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: coated with sheets of lead, which shone in the sunshine
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: and in the moonshine. The largest tower had for a
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: weather cock a bright arrow which pierced an apple, and
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: which was intended to represent the apple shot by tell.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: The mill looked neat and comfortable, so that it was
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: really worth describing and drawing. But the miller's daughter could
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: neither be described nor drawn, at least so said Ruddy.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Yet she was imprinted on his heart, and her eyes
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: acted as a firebrand upon it. And this had happened
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: suddenly and unexpectedly. The most wonderful part of all was
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: that the miller's daughter, the pretty Bibet, thought not of him,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: for she and Rudy had never even spoken two words
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: with each other. The miller was rich and riches placed
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: her much too high to be approached. But no one,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: said Rudy to himself, is placed so high as to
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: be unapproachable. One must climb, and one does not fall
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: when one does not think of it. This knowledge he
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: had brought from home with him. Now it so happened
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: that Rudy had business at Beck's, and it was quite
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: a journey there, for the railroad was not completed. The
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: broad valley of Valay stretches itself from the glaciers of
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: the Rhone under the foot of the Simpler Mountain, between
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: many varying mountain heights, with its mighty river, the Rhone,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: which often swells and destroys everything over flooding fields and roads.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: The valley makes a bend between the towns of Sion
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: and Saint Maurice, like an elbow that becomes so narrow
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: at Maurice that there only remains sufficient room for the
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: river bed and a cartway. Here, an old tower stands
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: by like a sentry before the canton Valey. It ends
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: at this point and overlooks the bridge, which has a
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: wall towards the custom house. Now begins the canton called
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: Pays du Vaud, and the nearest town is Beck's, where
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: everything becomes luxuriant and fruitful. One is in a garden
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: of walnut and chestnut trees, and here and there cypress
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: and pomegranate blossoms peep out. It is as warm as
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: the South. One imagines one's self transplanted into Italy. Rudy
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: reached Becks, accomplished his business, and looked about him, But
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: he did not see a single miller's boy, not to
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: speak of Babet. It appeared as though they were not
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: to meet. It was evening. The air was heavy with
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: the wild thyme and blooming linden. A glistening veil lay
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: over the forest clad mountains. There was a stillness over everything,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: but not the quiet of sleep. It seemed as though
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: all nature retained her breath, as if she felt disposed
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: to allow her image to be imprinted upon the firmament.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: Here and there there were poles standing on the green
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: fields between the trees. They held the telegraph wire which
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: has been conducted through this peaceful valley. An object leaned
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: against one of these poles, so immovable that one might
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: have taken it for a withered trump of a tree.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: But it was Rudy. He slept not and still less
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: was he dead. But as the most important events of
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: this earth, as well as affairs a vital moment for
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: individuals pass over the wires without their giving out a
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: tone or a tremulous movement. Even so, flashed through Ruddy thoughts, powerful, overwhelming,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: speaking of the happiness of his life, his henceforth constant thought.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: His eyes were fixed upon a point in the trellis work,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: and this was a light in Babet's sitting room. Rudy
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: was so motionless one might have thought that he was
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: observing a chimoi in order to shoot it. Now, however,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: he was like the chimoi which appears sculptured on the rock,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: and suddenly if a stone rolls up, springs and flies away.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Thus stood Ruddy until a thought struck him. Never despair,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: said he, I shall make a visit to the mill
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: and say, good evening, Miller, good evening, Bibet. One does
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: not fall when one does not think of it. Babet
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: must see me if I am to be her husband.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: And Rudy laughed, was of good cheer, and went to
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: the mill. He knew what he wanted. He wanted Bibet.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: The river, with its yellowish white water, rolled on the
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: willow trees, and the lindens bowed themselves deep in the
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: hastening water. Rudy went along the path, and, as it
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: says in the old child's song, Zu de milieu house
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: eber d'war niemand drinnan nerdi katsi shio ti'us. The cat
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: stood upon the step, put her back up and said miao.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: But Rudi had no thoughts for her language. He knocked,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: No one heard, no one opened, Miao, said the cat.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: If Rudy had been little, he would have understood the
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: speech of animals and known that the cat told him
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: there is no one at home. He was obliged to
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: cross over to the mill to make inquiries, and here
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: he had news. The master of the house was away
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: on a journey far away in the town of Interlachen
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: Interloch between the lakes. As the schoolmaster Annette's father had
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: explained in his wisdom, far away was the miller, and
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: bebet with him. There was to be a shooting festival
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: which was to commence on the following day and to
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: continue for a whole week. The Swiss from all the
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: German cantons were to meet there. Poor Rudy, one could
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: well say that he had not taken the happiest time
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: to visit Beck's Now he could return, and that was
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: what he did. He took the road over Sion and
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Saint Maurice back to his own valley, back to his
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: own mountain. But he was not downcast. On the following morning,
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: when the sun rose, his good humor had returned. In fact,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: it had never left him. But Bet is an Interlaken,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: many a day's journey from here, he said to himself.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: It is a long road thither if one goes by
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: the highway, but not so far if one passes over
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: the rocks, And that is the road for a Chimoi hunter.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: I went to this road formerly, for there is my
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: home where I lived with grandfather when I was a
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: little child, and they have a shooting festival in interlock In.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: I will be the first one there, and that will
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: I be with Babet also. As soon as I have
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: made her acquaintance. With his light knapsack containing his Sunday clothes,
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: with his gun and his huntsman's pouch, Rudy ascended the mountain.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: The short road was a pretty long one, but the
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: shooting match had but commenced to day and was to
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: last more than a week. The miller and Bebet were
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: to remain the whole time, with their relations in interlock. In.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Rudy crossed the Gemmi, for he wished to go to Grindelwald.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: He stepped forwards, merry and well out into the fresh
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: light mountain air. The valley sank beneath him. The horizon widened.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Here and there a snow peak, and soon appeared the
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: whole shining white alpine chain. Rudy knew every snow mountain. Onward,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: he strode toward the shrek horn that elevates its white
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: powdered snow finger high in the air. At last he
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: crossed the ridge of the mountain in the pasture grounds,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: and reached the valley of his home. The air was light,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: and his spirits gay. Mountain and valley stood resplendent with
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: fridure and flowers. His heart was filled with youthful thoughts,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: the one can never grow old, never die, but live,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: rule and enjoy free as a bird. Light as a
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: bird was he. The swallows flew by and sang as
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: in his childhood, we and you, you and we all
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: was happiness. Below lay the velvet green meadow with its
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: brown wooden houses. The luchen hummed and roared. He saw
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: the glacier with its green glass edges and its black
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: crevices in the deep snow and the under and upper glacier.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: The sound of the church bells was carried over to him,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: as if they trying to welcome home. His heart beat
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: loudly and expanded, so that for a moment Babet vanished
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: from it. His heart widened, it was so full of recollections.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: He retraced his steps over the path where he used
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: to stand when a little boy, with the other their children,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: on the edge of the ditch where he had sold
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: carved wooden houses. Yonder, under the fir trees was his
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: grandfather's house. Strangers dwelled there. Children came running up the
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: path wishing to sell. One of them held an alpine
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: rose towards him. Rudy took it for a good omen
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: and thought of Bibet. Quickly he crossed the bridge where
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: the two Luchines met. The leafy trees had increased and
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: the walnut trees gave deeper shade. He saw the streaming
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Swiss and Danish flags, the white cross on the red cloth,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: and Interlochan lay before him. It was certainly a magnificent
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: town like no other. It seemed to Rudy a Swiss
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: town in its Sunday dress was not like other trading places,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: a mass of black stone houses, heavy, uninviting and stiff. No,
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: it looked as though the wooden houses on the mountain
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: had run down into the green valley to the clear
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: swift river, and had ranged themselves in a row, a
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: little in and out, so as to form a street,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: the most splendid of all streets which had grown up
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: since Rudy was here as a child. It appeared to
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: him that here all the pretty wooden houses that his
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: grandfather had carved, and with which the cupboard at home
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: used to be filled, had placed themselves there, and had
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: grown in strength as the old, the oldest chestnut trees
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: had done. Each house had carved woodwork around the windows
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: and balconies, projecting roofs pretty and neat. In front of
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: every house, a little flower garden extended into the stone
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: covered street. The houses were all placed on one side,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: as if they wished to conceal the forest green meadow
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: where the cows with their tinkling bells made one fancy
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: oneself near the high alpine pasture grounds. The meadow was
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: enclosed with high mountains that leaned to one side, so
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: that the Jungfrau, the most stately of the Swiss mountains,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: with its glistening snow clad top, was visible. What a
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: quantity of well dressed ladies and gentlemen from foreign countries.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: What multitudes of inhabitants from the different cantons. The shooters
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: with their numbers placed in a wreath around their hats,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: waiting to take their turn. Here was music and song
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: heardy Gerdy's, and wind instruments, cries and confusion. The houses
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: and bridges were decked with devices and verses, banners and flags.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Floated rifles sounded shot after shot. This was the best
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: music to Rudy's ear, and he entirely forgot a bet,
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: although he had come for her sake. The marksmen thronged
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: towards the spot where the target shooting was. Ruddy was
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: soon among them, and he was the best, the luckiest,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: for he always hit the mark. Who can the strange
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: hunter be, they asked? He speaks the French language as
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: though he came from Canton Valet. He speaks our German
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: very distinctly, said others. He is said to have lived
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood of Grindelwald. When a child said one
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: of them, there was life in the youth. His eyes sparkled,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: his aim was true. Good luck gives courage, and Rudy
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: had courage at all times. He soon had a large
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: circle of friends around him. They praised him, they did
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: homage to him, and Bibet had almost entirely left his
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: thoughts at that moment. A heavy hand struck him on
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: the shoulder, and a gruff voice addressed him in the
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: French tongue. You were from Canton Valet. Rudy turned round.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: A stout person with a red contented countenance stood by him,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: and that was the rich miller of Bech's. He covered
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: with his wide body the slight pretty Bibet, who, however,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: soon peeped out with her beaming dark eyes. The rich
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: peasant became consequential because the hunter from his canton had
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: made the best shot and was the honored one. Ruddy
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: was certainly a favorite of fortune, that for which he
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: had journeyed thither, and almost forgotten, had sought him. When
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: one meets a countryman far from one's home, why then
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: one knows one another and speaks together. Ruddy was the
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: first of the shooting festival, and the miller was the
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: first at Beck's through his money and mill. And so
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: the two men pressed each other's hands. This they had
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: never done before. But Bet also gave Rudy her little hand,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: and he pressed hers in return, and looked at her
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: so that she became quite red. The miller told of
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: the long journey which they had made here, of the
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: many large towns which they had seen. That was a
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: real journey. They had come in the steamboat and had
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: been driven by post and rail. I came by the
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: short roads, said Rudy. I came over the mountains. There
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: is no path so high that one cannot reach it,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: but one can break one's neck, said the miller. You
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: look as though you would do so some day. You
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: are so daring. One does not fall when one does
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: not think of it, said Rudy. And the Miller's family
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: and Interlaken, with whom the Miller and Bebet were staying,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: begged Rudy to pay them a visit, for he was
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: from the same canton as their relations. These were glad
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: tidings for Rudy. Fortune smiled upon him, as it always
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: does on those that rely upon themselves and think upon
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: the saying, our Lord gives us nuts, but he does
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: not crack them for us. Rudy made himself quite at
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: home with the miller's relations. They drank the health of
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: the best marksmen. Babet knocked her glass against his, and
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: Rudy gave thanks for the honor shown him. In the evening,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: they all walked under the walnut trees in front of
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: the decorated hotels. There was such a crowd, such a throng,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: that Rudy was obliged to offer his arm to Bibet.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: He was so rejoiced to have met people from Pey
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: de Vaud said he Pey, Devad and Valet were good
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: neighborly cantons. His joy was so profound that it struck
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: Bibet she must press his hand. They walked along almost
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: like old acquaintances. She was so amusing the darling little creature.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: It became her so prettily. Rudy thought, when she described
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: what was laughable and overdone in the dress of the
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: ladies and ridiculed their manners and walk, she did not
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: do this in order to mock them. For no doubt
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: they were very good people. Babet knew what was right.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: For she had a godmother that was a distinguished English lady.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: She was in Beck's eighteen years ago when Babet was baptized.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: She had given Bibet the expensive breast pin which she wore.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: The godmother had written her two letters. This year she
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: was to meet her at Interlock and with her daughters.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: They were old mates, over thirty years old, said Bibet.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: She was just eighteen. The sweet little mouth was not
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: still a minute. Everything that Babet said sounded to Rudy
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: of great importance. Then he related how often he had
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: been in Beck's, how well he knew the mill, how
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: often he had seen Bibet, But she, of course had
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: never remarked him. He told how when he reached the mill,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: with many thoughts to which he could give no utterance,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: she and her father were far away, still, not so
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: far as to render it impossible for him to ascend
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: the rocky wall which made the road so long. Yes,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: he said this, and he also said how much he
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: thought of her, that it was for her sake, and
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: not on account of the shooting festival, that he had come.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Bibet remained very still, for what he confided to her
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: was almost too much joy. The sun set behind the
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: rocky wall whilst they were walking, and there stood the
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: Jungfrau in all her radiant splendor, surrounded by the dark
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: green circle of the adjacent mountains. The vast crowd of
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: people stopped to look at it. Rudy and Bibet also
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: gazed upon its grandeur. It is nowhere more beautiful than here,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: said Bibet. Nowhere, said Rudy, and looked at Babet. I
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: must leave tomorrow, said he. A little later, visit us
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: in Beck's whispered Babet, it will delight my father. End
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: of chapter four, Chapter five of The Ice Maiden and
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. This LibriVox recording is
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Recording by ellicat the Ice Maiden,
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: Chapter five, homewards Ah, how much Rudy carried with him
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: as he went home the next morning over the mountains. Yes,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: there were three silver goblets, two very fine rifles, and
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: a silver coffee pot, which one could use if one
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: wished to go housekeeping. But he carried with him something
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: far far more important, far mightier. Or rather that carried
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: him over the mountains. The weather was raw, moist and cold,
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: gray and heavy. The clouds lowered over the mountain tops
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: like morning veils, and enveloped the shining peaks of the rocks.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: The sound of the axe resounded from the depths of
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: the forest, and the trunks of the trees rolled down
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: the mountain, looking in the distance like slight sticks, but
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: on approaching them they were heavy trees suitable for making masts.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: The luchine rushed on with its monotonous sound, the wind blustered,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: the clouds sailed by. Suddenly a young girl approached Rudy,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: whom he had not noticed before, not until she was
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: beside him. She also was about crossing the mountain. Her
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: eyes had so peculiar a power that one was forced
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: to look into them. They were so strangely clear, clear
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: as glass, so deep, so fathomless. Have you a beloved one,
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: asked Rudy, For to have a beloved one was everything
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: to him. I have none, said she, and laughed, but
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: it was as though she was not speaking the truth.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: Do not let us take a byeway, continued she. We
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: must go more to the left. That way is shorter, yes,
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: so as to fall down a precipice, said Rudy. Do
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: you know no better way, and yet wish to be
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: a guide. I know the road well, said she. My
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: thoughts are with me, yours are beneath the valley. Here
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: on high, one must think on the ice Maiden, for
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: they say she is not well disposed to mankind. I
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: do not fear her, said Ruddy. She was forced to
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: let me go when I was a child, so I
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: suppose I can slip away from her now that I
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: am older. The darkness increased, the rain fell, the snow
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: came and shone and dazzled. Give me your hand. I
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: will help you to ascend, said the girl, and touched
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: him with icy cold fingers. You help me, said Ruddy.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: I do not yet need a woman's help in climbing.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: He strode quickly on away from her. The snow shower
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: formed a curtain around him. The wind whistled by him,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: and he heard the young girl laugh and sing. It
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: sounded so oddly. Yes, that was certainly a spirit in
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: the service of the ice Maiden. Rudy had heard of
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: them when he had passed a night on high, when
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: he had crossed the mountain as a little boy. The
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: snow fell more scantily, and the shadows lay under him
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: he looked back. There was no one to be seen,
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: but he heard laughing and yodling, and it did not
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: appear to come from a human being. When Rudy reached
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: the uppermost portion of the mountain, where the rocky path
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: leads to the valley of the Rhone, he saw, in
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: the direction of Chamouni, two bright stars twinkling and shining
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: in the clear streaks of blue. He thought of bebet
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: of himself, of his happiness, and became warmed by his thoughts.
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: End of chapter five, chapter six of The Ice Maiden
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: and Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. This LibriVox recording
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain recording by Ellie Cat The
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: Ice Maiden, Chapter six, the visit to the mill. You
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: bring princely things into the house, said the old foster mother.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: Her singular eagle eyes glistened, and she made strange and
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: hasty motions with her lean neck. Fortune is with you, Rudy.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: I must kiss you, my sweet boy. Rudy allowed himself
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: to be kissed, but one could read in his countenance
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: that he but submitted to circumstances and to little household miseries.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: How handsome you are, Rudy, said the old woman. Do
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: not put notions into my head, answered Rudy, and laughed.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: But still it pleased him. I say it once more,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: said the old woman. Fortune is with you. Yes, I
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: agree with you. There said he thought of Abet and
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: longed to be in the deep valley. They must have returned.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Two days have passed since they expected to do so.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: I must go to Beck's. Rudy went to Beck's, and
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: the inhabitants of the mill had returned. He was well received,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: and they brought him greetings from the family. At interlock
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: in b Beet did not talk much. She had grown silent,
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: but her eyes spoke, and that was quite enough for Rudy.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: The miller, who generally liked to carry on the conversation,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: for he was accustomed to have everyone laugh at his
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: witty sayings and puns. Was he not the rich miller
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: seemed now to prefer to listen. Rudy recounted to him
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: his hunting expeditions, described the difficulties, the dangers, and the
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: privations of the Chemoi hunter when on a lofty mountain peak,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: how often he must climb over the insecure snow ledges
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: that the wind had blown on the rocky brink, and
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: how he must pass over slight bridges that the snow
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: drifts had thrown across the abyss. Rudy looked fearless, his
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: eyes sparkled whilst he spoke of the shrewdness of the Chemoi,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: of their daring leaps, of the violence of the phone,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: and the rolling avalanches. He observed that with every description
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: he won more and more favor. But what pleased the
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: miller more than all was the account of the Lamb's
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: vulture and the bold golden eagle. In Canton Valet, not
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: far from here, there was an eagle's nest, very slyly
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: built under the projecting edge of the rock. A young
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: one was in it, but no one could steal it.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: An Englishman had offered Rudy a few days before a
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: whole handful of gold. He would bring him the young
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: one alive. But everything has a limit, said he. The
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: young eagle cannot be taken away, and it would be
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: madness to attempt it. The wine and conversation flowed freely,
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: but the evening appeared all too short for Rudy. Yet
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: it was past midnight when he went home from his
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: first visit to the mill. The light shone a little
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: while longer through the window and between the green trees.
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: The parlor cat came out of an opening in the roof,
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: and the kitchen cat came along the gutter. Do you
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: know the latest news at the mill, said the parlor cat.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: There has been a silent betrothel in the house. Father
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: does not yet know it. But Rudy and Bebet have
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: reached each other their paws under the table, and he
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: trod three times on my fore paws. But still I
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: did not mew, for that would have awakened attention. I
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: should have done it. Nevertheless, said the kitchen cat. What
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: is suited to the kitchen is not suited to the parlor,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: said the parlor cat. I should like to know what
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: the miller will say when he hears of the betrothal. Yes,
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: what the miller would say. That was what Rudy would
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: have liked to know, for Rudy was not at all patient.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: When the omnibus rumbled over the bridge of the Rhone
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: between Valet and Pey de Vaud not many days later,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: Rudy sat in it and was a good cheer, filled
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: with pleasing thoughts of the yes of the same evening,
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: when evening came and the omnibus returned. Yes, there sat
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: Rudy within, but the parlor cat was running about in
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: the mill with great news. Listen you in the kitchen.
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: The miller knows everything. Now this has had an exquisite ending.
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: Rudy came here towards evening. He and Aabet had much
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: to whisper and to chatter about as they stood in
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: the walk under the miller's chamber. I lay close to
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: their feet, but they had neither eyes nor thoughts for me.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: I am going directly to your father, said Ruddy. This
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: is an honorable affair. Shall I follow you? Asked Babet.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: It may give you more courage. I have courage enough,
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: said Ruddy. But if you are there, he will be
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: for to look at it in a more favorable light.
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: They went in. Rudy trod heavily on my tail. Ruddy
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: is indescribably awkward, I mewed, But neither he nor beabet
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: head ears to hear it. They opened the door, they entered,
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: and I preceded them. I leaped upon the back of
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: a chair, for I did not know but that Rudy
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: would overturn everything. But the miller reversed. All that was
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: a great step out of the door, up the mountains
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: to the chamoual. Rudy can aim at them now, but
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: not at our little Babet. But what was said, asked
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: the kitchen cat. I said everything. I care for her,
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: and she cares for me. When there is milk enough
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: and the jug for one, there is milk enough in
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: the jug for two. But she has placed too high
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: for you, said the miller. She sits on gold dust,
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: so now you know it. You cannot reach her. Nothing
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: is too high. He who wills can reach anything, said Rudy.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: He is too headstrong on this subject. But you cannot
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: reach the eaglet. You said so yourself. Lately, Babet is
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: still higher. I will have them both, said Rudy. Yes,
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: I will bestow her upon you if you make me
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: a present of the eaglet alive, said the miller, and
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: laughed until the tears stood in his eyes. Thanks for
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: your visit, Rudy, come again tomorrow you will find no
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: one at home. Farewell, Rudy, Bibet said, farewell, also as
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: sorrowfully as a kitten that cannot see its mother. A
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: word is a word, a man is a man, said Ruddy,
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: do not weep, Abet, I shall bring the eaglet. I
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: hope that you will break your neck, said the miller.
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: That's what I call an overturning. Now Rudy has gone,
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: and Babet sits and weeps. But the miller sings in German.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: He learned to do so whilst on his journey. I
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: do not intend to trouble myself any longer about it.
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: It does no good. There is still a prospect, said
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: the kitchen cat, end of chapter six, chapter seven of
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: The Ice Maiden and Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: Ellicat The Ice Maiden, Chapter six, the eagle's nest Mary
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: and loud sounded the yodel from the mountain path. It
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: indicated good humor and joyous courage. It was Rudy. He
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: was going to visit his friend Wesinand you must help me.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: We will take Rogleigh with us. I am going after
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: the eaglet on the brink of the rock. Do you
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: not wish to go after the black spot in the moon?
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: That is quite as easy, said Vesinand and you are
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: in a good humor, yes, because I am thinking of
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: my wedding. But seriously, you shall know how my affairs
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: stand vesinand and Rogley soon knew what Rudy wished. You
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: are a bold fellow, said they do not do this,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: you will break your neck. One does not fall when
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: one does not think of it, said Rudy. About midday
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: they set out with poles, ladders, and ropes. Their path
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: lay through bushes and brambles, over the rolling stones, up
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: up in the dark night. The water rushed beneath them.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: The water flowed above them, and the human clouds chased
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: after each other in the air. The hunters approached the
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: steep brink of the rock, it became darker and darker.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: The rocky walls almost met high above them. In the
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: narrow fissure, the air penetrated and gave light. Under their
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: feet was a deep abyss with its roaring waters. They
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: all three sat still, awaiting the gray of the morning.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: Then the eagle would fly out. They must shoot him
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: before they could think of obtaining the young one. Rudy
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: seemed to be a part of the stone on which
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: he sat, his rifle placed before him, ready to take aim.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: His eyes immovably fastened on yon high cleft, which concealed
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: the eagle's nest. The three huntsmen waited long. Crashing whizzing
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: noise sounded high above them. A large hovering object darkened
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: the air. Two rifle barrels were aimed. As the black
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: eagle flew from its nest, a shot was heard. The
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: outspread wings moved an instant then the bird slowly sank,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: as if it wished to fill the entire cliff with
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: its outstretched wings and bury the huntsmen in its fall.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: The eagle sank in the deep. The branches of the
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: trees and bushes cracked, broken by the fall of the bird.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: They now displayed their activity. Three of the longest ladders
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: were tied together. They stood them on the furthest point
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: where the foot could place itself with security, close to
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: the brink of the precipice. But they were not long enough.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: There was still a great space from the outermost projecting cliff,
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: which protected the nest. The rocky wall was perfectly smooth.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: After some consultation, they decided to lower into the opening
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: two ladders tied together, and to fasten them to the
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: three already beneath them. With great difficulty. They dragged them
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: up and attached them with cords. The ladder shot over
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: their projecting cliffs and hung over the chasm. Rudy sat
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: already on the lowest round. It was an ice cold morning,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: and the mist mounted from the black ravine. Rudy sat
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: there like a fly on a rocking blade of grass
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: which a nest building bird has dropped in its hasty
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: flight on the edge of a factory chimney. But the
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: fly had the advantage of escaping by its wings, poor
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: Rudy had none. He was almost sure to break his neck.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: The wind whistled around him, and the roaring water from
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: the thawed glaciers the palace of the ice maiden poured
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: itself into the abyss. He gave the ladders a swinging motion,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: as the spider swings herself by her long thread. He
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: seized them with a strong and steady hand, but they
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: shook as if they had worn out hasps. The five
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: long ladders looked like a tremulous reed as they reached
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: the nest and hung perpendicularly over the rocky wall. Now
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: came the most dangerous part. Rudy had to climb as
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: a cat climbs, but Rudy could do this, for the
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: cat had taught it to him. He did not feel
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: that Vertigo trod in the air behind him and stretched
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: her polypus like arms towards him. Now he stood on
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: the highest round of the ladder, and perceived that he
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: was not sufficiently high to enable him to see into
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: the nest. He could reach it with his hands. He
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: tried how firm the twigs were, which plaited in one
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: another formed the bottom of the nest. When he had
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: assured himself of a thick and immovable one, he swung
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: himself off the ladder. He had his breast and head
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: over the nest, out of which streamed towards him. A
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: stifling stench of carrion, torn limbs chimuan birds lay decomposing
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: around him. Vertigo, who had no power over him, blew
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: poisonous vapors into his face to stupefy him. Below, in
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: the black, yawning abyss sat the ice maiden herself on
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: the hastening water with her long greenish white hair, and
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: stared at him with death like eyes, which were pointed
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: at him like two rifle barrels. Now, I shall catch you.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: Seated in one corner, of the eagle's nest was the eaglet,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: who could not fly yet, although so strong and powerful,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: Ruddy fastened his eyes on it, held himself with his
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: whole strength firmly by one hand, and with the other
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: threw the noose around it. It was captured alive. Its
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: legs were in the knot. Rudy cast the rope over
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: his shoulder, so that the animal dangled some distance below him,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: and sustained himself by another rope, which hung down until
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: his feet touched the upper round of the ladder. Hold fast,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: do not think that you will fall, and then you
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: are sure not to do so. That was the old lesson,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: and he followed it, held fast, climbed, was sure not
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: to fall, and he did not. There resounded a strong yodling,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: and a joyous one too. Rudy stood on the firm,
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: rocky ground with the young eaglet. End of chapter seven,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: Chapter eight of The Ice Maiden and Other Tales by
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: Hans Christian Andersen. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: Recording by Ellie Cat The Ice Maiden, Chapter eight. The
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: news which the parlor cat related here is what you demanded,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: said Rudy on entering the house of the miller at Beck's.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: As he placed a large basket on the floor and
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: took off the covering, two yellow eyes with black circles
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: around them, fiery and wild, looked out as if they
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: wished to set on fire or to kill those around them.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: The short beak yawned, ready to bite, and the neck
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: was red and downy. The eaglet cried the miller. B
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: Beet screamed, jumped to one side, and could neither turn
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: her eyes from Rudy nor from the Eglet not allow
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: yourself to be frightened, said the miller. You keep your
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: word at all times, said Rudy. Each has his characteristic trait.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: But why did you not break your neck, asked the miller,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: Because I held on firmly, answered Ruddy, And I hold
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: firmly on Babet. First. See that you have her, said
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: the miller, and laughed. That was a good sign. Babet
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: knew this. Let us take the eaglet from the basket.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: It is terrible to see how he glares. How did
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: you get him? Rudy was obliged to recount his adventure,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: whilst the miller stared at him with eyes which grew
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: larger and larger. With your courage and with your luck,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: you could take care of three wives, said the miller. Thanks, thanks,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: cried Rudy. Yes, but you have not yet Babet, said
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: the miller, as he struck the young chemual hunter jestingly
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: on the shoulder. Do you know the latest news in
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: the mill, said the parlor cat to the kitchen cat.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: Ruddy has brought us the young eagle and taken Babet
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: in exchange. They have kissed each other, and the father
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: looked on. That is just as good as a betrothal.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: The old man did not overturn anything. He drew in
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: his claws, took his nap, and left the two seated
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: caressing each other. They have so much to relate, they
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: will not get through it till Christmas. They had not
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: finished at Christmas. The wind whistled through the brown foliage.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: The snow swept through the valley as it did on
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: the high mountain. The ice maiden sat in her proud
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: castle and arrayed herself in her winter costume. The ice
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: walls stood glazed and frost. Where the mountain streams waved
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: their watery veil in summer, were now seen thick elephantine icicles.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: Shining garlands of ice formed of fantastic ice crystals encircled
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: the fir trees, which were powdered with snow. The Ice
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: Maiden rode on the blustering wind over the deepest valleys.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: The snow covering lay over all becks. Rudy stayed in
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: doors more than he was wont and sat with Babet.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: The wedding was to take place in the summer. Their
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: friends talked so much of it that it often made
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: their ears burn. All was sunshine with them, and the
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: loveliest alpine rose was Babet, the sprightly, laughing Bibet, who
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: was as charming as the early spring, the spring that
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: makes the birds sing, that will bring the summer time
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: and the wedding day. How can they sit there and
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: hang over each other? Exclaimed the parlor cat, I am
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: really tired of their eternal mewing. End of chapter eight,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: Chapter nine of The Ice Maiden and Other Tales by
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: Hans Christian Andersen. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: Recording by Elly Cat The Ice Maiden, Chapter nine, The
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: Ice Maiden. The early springtime had unfolded the green leaves
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: of the walnut and chestnut trees. They were remarkably luxuriant.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: From the bridge of Saint Maurice to the banks of
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: the Lake of Geneva, the rhone, which rushes forth from
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: its source, has under the green glacier the palace of
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: the Ice Maiden. She is carried by it and the
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: sharp wind to the elevated snow fields, where she extends
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: herself on her damp cushions in the brilliant sunshine. There
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: she sits in gazes with far seeing sight upon the valley,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: where mortals busily move about like so many ants, beings
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: endowed with mental powers. As the children of the sun
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: call you, said the ice Maiden, Ye are worms. One
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: snowball rolled, and you and your houses and towns are
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: crushed and swept away. She raised her proud head still
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: higher and looked with death beaming eyes. Far around and
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: below her from the valley resounded a rumbling, a blasting
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: of rocks. Men were making railways and tunnels. They are
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: playing like moles, said she. They excavate passages, and a
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: noise is made like the fire of a gun. When
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: I transpose my castles, it roars louder than the rolling
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: of the thunder. A smoke arose from the valley and
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: moved along like a floating veil, like a waving plume.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: It was the locomotive which led the train over the
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: newly built railroad. This crooked snake, whose limbs are formed
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: of cars upon cars, it shot along with the speed
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: of an arrow. They are playing the masters with their
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: mental powers, said the ice maiden. But the powers of
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: nature are the ruling ones. Then she laughed, and her
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: laugh was echoed in the valley. Now an avalanche is rolling,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: said the men below. Still more loudly, sang the children
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: of the sun. They sang of the thoughts of men,
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: which fettered the sea to the yoke, cut down mountains
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: in philip valleys of human thoughts which rule the powers
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: of nature. At this moment, a company of travelers crossed
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: the snowfield where the maidens sat. They had bound themselves
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: firmly together with ropes in order to form a large
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: body on the smooth ice field by the deep abyss worms,
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: said she, as if you were lords of creation. She
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: turned from them and looked mockingly upon the deep valley,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: where the cars were rushing by. There sit those thoughts
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: and their power of strength. I see them all. There
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: sits one proud as a king, and alone. They sit
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: in masses. There half are asleep. When the steam dragon stops,
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: they will descend and go their way. The thoughts go
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: out into the world, she laughed. There rolls another avalanche,
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: they said in the valley. It will not catch us,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: said two on the back of the steam dragon, two
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: souls and one thought. These were Rudy and Bibet. The
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: miller was there also as baggage, said he, I go
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: along as the indispensable. There sit the two, said the
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: Ice Maiden. I have crushed many a chimois. I have
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: bent and broken mill millions of alpine roses, so that
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: no roots were left. I shall annihilate them, the thoughts,
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: the mental powers, she laughed. There rolls another avalanche, they
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: said in the valley, end of chapter nine, chapter ten
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: of The Ice Maiden and Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: Elli caat The Ice Maiden, Chapter ten, The Godmother in Montroux,
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: one of the adjoining towns, which with Clarens, Vernex and
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: Crin forms a garland around the northeast part of the
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: Lake of Geneva, dwelt Babet's godmother, a distinguished English lady
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: with her daughters and a young relation. Although she had
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: but lately arrived, the miller had already made her his
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: visit and announced Rabet's engagement, had spoken of Rudy and
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: the eaglet of the visit to interlochen, and in short,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: had told the whole story. This had rejoiced her in
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: the highest degree. Both for Rudy and Babet's sake as
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: well as for the miller's, they must all visit her.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: Therefore they came. Bibet was to see her godmother, and
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: the godmother was to see Babet. At the end of
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: the Lake of Geneva, by the little town of Villeneuve
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: lay the steamboat, which, after half an hour's trip from Vernex,
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: arrived at montro This is one of the coasts which
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: are sung of by the poets. Here sat Byron by
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: the deep, bluish green lake, under the walnut trees, and
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: wrote his melodious verses upon the prisoner of the deep
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: somber castle of Chilong. Here were Clarens, with its weeping willows,
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: mirrored itself in the waters. Once wandered were so and
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: dreamt of Heloise yonder, where the roane glides alone long
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: under Savoy snow topped mountains, and not far from its
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: mouth in the lake lies a little island. Indeed, it
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: is so small that from the coast it is taken
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: for a vessel. It is a valley between the rocks,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: which a lady caused to be dammed up a hundred
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: years ago, and to be covered with earth and planted
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: with three acacia trees, which now shade the whole island.
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: Babet was quite charmed with its little spot. They must
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: and should go there. Yes, it must be charming beyond
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: description to be on the island. But the steamer sailed
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: by and stopped as it should at Vernecks. The little
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: party wandered between the white sun lighted walls which surrounded
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: the vineyards of the little mountain town of Montroe, through
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: the fig trees which flourished before every peasant's house, and
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: in whose gardens the laurel and cypress trees are green.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: Half Way up the hill stood the boarding house where
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: the godmother resided. The reception was very cordial. The godmother
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: was a large, amiable person and had a round, smiling countenance.
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: As a child, she must have had a real Raphael's
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: angel head, but now was an old angel's head with
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: silvery white hair well curled. The daughters were tall, slender, refined,
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: and much dressed. The young cousin who was with them,
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: was clad in white from head to foot. He had
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: golden hair and immense whiskers. He immediately showed little Babet
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: the greatest attention. Richly bound books, loose music and drawings
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: lay strewn about the large table. The balcony door stood open,
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: and one head of view of the beautiful outspread lake,
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: which was so shining, so still, that the mountains of Savoy,
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: with their little villages, their forest and their snowy peaks,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: mirrored themselves in it. Rudy, who usually was so full
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: of life, so merry, and so daring, did not feel
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: in his element. He moved over the smooth floor as
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: though he were treading on peas. How wearily the time
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: dragged along. It was just as if one was in
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: a treadmill. If they did go walking, why that was
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: just as slow. Rudy could take two steps forwards and
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: two steps backwards and still remain in the pace of
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: the others when they came to Chillon, the old somber
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: castle on the rocky Island. They entered in order to
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: see the dungeon and the murder stake, as well as
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: the rusty chains on the wall, the stone bed for
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: those contempt to death, and the trap door where the
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: wretched beings impaled on iron goads were hurled into the breakers.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: It was a place of execution, elevated through Byron's song
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: to the world of poetry. Rudy was sad. He leant
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: over the broad stone sill of the window, gazed into
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: the deep blue water and over to the little solitary
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: island with its three acacias, and wished himself there free
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: from the whole gossiping society. Bibet was remarkably merry. She
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: had been indescribably amused. The cousin found her perfect, Yes,
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: a perfect Jackanapes, said Rudy. This was the first time
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: that he had said something that did not please her.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: The Englishman had presented her with a little book as
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: a souvenir of Chilan Byron's poem of the Prisoner of
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: Chilon in the French language, so that Bibet might read it.
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: The book may be good, said Rudy, but the finely
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: combed fellow that gave it to you does not please me.
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: He looked like a meal bug without a meal in it,
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: said the miller, and laughed at his own wit. Rudy
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: laughed and thought that this was very well said end
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: of chapter ten, Chapter eleven of The Ice Maiden and
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. This LibriVox recording is
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Recording by Ellye Cat The Ice Maiden,
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven, The Cousin. When Rudy came to the mill
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: a couple of days afterwards, he found the young englishman there.
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: Babet had just cooked some trout for him and addressed
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: them with parsley in order to make them appear more inviting.
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: That was assuredly not necessary. What did the Englishman want here?
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: Did he come in order to have Bibet entertain and
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: wait upon him. Rudy was jealous, and that amused Babet.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: It rejoiced her to learn the feelings of his heart,
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: the strong as well as the weak ones. Until now
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: love had been a play, and she played with Rudy's
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: whole heart. Yet he was her happiness, her life's thought
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: the noblest one. The more gloomy he looked, the more
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: her eyes laughed. And she would have liked to kiss
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: the blonde Englishman with his golden whiskers. If she could
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: have succeeded by so doing in making Rudy rush away furious,
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: then yes, then she would have known how much he
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: loved her. That was not right, that was not wise
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: in little Babet, but she was only nineteen. She did
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: not reflect, and still less did she think how her
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: behavior towards the young Englishman might be interpreted, For it
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: was lighter and merrier than was seemly for the honorable
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: and newly affianced daughter of the miller. The mill lay
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: where the highway slopes under the snow covered rocky heights,
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: which are called here in the language of the country diablerettes,
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: close to a rapid mountain stream, which was of a
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: grayish white, like bubbling soap SuDS. A smaller stream rushes
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: forth from the rocks on the other side of the river,
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: passes through an enclosed, broad rafter made gutter, and turns
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: the large wheel of the mill. The gutter was so
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: full of water that it streamed over and offered a
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: most slippery way to one who had the idea of
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: crossing more quickly to the mill. A young man had
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: this idea. The Englishman, guided by the light which shone
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: from Babet's window, he arrived in the evening, clothed in
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: white like a miller's boy. He had not learnt to climb,
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: and nearly tumbled head over heels into the stream, but
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: escaped with wet sleeves and splashed pantaloons. He reached Babet's window,
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: muddy and wet. Through there he climbed into the old
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: linden tree and imitated the screech of an owl, for
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: he could not sing like any other bird. Babet heard
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: it and peeped through the thin curtains. But when she
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: remarked the white man and recognized him, her little heart
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: fluttered with alarm, but also with anger. She hastily extinguished
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: the light, fastened the windows securely, and then she let
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: him howl. If Rudy was in the mill, it would
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: have been dreadful. But Rudy was not there. No, it
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: was much worse, for he was below. There was loud conversation,
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: angry words. There might be blud yes, perhaps murder. Bibet
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: was terrified, She opened the window, called Rudy's name and
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: begged him to go. She said she would not suffer
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: him to remain. You will not suffer me to remain,
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: he exclaimed. Then it is a preconcerted thing. You are
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: expecting other friends, friends better than myself. Shame on you, Bibet.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: You are detestable, said Babet. I hate you, and she wept.
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: Go go. I have not deserved this, said he, and departed.
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: His cheeks burned like fire, his heart burned like fire.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: Babet threw herself on her bed and wept. So much
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: as I love you, Rudy, how can you believe ill
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: of me? She was angry, very angry, and this was
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: good for her. Otherwise she would have sorrowed deeply. But
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: now she could sleep, and she slept the strengthening sleep
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: of youth. End of chapter eleven, Chapter twelve of The
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: Ice Maiden and Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. This
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elliicat
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: The Ice Maiden, chapter twelve, the Evil Powers, Rudy forsook
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: becks and went on his way home in the fresh
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: cool air up the snow covered mountain. Where the ice
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: maiden ruled. The leafy trees which lay beneath him looked
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: like potato vines. Fir trees and bushes became less frequent.
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: The alpine roses grew in the snow, which lay in
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: little spots like linen put out to bleach. There stood
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: a blue anemone. He crushed it with the barrel of
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: his gun. Higher up, two chimois appeared, and Rudy's eyes
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: gained luster, and his thoughts took a new direction, But
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: he was not near enough to make a good shot.
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: He ascended still higher, where only stiff grass grows between
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: the blocks of stone. The chimou were quietly crossing the
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: snow field. He hurried hastily on. The fog was descending,
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: and he suddenly stood before the steep rocky wall. The
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: rain commenced to fall. He felt a burning thirst, heat
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: in his head, cold in all his limbs. He grasped
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: his hunting flask, but it was empty. He had not
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: thought of filling it when he rushed up the hill.
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: He had never been ill, but now he was so.
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: He was weary and had a desire to throw himself
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: down to sleep. But everything was streaming with water. He
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: endeavored to collect his thoughts, but all objects danced before
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: his eyes. Suddenly he perceived a newly built house leaning
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: against the rocks, and in the doorway stood a young girl. Yes,
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: it appeared to him that it was the schoolmaster's ante,
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: whom he had once kissed whilst dancing. But it was
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: not a net, and yet he had seen her before,
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: perhaps in Grindelwald. On the evening, when he returned from
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: the shooting festival at Interlocke, where do you come from,
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: asked he. I am at home, said she. I tend
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: my flock. Your flock. Where do they pasture? Here are
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: only cliffs and snow. You have a ready answer, said she,
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: and laughed. Below there is a charming meadow. There are
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: my goats. I take good care of them. I lose
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: none of them. What is mine remains mine. You are bold,
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: said Rudy, So are you, answered she? Have you any milk?
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: Do give me some? My thirst is intolerable. I have
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: something much better than milk, said she, and you shall
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: have it. Travelers came yesterday with their guide, but they
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: forgot a flask of wine such as you have never tasted.
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: They will not come for it. I shall not drink it,
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: So drink you. She brought the wine, poured it in
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: a wooden cup, and handed it to Rudy. That is good,
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: said he. I have never drunk such a warming, such
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: a fiery wine. His eyes beamed a life, A glow
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: came over him. All sorrow and oppression seemed to die away.
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: Gushing fresh human nature stirred itself within him. Why this
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: is the schoolmaster's annet, exclaimed he give me a kiss. Yes,
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: give me the beautiful ring which you wear on your finger,
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: my engagement ring. Just that one, said the young girl, and,
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: pouring wine into the cup, put it to his lips,
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: and he drank. Then the joy of life streamed in
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: his blood. The whole world seemed to belong to him. Why,
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: torment oneself, Everything is made for our enjoyment and happiness.
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: The stream of life is the stream of joy, and
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: forgetfulness is felicity. He looked at the young girl. It
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: was a net, and then again not a net, still less,
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: an enchanted phantom, as he had named her when he
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: met her near Grindelwald. The girl on the mountain was
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: fresh as the newly fallen snow, blooming as the alpine
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: rose and light as a kid and a human being
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: like Rudy. He wrapped his arm about her, looked in
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: her strange clear eyes. Yes, only for a second. But
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: was its spiritual life? Or was it death which flowed
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: through him? Was he raised on high? Or did he
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: sink into the deep murderous ice pit. Deeper and ever deeper,
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: he saw icy walls like bluish green glass. Numberless clefts
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: yawned around, and the water sounded as it dropped, like
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: a chime of bells. It was pearly clear and shone
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: in bluish white flames. The ice maiden gave him a
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: kiss which made him shiver from head to foot, and
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: he gave a cry of pain. He staggered and fell.
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: It grew dark before his eyes, but soon all became
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: clear to him again. The evil powers had had their
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: sport with him. The Alpine Maiden had vanished, the mountain
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: hut had vanished. The water beat against the bare, rocky walls,
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: and all around him lay snow. Rudy wet to the skin,
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: trembled from cold, and his ring had disappeared, his engagement ring,
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: which Bibet had given him. He tried to fire off
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: his rifle, which lay near him in the snow, but
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: it missed. Humid clouds lay in the clefts like firm
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: masses of snow, and Vertigo watched for her powerless prey
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: beneath him in the deep chasm. It sounded as if
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: a block of the rock was rolling down and was
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: endeavoring to crush and tear up all that met it
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: in its fall. In the mill, Sapa beet and wept.
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: Rudy had not been there for six days. He who
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: had been so wrong, He who must beg her forgiveness,
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: because she loved him with her whole heart. End of
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: chapter twelve, chapter thirteen of The Ice Maiden and Other
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. This LibriVox recording as in
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: the public domain recording by Elly Cat The Ice Maiden,
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen. In the Miller's House, what confusion, said the
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: parlor cat to the kitchen cat. Now all is wrong
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: between Rudy and Babet. She sits and weeps, and he
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: thinks no longer on her. I suppose I cannot bear it,
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: said the kitchen cat. Nor I said the parlor cat.
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: But I shall not worry myself any longer about it.
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: Bibet can take the red whiskered one for a dear one.
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: But he has not been here either since he tried
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: to get on the roof. Within and without the evil
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: powers ruled. And Rudy knew this and reflected upon what
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: had taken place, both around and within him. Whilst upon
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: the mountain were those faces or was all a feverish dream?
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: He had never known fever or sickness before. Whilst he
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: condemned Babet, he also condemned himself. He thought of the wild,
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: wicked feeling which had lately possessed him. Could he confess
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: everything to Babet, every thought which, in the hour of
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: temptation might have become a reality? He had lost her ring,
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: and by this loss had she won him back? Could
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: she confess to him? It seemed as if his heart
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: would break when he thought of her. So many recollections
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: passed through his soul. He saw her, a lively, laughing,
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: petulant child. Many a loving word which she had said
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: to him in the fullness of her heart, shot like
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: a sunbeam through his breast, and soon all there was
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: sunshine for Bebet. She must be able to confess to him,
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: and she should do so. He came to the mill,
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: he came to confession, and this commenced with a kiss,
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: and ended with the fact that Rudy was the sinner.
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: His great fault was that he had doubted Babet's fidelity. Yes,
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: that was indeed atrocious in him. Such mistrust, such violence,
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: could bring them both into misfortune. Yes, most surily. Thereupon
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: Babet preached him a little sermon which much diverted her
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: and became her charmingly. And one article, Ruddy was quite right.
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: The godmother's relation was a jackanape's. She should burn the
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: book that he had given her, and not possess the
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: slightest object which could remind her of him. Now it
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: is all arranged, said the parlor cat. Ruddy is here again.
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: They understand each other, and that is a great happiness.
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: Last night, said the kitchen cat. I heard the rats
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: say that the greatest happiness was to eat tallow candles
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: and to have abundance of tainted meat. Now, who must
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: one believe the rats or the lovers, neither of them,
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: said the parlor cat. That is the surest way. The
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: greatest happiness for Rudy and Babet was drawing near. They
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: were awaiting, so they said their happiest day, their wedding day.
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: But the wedding was not to be in the church
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: of Beck's nor in the miller's house. The godmother wished
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: it to be solemnized near her, and the marriage ceremony
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: was to take place in the beautiful little church of
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: montrou The miller insisted that her desire should be fulfilled.
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: He alone knew what the godmother intended for the young couple.
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: They were to receive a bridle present from her, which
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: was well worth so slight a concession. The day was appointed.
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: They were to leave for Villeneuve in time to arrive
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: at Montreux early in the morning, and so enable the
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: godmother's daughters to dress the bride. Then I suppose there
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: will be a wedding here in the house on the
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: following day, said the parlor cat. Otherwise I would not
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: give a single mew for the whole thing. There will
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: be a feast here, said the kitchen cat. The ducks
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: are slain, the pigeon's necks rung, and a whole deer
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: hangs on the wall. My teeth itch just with looking
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: on tomorrow. The journey commences, Yes tomorrow, Rudy and Babet
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: sat together for the last time in the mill. Without
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: was the alpine glow. The evening bells pealed, the daughters
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: of the Sun sang, what is for the best will
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: take place? End of chapter thirteen, Chapter fourteen of The
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: Ice Maiden and Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. This
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Ellye
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: Cat The Ice Maiden, Chapter fourteen, The Visions of the night.
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: The sun had gone down, the clouds lowered themselves into
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: the Rhone valley between the high mountains. The wind blew
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: from the south over the mountain, an African wind, a foone,
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: which tore the clouds asunder. When the wind had passed,
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: all was still for an instant. The parted clouds hung
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: in fantastic forms between the forest grown mountains over the
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: hastening Rhone. Their shapes resembled sea monsters of the primeval world,
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: soaring eagles of the air and leaping frogs of the ditches.
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: They seemed to sink into the rapid stream and to
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: sail on the river, yet they still floated in the air.
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: The stream carried away a pine tree torn up by
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: the roots, and the water sent whirlpools ahead. This was
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: Vertigo with her attendants, and they danced in circles on
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: the foaming stream. The moon shone on the snow of
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: the mountain peaks. It lighted up the dark forest and
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: the singular white clouds. The peasants of the mountain saw
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: through their window panes the nightly apparitions and the spirits
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: of the powers of nature as they sailed before the
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: ice Maiden. She came from her glacier castle. She sat
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: in a frail bark, a felled fir tree. The water
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: of the glaciers carried her up the stream out to
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: the main sea. The wedding guests are coming, was whizzed
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: and sung in the air and in the water, Visions
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: without and visions within. Babet dreamed a wonderful dream. It
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: appeared to her as though she was married to Root,
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: and had been so for many years. He had gone
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: Chimoi hunting, And as she sat at home, the young
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: Englishman with the golden whiskers was beside her. His eyes
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: were fiery, his words seemed endowed with magical power. He
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: reached her his hand, and she was obliged to follow him.
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: They flew from home steadily downwards. A weight lay upon
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: her heart, and it grew ever heavier. It was a
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: sin against Rudy, a sin against God. Suddenly she stood forsaken.
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: Her clothes were torn by the thorns, her hair had
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: grown gray. She looked up in her sorrow, and she
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: saw Rudy on the edge of the rock. She stretched
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: her arms towards him, but she ventured neither to call
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: nor to implore him. But she soon saw that it
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: was not he himself, only his hunting coat and hat,
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: which were hanging on his alpine staff, as the hunters
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: are accustomed to place them in order to deceive the chimoi.
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: But be mo in boundless anguish, Ah would that I
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: had died on my wedding day, my happiest day, Oh
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: my heavenly father, that would have been a mercy, a
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: life's happiness. Then we would have obtained the best that
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: could have happened to us. No one knows his future.
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: In her impious sorrow, she threw herself down the steep precipice.
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: It seemed as if a string broke, and a sorrowful
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: tone resounded. But bed awoke. The dream was at an
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: end and obliterated. But she knew that she had dreamt
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: of something terrible, and of the young englishman whom she
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: had neither seen nor thought of for many months. Was
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: he perhaps in montrou Should she see him at her wedding?
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: A slight shadow flitted over her delicate mouth. Her brow contracted,
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: but her smile soon returned. Her eyes sparkled again. The
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: sun shone so beautifully without And tomorrow, yes, tomorrow, was
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: her and Rudy's wedding day. Rudy had already arrived when
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: she came downstairs, and they soon left for Villeneuve. They
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: were so happy, the two and the miller also. He
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: laughed and was radiant with joy. He was a good father,
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: an honest soul. Now we are the masters of the house,
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: said the parlor cat, end of chapter fourteen, Chapter fifteen
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: of The Ice Maiden and Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen.
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: elly Cat The Ice Maiden, Chapter fifteen conclusion. It was
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: not yet night when the three joyous people reached Villeneuve
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: and took their dinner. The miller seated himself in an
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: arm chair with his pipe, and took a little nap.
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: The betrothed went out of the town arm in arm,
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: out on the carriageway, under the bush grown rocks, to
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: the deep, bluish green lake. Somber Chalon, with its gray
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: walls and heavy towers, mirrored itself in the clear water.
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: But still nearer laid the little island with its three acashas,
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: and it looked like a bouquet on the lake. How
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: charming it must be there, said Babet. She felt again
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: the greatest desire to visit it, and this wish could
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: be immediately fulfilled. For a boat lay on the shore,
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: and the rope which fastened it was easy to untie.
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: As no one was visible from whom they could ask permission.
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: They took the boat without hesitation, for Rudy could row well.
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: The oars skimmed like the fins of a fish over
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: the pliant water, which is so yielding and still so strong,
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: which is all back to carry, but all mouth to engulf,
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: which smiles, yes, is gentleness itself and still awakens terror,
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: and is so powerful and destroying. The rapid current soon
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: brought the boat to the island. They stepped on land.
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: There was just room enough for the two to dance
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: Rudy swung Bibet three times around, and then they seated
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: themselves on the little bench under the acashas looked into
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: each other's eyes, held each other by the hand, and
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: everything around them shone in the splendor of the setting sun.
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: The forests of fir trees on the mountains became of
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: a pinkish lilac aspect, the color of blooming heath, and
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: where the bare rocks were apparent, they glowed as if
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: they were transparent. The clouds in the sky were radiant
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: with a red glow. The whole lake was like a fresh,
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: flaming rose leaf. As the shadows arose to the snow
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: covered mountains of Savoy, they became dark blue, but the
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: uppermost peak seemed like red lava, and pointed out for
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: a moment the whole range of mountains, whose masses arose
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: glowing from the bosom of the earth. It seemed to
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: Rudy and Bibet that they had never seen such an
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: alpine glow. The snow covered den to Media had a
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: luster like the full moon when it rises to the horizon.
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: So much beauty, so much happiness, they both said, Earth
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: can give me no more, said Rudy, an evening hour
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: like this is a whole life. How often have I
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: felt as now and thought that if everything should end suddenly,
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: how happily I have lived? How blessed is this world?
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: The day ended, a new one dawned, and I felt
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: that it was still more beautiful. How bountiful is our
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: Lord Bibet. I am so happy, said she. Earth can
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: give me no more, exclaimed Rudy. The evening bells resounded
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: from the Savoy and Swiss mountains. The bluish black juror
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: arose in the golden splendor towards the west. God give
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: you that which is most excellent and best, Ruddy, said Babet.
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: He will do that, answered Rudy. Tomorrow. I shall have it.
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow you will be entirely mine, mine own, little lovely wife.
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: The boat, cried Bibet. At the same time, the boat
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: which was to convey them back, had broken loose and
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: was sailing from the island. I will go for it,
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: said Rudy. He threw off his coat, drew off his boots,
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: sprang in the lake, and swam towards the boat. The clear,
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: bluish gray water of the Ice mountains was cold and deep,
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: Rudy gave but a single glance, and it seemed as
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: though he saw a gold ring, rolling, shining and sporting.
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: He thought on his lost engagement ring, and the ring
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: grew larger, widened into a sparkling circle, and within it
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: shone the clear glacier. All about yawned endless deep chasms.
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: The water dropped and sounded like a chime of bells,
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: and shone with bluish white flames. He saw on a
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: second what we must say in many long words. Young
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: hunters and young girls, men and women who had once
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: perished in the glacier stood there, living with open eyes
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: and smiling mouth. Deep below them chin from buried towns,
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: the peel of church bells, under the arches of the
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: churches knelt the congregation. Pieces of ice formed the organ pipes,
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: and the mountain stream played the organ. On the clear,
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: transparent ground sat the ice maiden. She raised herself towards Rudy,
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: kissed his feet, and the coldness of death ran through
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: his limbs and gave him an electric shock, ice and fire.
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: He could not perceive the difference. Mine, Mine sounded around
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: him and within him. I kissed you when you were young,
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: kissed you on your mouth. Now I kiss your feet.
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: You were entirely mine. He vanished in the clear blue water.
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: Everything was still. The church bells stopped ringing, The last
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: tones died away with the splendor of the red clouds.
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: You are mine, sounded in the deep. You are mine,
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: sounded from on high, from the infinite. How happy to fly?
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: From love to love, from earth to heaven. A string broke,
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: a cry of grief was heard, The icy kiss of
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: death conquered. The prelude ended so that the drama of
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: life might commence. Discord melted into harmony. Do you call
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: this a sad story, poor Bibet. For her, it was
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: a period of anguish. The boat drifted further and further.
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: No one on shore knew that the lovers were on
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: the island. The evening darkened, the clouds lowered themselves, night came.
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: She stood there, solitary, despairing, moaning. A flash of lightning
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: passed over the Jura Mountains, over Switzerland and over Savoy
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: from all sides, flash upon flash of lightning, clap upon
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: clap of thunder, which rolled continuously many minutes. At times,
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: the lightning was vivid as sunshine, and you could distinguish
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: the grapevines. Then all became black again. In the dark night,
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: the lightning formed knots, ties, zigzags, complicated figures. It struck
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: the lake so that it lit it up on all sides,
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: Whilst the noise of the thunder was made louder by
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: the echo. The boat was drawn on shore. All living
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: objects sought shelter. Now the rain streamed down. Where can
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: Rudy and Babet be in this frightful weather? Said the miller.
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: Babet sat with folded hands, with her head in her lap, mute,
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: with sorrow, with screaming and bewailing in the deep water,
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: said she to herself. He is as far down as
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: the glaciers. She remembered what Rudy had related to her
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: of his mother's death, of his preservation, and how he
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: was withdrawn death like from the clefts of the glacier.
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: The Ice Maiden has him again. There was a flash
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: of lightning, as dazzling as the sunlight on the white snow.
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: Babet started up. At this instant the sea rose like
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: a glittering glacier. There stood the Ice Maiden, majestic, pale, blue, shining,
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: and at her feet lay Rudy's corpse mine, said she,
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: And then all around was fog and night and streaming water.
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: Cruel moaned babet, Why must he die? Now that the
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: day of our happiness approached? God, enlighten my understanding, enlighten
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: my heart. I do not understand thy ways. Notwithstanding all
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: thy omnipotence and wisdom, I still grope in the darkness.
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: God enlightened her heart. A thought like a ray of mercy,
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: her last night's dream, in all its viviness, flashed through her.
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: She remembered the words which she had spoken, the wish
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: for the best for herself and Rudy. Woe is me?
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: Was that the sinful seed in my heart? Did my
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: dream foretell my future? Life? Is all this misery for
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: my salvation? Me? Miserable? One lamenting? She sat in the
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: dark night, in the solemn stillness, sounded Rudy's last words,
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: the last ones he had uttered. Earth has no more
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: happiness to give me. She had heard it in the
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: fullness of her joy. She heard it again in all
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: the depths of her sorrow. A couple of years have
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: passed since then. The lake smiles, the coast smiles, the
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: vine branches are filled with ripe grapes. The steamboats glide
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: along with waving flags, and the pleasure boats float over
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: the watery mirror with their two expanded sails like white butterflies.
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: The road to Silan is opened. It leads into their
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: own valley. Strangers alight at every station. They arrive with
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: their red covered guide books and read of remarkable sights
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: which are to be seen. They visit Chelon, they stand
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: upon the little island with its three akashas out on
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: the lake, and they read in the book about the
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: betrothed ones who sailed over one evening in the year
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty six, of the death of the bridegroom, and
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: it was not till the next morning that the despairing
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: shrieks of the bride were heard on the coast. The
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: book does not tell how of Babet's quiet life with
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: her father, not in the mill where strangers now dwell,
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: but in the beautiful house near the railway station. There
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: she looks from the window many an evening and gazes
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: over the chestnut trees upon the snow mountains where Rudy
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: once climbed. She sees in the evening hours the alpine glow.
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: The children of the sun encamped themselves above and repeat
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: the song of the wanderer, whose mantle the whirlwind tore
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: off and carried away. It took the covering, but not
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: the man. There is a rosy hue on the snow
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: of the mountains. There is a rosy hue in every
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: heart where the thought dwells. That God always gives us
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: that which is best for us, but it is not
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: always revealed to us, as it once happened to Bibet
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: in her dream. End of Chapter fifteen ten of The
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: Ice Maiden and Other Tales. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: by Ellie Cat The Ice Maiden and Other Tales by
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: Hans Christian Andersen The Butterfly. The butterfly wished to procure
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: a bride for himself. Of course, one of the flowers,
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: a pretty little one. He looked about him. Each one
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: sat quietly and thoughtfully on her stock, as a young
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: maiden should sit when she is not off fianced. But
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: there were many of them, and it was a difficult
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: matter to choose amongst them. The butterfly could not make
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: up his mind, so he flew to the daisy. The
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: French call her Marguerite. They know that she can tell fortunes,
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: and she does this when lovers pluck off leaf after
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: leaf and ask her at each one a question about
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: the beloved one, How does he love me with all
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: his heart? With sorrow above all? Cannot refrain from it
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: quite secretly, A little bit, not at all? Or questions
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: to the same import each one asks in his own language.
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: The butterfly flew towards her and questioned her. He did
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: not pluck off the leaves, but kissed each separate one,
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: thinking that by so doing he would make himself more
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: agreeable to the good creature. Sweet Margaret, Daisy said he.
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: Of all the flowers, you are the wisest woman you
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: can prophesy, tell me shall I obtain this one? Or
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: that one? Which one? If I but know this, I
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: can fly to the charming one at once and pay
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: my court. Margaret did not answer. She could not bear
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: to be called a woman, for she was a young girl,
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: and when one is a young girl, one is not
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: a woman. He asked again. He asked a third time.
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: But if she did not answer a single word. He
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 1: questioned her no more and flew away without further parley,
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: intent on his courtship. It was early springtime and there
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: was an abundance of snowdrops and crocuses. They are very neat,
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: said the butterfly. Pretty little confirmed ones, but a little green. He,
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: like all young men, looked at older girls. From thence
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: he flew to the anemones. But he found them a
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: little too sentimental, the twu lips too showy, the broom
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: not of a good family. The linden blossoms too small.
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: Then they had so many relations. As to the apple blossoms,
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: why to look at them, you would think them as
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: healthy as roses. But to day they blossom, and tomorrow,
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: if the wind blows, they drop off. A marriage with
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: them would be too short. The pea blossom pleased him most.
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: She was pink and white. She was pure and refined,
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: and belonged to the housewify girls that look well and
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: still can make themselves useful in the kitchen. He had
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: almost concluded to make love to her when he saw
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: hanging near to her a pea pod with its white blossom.
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: Who is that? Asked he? That is my sister said
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: the pea blossom, How now is that the way you
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: look when older? This terrified the butterfly, and he flew away.
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: The honeysuckles were hanging over the fence, young ladies with
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: long faces and yellow skins. But he did not fancy
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: their style of beauty. Yes, but which did he like?
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: Ask him? The spring passed, the summer passed, and then
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: came the autumn. The flowers appeared in their most beautiful dresses.
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: But of what avail was this? The butterfly's fresh, youthful
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: feelings had vanished in old age. The heart lungs for fragrance,
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: and dahlia's and gilly flowers are scentless. So the butterfly
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: flew to the mint. She has no flower at all,
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: but she is herself a flower, for she is fragrant
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 1: from head to foot, and each leaf is filled with perfume.
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: I shall take her. But the mint stood stiff and still,
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: and at last said, friendship, but nothing more. I am old,
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: and you are old. We can live very well for
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: one another. But to ma, no, do not let us
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: make fools of ourselves in our old age. So the
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: butterfly obtained no one. The butterfly remained a bachelor. Many
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: violent and transient showers came late in the autumn. The
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: wind blew so coldly down the back of the old
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: willow trees that it cracked within them. It did not
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: do to fly about in summer garments, for even love
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: itself would then grow cold. The butterfly, however, preferred not
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: to fly out at all. He had by chance entered
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: a doorway, and there was fire in the stove. Yes,
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: it was just as warm there as in summer time.
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: There he could live. Life is not enough, said he.
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: One must have sunshine, liberty, and a little flower. He
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: flew against the window panes, was seen, was run through
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: by a pin and placed in a curiosity box. One
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: could not do more for him. Now I also am
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: seated on a stalk like a flower, said the butterfly.
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: It is not so comfortable after all, But it is
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 1: as well as being married, for then one is tied down.
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: He consoled himself with this, What a wretched consolation, said
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: the flower that grew in the pot in the room.
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: One cannot entirely trust to flowers that grow in pots,
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: thought the butterfly. They have too much intercourse with men.
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter sixteen, Chapter seventeen of the Ice Maiden
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: and other tales by Hans Christian Andersen. This LibriVox recording
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Recording by Ellikat the Psyche,
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: A large star beams in the dawn of morning in
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: the red sky, the clearest star of the morning. Its
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: rays tremble upon the white wall, as if they wished
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 1: to write down and relate to the scenes which they
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: had witnessed during many centuries. Listen to one of these
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 1: stories A short time ago, this not long ago is
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: with us men's centuries. My rays followed a young artist.
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: It was in the realm of the Pope, in the
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: city of the world. In Rome, many changes had been made,
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: but the Imperial Palace was, as it is to day,
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: a ruin. Between the overthrown marble columns, and over the
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 1: ruined bathrooms, whose walls were still decorated with gold, grew
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: fig and laurel trees. The Colosseum was a ruin. The
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: church bells rang, the incense arose, and processions passed through
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: the streets with tapers and gorgeous canopies. The church was holy,
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: and art was lofty and holy. Also in Rome, dealt Raphael,
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: the greatest painter of the world. Here also Dwelt Michaelangelo,
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: the greatest sculptor of the age. Even the Pope did
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: homage to them both and honored them with his visits.
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: Art was recognized, honored, and rewarded. All greatness and excellence
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: is not seen and recognized. In a little narrow street
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: stood an old house which had once been a temple.
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: Here Dwelt a young artist. He was poor, he was unknown.
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: It is true that he had young friends, artists also
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: young in feelings, in hopes, and in thoughts. They told
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: him that he was rich in talents and excellence, but
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: that he needed confidence in himself. He was never satisfied
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 1: with his work, and either destroyed all that he modeled
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: or left it unfinished. This is not the proper course
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: to adopt. If one would be known, appreciated, and live.
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: You are a dreamer, said they. This is your misfortune.
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: You have not yet lived. You have not inhaled life
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 1: in large, healthy drafts. You have not yet enjoyed it.
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: One should do this in youth and become a man.
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: Look at the great master Raphael, whom the Pope honors
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: and the world admires, he takes wine and bread with him.
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: He dines with a baker's wife, the pretty foreign arena,
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 1: said Angelo, one of the merry young friends. Yes, they
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: all appealed to his good sense and to his youth.
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: They wished to have the young artists join them in
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: their merry makings, in their extravagances, and in their mad trick.
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: He would do so for a short time, for his
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: blood was warm, his imagination strong. He could take his
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: part in their merry conversation and laugh as loudly as
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: the others. And yet the merry life of Raphael, as
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: they named it, vanished from him like the morning mist.
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 1: When he saw the godlike luster which shone forth from
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: the paintings of the great masters, or when he stood
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: in the Vatican and beheld the forms of beauty which
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: the old sculptors had fashioned from blocks of marble centuries ago,
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: his breast swelled. He felt something so lofty, so holy,
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: so elevated within him. Yes, something so great and good
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: that he longed to create and chisel like forms from
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: marble blocks. He desired to give expression to the feelings
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: which agitated his heart. But how and in what shape
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: the soft clay allowed itself to be modeled into beautiful
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: figures by his fingers. But on the following day, dissatisfied,
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: he destroyed all he had created. One day he passed
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: by one of the rich palaces of which Rome has
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: so many. He stood a moment to the large open
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: entrance and gazed into a little garden full of the
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: most beautiful roses, which was surrounded by archways decorated with paintings.
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: Large white collas with their green leaves sprouted forth from
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: marble shells, into which splashed clear water. A form glided
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: by a young girl, the daughter of this princely house.
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: So elegant, so light, so charming. He had never seen
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: so lovely a woman. Hold yes, once one made by
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: Raphael a painting of psyche in one of the palaces
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: of Rome. There she was, but painted. Here she breathed
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: and moved. She lived in his thoughts and in his heart.
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: He went home to his poor lodgings and formed a
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: Psyche out of clay. It was the rich young Roman girl,
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: the princely woman, and he gazed at his work with satisfaction.
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: For the first time this had a signification. It was she.
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: When his friends looked upon its disclaimed with joy that
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: this work was a revelation of his artistic greatness, which
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: they had always recognized, but which now should be recognized
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: by the whole world. Clay is natural, flesh like, but
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: it has not the whiteness the durability of marble. The
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: psyche must obtain life from the block of marble, And
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: he had the most precious peace of marble. It had
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: been the property of his parents, and had been lying
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: many years in the courtyard. Bits of broken bottles, remains
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: of artichokes were heaped over it, and it was soiled,
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: but its interior was white as the mountain snow. The
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: psyche should rise forth from it. One day, it so happened.
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: It is true that the clear stars do not relate it,
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 1: for they did not see it. But we know it
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 1: that a distinguished Roman party came to view the young
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 1: artist's work, of which they had casually heard. Who were
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: the distinguished visitors, Poor young man, all too happy, young man,
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: one may call him. Also here in his room stood
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: the young girl herself, with what a smile when her
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: father said, you are that living. One cannot picture the look,
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: one cannot render the look, the strange look with which
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 1: she glanced at the young artist. It was a look
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: which elevated, and obled and destroyed. The psyche must be
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: executed in marble, said the rich man. This was a
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: word of life for the dead clay, and for the
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: heavy block of marble. It was also a word of
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: life for the young man who was overcome by emotion.
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: I will buy it as soon as the work is completed,
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: said the princely man. It seemed as though a new
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: era had dawned in the poor work room. Occupation, life
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: and gaiety lighted it up. The beaming morning star saw
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: how the work progressed. Even the clay had been endowed
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: with a soul since she had been there, and he
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: bent entranced over the well known features. Now I know
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: what life is, he exclaimed, with delight. It is love.
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: It is the elevation of the heart to the divine.
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: It is rapture for the beautiful. What my friends call
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 1: life and enjoyment is perishable, like bubbles in the fermenting
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: LEAs not the pure, heavenly whine of the altar, the
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 1: consecration of life. The marble block was erected, the chisel
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: hewed away large pieces. The laborer's part was done, marks
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: and points placed, until little by little the stone became
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: a body, a shape of beauty, the psyche as charming
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 1: as was the woman made by God. The massive stone
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: became a soaring, dancing, airy, light and graceful psyche with
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: a heavenly innocent smile, the smile that had been mirrored
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 1: in the young sculptor's heart. The star in the rosy
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 1: tinted morning saw and partly understood what was agitating the
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: mind of the young man. It understood as well the
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: varying color of his cheeks and the glance of his eye,
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: whilst he created as though inspired by God. You are
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: a master like those in the days of the Greeks,
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 1: said his enchanted friends. The world will soon admire your sight.
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: My psyche, he repeated, mine, yes, that she must be.
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: I am also an artist, like the great departed ones.
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: God has granted gifts of mercy to me and has
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: elevated me to the highly born. He sank, weeping on
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: his knees, and offered up his thanks to God, but
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: forgot him again for her, for her portrait in marble,
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 1: for the psyche form that stood before him, as though
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 1: cut out of snow. Blushing in the morning sun. He
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: should see her, the living, floating one in reality, she
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: whose words sounded like music. He would himself carry the
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: tidings that the marble psyche was completed to the rich palace.
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 1: He arrived, passed through the open courtyard where the water
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: splashed from dolphin's mouths into marble shells, where collus bloomed
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: and fresh roses blossomed. He stepped into the large, lofty hall,
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 1: whose walls and ceilings were gorgeous with brilliant colors, with
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: paintings and armorial bearings. Well dressed in haughty servants holding
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: up their heads like sus lay horses with their bells,
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: were pacing up and down. Some of them had even
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: stretched themselves out comfortably and insolently on the carved wooden benches.
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: They appeared to be the masters of the house. He
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 1: named his business, and was conducted up the marble steps,
• 2:02:15
  Speaker 1: which were covered with soft carpets. On each side stood statues.
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: Then he came to richly decorated apartments, hung with paintings
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 1: and with mosaic floors. This pomp, this splendor, made him
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: breathe a little heavily, but he soon felt reassured for
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: The old prince received him kindly, almost cordially. After they
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: had spoken, as he was taking leave, he begged him
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: to visit the young Senora, for she also wished to
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: see him. The servants led him through magnificent chambers and
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: corridors to her apartments, of which she was the glory
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 1: and splendor. She spoke with them, no miserer, no church
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: song could have melted the heart more, or have more
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: elevated the soul, than to the music of her voice.
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: He seized her hand and pressed it to his lips.
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: No rose is so soft, but a fire proceeds from
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: this rose. A fire streams through him, and his breast heaves.
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 1: Words streamed from his lips, But he knew not what
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: he said. Does the crater know that it throws forth
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: burning lava? He told her his love. She stood there, surprised, insulted, proud, yes, scornful,
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: with an expression on her face as though a damp
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: clammy frog had suddenly touched her. Her cheeks colored, her
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: lips grew pale, her eyes were on fire and still
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: black as the darkness of night. Frantic creature. Away, Away,
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: said she, and she turned her back upon him, her
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: face of beauty seemed turned to stone like unto the
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: Medusa's head with its serpent locks. He descended to the street,
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: a weak, lifeless thing. He entered his room like a
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: night walker, and in the rage of his grief, he
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: seized his hammer, brandished it high in the air, and
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 1: sought to destroy the beautiful marble form. He did not observe.
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: So excited was he that Angelo, his friend, stood near
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: him and arrested his arm with a firm grasp. Have
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: you become mad? What would you do? They struggled with
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: each other. Angelo was the stronger, and with a deep
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: drawn breath, he threw the young artist on a chair.
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: What has occurred, asked Angelo? Collect yourself? Speak? What could
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: he say? What could he tell? As Angelo could not
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: cease the thread of his discourse, he let it drop.
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 1: Your blood grows thick with this eternal dreaming. Be human
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: like others, and live not in the clouds. Drink until
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: you become slightly intoxicated. Then you will sleep well. The
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: young girl from the Campagna is as beautiful as the
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: princess in the marble Palace. They are both daughters of
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 1: Eve and cannot be distinguished one from the other. In Paradise,
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: follow your Angelo. I am your good angel, the angel
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: of your life. A time will when you are old,
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: when the body will dwindle, and some beautiful sunshiny day,
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: when everything laughs and rejoices, you will lie like a
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: withered straw. I do not believe what the priests say,
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: that there is a life beyond the grave. It is
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: a pretty fancy, a fairy tale for children, delightful to
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: think upon. I do not live in imagination, but in reality.
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: Come with me, become a man. He drew him away.
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: He could do this now, for there was a fire
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 1: in the young artist's blood, a change in his soul,
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: an ardent desire to tear himself away from all his
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: wonted ways, from all accustomed thoughts, to forget his old self.
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: And today he followed Angelo in the suburbs lay in Osteria,
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 1: which was much frequented by artists. It was built in
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: the ruins of a bathing chamber. Amongst the dark, shining
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: foliage hung large yellow lemons, which covered a portion of
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 1: the old reddish yellow wall. The asterio was a deep vault,
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: almost like a hollow in the ruins, within a lamp
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: burned before the image of the Madonna, A large fire
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 1: flamed on the hearth. For here they roasted, cooked, and
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 1: prepared the dishes for the guests. Without. Under the lemon
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: and laurel trees stood tables ready set. They were received
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: merrily and rejoicingly by their friends. They ate little and
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 1: drank much, and became gay. They sang and played on
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: the guitar. The saltererello sounded, and the dance began. Two
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 1: Roman girls, models of the young artists, joined in the
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: dance and merriment. Too pretty bikant, They had no psyche forms.
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: They were not delicate, beautiful roses, but fresh, healthy, flaming pinks.
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: How warm it was on this day, even warm at sundown.
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: Fire in the blood, fire in the air, fire in
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 1: every glance. The air swam in gold and roses. Life
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: was gold and roses. Now you have at last joined us.
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: Allow yourself to be carried away by the current within
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: and without you. I never felt so well and joyous before,
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 1: said the young artist. You are right, You are all
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: of you right. I was a fool, a dreamer. Man
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: belongs to reality and not to fancy. The young man
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 1: left the osteria in the clear, starry evening with song
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: and tinkling guitars, and passed through the narrow streets. The
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: Daughters of the Campagna, the two flaming Pinks, were in
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: their train. In Angelo's room, the voices sounded more suppressed,
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 1: but not less fiery. Amongst the scattered sketches, the outlines,
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: the glowing, voluptuous paintings, Amongst the drawings on the floor,
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: there was many a sketch of vigorous beauty, like unto
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: the Daughters of the Campania. Yet they themselves were much
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: more beautiful. The six armed lamp glowed brightly, and the
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 1: human forms warmed and shone like gods. Apollo Jupiter, I,
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 1: elevate myself to your heaven, to your glory. Methinks that
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: the flower of my life has unfolded within my heart. Yes,
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: it did unfold. It withered and fell to pieces, a
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: stunning Loathsome vapor arose, dazzling the sight, benumbing the thoughts,
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: extinguishing his sensual, fiery emotions, and all was dark. He
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: went home, sat down on his bed, and thought fi
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: sounded from his lips, from the bottom of his heart, miserable,
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: wretch away away, And he sighed sorrowfully away away. These
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 1: her words the words of the living Psyche weighed upon
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: him and flowed from his lips. He bowed his head
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: upon the pillows. His thoughts became confused, and he slept.
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: At the dawn of day, he started up. What was this?
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 1: Was it a dream? Were her words? The visit to
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: the Osteria, the evening with the purple red pinks of
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 1: the Campania. But a dream? No, all was reality. He
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 1: had not known this before. The clear star beamed in
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: the purple tinted air. Its rays fell upon him, and
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: upon the marble Psyche. He trembled whilst he contemplated the
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: image of immortality. His glance even appeared impure to him.
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: He threw a covering over it. He touched it once
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: more in order to veil its form, but he could
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: not view his work. Still somber, buried in his own meditations,
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 1: he sat there the whole day. He took no heed
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: of what passed around him. No one knew what was
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: agitating this human heart. Days passed by, weeks passed by.
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: The nights were the longest. One morning, the twinkling star
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: saw him rise from his couch. Pale, trembling with fever,
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: he walked to the marble statue, lifted the cover, gazed
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: upon his work with a sorrowful, deep long look, and then,
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: almost sinking under the weight, he drew the statue into
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: the garden. There was a sunken, dried up well within
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: it into which he lowered the psyche, threw earth upon it,
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 1: and covered the fresh grave with small sticks and nettles.
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: Away away was the short funeral service. The star and
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: the rosy red atmosphere saw this, and two heavy tears
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 1: trembled on the deathly pale cheeks of the fever sick
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 1: one sick unto death, as they called him. The lay
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 1: brother Ignatius came to him as a friend and as
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 1: a physician. He came, and with the consoling words of religion.
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: He spoke of the peace and happiness of the Church,
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: of the sins of man, of the mercy and peace
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 1: of God. The words fell like warm sunbeams on the
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: moist fermenting ground. They dispersed and cleared away the misty
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 1: clouds from the troubled thoughts which had held possession of him.
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: He gazed upon his past life. Everything had been a failure,
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: a deception, yes, had been Art was an enchantress, But
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 1: that leads us into vanity, into earthly pleasures. We become
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: false to ourselves, false to our beliefs, false to our God.
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: The serpent speaks, ever in us taste, and thou shalt
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: become like unto God. Now, for the first time, he
• 2:11:06
  Speaker 1: appeared to understand himself, to have discovered the road to
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 1: truth to peace. In the church was God's light and brightness.
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 1: In the monk's cell was found that peace which enables
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 1: man to obtain eternal bliss. Brother Ignatius supported him in
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: these thoughts, and the decision was firmly made. A worldling
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 1: became a servant of the church. The young artist took
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 1: leave of the world and entered the cloister. How joyfully,
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 1: how cordially their brothers greeted him, how festive the ordination.
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: It seemed to him that God was in the sunshine
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: of the Church, and beamed within it, from the holy
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: pictures and from the shining Cross. He stood in the
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 1: evening sunset in his little cell, and opened his window
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 1: and gazed in the springtime over old Rome, with her
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 1: broken temples, her massive but dead colosseum, her blooming kashas,
• 2:12:01
  Speaker 1: her flourishing evergreens, her fragrant roses, her shining lemons and oranges,
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 1: her palm trees fanned by the breeze, and felt touched
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: and satisfied. The quiet, open campagna extended to the blue
• 2:12:14
  Speaker 1: snow topped mountains, which appeared to be painted on the air.
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: Everything breathed beauty and peace. The whole a dream. Yes,
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 1: the world here was a dream, and the dream ruled
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: the hours and returned to ours again. But the life
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: of a cloister is a life of many, many long years.
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: Man is naturally impure, and he felt this. What flames
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: were these, that at times glowed through him? Was it
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: the power of the evil one that caused these wild
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 1: thoughts to rage constantly within him? He punished his body,
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 1: but without effect. What portion of his mind was that
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 1: which wound itself around him, pliable as a serpent, and
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: which crept about his conscience under a loving cloak, and
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: consoled him the Saint's pray for us, the Holy Virgin
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: praise for us. Jesus himself gave his blood for us.
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: Was it a childlike feeling or the levity of youth,
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 1: that had induced him to give himself up to grace,
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 1: and which made him feel elevated above so many, for
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: had he not cast away the vanity of the world,
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: was he not a son of the church. One day,
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: after many years, he met Angelo, who recognized him. Man said, he, yes,
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 1: it is you. Are you happy now? You have sinned
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: against God and cast his gifts of mercy away from you.
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 1: You have gambled away your vocation for this world. Read
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 1: the parable of the intrusted pledge. The master who related
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: it spoke, But truth, what have you won and found?
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: After all, do not make a dream life for yourself,
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 1: make a religion for yourself as all do. Suppose all
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 1: is but a dream, a fancy, a beautiful thought. Get
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 1: thee from behind me, Satan, said the monk, and forsook Angelo.
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 1: It is a devil, a devil personified. I saw him
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 1: to day, murmured the monk. I reached him but a finger,
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 1: and he took my whole hand. No, sighed he. The
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 1: wickedness is in myself. It is also in this man,
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: but he is not tormented by it. He walks with
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 1: elevated brow. He has his enjoyment. I but clutch at
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 1: the consolation of the Church for my welfare. But if
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: this is only consolation, if all here consists of beautiful thoughts,
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 1: and but resemble those which beguiled me in the world?
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: Is it but a deception? Like unto the beauty of
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 1: the red evening clouds, and like unto the blue wave
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 1: life beauty of the distant mountains. See near? How changed
• 2:14:43
  Speaker 1: eternity art thou? Like unto the great, infinite calm ocean
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 1: which beckons to us, calls us, fills us with presentiments,
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 1: And if we venture upon it, we sink, we vanish, die,
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 1: cease to be deceit Away away. He sat tearless on
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 1: his hard couch, desolate, kneeling before whom Before the stone cross,
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 1: which was placed in the wall no habit alone caused
• 2:15:12
  Speaker 1: his body to bend. The deeper he read within himself,
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 1: the darker all appeared to him, nothing within, nothing without
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 1: life thrown away, This thought crushed him, expunged him. I
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: dare confide to no one the doubts which consume me.
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 1: My prisoner is my secret, and if it escape, I
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: am lost. The power of God wrestled within him, Lord, Lord,
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, in his despair, be merciful, give me faith.
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: I cast thy gifts of mercy from me and my
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: vocation for this world. I prayed for strength, an thou
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: hast not given it to me? Immortality, the psyche in
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: my breast, away, away, Must it be buried like yon psyche?
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 1: The light of my life never to arise from the
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 1: grin the star beamed in the rosy red atmosphere, the
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 1: star which will be lost and will vanish, whilst the
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 1: soul lives in its light. Its trembling ray fell upon
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: the white wall. But it spoke not of the glory
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: of God, of the grace, the eternal love which beams
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: in the breast of every believer. Can psyche never die?
• 2:16:22
  Speaker 1: Can one live with consciousness? Can the impossible take place? Yes? Yes,
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 1: my being is inexplicable, inconceivable, art thou, o Lord, a
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 1: wonder of might, glory and love. His eyes beamed, his
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: eyes closed, The peel of the church bells passed over
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 1: the dead one. He was laid in holy ground, and
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 1: his ashes mingled with the dust of strangers. Years afterwards,
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: his bones were resumed and stood in a niche in
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: the cloisters, as had stood those of the dead monks
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 1: before him. They were dressed in the brown cowl, A
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 1: rosary of beads placed in his hand. The sun shone
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 1: without incense, perfumed within, and mass was red. Years rolled
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: by the bones and legs fell asunder. They stood up
• 2:17:11
  Speaker 1: the skulls, and with them formed the whole outside wall
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: of a church. There he stood in the burning sunshine.
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 1: There were so many many dead, they did not know
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 1: their names, much less his see Something living moved in
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 1: the sunshine in the two eye sockets. What was that?
• 2:17:29
  Speaker 1: A brilliant lizard was running about in the hollow skull,
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: slipping in and out of the large empty sockets. This
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: was now the life in the head, where once elevated thoughts,
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 1: brilliant dreams, love for art, and the magnificent had been rife,
• 2:17:44
  Speaker 1: from which hot tears had rolled, and where the hope
• 2:17:47
  Speaker 1: of immortality had lived. The lizard leaped out and disappeared.
• 2:17:51
  Speaker 1: The skull crumbled away and became dust to dust. Centuries
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 1: passed unchanged. The star, clear and low, large, beamed on
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 1: as it had done for centuries. The atmosphere shone with
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 1: a red, rosy hue, fresh as roses, flaming as blood.
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: Where there had once been a little street with the
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: remains of an old temple, now stood a convent. A
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: grave was dug in the garden, for a young nun
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 1: had died, and she was to be lowered in the earth.
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 1: At this early hour of the morning. The spade struck
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: against a stone which appeared of a dazzling whiteness. The
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: white marble came forth, it rounded into a shoulder. They
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 1: used the spade with care, and a female head became visible.
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: Butterfly wings they raised from the grave in which the
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 1: young nun was to be laid on this rosy morning,
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 1: a gloriously beautiful psyche form chiseled from white marble. How magnificent,
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 1: how perfect a master work? They said, Who can the
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 1: artist be? He was unknown. None knew him, save the
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 1: clear star, which had been beaming for centuries. It knew
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: the core of his earthly life, his trials, his failings.
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 1: It knew that he was but a man. But he
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 1: was dead, dispersed as dust must and shall be. But
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 1: the result of his best efforts. The glory which pointed
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 1: out the divine within him, the psyche which never dies,
• 2:19:16
  Speaker 1: which surpasses in brightness all earthly renown. This remained was seen, acknowledged, admired,
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 1: and beloved. The clear morning star in the rosy tinted
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 1: sky cast its most radiant beams upon the Psyche, and
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 1: upon the smile of happiness about the mouth and eyes
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: of the admiring ones who beheld the soul chiseled in
• 2:19:38
  Speaker 1: the marble block. That which is earthly passes away and
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 1: is forgotten. Only the star in the infinite knows of it.
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 1: That which is heavenly surpasses renown, for renown, fame, and
• 2:19:50
  Speaker 1: earthly glory die away, but the Psyche lives forever. End
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 1: of chapter seventeen. Chapter eighteen of The Ice Maiden and
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 1: Other Tails. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Elly caat The
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 1: Ice Maiden and Other Tails by Hans Christian Andersen. The
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 1: Snail and the Rose Tree. A hedge of hazel nut
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 1: bushes encircled the garden without was filed in meadow with
• 2:20:30
  Speaker 1: cows and sheep. But in the center of the garden
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 1: stood a rose tree, and under it sat a snail.
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: She had much within her. She had herself wait until
• 2:20:40
  Speaker 1: my time comes, said she, I shall accomplish something more
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 1: than putting forth roses, bearing nuts, or giving milk, like
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 1: the cows and sheep. I expect something fearfully grand, said
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 1: the rose tree. May I ask when it will take place.
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 1: I shall take my time, said the snail. You are
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 1: in too great a hurry. And when this is the case,
• 2:21:02
  Speaker 1: how can one's expectations be fulfilled? The next year, the
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 1: snail lay in about the same spot under the rose tree,
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 1: which put forth buds and developed roses, ever fresh, ever new.
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 1: The snail half crept forth, stretched out its feelers, and
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 1: drew itself in again. Everything looks as it did a
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 1: year ago. No progress has been made. The rose tree
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 1: still bears roses. It does not get along any further.
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: The summer faded away, the autumn passed. The rose tree
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 1: constantly bore flowers and buds, until the snow fell and
• 2:21:36
  Speaker 1: the weather was raw and damp. The rose tree bent
• 2:21:39
  Speaker 1: itself towards the earth. The snail crept in the earth.
• 2:21:43
  Speaker 1: A new year commenced, The roses came out, and the
• 2:21:46
  Speaker 1: snail came out. Now you are an old rose bush,
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 1: said the snail. You will soon die away. You have
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 1: given the world everything that you had in you. Whether
• 2:21:56
  Speaker 1: that be much or little is a question upon which
• 2:21:59
  Speaker 1: I have not time to reflect. But it is quite
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 1: evident that you have not done the slightest thing towards
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 1: your inward development. Otherwise I suppose that something different would
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 1: have sprung from you. Can you answer this? You will
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 1: soon be nothing but a stick. Can you understand what
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: I say? You startle me, said the rose tree. I
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 1: have never thought upon that. No, I suppose that you
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 1: have never meddled much with thinking. Can you tell me
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 1: why you blossom and how it comes to pass? How? Why? No?
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 1: Said the rose tree. I blossom with pleasure because I
• 2:22:35
  Speaker 1: could not do otherwise. The sun was so warm, the
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 1: air so refreshing. I drank the clear dew and the
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 1: fortifying rain I breathed. I lived. A strength came to
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 1: me from the earth, A strength came from above. I
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 1: felt a happiness, ever new, ever great. And therefore I
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 1: must blossom. Ever that was my life. I could not
• 2:22:56
  Speaker 1: do otherwise. You have led a very easy life, said
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 1: the snail. Certainly everything has been given to me, said
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 1: the rose tree. But still more has been given to you.
• 2:23:08
  Speaker 1: You are one of those meditative, pensive, profound natures, one
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 1: of the highly gifted that astound the whole world. I
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 1: have assuredly. No such thought in my mind, said the snail.
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 1: The world is nothing to me. What have I to
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 1: do with the world. I have enough with myself, and
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 1: enough in myself. But should we not all here on
• 2:23:30
  Speaker 1: earth give the best part of us to others, offer
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 1: what we can. It is true that I have only
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 1: given roses. But you, you, who have received so much,
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 1: what have you given to the world? What do you
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 1: give her? What have I given? What I give? I
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 1: spit upon her. She is good for nothing. I have
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: naught to do with her. Put forth roses. You can
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 1: do no more. Let the hazel bushes bear nuts, Let
• 2:23:56
  Speaker 1: the cows and sheep give milk. They have each their public.
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 1: I have mine within myself. I retire within myself, And
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 1: there I remained the world is nothing to me. And
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 1: thereupon the snail withdrew into her house and closed it.
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 1: That is so sad, said the rose tree. With the
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 1: best will, I cannot creep in. I must ever spring out,
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 1: spring forth in roses. The leaves drop off and are
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 1: blown away by the wind. Yet I saw one of
• 2:24:25
  Speaker 1: the roses laid in the hymn book of the Mother
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 1: of the family. One of my roses was placed upon
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 1: the breast of a charming young girl, and one was
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 1: kissed with joy by a child's mouth. This did me
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: so much good. It was a real blessing. That is
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 1: my recollection my life. And the rose tree flowered in innocence,
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: and the snail sat indifferently in her house. The world
• 2:24:48
  Speaker 1: was nothing to her, and years passed away. The snail
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: became earth to earth, and the rose tree became Earth
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 1: to earth. The remembrances in the hymn book were also
• 2:24:59
  Speaker 1: blown away. But new rose trees bloomed in the garden.
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: New snails grew in the garden. They crept in their
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 1: houses and spat The world is nothing to them. Shall
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 1: we read the story of the past again? It will
• 2:25:13
  Speaker 1: not be different. End of Chapter eighteen, recording by ellicat
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 1: end of the Ice Maiden and other tales by Hans
• 2:25:23
  Speaker 1: Christian Andersen