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Old woman in the woods

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This is from the Brother's Grimm tale The Old Woman in the Woods. My sister ( ~pythoness ) asked me to draw this for her.

here is the story

There was once a poor servant girl who went traveling with her masters through a large forest, and as they were passing through the middle of it, some robbers came out of the thicket and murdered all the people they could find. Everyone was killed except the maiden, who had jumped from the carriage in her fright and hidden behind a tree. After the robbers departed with thier booty, she came out, looked at the terrible disaster, and burst into tears. "What am I to do?" she said. "Oh, poor me, I'll never find my way out of the forest. There's not a single soul living here, and I'll probably starve to death."
She walked about searching for a way out but could find none. When evening came, she sat down under a tree, Commened herself to God, and planned to remain there no matter what might happen. But after she had been sitting there awhile, a white dove came flying to her with a littel golden key in its beak. It put the key in her hand and said,"do you see that large tree over there? You'll find a little lock on it, and if you open it with this key, you'll find plenty of food in it and won't have to go hungry anymore."
She went to the tree, opend it, and found milk in a small bowl and white bread to dip into it, so she could eat to her heart's content. When she was full, she said, "Now's the time when the chikens at home usually go to roost. I'm so tired I wish I could lie down in my bed also."
Then the dove flew by again, carrying another little golden key in it's beak, and said, "Open the tree over there, and you'll find a bed."
She opend it and found a lovely soft bed. Then she prayed to the dear Lord to protect her during the night, lay down, and fell asleep. In the morning the dove came a third time with another little key and said, "Open that tree over there, and you'll find some clothes." When she opend it, she found clothes lined with jewels and gold, more splendid than those of a princess.
Thus she lived for some time, and the dove came every day and took care of everything she needed, and it was a good quiet life. However, one day the dove came and said, " would you do a favor for me?"
"Gladly," said the maiden.
"I'm going to lead you to a small cottage," said the dove. " You are to go inside, where you'll find an old woman seated right next to the hearth. She'll say good day to you, but you're not to answer her, no matter what she does. Go past her to the right, where you'll come upon a door. Open it, and you'll find a room where there'll be a lot of different kind of rings lying on a table. You'll see magnificent ones with glistening stones, but you're to leave them alone. Pick out a simple one that will be lying among them and bring it to me as fast as you can."
The maiden went to the cottage and through the door. There sat the old woman who glared at her an said, "Good day, my child." But the maiden did not answer her and proceeded toward the door.
"Where are you going?" cried the old woman, who grabbed her skirt ant tried to hold onto her. "This is my house. Nobody's allowed to go there if I don't want them to."
But the maiden said nothing, broke away from the woman, and went stright into the room. There she saw a large number of rings lying on a table, glistening and glimmering before her eyes. She tossed them about and looked for the simple one but could not find it. While she was looking for the ring, she noticed the old woman slinking by with a birdcage in her hand. The woman was about to make of with it, but the maiden went up to her and took the the cage out of her hand. When she lifted it up and looked inside, she saw a bird with a simple ring in its beak. She took the ring and ran happily out of the house with it. She thought the white dove would come and fetch the ring now, but it did not appear. So she leaned against a tree, intending to wait for the dove. As she was standing there the tree seemed to become soft and flexible, and it lowerd it's branches.
Suddenly the branches wrapped themselves around her and were two arms. When she looked around her, she saw that the tree had turned into a handsome man, who embraced her and kissed her affectionately.
"you've saved me and set me free from the power of the old woman," he said. "she's a wiked witch, and she had turned into a tree. For a few hours every day I was a white dove. As long as she possessed the ring, I couldn't regin my human form."
His servants and horses had also been released from the magic spell that had changed them too into trees, and they were now standing beside him. They all then traveld to his kingdom, For he was a prince, and the couple got married and lived happily until thier death.
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dougurasu's avatar
Nice background! You're pretty good actually ^______________^ <is looking through your gallery>