The Marsh King's Daughter Page #2

"The Marsh King's Daughter" is a captivating story by Hans Christian Andersen that draws the reader into a world of Norse mythology and ancient Egypt. The story revolves around a Marsh King who kidnaps a princess and has a child with her named Helga. Helga, who is beautiful by day but horrible at night, sets upon a journey of transformation. With compelling themes of love and redemption, the story encapsulates the struggle of good versus evil through the life of Helga and her journey to find her true self. It is a tale filled with symbolism, fantasy, and vivid imagery characteristic of Hans Christian Andersen's works.

• Children

								

immediately after her; in fact, it was he who drew her down. Great
black bubbles rose up out of the moor-slime, and with these every
trace of the two vanished. And now the princess is buried in the
wild marsh, she will never now carry flowers to Egypt to cure her
father. It would have broken your heart, mother, had you seen it."

"You ought not to have told me," said she, "at such a time as
this; the eggs might suffer. But I think the princess will soon find
help; some one will rise up to help her. Ah! if it had been you or
I, or one of our people, it would have been all over with us."

"I mean to go every day," said he, "to see if anything comes to
pass;" and so he did.

A long time went by, but at last he saw a green stalk shooting
up out of the deep, marshy ground. As it reached the surface of the
marsh, a leaf spread out, and unfolded itself broader and broader, and
close to it came forth a bud.

One morning, when the stork-papa was flying over the stem, he
saw that the power of the sun's rays had caused the bud to open, and
in the cup of the flower lay a charming child--a little maiden,
looking as if she had just come out of a bath. The little one was so
like the Egyptian princess, that the stork, at the first moment,
thought it must be the princess herself, but after a little reflection
he decided that it was much more likely to be the daughter of the
princess and the Marsh King; and this explained also her being
placed in the cup of a water-lily. "But she cannot be left to lie
here," thought the stork, "and in my nest there are already so many.
But stay, I have thought of something: the wife of the Viking has no
children, and how often she has wished for a little one. People always
say the stork brings the little ones; I will do so in earnest this
time. I shall fly with the child to the Viking's wife; what
rejoicing there will be!"

And then the stork lifted the little girl out of the flower-cup,
flew to the castle, picked a hole with his beak in the bladder-covered
window, and laid the beautiful child in the bosom of the Viking's
wife. Then he flew back quickly to the stork-mamma and told her
what he had seen and done; and the little storks listened to it
all, for they were then quite old enough to do so. "So you see,"
he continued, "that the princess is not dead, for she must have sent
her little one up here; and now I have found a home for her."

"Ah, I said it would be so from the first," replied the
stork-mamma; "but now think a little of your own family. Our
travelling time draws near, and I sometimes feel a little irritation
already under the wings. The cuckoos and the nightingale are already
gone, and I heard the quails say they should go too as soon as the
wind was favorable. Our youngsters will go through all the
manoeuvres at the review very well, or I am much mistaken in them."

The Viking's wife was above measure delighted when she awoke the
next morning and found the beautiful little child lying in her
bosom. She kissed it and caressed it; but it cried terribly, and
struck out with its arms and legs, and did not seem to be pleased at
all. At last it cried itself to sleep; and as it lay there so still
and quiet, it was a most beautiful sight to see. The Viking's wife was
so delighted, that body and soul were full of joy. Her heart felt so
light within her, that it seemed as if her husband and his soldiers,
who were absent, must come home as suddenly and unexpectedly as the
little child had done. She and her whole household therefore busied
themselves in preparing everything for the reception of her lord.
The long, colored tapestry, on which she and her maidens had worked
pictures of their idols, Odin, Thor, and Friga, was hung up. The
slaves polished the old shields that served as ornaments; cushions
were placed on the seats, and dry wood laid on the fireplaces in the
centre of the hall, so that the flames might be fanned up at a
moment's notice. The Viking's wife herself assisted in the work, so
that at night she felt very tired, and quickly fell into a sound
sleep. When she awoke, just before morning, she was terribly alarmed
to find that the infant had vanished. She sprang from her couch,
lighted a pine-chip, and searched all round the room, when, at last,
in that part of the bed where her feet had been, lay, not the child,
but a great, ugly frog. She was quite disgusted at this sight, and
seized a heavy stick to kill the frog; but the creature looked at
her with such strange, mournful eyes, that she was unable to strike
the blow. Once more she searched round the room; then she started at
hearing the frog utter a low, painful croak. She sprang from the couch
and opened the window hastily; at the same moment the sun rose, and
threw its beams through the window, till it rested on the couch
where the great frog lay. Suddenly it appeared as if the frog's
broad mouth contracted, and became small and red. The limbs moved
and stretched out and extended themselves till they took a beautiful
shape; and behold there was the pretty child lying before her, and the
ugly frog was gone. "How is this?" she cried, "have I had a wicked
dream? Is it not my own lovely cherub that lies there." Then she
kissed it and fondled it; but the child struggled and fought, and
bit as if she had been a little wild cat.

The Viking did not return on that day, nor the next; he was,
however, on the way home; but the wind, so favorable to the storks,
was against him; for it blew towards the south. A wind in favor of one
is often against another.

After two or three days had passed, it became clear to the
Viking's wife how matters stood with the child; it was under the
influence of a powerful sorcerer. By day it was charming in appearance
as an angel of light, but with a temper wicked and wild; while at
night, in the form of an ugly frog, it was quiet and mournful, with
eyes full of sorrow. Here were two natures, changing inwardly and
outwardly with the absence and return of sunlight. And so it
happened that by day the child, with the actual form of its mother,
possessed the fierce disposition of its father; at night, on the
contrary, its outward appearance plainly showed its descent on the
father's side, while inwardly it had the heart and mind of its mother.
Who would be able to loosen this wicked charm which the sorcerer had
worked upon it? The wife of the Viking lived in constant pain and
sorrow about it. Her heart clung to the little creature, but she could
not explain to her husband the circumstances in which it was placed.
He was expected to return shortly; and were she to tell him, he
would very likely, as was the custom at that time, expose the poor
child in the public highway, and let any one take it away who would.
The good wife of the Viking could not let that happen, and she
therefore resolved that the Viking should never see the child
excepting by daylight.

One morning there sounded a rushing of storks' wings over the
roof. More than a hundred pair of storks had rested there during the
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