Fairy Tale Template

You are one of a widow's two daughters. You are sitting near a well by the road and spinning and spinning until your fingers bleed. It happens that the reel becomes quite bloody and when you lean over the well to rinse it, it slips out of your hands and falls to the bottom. You burst into tears, run to the widow, and tell her about the accident. But the widow gives you a terrible scolding and is very cruel. "If you've let the reel fall in, she says, "then you'd better get it out again." You go back to the well and jump in to fetch the reel, but you lose consciousness. When you awake and regain your sense, you are in a beautiful meadow where the sun is shining and thousands of flowers are growing. [[Begin exploring->The Bread]]

''Mother Holle'' An Interactive Fairy Tale by Rebecca Hicke [[Begin->Intro]]

You walk across this meadow, and soon come to a baker's oven full of bread, but the bread is yelling, "Take me out! Take me out, or else I'll burn. I've been baking long enough!" [[Take the bread out of the oven -> Tree]] [[Leave the bread and go on -> Ignore Bread and Tree]]

You go up to the open and take out all the loaves one by one with a baker's peel. After that, you move on and come to a tree full of apples. "Shake me! Shake me!" the tree exlaims. "My apples are all ripe." [[Shake the tree -> Frau Holle]] [[Ignore the tree -> Neutral Frau Holle]]

You shake the tree till the apples fall like raindrops, and you keep shaking until they all come down. After you gather them and stack them in a pile, you move on. At last you come to a small cottage where an old woman is looking out of a window. She has such big teeth that you are scared and want to run away. But the old woman cries after you, "Why are you afraid, my dear child? Stay with me, and if you do all the house work properly, everything will turn out well for you. Only you must make my bed nicely and carefully and give it a good shaking so the feathers fly. Then it will snow on earth, for I am Mother Holle." Whenever it snowed in olden days, people in Hessia used to say Mother Holle is making her bed. [[Enter her service and work hard -> Stepdaughter]] [[Enter her service but get tired and ignore your chores ->Good attitude / Bad worker]]

You move on. "I've no desire to get myself dirty!" Soon, you come to an apple tree that cries out "Shake me! Shake me! My apples are all ripe." However, you reply, "Are you serious? One of the apples could fall and hit me on the head." [[Go onwards -> Neutral Frau Holle]]

You take care of everything to the old woman's satisfaction and always shake the bed so hard that the feathers fly about like snowflakes. In return, the old woman treats you well: she enver says an unkind word to you, and she gives you roasted or boiled meat every day. After you have spent a long time with Mother Holle, you become sad. At first, you do not know what is bothering you, but finally you realize you must be homesick. Even though everything is a thousand times better here than at home, you still have a desire to return. At last, you say to Mother Holle, "I've got a tremendous longing to return home, and even though everything is wonderful down here, I've got to return to my people." "I'm please that you want to return home." Mother Holle responds, "and since you've served me so faithfully, I myself shall bring you up there again." She takes you by the hand and leads you to a large door. When it opens and you are standing right beneath the doorway, an enormous shower of gold comes pouring down, and all the gold sticks to you so that you become completely covered in it. "I wanted you to have this because you've been so industrious," says Mother Holle, and she also gives you back the reel that had fallen into the well. Suddenly, the door closes, and you find yourself back up on earth, not far from the widow's house. Congratulations, you have won! You are the widow's stepdaughter, beautiful and industrious. You stepmother used to make you do all the household chores and spin every day. Text of the story adapted from: Zipes, Jack, trans. "Mother Holle." //The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm//. New York, Bantam, 1987.

On the first day, you make an effort to word hard and obey Mother Holle when the old woman tells you what to do. On the second day, you start loafing, and on the third day you loaf even more. Indeed, you do not want to get out of bed in the morning, nor do you make Mother Holle's bed as you should have, and you certainly do not shake it hard so that the feathers fly. Soon, Mother Holle becomes tired of this and dismisses you from her service. You are quite happy to go. Mother Holle leads you to a door, but as you stand beneath it, a big kettle of pitch comes pouring down over you. "That's a reward for your services," Mother Holle says, and shuts the door. You go home covered in pitch. The pitch does not come off you and remains on you as long as you live. You have lost - you are the widow's lazy daughter. She sent you into the well to try and reap the same reward her stepdaughter did, who returned covered in gold. [[Try again ->Intro]] Text of the story adapted from: Zipes, Jack, trans. "Mother Holle." //The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm//. New York, Bantam, 1987.

At last you come to a small cottage where an old woman is looking out of a window. She has such big teeth that you are scared and want to run away. But the old woman cries after you, "Why are you afraid, my dear child? Stay with me, and if you do all the house work properly, everything will turn out well for you. Only you must make my bed nicely and carefully and give it a good shaking so the feathers fly. Then it will snow on earth, for I am Mother Holle." Whenever it snowed in olden days, people in Hessia used to say Mother Holle is making her bed. [[Enter her service and work hard -> Good worker / Bad attitude]] [[Enter her service but get tired and ignore your chores ->Daughter]]

You take care of everything to the old woman's satisfaction and always shake the bed so hard that the feathers fly about like snowflakes. In return, the old woman treats you well: she enver says an unkind word to you, and she gives you roasted or boiled meat every day. After you have spent a long time with Mother Holle, you become sad. At first, you do not know what is bothering you, but finally you realize you must be homesick. Even though everything is a thousand times better here than at home, you still have a desire to return. At last, you say to Mother Holle, "I've got a tremendous longing to return home, and even though everything is wonderful down here, I've got to return to my people." "I'm please that you want to return home." Mother Holle responds. "You have served me faithfully, but you were unkind to ignore the bread and the tree when they cried for your help. Therefore, you shall be neither rewarded nor punished." She takes you by the hand and leads you to a large door. You step through the door, and return to the widow's home to leave an unchanged life. You have neither lost, nor won. [[Try again ->Intro]] Text of the story adapted from: Zipes, Jack, trans. "Mother Holle." //The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm//. New York, Bantam, 1987.

On the first day, you make an effort to word hard and obey Mother Holle when the old woman tells you what to do. On the second day, you start loafing, and on the third day you loaf even more. Indeed, you do not want to get out of bed in the morning, nor do you make Mother Holle's bed as you should have, and you certainly do not shake it hard so that the feathers fly. Soon, Mother Holle becomes tired of this and dismisses you from her service. You are quite happy to go. Mother Holle leads you to a door. "You were kind to the bread and kind to the tree," she says, "but you have proven to be a lazy worker. You deserve neither a reward, nor a punishment." You step through the door, and return to the widow's home to leave an unchanged life. You have neither lost, nor won. [[Try again ->Intro]] Text of the story adapted from: Zipes, Jack, trans. "Mother Holle." //The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm//. New York, Bantam, 1987.