THE THREE RAVENS

Once upon a time there was a mother who had three little sons who were playing cards one day next to the church. And when the sermon was finished, their mother returned home and saw what they had been doing. So she cursed her godless children, and they were immediately turned into three coal-black ravens and flew away.

The three brothers, however, had a little sister who loved them with all her heart, and she grieved so much about their banishment that she no longer had any peace of mind and finally set out to look for them. The only thing that she took with her for the long, long journey was a little stool on which she rested when she became too tired, and she ate nothing the entire time but wild apples and pears.
Unfortunately, she couldn't find the three ravens. But one time, when they had flown over her head, one of them had dropped a ring, and when she picked it up, she recognized it as the ring that she had given to her youngest brother one time as a present.

The sister continued her journey, and she went so far, so very far, until she came to the end of the world and went to the sun, which was, however, much too hot and ate small children. So after that she went to the moon, which was, however, much too cold and also mean, and when it saw her, it said, "I smell, I smell human flesh!"

So the maiden left there quickly and went to the stars, which were good to her, and each one sat on a little stool, and the morning star stood up and gave her a gammy leg to help her open the gate to the glass mountain.

"If you don't have this little leg, you won't be able to climb the glass mountain. It's on the glass mountain that you'll find your brothers!"

So the sister took the gammy leg, wrapped it in some cloth, and continued her journey until she came to the glass mountain. However, the gate was closed, and just as she wanted to take the gammy leg from the cloth, she discovered that she had lost it along the way. Since she didn't know what to do, she took a knife, sliced off her pinky, stuck it into the lock, and opened the gate. Then a little dwarf came toward her and said, "My child, what are you looking for here?"

"I'm looking for my brothers, the three ravens."

"The lord ravens are not at home," said the little dwarf. "If you want to wait, then come in."

And the little dwarf brought three little plates and three little mugs, and the sister ate a bit from each little plate and drank a sip from each mug, and she let the little ring fall into the last mug. All of a sudden a whizzing and a buzzing could be heard in the air.

"The lord ravens are flying back home," said the little dwarf.

And the ravens began to speak one after the other:

"Who has eaten from my little plate?"

"Who has drunk from my little mug?"

As the third raven, however, came to his little mug, he found the ring and saw clearly that their little sister had arrived. They recognized her because of the ring, and they were all saved and transformed and were happy to go home.