The Hurds facts for kids
"The Hurds" or "Odds and Ends" is a classic German fairy tale. It was collected by the famous Brothers Grimm, who included it in their well-known book, Grimms' Fairy Tales. This story teaches us about hard work and how being wasteful can have unexpected results. The Grimms found this tale in the Mecklenburg region of Germany. It is known as Aarne-Thompson type 1451, which means it's a story where a suitor chooses a girl who is careful with her resources.
Contents
The Story of "The Hurds"
This fairy tale tells the story of two young women with very different habits.
The Lazy Girl and the Flax
One of the main characters is a lazy girl. She was supposed to be spinning flax, which is a plant fiber used to make thread and fabric. When she found a knot in the flax, instead of carefully untangling it, she would simply tear out handfuls and throw them away. She didn't care about wasting the material.
The Industrious Servant
However, there was also an industrious, or hard-working, servant girl. She noticed what the lazy girl was doing. Instead of letting the discarded flax go to waste, the servant carefully gathered all the "hurds" or "odds and ends" that the lazy girl threw away. She then used these leftover pieces to spin thread and eventually made a beautiful gown for herself.
The Wedding Eve Party
The lazy girl was soon going to get married. On the night before her wedding, there was a party. The servant girl wore the gown she had made from the "hurds" and was happily dancing. The bride, the lazy girl, saw the servant in her gown. Without thinking, she carelessly told her future husband about the dress. She explained that it was made from all the "hurds" – the bits and pieces of flax that she had thrown away.
A Surprising Choice
When the bridegroom heard this, he realized something important. He saw that the lazy girl was wasteful and didn't appreciate hard work. On the other hand, the servant girl was thrifty and clever, making something useful out of what others threw away. Because of this, the bridegroom decided to marry the industrious servant instead of the lazy bride. This story shows how being careful and hardworking can lead to good things.
