The Girl Without Hands–A Fairy Tale Re-Telling

WARNING: As in Grimm’s, the following fairy tale may contain violence; proceed at your own risk.

Retold by Harlow Berny

Centuries ago, when an old miller was out gathering firewood to sell for food, he had a chance encounter with The Devil. “If you give me what stands behind your barn,” said The Devil, “I will make you richer than any king in all the lands.” Pondering for a minute, the miller decided that trading the family apple tree that stood behind the barn for generations for vast riches was an outstanding deal. I could buy hundreds of apple trees with the wealth that he promises! thought the miller. “You have yourself a deal!” he shouted as he shook The Devil’s hand. “Excellent. I will be back in eight years time to collect what is rightfully mine.” In the blink of an eye, The Devil was gone in a wave of fire. When the miller went to look at the old apple tree that was going to make him rich, he was mortified to find that his only daughter was standing behind the barn and in front of the apple tree, and he realized how much of a fool he was to think that The Devil would give him vast riches for a measly tree, and further realized that The Devil was waiting eight years for his daughter to become 18. The miller knew he couldn’t go to a priest, for he would have to pay heavily to free himself and his daughter from the deal, if not persecuted for making the deal in the first place.

He did the only thing he could think of to foil The Devil, and eight years later when The Devil came to collect his debt, he found that the girl had been kept free of sin and her hands cleaned with holy water and was therefore untouchable. Infuriated, The Devil demanded that the girl’s hands be cut off so he could drag her down to hell or he’d take the miller instead. Fearing the loss of his own life more than his daughter’s, the miller took his axe and chopped her arms off, but when she cried her salty tears, which had become holy water due to her sinless soul, they cleansed her stumps and made it impossible again for The Devil to touch her. Infuriated once more, The Devil swore that the father would one day take his daughter’s place. Saying goodbye to both The Devil and his newly crippled daughter–now unable to work to pay for her food–the father kicked them both out of his barn. The daughter ran and cried until she stumbled into the royal garden, where the king took a fancy to her, and he married her within a month and commissioned a local blacksmith to create iron gauntlets to replace her missing hands.

A year later, and the royal family was welcoming a newborn boy into the family, and the king was off to claim more land in the name of his son. When he sent a letter home, though, The Devil resurfaced, and he altered the letter to order the queen’s execution. The queen saw the letter, and, in a panic, she threw it into the fireplace and took her child and ran into the woods, fearing her husband’s return.

When the queen was running in the forest, she found an angel calling out her name. When the angel got closer, the queen asked, “Oh, beautiful angel, what have I ever done to deserve your protection?”

“Nothing,” the angel shouted, “it is what your father has done to deserve my punishment!”

“My father, the old miller?”

“Yes. I shall reunite you with your husband and his army, and then you shall order the punishments that I whisper into your ear.”

“But will my husband not chop off my head once he sees me?”

“No. The letter you received was a forgery by someone who despises your family as much as I despise your father.”

“I don’t know who that possibly could be! What would stop them from trying again?!?”

“Do not worry, my child. Once your father is given the punishment he so rightly deserves, this nightmare will all be over. Let us hurry; we must meet your husband a mile north of here, and I will tell you what to say from there on.”

“Why can you not tell them yourself?”

“Because you are the only one who can see me. Now hurry!”

As the angel promised, when they were a mile north they intercepted her husband and his army–right in front of her father’s farm.

“My love,” said the king, “what are you and the child doing so far from the castle?”

The angel started whispering into her ear, and she spoke the angel’s words in her own voice. “I have something of great importance to tell you, my love, and it involves this old barn that I was born and raised in, and the man who raised me in it.”

“Darling, is it truthfully so important that you must tell me here and now?”

“Yes. The man who raised me here, the man who was supposed to be my father, made a deal with The Devil, promising me to The Devil as his servant when I came of age. When The Devil came to collect me, he found me sinless and my hands clean, so he ordered my father to chop them off, but when my untainted tears touched my stumps, they were cleansed again. The Devil could not touch me, but still my father kicked me out since I could no longer work for my food.”

Stunned, the king waited before he spoke again. “M-my word, I… I am at a loss.”

The angel whispered again, and the queen relayed, “Scorned by my father’s deception, The Devil has now tried to end my life. The only way to make this stop once and for all is to punish my father for his sins.”

“But h-how is one p-punished for such… heinous crimes?”

“He must be publicly punished in the same way he maimed me, then hanged. He will serve as an example to those who wish to make an unholy deal.”

“… Yes. He shall.”

The king’s army stormed the barn and brought the miller back to the village in shackles. As the angel commanded, the king had the miller’s hands cut off and then promptly hanged. What no one saw, however, was The Devil standing behind the miller as he died, and then slipping the miller’s soul into his hand. The miller had finally paid his debt, and now the riches that the devil promised the miller were in the queen’s hands as she lived a peaceful life with the king and their child.

Editor: Shelby Armor