"The Water Nixie.” More tales from Grimm, Brothers Grimm, Wanda Gág, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006, pp. 23-25.
![The Water Nixie](/projects/fairy-tales/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/article-image/screenshot_2024-03-26_204231.png?itok=ZUDzsRRK)
Tale Summary
Once upon a time, a brother and sister fell down a well, where they met a Water Nixie who lived at the bottom. She put the two to work for her, and the work was very hard and the food was terrible. The brother was made to cut down a tree with a blunt ax, and the sister was forced to carry water in a bottomless bucket. One day when the Nixie had gone to church, the children ran away. When she realized what had happened she hurried after them, but the sister took a hairbrush and tossed it behind her and it turned into a brush-hill covered in bristles. Still the Nixe kept coming, and so the brother tossed a comb behind him until it became a mountain of combs. This did not stop the Nixie either, and so the sister tossed a looking-glass behind her, which grew into a slippery hill of mirrors. The water Nixie returned home to grab an ax to break the mirrors with, but by the time she returned, the children had escaped her.
Fairy Tale Title
The Water Nixie
Fairy Tale Author(s)/Editor(s)
Brothers Grimm, Wanda Gág
Fairy Tale Illustrator(s)
Wanda Gág
Common Tale Type
The Magic Flight
Tale Classification
ATU 313
Page Range of Tale
pp. 23-25
Full Citation of Tale
"The Water Nixie.” More tales from Grimm, Brothers Grimm, Wanda Gág, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006, pp. 23-25.
Original Source of the Tale
The Brothers Grimm
Tale Notes
Research and Curation
Kaeli Waggener, 2024
Book Title
More tales from Grimm
Book Author/Editor(s)
Brothers Grimm, Wanda Gág
Illustrator(s)
Wanda Gág
Publisher
University of Minnesota Press
Date Published
2006
Decade Published
2000-2006
Publisher City
Minneapolis
Publisher Country
United States
Language
English
Rights
Copyright not evaluated
Digital Copy
Book Notes
Written and illustrated by celebrated children's author/illustrator Wanda Gág and originally published in 1947.