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Tale Summary

There was once a laborer named Pekka, who went to talk to an old Lapland woman to hear his fortune. She told him that he would have three sons, and when each was born he should plant a tree bearing the name of the child. When they were grown he would have each chop down his name tree, and wander in the direction that the tree fell until he met his bride. His firstborn son, named Onni, had a birch tree, his second born, named Aarne, had an oak tree, and his youngest, named Jukka, had a fir tree. When it came time for them to marry, Onni’s tree fell in the direction of a rich man’s house, Aarne’s tree pointed to a farmer’s house, and Jukka’s tree faced nothing but the forest. He walked and walked for three days until he found a tiny house in a clearing which was home to a little mouse. He told her his troubles and she insisted that he marry her. Jukka agreed because he thought he could not be any worse off than he was already, and walked home to announce that he had found a very fine wife. The next morning, Pekka announced that he wished to see bread baked by the brides so he could judge which was the best. Jukka visited his mouse bride and sadly relayed this to her. She rang a bell and a thousand mice appeared, and each brought a fine grain of wheat, which she ground and made into bread. This loaf was judged the best, as Onni’s bride had made rye and Aarne’s bride had made barley. Pekka next wanted to see how fine each bride could weave, and so Jukka asked the mouse to make a piece of cloth. She called on the thousand mice again, who all brought fine pieces of flax, which they all worked to make into thread which the mouse bride herself wove into cloth which she folded into a nutshell. When the cloth was unfolded in front of Pekka, he was impressed to see that the cloth was so fine that fifty yards had fit into the nutshell. He told all of his sons to fetch their brides so that he could judge the best, and so that the sons could all be married on Midsummer’s day. Jukka told this to his bride, distraught and embarrassed, but she told him not to worry as she beckoned five sleek gray mice to pull her in a chestnut burr carriage topped with a toadstool canopy. On the second day of the journey, they crossed a bridge and met a mean peasant boy who kicked the carriage into the water. The boy disappeared, but out of the water appeared five sleek gray horses drawing a glittering carriage, which held a lovely maiden.She explained that she was his mouse bride, and that she used to be a king’s daughter named Olga who was cursed by a jealous Lapland woman. She and all her servants became mice, and the spell could not be broken until one young man asked to marry her, and another tried to drown her. When they arrived, everyone was stunned by her beauty. They were married and returned back to the valley together, where the little house had been transformed into a castle, and they lived there together in happiness.

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