(Note: the tale is published in the original translation by Elek Benedek.)
There was once a poor woodcutter. This woodcutter had a wife and a little daughter of three years old. The woodcutter was as poor as a church mouse, and then he was killed by worry and sorrow for what to feed his little daughter.
Once he went out into the woods, very sad, to cut wood, and as he was working, a beautiful woman with a bright star crown on her head came towards him. The fair woman greeted the woodcutter, and he received her well, and even asked her who and what she was. The fair woman answered:
- I am the Virgin Mary, the sweet mother of the little Jesus; I have heard that you live in great poverty, and I have come to ask you to give me your daughter, and I will take her with me, and be her mother instead of her mother.
Hey, was the poor man crazy! What a good thing his daughter will have! No more hunger, no more poverty. He ran for his daughter, took her to the Virgin Mary, and in a moment they were gone from his sight: the Virgin Mary had taken the child up to the bright heavens.
But the child had a good time with the Virgin Mary. He was given bread, milk and all good things, his clothes were made of gold and silver and the angels played with him.
Time passed, time went by, it flew - of course it flew! - And when the girl was fourteen, the Virgin Mary called to her and said:
- Do you hear, my little daughter, I am going on a great journey. Here, here are thirteen keys, I'll leave them with you. You may open twelve doors, but you must not open the thirteenth. Be careful not to open it, for if you do, I tell you, you'll be out of luck.
The Virgin Mary went away, the little girl stayed at home, and that very day she opened the door of the first room, and opened one every day until she came to the thirteenth. Oh, dear God, how beautiful these rooms were! They shone and shone and shone.
An apostle sat in each of the twelve rooms, and a great light shone round their heads. The angels were always with him, they accompanied him to all twelve rooms, and they were so happy! How he wanted to go into the thirteenth room. If not to go in, at least to look in. So he told the angels:
- The Virgin Mary forbade me to open this room. I won't go in, but I'll open the door a little and at least peek through the opening.
- No, don't do that, said the angels, if the Virgin Mary forbade it. You commit a sin if you break her prohibition.
But the little girl had no peace, she was burning with curiosity to know what was in that forbidden room. She only waited for the angels to go away.
- 'Now I'm alone,' he thought to himself, 'no one knows what I'm doing.
He put the key in the lock, turned it, and in that instant the door swung open. Oh, dear God, he was blinded by the glare!
There in the middle of the room sat the Holy Trinity, in fire, in dazzling light, in radiance; he looked, looked with great dreaminess, then stepped closer, closer to it, touched the brightness a little with his finger to see if it burned, and im, his finger suddenly turned golden.
Oh, the girl is frightened! She ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her, and dared not look back, trembling with fear. What would happen to her now? She tried to wash the gold off her finger, but it would not come off. Now, in vain would he deny it, the Virgin Mary would know that he had been in the thirteenth room.
Shortly afterwards, the Virgin Mary did indeed come home. She called the maiden and took the keys from her. As soon as she had received the keys, she looked hard into the maiden's eyes and asked her:
- Didn't you open the door of the thirteenth room?
- No, replied the girl.
But his heart was beating hard, and his face was aflame.
- Did you really not open it? - asked the Virgin Mary again.
- No, said the girl a second time.
Then the Virgin Mary looked at her pretty finger and asked a third time:
- You didn't open it?
- No, said the girl a third time.
- All right, said the Virgin Mary. You have disobeyed me, but you have also lied, you have no place in heaven.
He gazed fixedly at the girl, and at that moment she fell into a deep sleep. Then he quietly lowered her to the ground and set her down in the middle of a forest. When the maiden awoke, she wanted to speak, to cry out, but not a word was enough, not a sound was enough, not even a sound came to her lips.
He jumped up from the ground, he wanted to run, but he couldn't go anywhere: everywhere he was blocked by thick thorny trees and bushes. The poor girl grieved, and then her heart broke in sorrow, but in vain she could go no further. Fortunately for her, she found an old hollow tree, and in its hollow she hid: this was her home after the bright and shining heaven! Here he hid from wind and rain, here he slept night after night. A sad life it was, and he wept bitterly when he thought how good things were in heaven, how beautiful everything was there, and how good the time with the angels was there!
There was no bread, not even dry bread. He chewed on roots and was also happy to get strawberries and raspberries. And when autumn came, he gathered up the dry leaves, made a bed of them for himself for the winter, so that he would not freeze, and gathered up whatever nuts he could find: that was his winter food.
Her clothes were all torn and tattered, and in the spring she covered her weak body with long silk hair. Thus time passed, year after year, in terrible misery, in perpetual wretchedness.
The damsel did pity her sin, she prayed day and night that God would forgive her sin, and God did indeed bear her many and great sufferings. One spring, by chance, the prince came by.
There he was hunting in the thicket, he had taken a deer in his den and was just about to aim when it disappeared in the thicket as if swallowed up by the earth. But the prince was not a put and take kind of fellow, he struck out into the thicket, and with his sword he cut his way through the thicket, and just before the hollow tree he emerged from the thicket.
There he could have gone on bravely, but behold, he stopped as if his feet were rooted to the ground. Yes, the girl was sitting under the tree. Her golden hair covered her to the very heels. She was so beautiful, so lovely, that you could look at the sun, but not at her. And with great difficulty the prince had a word and asked the maiden:
- Who are you, what are you, beautiful beautiful girl? How did you get here, in all these woods?
But the maiden looked at the prince, but did not answer, for she could not speak.
- Will you come with me to my palace? - asked the prince.
The girl didn't answer this time either, just waved her head.
Now the prince took her gently in his arms, led her to his horse, mounted him, and lifted him into the saddle. Then they went home to the palace, and he had gold clothes made for her, and in a week or two she was married.
Then time passed, time passed, a year passed, and the mute queen had a child with such beautiful golden hair that the little king could not find a place in his great happiness. Yes, the great happiness did not last long. That very night the Virgin Mary came to the little queen and said to her:
- If you confess that you have been in the thirteenth room, I will give you back your voice, you can speak again; but if you continue to deny it, I will take your child with me.
The Queen spoke, but said:
- No, I didn't open that door.
- "Well, then, stay silent from now on," said the Virgin Mary, and took the child away.
Hey, there's been a commotion in the palace this morning! They looked for the child in every direction, they set the whole palace on fire, but they could not find him. Then the people of the court began to whisper that the queen was a man-eater, that she must have eaten her own child.
The Queen heard this well, but she could not say anything. The little king heard it too, but he did not believe the vile speech. His heart was sore for the fair golden-haired boy, but he did not harm his wife, for he loved her dearly.
Well, another year passed and the queen had another golden-haired son. He was even more beautiful than the first, and the king was glad. But his joy didn't last until the next morning, for at night the Virgin Mary came down from heaven and told the little queen:
- Confess that you have opened the door, and I will give you back your word and your child; otherwise I will take this with me.
- "No, I didn't open it," said the Queen again.
The Virgin Mary said no more, but took the child in her arms and flew away with him. But it was the first time that the people of the court made a loud noise, and loudly accused the queen of having eaten her child.
They demanded that the king summon his advisers to judge the queen. But the king would not listen to them, and commanded that the matter should never be mentioned again.
In the third year, a daughter was born to the queen, and the Virgin Mary descended to her a third time. This time she said to her:
- Jere with me!
He took the queen by the hand, and led her up to heaven, and there showed her his sons.
The boys were playing, and the Queen wanted to run to them to hold them in her arms and kiss them, but the Virgin Mary would not let her.
- First confess that you opened the door. Then you can take your sons with you.
- No, I didn't open it, said the Queen a third time.
The Virgin Mary came down to earth with the Queen and took her little daughter with her to heaven.
But now the glass was indeed full to the brim. The king had no court, and had to summon his advisers to judge the queen. The counsellors, for the queen had answered nothing to their question, - would she had answered, poor thing, if she could! - they condemned her to death, and to death by fire.
The sentence was pronounced, that they should be bound and burnt at the stake. The wood was gathered, the bonfire was set, the queen was bound, a fire was lit under the bonfire, the flame was already running around, flaming, and now the queen's heart was also softened. She was sorry for her sin and her unjust stubbornness.
- I should still confess my sins before I die, he thought to himself.
At that moment he got the word and shouted loudly:
- Mary, Mary, I am guilty!
And now - listen to this miracle! The channels of the sky opened, the rain began to fall, the flames of the bonfire were extinguished, and heavenly light poured down upon the bonfire. The Virgin Mary descended in heavenly light and radiance, with the two little princes at her side and the infant in her arms. And coming down to earth, Mary said:
- I forgive him who repents of his sins, ime, your children.
The great multitude marvelled at this, while Mary was once more descending back to the bright heaven...
(Collected works of the Brothers Grimm, translated into Hungarian by Elek Benedek)
