“The Magician’s Cape.” Great Swedish Fairy Tales, Holger Lundbergh et. all, illustrated by John Bauer, New York: Delacorte Press/S. Lawrence., 1973, pp. 19-28.

Tale Summary

There was once a wicked musician who built a castle in the mountains, and was entertained by a group of beautiful young girls who danced and made music. They were all terrified of him because he had stolen them from their parents, and whenever he was displeased with one of them he pushed her into the forest to be torn apart by wild beasts. Whenever he got rid of one, he would set out to find another, dressing nicely and dabbing honey on his lips before putting on a magic cape that could turn into wings. If he found a girl he wanted, he would lay the cape at her feet like a gentleman, and if she willingly stepped onto it he would wrap her up in it and take her home, but he had no power over girls who would not choose to do so. In a small village he saw a beautiful smith’s daughter named Alvida, and when she went into the woods to pick berries he laid down the cape, saying that she was a beautiful maiden who should not get her feet dirty. She laughed and told him to take better care of it and handed it back to him. He then saw a grazing ram and thought that if he got it to charge her, she would try to hide behind the cape and step on it. He used a magic whistle to attract a swarm of bees which stung the goat, and the animal charged at Alvida, but she did not take cover behind the cape. She ran behind a pine tree and was chased in circles by the goat and tripped. The magician laid out the cape hoping she would fall on it but she landed on the ground and instead the goat ran into it and tore it. Alvida felt badly about this and plucked one of her long golden hairs and sewed it shut with a rose thorn as a needle. She gave it back to him, but he said it needed more stitches, and when he tossed it back she stepped on the hem and was trapped. She saw the magician’s face change and become ugly and cried for help, and soon her golden hair was caught on a tree and he struggled to free it. While the cape was tangled, Alvida made her escape and made it back home. Furious, the magician went back to the castle, and that night he could not sleep because of a bright light coming from the golden hair. He tried everything he could to get rid of it, even ripping it out and throwing it from the window, but it always came back, and he was not able to sleep for three nights. On the fourth, he went back to the village and knocked on Alvida’s door and asked for her help in return for many wondrous things, but she knew that magicians could not enter the house of a Christian and did not answer. He flew back to his castle and had the idea of giving her gifts so that in her gratitude she would help him, and so plucked many wonderful fruits from his garden and arranged them in her window so that they grew in a border. When he went home, the thread shone more faintly and he was able to sleep. For some time the magic fruits hung in her window, but she did not touch any of them, and instead let travelers pick them for themselves. He asked again for her help but she did not reply, and from then on he had to do charitable deeds for the unhappy and never carry off another maiden or else the seam would shine as brightly as before.