Generous Woodcutter (Helde Puuraiuja)

GENEROUS WOODCUTTER
(HELDE PUURAIUJA)

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald

In the days of yore a man went into the woods to cut trees. He stands next to the Birch and wants to cut it down. The birch seeing the ax started to beg:
“Please let me live! I am very young and have lots of children behind me who will cry over my death.”
The man heard the trees begging and went on to the Oak tree. He started to cut the oak tree. The oak tree seeing the ax started to beg:
“Please let me live: I am still healthy and strong, the acorns all unripe and not yet ready to be sown. How will the next generation have a oak-forest when all my acorns go bad?”
The man heard the trees begging and went on to the Ash tree. He started to cut the ash tree. The ash tree seeing the ax started to beg:
“Please let me live! I am still young and yesterday I proposed my bride, what will happen to the poor thing when you cut me down?”
The man heard the trees begging and went on to the Maple tree. He started to cut it down. The maple tree started to beg:
“Please let me live, my children are still small and all not brought up yet. What will become of them when you cut me down?”
The man heard the trees begging and went on to the Alder (tree). Seeing the ax the alder started to beg:
“Please let me live! I have to feed a lot of small animals with my juice. What will happen to them when I will be cut down?”
The man heard the trees begging and went on to the Aspen (tree). He started to cu it down. The aspen started to beg:
“Please let me live! I have to rustle (make a noise) with my leaves together with wind and in the night-time frighten the mischievous on their evil ways. What will happen to he world when you cut me down?”
The man heard the trees begging and went on to the Bird cherry. He started to cut it down. The bird cherry seeing the ax started to beg:
“Please let me live! I am still blooming and I have to give shelter to the Song Thrush, so he could sing on my branch. Where would people hear lovely birdsong if the birds would flee from our country because you cut me down?”
The man heard the trees begging and went on to the Rowan tree. He wanted to cut it down. The rowan tree started to beg:
“Please let me live! I am almost ready to bloom and where afterwards cluster of berries will grow. These will feed the birds in autumn and in winter time. What will happen to these poor things when I will be cut down?”
The man heard the trees begging and started to think: if I can´t cut down the foliage trees, then I will try my luck with the conifers. He went to the Fir-tree and wanted to cut it down. The fir-tree seeing the ax started to beg:
“Please let me live! I am still young and strong, I have to raise offsprings and be verdant (green) on summer and winter for people to see the beauty. Where will they find shelter when I will be cut down?”
The man heard the trees beggning and went on to the Pine tree. He started to cut it down but the tree seeing he ax started to beg:
“Please let me live! I am still young and strong. I have to be verdant together with the fir-tree. What a shame, when I would be cut down.”
The man heard the trees begging and went on to the Juniper. He wanted to cut it down but the tree started to beg:
“Please let me live! I am the biggest treasure of the forest and good luck bringer for all, because I can heal 99 diseases. What will become of human and animals when I will be cut down?”
The man sat on the turf and started to think:
“The tale is stranger then a miracle, every tree has its own language and begging words, which are all against cutting down. What will I do, when I can´t find a tree who would let me cut it down quietly? The begging leaves no heart cold. If I had not a wife at home I would leave empty handed.”
Suddenly an old man with tall gray beard, silver dark shirt and a coat made of bark of the fir-tree is stepping out of the forest in front of the man and says:
“Hey, why are you sitting here with such a sad face? Did somebody hurt you?”
The man answers:
“Why shouldn´t I be sad? I took the ax in the morning and went to the forest. I wanted to cut some firewood and bring it home. But look a miracle - suddenly I find that all the forest is alive and every tree has its own mind and language. They all can beg and my heart doesn´t have any drops of blood that could stand against them. What ever happens to me but I can´t cut down trees that are alive.”
The old man looks at him with happy eyes and says:
“I thank you, peasant, that you didn´t close your ears for my children begging. You should not be harmed because of your generosity. I want to return the favor and see that in the future you don´t have to live in need. Every saved child will become your happiness. Not only will you have firewood all the time but your house will be blessed forever. So in the future you don´t have to do more then say what ever your heart desires and you will get it. However you have to be aware what you wish for. Don´t wish too big. Also tell your wife and children to look what they wish for. The wishes can´t be harder then fulfilling them. Or else from happiness unhappiness will come. So take the golden branch and care for it as your own soul!”
Saying that he gave the man the branch and added:
“If you want to build a house or make other useful jobs, then go to the anthill and swing the branch three times but don´t kick in the hill cause you can hurt the little fellows. You command them what they have to do and you find it done in the next morning as you wished. When you want food then force the pot to cook what you crave for. When you want something sweet, then show your golden branch to the bees and make them work. They will bring you more honey then your family could eat. When you want juice then command the birch and maple tree. They will fulfill your command at once. The alder tree will bring you milk, juniper health if you make them. Fish and meat dishes will be made by the pot every day, without the need to kill any live animals. Do you need canvas, silk or wool fabrics, then command the spiders, they will knit it for you. That way you don´t have to miss a thing but have more. That is all for you cause you listened my children begging and let them live. I am sylvan spirit (we call it Father of Forest) who is watching over the trees.” Then the old man said his farewell and disappeared.
The farmer had an angry wife, who was already waiting as a furious dog for the husband to come home. And she got more angrier when she saw him coming empty handed.
The wife was screaming: „Where is the wood that you had to bring?“
The man said in a quiet voice:
„They stayed in the forest to grow.“
The wife said in anger:
„I wish the birch branches would have made a ferule and gave you some beating over your back!“
The man swing his golden branch quietly and said so his wife could not hear him:
„This wish will come true for you!“
Then suddenly the wife started to scream:
„Ouch ouch ouch! Oh how sore! Ai ai! This goes through the heart! Ai ai! Forgive me, please forgive me!“
She was screaming and hopping around, touching different places on her body where the bitter branch hit her. When the man thought that she had enough panishment he told the golden branch to stop beating.
After this first try the farmer noticed what a valuable gift the old man had given him. He had an old barn in the yard and he decided to test the strength of the ants also. He went on to the anthill, swing his golden branch three times and shout:
„Make me a new barn in the yard!“
The next morning after waking up he found that the barn was ready.
There was no happier man in the world then our farmer. They didn´t have to worries about the cooking. The pot made everything their heart desired and even carried it on the table. So the family just had to eat. The spiders made fabrics, the moles plow the field and the ants seeded it. As in autumn the ants also harvested the field. So there was no need of people to do a thing. And even when the angry wife started to criticize or wished something bad to the man. She would feel the power of the golden branch again. Here some men would sigh: oh I wish I had the golden branch myself!
The owner of the golden branch lived happily cause he never wished something too impossible. Before he died he gave the golden branch to his children and taught all the things that the old sylvan spirit had taught to him. How they have to handle the delicate thing and warned about the dangers of wishing impossible things. The children did as their father had told them and lived happily in the end of their days.
Later, in the third generation, it happened that the golden branch was inherited to a man who stepped over the parents warnings. He disrespectfully made many empty wishes and cause of that worn-out the golden branch. At first the wishes didn´t create big damages, cause they were possible to fill out. But the arrogant man didn´t settle with that and soon he started to test out the golden branch strength and wished for impossible things. So one day he made the golden branch to bring the sun down cause his back was cold. The golden branch made the wish come true but because it was one of the most impossible things. It happened that because of that wish there came very hot pieces of the sun and burned the man with all his houses and fields. There was left nothing. Not even the smallest sign that there had been a farm. So now nobody knows where the farm was or where you could look for the golden branch. The belief is also that the hot pieces of the sun made the trees to be so scared that they forgot their languages and never said a word again.