Mother Holle

Quick Answer

Why This Story Works for Bedtime

It’s structured and satisfying: good choices bring warm results. The magical ‘snow’ imagery is cozy, and the ending feels like a gentle reassurance that fairness can arrive—even after a hard day.

Story Synopsis

A widow has two daughters: one is kind and hardworking, the other is lazy. The hardworking girl does most of the chores and is often treated harshly. One day, while spinning by a well, she drops her spindle into the water. Fearing punishment, she leans in—and falls into the well. Instead of harm, she lands in a strange, bright world. As she walks, she hears a loaf of bread calling from an oven, begging to be taken out before it burns. She helps. Then she passes an apple tree heavy with ripe fruit, asking to be shaken; she helps again. At last she reaches the home of Mother Holle, a mysterious woman who offers her a place to stay if she will work. The girl agrees, and she does her work faithfully—especially shaking the feather beds until the feathers fly like snow over the earth. Mother Holle is pleased. When the girl grows homesick, Mother Holle leads her back to the well. As she steps through, a shower of gold falls over her, and even her clothes become golden. She returns home shining, and her good fortune changes how others see her. The lazy sister, jealous, tries to copy the journey—but she refuses to help the bread and the apple tree, and she does not work well for Mother Holle. When she demands her reward, she receives not gold but a sticky coat of pitch that will not wash away. Mother Holle is a classic story of fairness: kindness and steady effort are noticed, and shortcuts carry consequences.

Story Excerpt

There was once a widow who had two daughters. One girl was kind and hardworking, and the other was lazy and liked to avoid work. But the widow was far fonder of the lazy daughter, because she was her own child. The hardworking girl was only her stepdaughter, and she had to do nearly everything in the house. Each day, the poor girl was sent to sit by a well beside the road. There she had to spin and spin, hour after hour, until her fingers felt sore and tired. One day, as she worked, the shuttle in her hand got stained. Wanting to keep it clean, she leaned over the well and dipped it into the water to wash it. But the shuttle slipped—plip!—right out of her fingers and fell down into the deep, dark well. The girl’s eyes filled with tears. She ran home and told her stepmother what had happened. Instead of comforting her, the woman scolded sharply. “Since you have let the shuttle fall in,” she said, “you must fetch it out again.” The girl went back to the well and stood looking down. The water was far below, and she did not know what to do. Her heart felt heavy with worry. At last, in her sadness and fear of going home without the shuttle, she jumped down into the well to try to get it.

In One Glance