The Mythology & Folklore Database
When he reached boyhood, he was uglier and more deformed than he had been even in his childhood. He never went out of doors but a crowd of naughty children followed, laughing at him and mocking him. Their cruel conduct made him so shy and unsociable that he avoided their company, and he passed his time day after day alone in the Willow Brake, which stood at a short distance from his mother's house. His neighbors noticed where he was accustomed to go, and nicknamed him the Hunchback of the Willow Brake.
On a certain evening, after suffering much ridicule from the children of the town where he lived, he fled with a sore heart and weeping eyes to the Willow Brake for shelter. He had not gone far into the wood, when he was met by the very prettiest little babe he had ever seen. The babe was a fairy woman, but he could not afterwards give a full description of her appearance, nor had he any recollection of her attire, beyond this, that about her shoulders was a green mantle, which was bound with a golden girdle about her waist, and that on her head was a green cap, with a tuft of silver feathers waving from its crown.
"Where are you going?" said the fairy.
"I am going to pass the evening in the Willow Brake," replied Hunchback.
"Have you no companion at all with whom you can play?" said she then.
"No; none will keep company with me, since I am not like other children," said Hunchback.
At last she asked his name, and he told her it was Hunchback.
"Hunchback!" she exclaimed. "It is long since we expected to meet you. I am Play of Sunbeam, and my joy is making the world merry. Come with me, my people are expecting you, and pass the night with us, and in the morning you will have neither disability nor defect."
He went cheerfully with her, until they arrived at the back of the Big Fairy Knoll.
"Shut your eyes, and give me your hand," said the fairy.
He did as she told him, and presently they were in the very grandest mansion he had ever seen. She dragged him up through the midst of the company, singing merrily:
Silence, all ye!"Success and happiness attend Play of Sunbeam!" said a handsome maiden, who was more finely dressed than the rest, and who wore on her head a gold crown full of jewels.
Sunbeam's back hither.
Hunchback and she
Have come together.
"What does she wish us to do for poor Hunchback?"
For pain to give him lustihead,And then away she went dancing, and without casting another look on Hunchback.
And, good man's wish, a thriving trade.
And Play of Sunbeam will be merry and glad.
"When is Play of Sunbeam otherwise?" said the Queen, "and according to her request let it be."
The other fairies seized him, and when he thought that they had pulled him to pieces among them they let him go, and he was as straight and active as he behoved to be. Then he heard the sweetest music he had ever listened to, and joy filled his heart, and he began to dance with the little people that were on the floor, and stopped not until he fell, unable to stand with fatigue. He had not lain but a short time on the floor, till sleep crept over him, and he felt the fairies carrying him away through the air, and the soft, sad music receding further and further from him.
At length he awoke, and on looking round, he found himself lying in the Willow Brake. He rose, and returned home. He had been away a year and a day; and in that time so great a change had come over him that it was with difficulty that his own mother knew him. She rejoiced at his coming, and after that found him a great help, for now he had a hand for every trade.
Among the youngsters who used to mock at him was a boy that bore the nickname of Punchy. Punchy was a little ugly creature, with hands and feet like the paws of a frog, and a big hump between his shoulders. When he saw how Hunchback had returned, as straight as a rush and as gay as a calf-herd, he made friends with him, and rested not until Hunchback had told him everything that had happened, from the evening he went to the Willow Brake, till he came back again.
He laid a vow, however, on Punchy, not to tell it to a living being, because he himself was under a promise to the fairies to keep it secret. Punchy promised to do as was requested of him.
On that very evening Punchy went to the Willow Brake, expecting to meet one of the fairies who would heal him as Hunchback was healed; but he saw none. Evening after evening he continued going to the same place, until at last he saw a small manikin, sitting at the root of a holly bush, and gazing with a mocking smile on his countenance.
"Are you Play of Sunbeam?" said Punchy.
"I am not, but I am Never-Mind-Who," replied the manikin. "What is your business with Play of Sunbeam?"
"O, that she will take this hump off me, as she took the hunch off Hunchback," said Punchy. "Will you take me to the place where she dwells?"
"I will do that," said Never-Mind-Who, "but you will get leave to come out of it as you like."
"I do not care how I get out, if I get in, and if this ugly hump is taken off me."
The little manikin gave a loud laugh, and then went away with Punchy to the Big Fairy Knoll, and took him in, as Hunchback was taken.
"Who is this come to us without invitation or tryst?" cried the Queen, looking sternly at Punchy.
"It is a toad named Punchy whom Hunchback has sent on a chance journey, in the hope that his hump will be taken off him," replied Never-Mind-Who.
"Did Hunchback break his vow and his promise, that never of his own accord would he tell any one how it fared with him here?" said the Queen, turning towards Punchy with wrath in her countenance.
"No," replied Punchy, "for he told me nothing until I first prayed and entreated him."
"You impudent fellow," said she, "you will get your deserts," and immediately she cried to the other fairies: "Throw the hunch on the hump, and the one load will take them home."
"The hunch on the hump, the hunch on the hump," screamed all the fairies; and then they laid hold of Punchy by his hands and his feet, and tossed him up and down, to this side and that, till he lost all consciousness.
When he came to himself, he lay in the Willow Brake, the hump twice its former size, and his bones so tired and bruised that he could scarcely move. With a great effort he got to his feet, and then crept home; but to the day of his death he told no one except Hunchback what happened to him in the Big Fairy Knoll.