The apple tree man

I found out about this folk tale when I was doing my research online for my post about wassailing. I'd never heard of it before, so I thought it could be a nice novelty for my Hungarian readers, as well. The speciality of the story is that wassailing is talked about as a Christmas tradtion in it. I hope you'll enjoy it!

There was once a poor farmer, who only had a run-down hut, three apple trees, a donkey and a cow. He took good care of his animals, fed them and groomed them, and he wassailed his apple trees every winter.

Soon, his trees started bearing beautiful apples, more and more every year, and his cow gave plenty of milk. He made cheese and sold it on the maket along with his apples. He made good money from it so he could buy some sheep and sell the wool. He became richer and richer, and soon he could afford a nice, big farm house and more land to work on. He also collected a chest of gold coins and hid it under his oldest apple tree next to his old hut.

He got married and had two sons. His older son became a good man – he was hard-working and good-hearted. His younger son, though, didn’t like to work. He mostly waited until the work was done by others, and he looked down on poor people.

When the father became old, he died in peace and – who knows why – he left his farm to his younger son. The older son only got the run-down hut, the three apple trees, the old donkey and the cow. Moreover, his younger brother asked for a gold coin each year as rent for the hut, and he collected it on Christmas Eve.

The older brother didn’t despair, he kept working hard: he groomed his animals, rubbed the cow with herbs, and he fed them better food than to himself. He took care of the apple trees just as well, and he wassailed them every winter. Some years were good and he could pay the rent easily, but some years were harder and so he struggled.

One Christmas, he realised that he didn’t have enough money for the rent. So when his brother came to collect it, he didn’t know what to do. The younger brother was furious:

„Give me my money, or I’ll throw you off the land, you fool! Or…” and he stopped to think. „Old folks say that animals can talk at midnight on Christmas Eve. Feed the old donkey and the cow well, brother. We’ll listen to what they say, and I bet they know where our father hid his treasure all those years ago. If you help me get that, you can stay. I’ll come back at midnight.” And so he left.

The older brother did what he had to do. He groomed the animals well and with love. He gave them the best fodder he could find, and put them in the barn – close to the window of the house, so they would be able to listen to their conversation.

Then, he went to his orchard. He brought warm cider and apple juice mixed well with spices. He made loud noises around the apple trees, banged some sticks on pots and pans and shouted to scare away evil spirits that might harm his beloved apple trees. Then he poored the warm drink among the roots of his apple trees so they would blossom in spring and give him good fruit.

And then – something strange happened… The bark of the oldest apple tree opened, and a tiny, old, green man stepped out of the tree trunk. His face was wrinkled, like the last apples still hanging on the branches in winter. He smiled at the young farmer and said: „I can see you are a good man - just like your father was. You take care of others – just like you take care of us, your trees and your animals. Now listen to what I have to say: look under the roots of your oldest apple tree, and you’ll find there the treaure your father hid. Take it, for it is yours, you worked hard for it.” Then he took a step back, disappeared in the trunk of the tree and the bark closed like a door behind him.

It took the farmer a moment to come to himself. But after he did, he took the treasure chest out from under the roots of the tree and hid it inside the house. When his brother came at midnight, they stood by the window and listened.

„How are you my friend?” said the cow to the donkey. „I can see you’re still well and healthy, the older son of the farmer is taking good care of you.”

„Just like his father did.” said the donkey. „Taking care of us and his trees is how he came by the treasure. Isn’t that right, my old friend?”

„Oh, the treasure.” said the cow. „We will not talk about that tonight. For the younger son of the farmer, that terrible, lazy, mean fellow is listening to us from behind the window. And besides, the treasure is gone forever, and he’ll never find out where it went, right?”

Hearing this, the younger brother became so mad that his hair went grey and he ran away and was never seen again around the old hut.

The older brother could build a nicer and bigger house on his piece of land and planted more apple trees next to the house. He took good care of them too and made a good living from the fruit. And so he lived happily ever after.

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És most nézzük a szavakat:

run-down – roskatag, lepusztult

struggle – küszködik, sanyarog

treasure chest – kincses láda

folks - emberek

fellow - fickó

groom – lekefél, állatot gondoz

rub - bedörzsöl

fodder - takarmány

bear / bore / born fruit – gyümölcöt hoz

orchard - gyümölcsös

bark - fakéreg

trunk - fatörzs

roots - gyökerek