Soup on a rock

Folktale from Hungary

A soldier walked into a town. He was hungry and broke. He did not have any food. He did not even have bread. He thought: I will go into the first house and try to get some food.

He picked up a stone and went into the first house. In the house lived an old lady.

– Good morning!
– Good morning! I’m so hungry. Can you give me something to eat?
– I would like to give you something but I have nothing. I am poor. I have nothing in my house.
– I’m not poor. I have a stone. The soldier showed a stone. “But I need a pot to cook in.”
– I have a pot, the woman said.

The soldier washed the stone and put it into the pot. The old woman lights the fire. The soldier poures water into the pot and starts cooking. He is making soup. The woman is watching. The soldier tastes the soup.

It’s good but it needs a little salt.

The woman gets some salt.

– Now it is good, it would really be delicious if I had some fat.
– I have fat. I can get some! She fetched some fat. And so on, with some sausage it would really be…….The woman brings sausage and vegetables and rice. Then they wait. The soldier gives a large plate of soup to the woman. She likes the soup very much.

She asks if she can buy the stone to cook the same soup the next day. The soldier says ok and gets a good sum of money for the stone and wandered off into the world, happy and not hungry any more.

Read the fairy tale in Swedish

Click on the magnifier to read the analysis