Once upon a time there lived in the village a little girl named Karen.
Because her family was poor, she often had no shoes to wear. Although the family had a pair of bulky wooden shoes that would be very uncomfortable to wear, even these shoes could only be worn in winter. For the rest of the season, she could only go barefoot.
"This child is so poor! The family still has some trimmings for making shoes, enough to make a pair of shoes for her." The widow who lived in the center of the village took pity. Her husband was a shoemaker and she had tools at home.
The widow was clanking away at home making shoes when her mother, who was dependent on Karen, died. Karen was devastated. The day her mom was buried, the widow gave Karen the shoes she had just made. It was a pair of red shoes and not very nice. Karen got the shoes and wore them on the spot. Red shoes are not supposed to be worn at funerals, but Karen had no choice: if she didn't wear them, she would have to go to the cemetery barefoot.
The tiny girl wept as she followed the crude coffin. At that moment a carriage came across the funeral procession, and on it sat a kindly old woman. "That girl is so pitiful! It would be nice to help her." The old lady found the priest to ask about Karen.
"She's an orphan girl now after her mother died." The priest sighed.
"Let me take care of her from now on!" The old woman sympathized with Karen's situation and decided to adopt her. She took Karen's little hand and led her to the carriage.
"It must have been these red shoes that were so beautiful that they caught the old madam's attention." Jia Lun sat timidly by the old madam's side, secretly speculating.
The carriage soon arrived home. As soon as the old madam got off the carriage, she instructed the maid, "You should take Jia Lun to take a hot bath first, and then change into clean clothes. Those shoes of hers are really ugly now!"
"What about the original ones, ma'am?"
"Throw them in the fireplace and burn them!"
And from then on Karen began a whole new life here: reading, learning needlework, and wearing beautiful clothes.
One day, when people heard that the Queen and the Little Princess, who were touring the country, were coming to the town, they talked:
"The Queen and the Little Princess are coming to our town!"
"How lucky we are to be able to enjoy the royal style in this small place!"
......
"What will the Queen and Little Princess be like?" Caught in the crowd, Garren hoped to catch a glimpse of them as well.
The Empress and Little Princess did come, and they received the citizens where the government officials were speaking. Standing on a high platform, they were well-groomed: the beautiful Empress wore a golden crown and a gorgeous gown; the lovely little Princess wore a white dress and a pair of red tanned leather shoes. "Those red leather boots are so beautiful; they must be so comfortable. If only I had a pair!" Little Karen thought, her full attention focused on the little princess's pair of shoes!
Soon the time came for Karen to receive her confirmation. "This is for you, take it!" The old lady had already prepared new clothes for her. "Well, a new pair of shoes is also essential at a time like this! Let's go to the best shoe store in town together!" The old lady said to Karen.
As soon as she walked into the shoe store, Garren was mesmerized by a pair of red leather shoes in a glass case. It was exquisitely crafted and beautifully styled, rivaling the princess's pair.
"It's beautiful!"
"It was ordered by a duke's daughter! It's just that her feet grew so fast that she couldn't wear the shoes long after they were done!"
"Ma'am, I love these shoes."
"Fine! The leather is so shiny! It must be made of patent leather!" The old lady was old and had very bad eyes, she didn't know it was a pair of red shoes. If she had known, she wouldn't have liked them and wouldn't have bought them for Karen.
When Karen entered the church in her red shoes, the people dressed in black and black shoes were that surprised! Wearing red shoes to a confirmation service has never been done before. During the confirmation ceremony, Karen was thinking about the red shoes on her feet! As for what the bishop had said, and what the hymns had begun to be sung, she hadn't the slightest idea.
That very night, a person came to the old lady's house. She said, "Karen is ridiculous! I can't believe she wore red leather shoes to her confirmation!"
Hearing this, the old lady was angry, and she called Karen: "You are so ignorant! Remember, from now on, you can only wear black leather shoes to church.
A week later, Karen was going to church for the Eucharist. "Which pair to wear there, anyway?" Karen looked at this pair and then that pair and couldn't decide, "I'd better wear the red ones!" Karen was stubborn.
Thinking that she had already warned Jia Lun, and because her eyes couldn't really see, the old lady didn't care what color shoes Jia Lun was wearing! She led Garren towards the church. As they crossed a farm field, they soiled their shoes.
"Ma'am, you've got some dust on your shoes, let me wipe them off!" An old man on crutches at the church door said. He had a long white beard and wore a tattered green uniform.
"Yes!" The old lady was wearing a pair of somewhat old black shoes on her feet.
"Shine them for me too!" It was Karen's crisp voice.
"It's beautiful! It's perfect for dancing." The old man exclaimed as he carefully wiped it with his handkerchief.
This time the red leather shoes on Garren's feet attracted not only the crowd attending the ceremony, but even the eyes of the former Patriarch in the picture frame on the wall. People only saw Karen kneeling in front of the communion table with the chalice in her hand, not realizing that she was simply admiring the glow of the red shoes reflected off the wine glass, and they didn't know that she was neither singing a hymn nor reciting a prayer.
The Eucharist was over, and Karen and the old lady were walking out of the church. She heard the old man shining his shoes tsk-tsk again.
Carron's heart was so happy, she couldn't help but lift her leg. To her surprise, as soon as she lifted her leg, her body twisted with it. She tried everything she could think of, no matter what, she couldn't control it, her body wouldn't stop.
"How unintelligent! I can't believe she's dancing in front of a church!" The old lady, who had gotten into a carriage early, was annoyed.
Seeing how Karen couldn't stop, the coachman had to step in and carry her to the car. When she got on, Karen's body didn't wriggle, but her legs wouldn't stop, and the carriage kept ringing with thuds and thuds. The coachman had to press her legs with one hand and pull her shoes off with one hard hand.
"You are not allowed to wear these shoes again!" The vocal old lady threw the shoes into the cupboard.
But Karen still thought of the red shoes in her heart! She often took advantage of the old lady's inattention to touch and polish them. Each time she moved so gently.
Not long after, the old lady fell ill, lying in bed, she was dying. As the old lady's only relative, Karen did not hesitate to wait at the bedside, carefully taking care of. Just then, Karen receives an invitation to a ball. Karen looked at the old lady, who was huffing and puffing. "Just don't go, the old lady looks like she's dying! But it's a grand ball, and if I go in my red leather shoes, I'll be sure to dance most beautifully."
Thinking, she looked at the red leather shoes lying in the cupboard, "Ah, that soft glow is beautiful! I'll just look, it's okay!" After a while, "It won't matter if I wear them around the house for a little while!" After another moment, "Better go!" Karen walked towards the ball in her red leather shoes.
What she didn't expect was this: after she heard the music, she couldn't control her body again: she tried to turn from the right, but she turned from the left, and she tried to lift her leg, but it stepped downward. It turned out that all this was the red shoes at work. Gradually the red shoes took her out of the ball, out of the town, into a creepy forest. Just as she kept spinning and dancing in the forest, the old man with the crutches appeared again, and his mouth kept saying, "What a beautiful red dancing shoes, what a beautiful red dancing shoes ......"
It was all so weird! Karen was getting a little scared. "I don't want to dance anymore." Karen tried to take off the red dancing shoes, but it was all in vain, the shoes were still properly on her feet. And so, rain or shine, day or night, Karen danced and danced and danced ......
She wanted to rest and rest! But the red dancing shoes kept her dancing and dancing. "Maybe the church will give me a moment of peace!" The angel took a sword and held her back from the church door!
''It is at the end of your life that you cannot stop! This is the consequence you must suffer for your greed!" The angel spoke sternly.
"I know I'm wrong! Please forgive me!" A frantically dancing Garren shouted.
One day, as she danced near the old lady's house, she saw a coffin being carried out from there. "No one in this world cares about me anymore! Even those dead people in the cemetery ignore me! This is God's punishment for me." Garrendor wanted to stop for the old lady's funeral, even for a little while, but it was a luxury.
Karen never wanted to dance again! Not even for a moment! She knew that if she crossed a barren field she would find an executioner. Maybe that was the only one who could help her.
"Knock knock ......" an ugly man walked out, "Don't you look alive? Don't you know who I am? I'm the only executioner here, in charge of beheadings!"
"Please cut off my feet, which are wearing red dancing shoes! I am a man of great vanity. In order to show off, I repeatedly offended God and lied to an old lady. For this I was heavily punished. Now I know I was wrong, and I want to repent for everything I've ever done. I hope you can help me." Garren told his story.
The executioner took the axe in his hand and chopped at Garren's legs! Those feet in the red dancing shoes were still jumping and jumping and jumping even after they were chopped off, and they ended up jumping into Mori together.
Losing her feet, Karen was fitted with a pair of wooden feet, and she learned to walk on crutches and to sing hymns. She would begin a whole new life.
Expanded:
The Red Dancing Shoes (The Red Dancing Shoes). p>The Red Dancing Shoes (Danish:?De r?de sko) is a fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen first published in Copenhagen on April 7, 1845, in the third collection of the first volume of The New Fairy Tales, through C. A. Reitzel. This fairy tale was published as part of Fairy Tales on December 18, 1849, and reprinted on March 30, 1863, as part of Fairy Tales and Stories, Volume II. It is about a girl who is forced to dance in the Red Dancing Shoes. The Red Dancing Shoes has been adapted in many different forms, including a movie. References: