The Girl Without Hands

A poor miller is promised great wealth by a mysterious stranger if he will give up what stands behind his mill. Believing it to be an apple tree, the miller agrees. The stranger is the Devil. Upon returning, the Devil claims the miller's daughter, who stands behind the mill. The father is powerless to resist. The Devil commands the girl to come with him, but she has wept so much that she is pure—the Devil cannot touch her. In fury, he demands the father cut off her hands. The miller, in desperation and under the Devil's compulsion, severs his daughter's bloodied stumps. The handless girl flees into the forest, where she endures hunger and hardship. A kind king discovers her and, moved by her innocence and suffering, marries her. A silversmith creates beautiful silver hands for her. She bears a son, and when the king is away at war, she shelters in a cottage. The Devil, her father, and a servant conspire to steal the child and murder the girl. She flees with her son into the wilderness. For seven years she wanders, suffering hunger and cold. Her faith sustains her. Finally, a garden appears, miraculously flourishing around her. The king discovers her there, they are reunited, and her hands are miraculously restored through the grace of her endurance and innocence.