Originally Posted by
Marzipan
From Västerbotten
The Bad Stepmother
Once the father of a girl whose mother had died remarried, and so she got a stepmother. The stepmother also had a daughter, whose name was Malena. But the stepmother wanted to get rid of her stepdaughter, so one day she put a lot of good things into a heavy chest and told her, "This is all for you, if you get in with it." When the girl got in, the stepmother dropped the lid of the chest and squeezed the girl to death. Afterward, she cooked the girl and gave her to her father to eat. Malena collected all the bones and carried them outside.
A few days passed. One day, when the father was walking home from the forest, he saw a bird sitting on the roof, singing. The bird sang as people speak. It sang:
"My mother set a trap for me,
My father ate me up,
My sister Malena
Collected my bones
And put them in a silk scarf
And carried them under the juniper bush."
Then the bird threw a gold bell down to the father and flew away. When the stepsister went outside, the bird sang the same song, and it threw down a gold chain for her.
When the stepmother saw the fine presents, she too went outside, but this time the bird threw down a rock and killed her.
However it happened, the dead girl came back to life again, and afterward the family lived together in peace and harmony.