sin in doing that; she put the red shoes on, thinking there was no harm in
that either; and then she went to the ball; and commenced to dance.
But when she wanted to go to the right, the shoes danced to the left, and
when she wanted to dance up the room, the shoes danced down the room,
down the stairs through the street, and out through the gates of the town.
She danced, and was obliged to dance, far out into the dark wood. Suddenly
something shone up among the trees, and she believed it was the moon, for
it was a face. But it was the old soldier with the red beard; he sat there
nodding his head and said: “Dear me, what pretty dancing shoes!”
She was frightened, and wanted to throw the red shoes away; but they
stuck fast. She tore off her stockings, but the shoes had grown fast to her
feet. She danced and was obliged to go on dancing over field and meadow,
in rain and sunshine, by night and by day-but by night it was most horrible.
She danced out into the open churchyard; but the dead there did not
dance. They had something better to do than that. She wanted to sit down
on the pauper’s grave where the bitter fern grows; but for her there was
neither peace nor rest. And as she danced past the open church door she saw
an angel there in long white robes, with wings reaching from his shoulders
down to the earth; his face was stern and grave, and in his hand he held a
broad shining sword.
“Dance you shall,” said he, “dance in your red shoes till you are pale and
cold, till your skin shrivels up and you are a skeleton! Dance you shall,
from door to door, and where proud and wicked children live you shall
knock, so that they may hear you and fear you! Dance you shall, dance-!”
“Mercy!” cried Karen. But she did not hear what the angel answered, for
the shoes carried her through the gate into the fields, along highways and
byways, and unceasingly she had to dance.
One morning she danced past a door that she knew well; they were
singing a psalm inside, and a coffin was being carried out covered with
flowers. Then she knew that she was forsaken by every one and damned by
the angel of God.
