German story (folktale?) on Christmas CD

December 4, 2007 5:21 PM

Somewhere between 1991 and 1994, my father went on a business trip to Germany and visited a company called Elsentooling. For three years afterwards, they sent our family a Christmas card with one of those extra-small compact discs inside. We still listen to the first one because it's just that good. However, it's all in German, and I know not a stitch of it, though I'm half German. The second-to-last track (uploaded here) is some sort of story. Is it something an American would be familiar with if you mentioned the title? If not, I'm curious how the story goes.

For those interested in hearing the entire album of six songs, I have included them in a rar file. Really I only know what the last song is :) so if anyone wants to shed light on the other selections, feel free, but the story is the one about which I am most curious.

posted by RobotHeart to writing & language (5 comments total)

I'm think you're missing an o on the end of Swabedoo -

Here's the pocketbook on Amazon.

After a quick listen to the beginning, I'm pretty sure this is a fairly proper translation. I'm sure you'll find more by googling "The Little People of Swabedoo."
posted by god hates math at 6:09 PM on December 4, 2007

Aha! That seems likely. (Though the disc didn't have the last o on it. Needless to say the CD was not found on IMDB lookup :)
posted by RobotHeart at 6:22 PM on December 4, 2007

I speak German. After a quick listening, I'd say it's about a group of little people who lived in a place called Swabedo. These people called themselves Swabedolos. They greeted each other with friendly smiles, and when doing so, exchanged little white mushrooms _{pretty sure it's mushrooms}. Everyone always had enough mushrooms, because everyone gave everyone else mushrooms. Giving someone a mushroom was the same as saying "I like you", and that's everyone knew that everyone liked everyone else, which made the days very happy.

Outside of the village, there lived a something, all alone in his hut _{I think it's hut}. When a swabedolo wanted to give him a mushroom, he refused it, because he thought giving people mushrooms was dumb.

One day, the something came upon a Swabedolo in the village. "Wasn't today a beautiful, sunny day", said the Swabedolo, as he handed the something a mushroom.

The something looked at the mushrooms in the swabedolo's backpack, and said to him "If I'm right, you only have 207 mushrooms, if you keep giving away the mushrooms so generously, you'll soon be out".

This was of course completely wrong, because every time the swabedolo gave a mushroom away, someone gave him one in return.

Still, just shortly after the something left the confused little swabedolo, the swabedolo came upon a friend. The friend gave the swabeolo a mushroom, but the recipient didn't react as before. "Let me give you some advice," said the Swabedolo, as he took the mushroom, "You better quit giving away your mushrooms so generously, or else you might run out."

As time passed, the Swabedolos passed this advice around more and more. So it happened that mushrooms were only exchanged between the very best of friends. Everyone hoarded his bag of mushrooms like a treasure. They became afraid of leaving their houses, and even were afraid of going across the street, for fear they would be attacked and robbed. The little people from Swabedo were changing more and more. They didn't smile as much. They hardly greeted each other. There was no more joy in their sad, mistrustful hearts.

Eventually, some of the little people began, like before, to give away their mushrooms. They quickly noticed that they never ran out of mushrooms, and were overjoyed. And their hearts became warm, and they could smile again, even though the mistrust and darkness never completely left their hearts.
posted by !Jim at 1:24 AM on December 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

I just read that translation... guess mushrooms should be warm fuzzies and the something was a troll.
posted by !Jim at 1:25 AM on December 5, 2007

What !Jim said. Also, thank you for uploading the whole cd, it's great!
posted by methylsalicylate at 2:33 AM on December 5, 2007