The Itch That None Could Scratch

Once an old witch, fancying a pretty young maid that he saw gathering berries in the forest put a curse upon her.
Pointing a back scratcher at her, he said,
“With all the power of a witch
upon your back I place an itch;
an itch that none can scratch but me
so you’ll come to me to set you free”.

 

And at first the young woman laughed because she thought the old man was simply mad
but then, after she had got home, she started to feel a terrible itch upon her back and however she scratched it the itch would not go away even when she tried using a wooden back scratcher.

 

Her mother suggested that perhaps the old man had given her fleas and that a hot bath was what she needed but this did not get rid of the itch.

 

Then her mother called a doctor thinking perhaps she might be ill or allergic to something and the doctor gave the girl all kinds of medicines to swallow and rubbed ointment upon her back but the itch still would not go away.

 

And all through the night it kept her awake so that she  got no sleep at all and, by morning was desperate to find the old man so that he would remove the itch.

 

Unfortunately when she went to the cottage of the old man he told her that he would not remove the itch until she had married him.

 

Of course, the idea of marrying the old man appalled the young woman and she refused, returning home but then two more days went by being tormented by the itch and after two days of that torment the young woman could take it no longer and going back to the old man agreed to marry him.

 

And when she said this, the old man scratched her back with his magic back scratcher and the itch went away.

 

But the young woman was miserable living as the wife of the old man and often dreamed of someway of escaping and, after living with him for sometime, she noticed that every night the wizard would go into a special room full of stuffed animals and, leaving his body, his soul would enter one of them and become that animal.

 

For example, sometimes his soul would enter a cat and the cat would immediately come to life or sometimes it would enter a bird and the bird would start to flap its wings.

 

Then he would always go out of the window of the room into the night and only come back the next morning before, his soul leaving the stuffed animal, it would reenter his human body.

 

So, one night, after the wizard had transformed himself into an eagle and flown out of the window into the night, the girl buried his body in an unmarked place so that when the wizard came flying home he couldn't find it and he was trapped in the body of an eagle forever.

 

Then the girl, taking the gold from the wizards house went home to her mothers house and lived happily ever after.