Once upon a time there was a very, very wealthy man. He had many mansions, beautiful furniture, golden carriages and lots of silver and gold. But this man also had a blue beard. This made him so ugly that most women walked away as soon as they saw him.
Bluebeard very badly wanted to marry one of his two neighbours. It didn’t matter to him which one. But both girls weren’t interested. Not only did they find the blue beard repulsive, Bluebeard had been married before and those girls mysteriously disappeared. That petrified the neighbours.
Still Bluebeard didn’t give up. He invited his neighbours to stay one week in one of his most beautiful mansions. They could bring their mother and some friends. They decided to take him up on the offer. The whole week they had a lot of fun together. They played fun board games, went swimming and ate the most delicious food. They had such a great time that the youngest neighbour started to like Bluebeard and agreed to marry him.
After the wedding Bluebeard and his new wife lived happily in one of his beautiful houses.Then one day Bluebeard announced “I have to travel for six weeks for important business. Invite some friends over and have fun!” Then he gave her the keys to all the rooms and treasuries in the house. “Listen carefully,” he said. “You may enter all the rooms and open all the treasuries, except for the one room downstairs at the end of the grand hall. This little key is the key to that room. Whatever you do, don’t enter that room.” Of course, his wife promised him to listen to him and after a final farewell he left.
Immediately when he left all the neighbours and friends came over to awe at his beautiful house. They told his wife that she must be so happy to live in such a beautiful place with all these beautiful things. But Bluebeard’s wife only wanted one thing: to go look in the forbidden room. She knew that her husband didn’t allow it, but she couldn’t resist.
As soon as she opened the door to the room, she got the fright of her life. In the room lay the bodies of Bluebeard’s previous wifes. He had killed them all. The girl wanted to get away quickly. She picked up the key she had dropped, locked the door and ran to her room. In her room she noticed blood on the little key and tried to rub it off. But however hard she tried, the blood wouldn’t come off the enchanted key.
The next morning Bluebeard returned from his travels. He said that he had heard that business was going well so he didn’t have to come over anymore. He asked his wife for the keys. With shaking hands she returned all the keys. He immediately knew what she had done and became furious. “If you want to be in that room so badly, I’ll make sure you’ll never leave it!,” he screamed to her.
Bluebeard got a huge sword and wanted to kill his wife, when suddenly there was a loud knock on the door. Bluebeard got startled and froze, two men came running into the room. They were his wife’s brothers, who coincidentally were going to visit today. Bluebeard tried to escape but was overtaken by the brothers and killed.
Bluebeard’s wife got all his money and mansions. She made sure her sister and two brothers got everything they wanted. A little while later, she married a nice man. He made her forget all the nasty things she went through as Bluebeard’s wife
