by Jacob Grimm
41
HERR KORBES
Once upon a time there were a little hen and a little rooster who wanted to take a trip together. So the little rooster built a beautiful wagon with four red wheels and hitched four little mice to it. Then the little hen climbed into the wagon along with the little rooster, and this is how they drove off. Soon they came across a cat, who asked: “Where are you going?”
“We’re off to see Herr Korbes today.
We’re off without delay.”
“Take me with you,” said the cat.
“Gladly,” answered the little rooster. “Sit in the back so you won’t fall off in front.
Be sure you take good care,
for I’ve got clean red wheels down there.
Roll on, you wheels, high ho!
Squeak, squeak, you mice, high ho!
We’re going to see Herr Korbes today.
We’re off without delay.”
Soon a millstone came, followed by an egg, a duck, a pin, and a sewing needle, who all got into the wagon and rode along. However, when they arrived at Herr Korbes’s house, he wasn’t there. The little mice pulled the wagon into the barn. The little hen and the little rooster flew up on a perch. The cat settled down on the hearth. The duck took a place by the well sweep. The egg wrapped itself in a towel. The pin stuck itself in a chair cushion. The sewing needle jumped on the bed right into the pillow. And the millstone climbed to the top of the door.
When Herr Korbes came home, he went to the hearth to make a fire, but the cat threw ashes right into his face. He ran quickly into the kitchen to wash the ashes off, but the duck splashed water in his face. As he tried to dry himself with the towel, the egg rolled toward him and broke open so that his eyes became glued shut. Now he wanted to rest and sit down in the chair, but the pin stuck him. This made him very irritated, and so he went and lay down in his bed, but the sewing needle stuck him just as his head hit the pillow. He became so angry and mad that he wanted to run out of the house. Just as he got through the front door, however, the millstone jumped down and killed him.
42
THE GODFATHER
A poor man had so many children that he had already asked everyone in the world to be godfather after he had yet another child. So there was nobody left to ask. He became so distressed that he lay down and fell asleep. Then he dreamt that he was to go outside the town gate and ask the first person he met to be godfather. So that’s what the man did. He went out in front of the gate and asked the first man he met to be godfather. The stranger gave him a little bottle of water and said: “With this water you can cure the sick when Death stands at the sick person’s head, but when Death stands at the sick person’s feet, the patient must die.”
Now one day the king’s child became sick, and Death stood at the child’s head. So the man cured him with the water. The second time that the king’s child became sick, the man cured him again because Death was standing at the head. But the third time, Death was standing at the foot of the bed, and the child had to die.
Later the man went to the godfather to tell him about everything. When he climbed the stairs in the house and reached the first landing, he encountered a shovel and a broom quarreling with each other. The man asked where the godfather lived, and the broom replied:
“One flight higher.”
When he came to the second landing, he saw a bunch of dead fingers lying there, and asked once again where the godfather lived.
“One flight higher,” replied one of the fingers.
On the third landing there was a pile of skulls who told him once again: “One flight higher.”
On the fourth landing he saw some fish sizzling in a pan over a fire. They were frying themselves and also told him, “One flight higher.”
After he had climbed to the fifth floor, he came to the door of a room and looked through the keyhole. There he saw the godfather, who had a pair of long, long horns. When he opened the door and entered the room, the godfather quickly jumped into the bed and covered himself.
“Godfather,” the man said, “when I came to the first landing, a broom and shovel were quarreling.”
“How can you be so simple-minded?”said the godfather. “That was the servant and the maid just talking to each other.”
“On the second landing I saw dead fingers lying about.”
“My goodness, how foolish you are! Those were salsify roots.”
“On the third landing there were skulls lying about.”
“You stupid man, those were cabbage heads.”
“On the fourth landing I saw fish in a pan frying themselves.”
Just as he said that, the fish came in and served themselves on a platter.
“And when I came to the fifth landing, I looked through the keyhole and saw that you had long, long horns.”
“Now, that’s just not true.”
43
THE STRANGE FEAST
A blood sausage and a liver sausage had been friends for some time, and the blood sausage invited the liver sausage for a meal at her home. At dinnertime the liver sausage merrily set out for the blood sausage’s house. But when she walked through the doorway, she saw all kinds of strange things. There were many steps, and on each of them she found something different. A broom and shovel were fighting with each other, and there was a monkey with a big wound on his head, and more such things.
The liver sausage was very frightened and upset by this. Nevertheless, she took heart, entered the room, and was welcomed in a friendly way by the blood sausage. The liver sausage began to inquire about the strange things on the stairs, but the blood sausage pretended not to hear her or made it seem it was not worth talking about, or she said something about the shovel and the broom such as, “That was probably my maid gossiping with someone on the stairs.” And she shifted the topic to something else.
Then the blood sausage said she had to leave the room to go into the kitchen and look after the meal. She wanted to check to see that everything was in order and nothing had fallen into the ashes. The liver sausage began walking back and forth in the room and kept wondering about the strange things until someone appeared—I don’t know who it was—and said, “Let me warn you, liver sausage, you’re in a bloody murderous trap. You’d better get out of here quickly if you value your life!”
The liver sausage didn’t have to think twice about this. She ran out the door as fast as she could. Nor did she stop until she got out of the house and was in the middle of the street. Then she looked around and saw the blood sausage standing high up in the attic window with a long, long knife that was gleaming as though it had just been sharpened. The blood sausage threatened her with it and cried out, “If I had caught you, I would have had you!”
44
GODFATHER DEATH
Once upon a time there was a poor man who already had twelve children when the thirteenth was born. Since he was at his wits’ end and in such distress, he ran into the forest, where he encountered our dear Lord, who said to him: “I feel sorry for you, my poor man. I shall stand sponsor to your child at the baptism and take care of him so that he’ll live happily on this earth.”
Upon saying this, the Lord left him standing there and moved on.
Soon thereafter the poor man encountered Death, who likewise spoke to him and said, “I want to be your godfather and stand sponsor to your child. If he has me as his friend, he will never be in need. I’ll make him into a doctor.”
“I’m satisfied with what you say,” said the man. “You don’t make a difference between rich and poor when you fetch them. Tomorrow is Sunday. My son will be baptized. Just show up at the right time.”
The next morning Death came and held the child during the baptism. After the child had grown up, Death came once again and took his godson into the forest.
“Now you are to become a doctor, and you only have to pay attention to what I say. When you are called to a sick person and you see me standing at his head, it is a sign that I won’t take h
im. Let him smell the vapors of this bottle and rub the salve on his feet. Then he’ll become well again. However, if I stand at his feet, then it’s all over, and I’ll take him. Don’t try to cure him.”
Upon saying this, Death gave him the bottle, and the young man became a famous doctor. He only had to take a look at a sick person, and he knew in advance whether the person would become well again or had to die.
One time he was called to the king, who was lying in bed because of a serious illness. When the doctor entered the room, he saw Death standing at the king’s feet, and so the vapors of the bottle could not be of any help. Nevertheless, he had an urge to deceive Death. So, he grabbed hold of the king and turned him around so that Death stood at his head. This change succeeded, and the king became well again. However, when the doctor returned home, Death came to him, gave him some fierce looks, and said, “If you dare trick me another time, I’ll twist your head off.”
Soon thereafter the king’s beautiful daughter became sick, and nobody in the world could help her. The king wept day and night. Finally, he announced that whoever cured her would have her as his reward and marry her. So the doctor came and saw Death standing at the feet of the princess. Since he was completely enchanted by her beauty, however, he forgot all of Death’s warnings, turned the princess around, let her smell the vapors of the bottle, and rubbed the soles of her feet with the salve.
No sooner did he return home than Death stood there with a horrible look on his face. Then he seized his godson and carried him to an underground cave, where a thousand candles were burning.
“Take a look!” Death said. “These are the candles of the living, and this light over here that’s only burning a little, this is your life. Watch out!”
45
THE WANDERING OF THUMBLING, THE TAILOR’S SON
A tailor had a son who was small, not much larger than a thumb. Therefore, he was called Thumbling. However, he was filled with courage and said to his father: “Father, I want to go out wandering.”
“Fine with me, my son,” said the old man, and he took a darning needle and put a lump of sealing wax on it in the light. “Now you’ll also have a dagger to take with you on your way.”
The little tailor set out into the world, and his first work was with a master tailor, but the food wasn’t good enough.
“Mistress,” Thumbling said to the master’s wife, “if you don’t give us better food, I’ll take some chalk tomorrow and write ‘Too many potatoes, too little meat!’ on the house door, and then I shall leave.”
“What do you want, you little grasshopper?!” replied the wife, who became angry, grabbed a washcloth, and wanted to beat him with it. However, my little tailor crawled quickly under the thimble, looked out from beneath it, and stuck out his tongue. She picked up the thimble, but Thumbling hopped into a bunch of washcloths, and as the wife began separating the washcloths to search for him, he crawled into a crack in the table.
“Hey! Hey! My lady!” he cried out and raised his head from the crack.
As soon as the tailor’s wife tried to hit him, he jumped into the drawers until she finally caught him and chased him out of the house.
Now, the little tailor continued wandering and came to a large forest, where he met a band of robbers, who wanted to steal the king’s treasure. When they saw the little tailor, they thought he could be of great help to them. So they spoke to Thumbling and said that he was a good and able fellow and that he should come along with them to the treasure chamber, crawl inside, and throw the money outside to them. Well, Thumbling agreed. So he went to the treasure chamber and examined the door to see if there was a crack in it. Fortunately, he soon found one and wanted to climb through it, but one of the guards said to his companion, “Look at that nasty spider crawling over there! I’m going to stamp on it until I kill it!”
“Hey, leave the spider alone,” the other guard said. “It’s done nothing to you.”
This was how Thumbling fortunately made his way into the treasure chamber. Then he went to the window where the robbers were standing outside, and he threw one coin after another out the window. When the king examined his treasure chamber later, there was so much money missing that nobody could understand how it had been stolen because all the locks had been well protected.
The king called for more guards, who heard something rattling in the coins. They went inside and wanted to grab hold of the thief. But the little tailor sat down in a corner beneath a coin and cried out: “Here I am!”
The guards ran over there, while Thumbling leaped to another corner, and when they were at the first corner, he cried out, “Here I am!”
The guards ran to the next corner, but Thumbling hopped to another corner once again and cried out: “Here I am!”
This way he kept making fools out of them and kept doing this until they became tired and left the chamber. Now Thumbling gradually threw all the coins through the window. He sat himself down on the last one and went flying through the window. The robbers gave him tremendous praise and would have made him their captain if he had wanted that. Then they divided the loot, but Thumbling wouldn’t take more than one coin because he couldn’t carry more than that.
Afterward he resumed walking, and finally, since he was not having much success with tailoring, he hired himself out as a servant at an inn. However, the maids weren’t fond of him because he saw everything they did in secret without their noticing it. Then he reported them afterward. As a result, they wanted very much to play a prank on him.
So, one time, when he went for a walk in the meadow, where a maid was mowing the grass, she mowed him together with the grass and threw the grass and Thumbling to the cows when she returned home. Then the black cow swallowed Thumbling, and he was now cooped up inside the cow and heard that evening that the cow was to be slaughtered. Since his life was in danger, he cried out: “I’m here!”
“Where are you?”
“In the black cow!”
However, the people couldn’t understand him, and the cow was slaughtered. Fortunately, he wasn’t struck by the blows to the cow and became mixed with the sausage meat. When this meat was about to be chopped up, he cried out: “Don’t chop too deeply! Don’t chop too deeply! I’m stuck beneath the meat.”
Because of all the noise, however, nobody heard him. So Thumbling jumped quickly between the chopping knives avoiding any harm, but he couldn’t get completely away and was stuffed into a blood sausage that was hung in the chimney to be smoked until winter when the sausage was to be eaten. Well, when his lodging was eventually sliced open, he jumped out and ran away.
Now the little tailor wandered again. However, a fox came across his path and snatched him.
“Mister fox,” Thumbling cried, “you’ve got me! Let me go!”
“All right,” said the fox. “Since there’s not very much of you, I’ll let you go if you get your father to give me all the hens in the chicken yard.”
So Thumbling swore that he’d do this, and the fox carried him to his home and was given all the hens in the chicken yard. Meanwhile, the little tailor brought his father the one coin that he had earned from all his wanderings.
“But why did the fox get all the poor little hens to eat?”
“Oh you fool, a father certainly loves his child more than he does his hens.”
46
FITCHER’S BIRD
Once upon a time there was a sorcerer who was a thief, and he used to go begging from house to house in the guise of a beggar. One time a maiden opened the door and gave him a piece of bread. He only had to touch her to force her to jump into his basket. Then he carried her off to his house, where everything was splendid inside, and he gave her whatever she desired.
Some time later he said to her: “I have some business to attend to outside the house, and so I must take a trip. Here is an egg. Take good care of it and carry it with you wherever you go. I’m also giving you a key, and if you value your life, don’t go into the room that it opens.”
When the man returned from his journey, he demanded the key and the egg. He looked at both of them, and he realized right away that she had been in the bloody chamber.
“Didn’t you pay attention to my instructions?” he said angrily. “Now you’ll go back into the bloody chamber against your will.”
Upon saying this, he grabbed her, led her to the chamber, chopped her into pieces, and tossed her into the basin with the others.
After some time had passed the man went begging again and captured the second daughter. He took her from the house, and the same thing happened to her. She opened the forbidden door, let the egg fall into the blood, and was chopped to pieces and thrown into the basin.
Now the sorcerer wanted to have the third daughter as well. So he captured her and put her into his basket. After he returned home, he gave her the key and the egg before he set out on his journey. However, the third daughter was smart and cunning. She put the egg into a cupboard and then went into the secret chamber. When she found her sisters in the bloody basin, she looked all over the place for their missing parts and put them all together—head, body, arms, and legs. So the two sisters came back to life.
Then their sister led them out of the chamber and hid them.
When the man came home and didn’t find any blood stains on the egg, he asked the third sister to become his bride. She said yes, but she told him that before she’d marry him, he had to fill his basket full of gold and carry it to her parents on his back. In the meantime she would make preparations for the wedding. Instead, she stuck her sisters into the basket, covered them with gold, and told them that they were to get help from home.