The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

by Jacob Grimm

  After some time passes, death comes and sits down on the favorite chair where he is detained. Death must grant the blacksmith another ten years of life before the blacksmith will let him go. After the ten years pass, death returns and climbs the apple tree. He can’t get down, and the blacksmith calls his apprentices, who give death a terrible beating with poles. This time the blacksmith won’t let him down until he grants him eternal life. Death agrees sadly and departs, his arms and legs lame from the beating he received. As he is making his way through a forest, he encounters the devil and spills his heart out and tells him what he has suffered. The devil mocks him and declares that he can get the better of the blacksmith. However, the blacksmith refuses to give the devil lodging for the night. That is, he won’t open the door, and the devil must enter through the keyhole, which is easily done by the devil. But the blacksmith has the coal sack ready, and once the devil enters through the keyhole and falls into the sack, the blacksmith ties it up. Then he has his apprentices pound the sack on the anvil. After they have beaten and hammered the poor devil to their hearts’ content, the blacksmith lets him go, but the devil must slip through the keyhole the way he had entered.

  In another 1806 version collected by Johannes Falk in Grotesken, there is a similar tale about the blacksmith from Apolda:

  In this version the Lord is traveling with St. Peter, and they spend the night in the blacksmith’s home. The next day the Lord grants the blacksmith three wishes, which are: (1) whoever sticks his hand into the sack of nails will not be able to take it out until the sack falls apart; (2) whoever climbs his apple tree must stay above in the tree until the tree collapses; (3) whoever sits on his easy chair cannot stand up until the chair falls apart. Eventually three wicked angels come and want to take him away. However, the blacksmith leads them into all the traps that he had wished for so that the angels must give up their attempt to take him with them. However, death finally comes and forces the blacksmith to go with him. But he is granted one favor and is allowed to have his hammer placed in the coffin with him. When the blacksmith approaches heaven’s gate, St. Peter won’t open up, and so the blacksmith goes to heaven, where he makes a key. Then he promises to do all kinds of work in heaven and make himself useful, such as making hoofs for St. George’s horse. Finally, St. Peter lets him enter through heaven’s gate.

  The third variant collected by the Grimms has the title, “Histoire nouvelle et divertissement du bon homme Misère,” and though printed in France, the Grimms believe it to be of Italian origin:

  In this tale Peter and Paul arrive in a village during bad weather. They encounter a washerwoman who thanks heaven that the rain isn’t wine but water. They knock on the door of a rich man who refuses to give them lodging. So they go to poor Misery, who takes them in. Then they grant him one wish that pertains to his pear tree that a thief has been robbing. Anyone who climbs the tree gets stuck there. The thief is caught, as are even other people who climb the tree out of curiosity when they hear the terrible cries of the thief and want to free him. Finally, death arrives, and Misery asks death to lend him his sickle so that he can cut down the most beautiful pears to take with him. Death won’t let anyone take the sickle out of his hands, and so, like a good soldier, he takes charge of climbing the pear tree himself to cut off the pears. So Misery won’t let him come down until death promises him to leave him in peace until the day of judgment. And this is why misery continues to exist in the world.

  The Grimms conclude the note by stating that there is another oral version that relates how misery dies and arrives at the gate of heaven, but St. Peter won’t let him enter because he had not requested a better wish such as admission to heaven. So misery goes to hell, but the devil won’t allow him to enter because misery had made a fool out of him. Consequently, misery must return to earth, and this is why the world is still full of misery.

  There are a few other versions that the Grimms mention, indicating how wide-spread the tale was in Europe.

  82. The Three Sisters (Die drei Schwestem). Source: Johann August Musäus, “Die Bücher der Chronika der drey Schwestern,” Volksmährchen der Deutschen (1782–87).

  The Grimms point to other similar tales in Giambattista Basile’s “Li tre’rri anemale,” Il Pentamerone (1634), and some Scottish and English ballads.

  83. The Poor Maiden (Das arme Mädchen). Source: Unknown.

  84. The Mother-in-Law (Die Schwiegermutter). Source: Probably Charles Perrault’s “La belle au bois dormant,” Histoires ou contes du temps passé (1697).

  The Grimms also mention Giambattista Basile’s “Sole, Luna e Talia,”Il Pentamerone (1634).

  85. Fragments (Fragmente).

  Snowflower (Schneeblume). Source: Based on a French oral tale and published as a poem, “Perceneige” in Thibaut ou la nassance du comte de champagne (1811).

  The Princess with the Louse (Prinzessin mit der Laus). Source: Marie Hassenpflug.

  The Grimms also cite Giambattista’s “La Polece,” Il Pentamerone (1634).

  Prince Johannes (Vom Prinz Johannes). Source: Taken from the monthly magazine, Erheiterungen (1812).

  The Grimms prose version is based on a poem by Karl Graß, a painter and poet. The Good Cloth (Der gute Lappen). Source: Probably the Hassenpflug family.

  86. The Fox and the Geese (Der Fuchs und die Gänse). Source: Von Haxthausen family.

  This tale without an end was purposely chosen by the Grimms to demonstrate the endlessness of storytelling, and it also provocatively indicates how weaker animals can outsmart the stronger ones.

  Volume II

  1. The Poor Man and the Rich Man (Der Arme und der Reiche). Source: Ferdinand Siebert.

  The Grimms note that this tale is based on the ancient story of Philemon and Baucis in Ovid’s Metamorphosis. They discuss how the moralistic theme of the punishment of the rich because of their greed and arrogance and the reward of the poor because of their generosity and humility can be found in many different European tales. Among the authors they cite is Benedikte Naubert and her Neue Volksmährchen der Deutschen (1789).

  2. The Singing, Springing Lark (Das singende, springende Löweneckerchen). Source: Henriette Dorothea Wild.

  The Grimms trace the origins of this tale to “Cupid and Psyche” in Apuleius’s The Golden Ass (second century) and note its similarity to their own tale “Von dem Sommer- und Wintergarten” and to “Vom singenden, klingenden Bäumchen” in the anonymous Feen-Mährchen (1801).

  3. The Goose Girl (Die Gänsemagd). Source: Dorothea Viehmann.

  The Grimms discuss the motif of talking horses as well as the Nordic derivation of names in the tale. They also cite Giambattista Basile’s “Le doje pizzelle,” Il Pentamerone (1634).

  4. The Young Giant (Von einem jungen Riesen). Source: Georg August Friedrich Goldmann.

  At the beginning of this note the Grimms discuss the significance of the giant in the Nordic oral and literary tradition. In particular there are many references to tales about Siegfried and Thor as well as to Sampson (Bible), Scharmack (Bohemia), and Gargantua. They also summarize another Hessian version, “Kürdchen Bingeling.”

  Kürdchen Bingeling drank from his mother’s breast for seven years. This is why he became so tremendously big and why he could eat so much and could never be satisfied. Meanwhile, he tormented and made fools of all the people he encountered, Consequently, everyone in the community comes together to capture and kill him. He becomes aware of this and sets himself down beneath the gate (similar to Gargantua) so that nobody can come through without chopping and shoveling. Then he goes calmly on his way to another village. He is the same rascal as before, so the entire community decides to rise up against him and capture him. Since there is no gate that he can use as a barricade, he jumps into a well. Now all the villagers stand around the well and consult with each other about their next move. Finally, they decide to throw a millstone down on his head. With great effort they bring a large rock to the well and roll it down. Just as they think he is dead, his he
ad suddenly emerges from the well through the hole in the millstone, which is now hanging from his shoulders so that he cries out: “Oh what a beautiful collar I now have!” When the villagers see this, they begin consulting with one another again and they decide to send for the large bell from the church tower. Then they throw it on him and are sure that they have hit their target (similar to Scharmack). When they are certain that he is lying down in the well and is dead, the villagers leave. All at once, however, he springs out of the well wearing the bell on his head, and he cries out joyfully: “Oh, what a beautiful little cap I’ve got!” And he runs off.

  5. The Gnome (Dat Erdmänneken). Source: Ludowine von Haxthausen and Fernandine von Haxthausen.

  The Grimms state that there is another version from Cologne that differs somewhat from “The Gnome”:

  A powerful king has three beautiful daughters. One day during a splendid celebration, they take a walk in the garden, and they fail to return from the walk in the evening. When they don’t appear the next day, the king orders a search throughout the entire realm, but nobody can find them. Then he announces that whoever finds them could have one of his daughters for his wife. In addition, whoever succeeds would receive enough wealth to live on for the rest of his life. Many men set out to find the daughters, but none succeed. Finally, three knights depart and declare that they won’t rest until they are successful. They end up in a large forest, where they continue riding, hungry and thirsty. Finally, at nightfall they see a little light in the distance that leads them to a magnificent castle that is apparently empty. Since they are so hungry, they look for food, and one of them finds a piece of meat that is raw. Then the youngest says: “Why don’t you two go off and look for something to drink while I roast this meat?” So he sticks the piece of meat on a spit, and while it is sizzling, a little gnome with a long white beard that reaches his knees suddenly appears next to him. His hands and feet are shivering. “Let me warm my hands and feet by the fire, and I’ll keep turning the spit and pour butter on the meat.” The knight lets him do this, and the gnome turns the roast nimbly, but whenever the knight isn’t looking, he sticks his finger in the frying pan and licks the warm brew. The knight catches him doing this a couple of times and tells him to stop, but the tiny thing can’t resist and is constantly trying to dip his fingers into the frying pan. Then the knight becomes furious and grabs the gnome by the beard and ruffles him so hard that he screams bloody murder and runs off. Meanwhile, the other two knights come back with some wine that they had found in the cellar, and now they eat and drink together. The next morning they continue searching the castle and find a deep hole. That’s where the king’s daughters must be hidden, they say to each other, and they draw lots to see which one of them would be let down by a rope while the other two hold on to the rope. The youngest, who had encountered the gnome, draws the lot. It takes a long time before he reaches the ground, where it is completely dark. All at once a door opens, and the gnome, whose beard he had pulled, comes and says: “I should actually pay you back for the wicked thing you did to me, but I pity you. I am the king of the gnomes, and I’ll lead you out of this cave because if you stay here one moment longer, you will die.”

  The knight answers: “Even if am to die right here and now, I won’t leave until I know where the king’s daughters have been concealed.”

  “They are guarded by three dragons in this underground cave,” the gnome responds. “The eldest sits in the first part of the cave with a three-headed dragon next to her. Every day at noon the dragon lays its heads in her lap, and she must louse the dragon until it falls asleep. A basket is hanging in front of the door with a flute, cane, and sword in it along with the three crowns of the king’s daughters. First, you must take this basket and carry it off to a safe place. Then you must take the sword, go back to the room, and slice off the dragon’s three heads, but you must slice them off all at once. If you fail to do this, the other heads will awake, and nothing can save you.”

  Then the gnome gives him a bell and tells him that if he pulls on it, the gnome will rush to help him. So after the knight rescues the first princess, he rescues the second, who has a seven-headed dragon guarding her, and the third, who has a nine-headed dragon guarding her. Then he leads them to the bucket in which he had been let down from the top of the hole. There he calls out to his companions and tells them that they should begin pulling the bucket up. So the two knights pull up the princesses one after the other. When they are above, the two disloyal knights throw the rope down the hole so that the young knight’s life will end in a disaster. However, the young knight rings the bell given to him by the gnome. As soon as the gnome arrives, he tells him to blow the flute. Once the knight does this, thousands of gnomes appear from everywhere. Then the king of the gnomes orders them to build stairs for the knight, and he also tells the knight to take the cane out of the basket when he reaches the top and to strike the earth with it. So the little gnomes get to work and build the stairs, and once the knight climbs to the top, he strikes the ground with the cane, and all the gnomes disappear.

  The Grimms conclude the summary of the tale by relating it to other tales in which the hero rescues princesses from a dragon, is betrayed, and then reclaims the glory.

  6. The King of the Golden Mountain (Der König vom goldenen Berg). Source: Based on a story told to the Grimms by a soldier.

  The Grimms relate this tale to motifs in other Germanic and Nordic stories, especially those dealing with Chriemhilde, Brunhilde, and Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied.

  7. The Raven (Die Rabe). Source: Georg August Friedrich Goldmann.

  The Grimms trace several motifs such as the quarrel of the giants and the sleeping potion to old Germanic and Nordic tales.

  8. The Clever Farmer’s Daughter (Die kluge Bauemtochter). Source: Dorothea Viehmann.

  The Grimms draw parallels with the medieval story Auslag-Sage and discuss the widespread use of riddles in tales. In particular, they relate the riddle in “The Clever Farmer’s Daughter” to one in Johannes Pauli’s Schimpf und Ernst (1522).

  9. The Genie in the Glass (Der Geist im Glas). Source: A tailor from Paderbörn.

  The Grimms note the direct relationship to “The Fisherman and the Demon” and “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp” in The Thousand and One Nights.

  10. The Three Little Birds (De drei Vügelkens). Source: Ludowine von Haxthausen and a shepherd, whom Wilhelm Grimm met in the countryside of Wesphalia near Corvey.

  After describing how Wilhelm met a shepherd in August of 1813 while visiting friends in Corvey and how the shepherd provided several tales in dialect, the Grimms point to the significance of Antoine Galland’s “Histoire de deux soeurs jalouses de leur cadette,” Les Milles et une nuit (1712–17). This tale of “The Two Sisters Who Envied Their Younger Sister” was told to Galland in Paris by a Maronite Christian Arab from Aleppo named Youhenna Diab or Hanna Diab. There was no Arabic manuscript for this tale, and Galland created it from memory after listening to Diab and may have introduced elements from the European tales he knew. The Grimms also refer to Giovan Francesco Straparola’s “Ancilotto Re di Prouino,” Le piacevoli notti (1550). The tale was widespread in Europe in both oral and literary traditions.

  11. The Water of Life (Das Wasser des Lebens). Source: A combination of tales from Hesse and Paderborn. The tale from Padernborn was provided by the von Haxthausen family.

  The Grimms discuss similarities between this tale and others in their collection such as “Bird Phoenix” and “The Three Little Birds” as well as the Arabian and Italian tales mentioned in the previous note.

  12. Doctor Know-It-All (Doctor Allwissend). Source: Dorothea Viehmann.

  The Grimms note that there is also a very good Low German dialect version that they were not able to completely record.

  13. The Frog Prince (Der Froschprinz). Source: Probably the Wild family.

  The Grimms remark that the first version of “The Frog Prince,” which incorporates the closing anecdote about Iron
Henry, is unusual but worth keeping because it is exceptional. They note that these tales are all related to Apuleius’s “Cupid and Psyche” in The Golden Ass.

  14. The Devil’s Sooty Brother (Des Teufels rußiger Bruder). Source: Dorothea Viehmann.

  The Grimms cite a story about Bearskin in Johann Jakob Christoph Grimmelhausen’s Simplicisimus (1670) as a major influence on this tale type. They claim that this tale that generally involved a pact with the devil was widespread throughout Europe, and both their friends Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim used key motifs from the Bearskin story in their own literary tales.

  15. The Devil in the Green Coat (Der Teufel Grünrock). Source: Von Haxthausen family.

  The Grimms regard this tale as basically a variant of “The Devil’s Sooty Brother.” 16. The Wren and the Bear (Der Zaunkönig und der Bär). Source: Dorothea Viehmann.

  The Grimms believe that this tale belongs to the medieval cycle of tales about Renard the Fox, and like many other animals tales of this kind, the major theme is how the weaker animals use their brains to get the better of the larger more powerful animals.

  17. The Sweet Porridge (Vom süßen Brei). Source: Henriette Dorothea Wild.

  The Grimms explain that the word Brei (“porridge”) was like the word Brot (“bread”) and generally indicated food in general. The importance of porridge had a great deal to do with the wish and need for food, especially among lower-class people.

  18. The Faithful Animals (Die treuen Thiere). Source: Ferdinand Siebert.

  The Grimms remark that the animals in this tale are nothing but transformed heroes and people.

  19. Tales about Toads (Mährchen von der Unke). Source: The first two tales were provided by Henriette Dorothea Wild and Lisette Wild and were said to be commonly heard in Hesse and neighboring regions. The third tale was a version from Berlin.

  They summarize a tale from the Gesta Romanorum (thirteenth/fourteenth century) that they believe served as a model for tales of this type: