The Grimm Reader

by Maria Tatar

  The tailor got back on the road, using his nose to navigate the way. After he had gone some distance, he arrived at the courtyard of a royal palace, and since he was beginning to get tired, he decided to lie down on the grass. Before long, he was fast asleep. He had been lying there for some time when a group of people came by, took a good look at him, and started reading the words on his belt: “Seven at one blow!”

  “Why in the world would a great warrior come here where everything is as peaceful as it can be? He must be a really powerful ruler.” They went to the king and told him that if war were to break out, this man would be a helpful ally of real importance, and he was worth recruiting at any price. The king was glad to have the advice, and he sent a deputy to the tailor and told him to offer the fellow a position in the royal military service just as soon as he woke up. The deputy found the sleeping tailor, and he stood there, waiting for him to stretch his limbs and open his eyes before making his offer.

  “That’s exactly why I came here!” the tailor replied. “Here I am, ready to serve the king.” And so he was graciously received and given his own special living quarters.

  The king’s soldiers were up in arms about the tailor and wished him a thousand miles away. They began talking among themselves and wondered: “What will come of this? If we get into a quarrel with him and he decides to hit us, then seven of us will fall with each blow. None of us will be able to survive that.” And so they all agreed to go to the king and ask him for a discharge from his service.

  “We can’t hold our own next to someone who can slay seven at one blow.” The king was sorry to hear that he was going to lose all of his faithful servants just because of one man. He began to wish that he had never set eyes on the fellow, and he would not have minded at all getting rid of him. But he didn’t dare dismiss him, for he was afraid the tailor might strike him dead along with everyone else and then seize the throne. He thought it over for a long time, and finally he hit upon an idea. He sent word to the tailor to let him know that, since he was such a great warrior, he wanted to strike a deal with him. Two giants were living in a forest that belonged to him, and they were wreaking havoc in the land with their acts of robbery, murder, and arson. If you got anywhere near them, you were taking a chance with your life. If the tailor could manage to defeat and kill these two giants, then he would give him his only daughter as wife, with half the kingdom as her dowry. In addition, the king would send a hundred knights to back him up.

  “That’s just the perfect job for someone like me,” the tailor thought. “A beautiful princess and half a kingdom don’t come along every day.”

  “Yes, indeed,” he replied. “I’ll tame those giants, and I’ll manage on my own without those hundred knights. A man who slays seven at a single blow has nothing to fear from a mere two.”

  The tailor started out, and the hundred knights were right behind him. When he got to the edge of the forest, he said to his companions: “You wait here. I think I can manage by myself with those giants.” Then he sped into the woods and looked everywhere, first to the left, then to the right. After searching for some time, he found both of the giants. They were lying under a tree, sound asleep and snoring so loudly that the branches on the trees were bobbing up and down. The tailor, who was anything but lazy, filled both his pockets with stones and climbed up a tree. When he got about halfway up to the top, he slid down a branch so that he was perched right above the sleepers. Then he picked out one of the giants and let one stone after another drop down on his chest. It took a while before the giant felt something, but finally he woke up, poked his companion, and said: “Why do you keep throwing things at me?”

  “You must be dreaming,” the other one replied. “I haven’t been hitting you.”

  They both went back to sleep, and the tailor threw a rock at the other giant.

  “What’s going on?” the giant yelled. “Why are you throwing things at me?”

  “I haven’t thrown anything,” the other one said, and he started growling. They quarreled for a while, but since they were tired, they calmed down and closed their eyes again.

  The tailor started his game up again. This time he found the biggest rock around and threw it with all his might at the chest of the first giant.

  “I’ve had it!” the giant yelled, and he jumped up like a madman and slammed his companion so hard against a tree that the trunk started shaking. The other giant paid him back in kind, and the two of them flew into such a rage that they tore up trees and beat each other with them until, finally, they both ended up dead.

  The tailor jumped down off the branch. “Lucky that they didn’t pull up the tree that I was sitting in or I would have had to leap like a squirrel from one tree to the next. Thank goodness that we tailors are fleet-footed.”

  The tailor drew his sword and made a few hearty thrusts into the chests of the giants. Then he went over to the knights and said: “My work is done. I’ve finished those two off. But it was a real struggle, and those two giants became so desperate that they started uprooting trees. They tried to defend themselves, but what good is any of that when you’re up against a man who can slay seven at one blow.”

  “You mean to tell us that you’re not even wounded?” the knights asked.

  “I should say not!” the tailor replied. “They never touched a hair on my head.” The knights refused to believe a word he said. They decided to ride into the woods to investigate. There they found the giants lying in pools of their own blood, and all around them were the uprooted trees.

  The tailor went to the king and demanded the reward he had been promised. But the king regretted his promise, and he started planning a new way to get the hero off his back. “Before you can have my daughter and half the kingdom,” he told him, “you will have to perform one more heroic deed. There’s a unicorn out in the forest, and it’s doing a lot of damage. I want you to capture it.”

  “If two giants don’t scare me off, why would I worry about a unicorn! Seven at one blow—that’s my game.”

  The tailor went out into the woods with a rope and an ax. Once again, he told the men who had been assigned to him to wait at the edge of the forest. He didn’t have to wait long, for the unicorn appeared before long and rushed at the tailor, as if he were planning to just go ahead and gore him with his horn.

  “Easy, easy,” he said. “Things don’t happen that fast.” And the tailor stood still and waited until the animal got up close, then he jumped nimbly behind a tree. The unicorn charged the tree with all his might and rammed his horn into it so hard that he couldn’t get it back out again. And so it was caught. “Now I’ve got my little birdie,” the tailor said, and he came out from behind the tree and put a rope around the unicorn’s neck. Then he took his ax and chopped the horn free of the tree. Once everything was all set, he led the animal off and took it to the king.

  The king still didn’t want to give him the promised reward, and he made a third demand. Before his wedding took place, the tailor was supposed to catch a wild boar that had been doing a lot of damage in the woods. The royal huntsmen were going to lend a hand.

  “I’m game,” said the tailor. “That will be child’s play.”

  He didn’t take the huntsmen with him into the woods, and they didn’t mind at all, for the boar had already greeted them several times in a way that made them feel no desire to chase him down. When the boar set eyes on the tailor, his mouth started to foam, and gnashing his teeth, he charged the tailor and tried to throw him to the ground. The fleet-footed tailor ducked into a nearby chapel and then jumped right out the window. The beast had run after him, but the tailor had already hopped out and slammed the door behind him. The enraged animal was caught, for it was just too heavy and clumsy to jump out the window. The tailor called to the huntsmen, who were able to see the captive beast with their own eyes.

  The hero went back to see the king, and now, whether
he wanted to or not, the monarch had to keep his promise and give him his daughter and half the kingdom. If he had known that a little tailor rather than a heroic warrior was standing before him, it would have caused him even more grief. And so the wedding was celebrated with great splendor but with little joy, and a tailor became a king.

  After some time had passed, the young queen heard her husband talking in his dreams at night. “Boy,” he yelled, “finish up that jacket and get those breeches mended, or I’ll whack you over the head with my measuring stick.” That gave the queen a pretty good idea just where the young lord had come from. The next day she complained to her father and begged him to help her get rid of a husband who was nothing but a tailor. The king reassured her and said: “Tonight you must keep your bedroom door open. My servants will be waiting outside, and once he’s fallen asleep, they’ll go in, tie him up, and carry him off on a ship that will take him out to sea.” The woman was satisfied when she heard that. But in the meantime, the king’s armor-bearer, who was well disposed to the tailor, overheard the whole conversation and disclosed the entire plot.

  “I’ll put a quick end to that,” the tailor said. That evening, he went to bed at the usual time with his wife. When she thought he had fallen asleep, she got up, opened the door, and went back to bed. The tailor, who was just pretending that he was asleep, began to shout loudly: “Boy, finish up that jacket and get those breeches mended, or I’ll whack you over the head with a measuring stick! I’ve slain seven at one blow, killed two giants, captured a unicorn, and caught a wild boar. Why would I be afraid of anyone who is standing outside my bedroom!”

  When the men heard what the tailor was saying, they were overcome with fear and started running as if an entire army were behind them. No one dared to lay a hand on him after that. And so the little tailor was and always remained a king.

  CINDERELLA

  he wife of a rich man fell ill one day. When she realized that the end was near, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said: “Dear child, if you are good and say your prayers faithfully, our dear Lord will always help you, and I shall look down from heaven and always be with you.” Then she closed her eyes and passed away.

  Every day the little girl went to her mother’s grave and wept. She was always good and said her prayers. When winter came, snow covered the grave with a white blanket, and when the sun took it off again in the spring, the rich man remarried.

  The man’s new wife brought with her two daughters with beautiful faces and fair skin, but with hearts that were foul and black. This marked the beginning of a hard time for the poor stepchild. “Why should this silly goose be allowed to sit in the parlor with us?” the girls asked. “If you want to eat bread, you’ll have to earn it. Get back in the kitchen where you belong!”

  The sisters took away the girl’s beautiful clothes, dressed her in an old gray smock, and gave her some wooden shoes. “Just look at the proud princess in her finery!” they shouted and laughed, taking her out to the kitchen. From morning until night she had to work hard. Every day, she got up before daybreak to carry water, get the fire going, cook, and wash. On top of that the two sisters did everything imaginable to make her life miserable. They made fun of her and threw peas and lentils into the ashes so that she would have to bend down over the ashes and pick them out. In the evening, when she was completely exhausted from work, she didn’t even have a bed to lie down in but had to sleep at the hearth in the ashes. She began looking so dusty and dirty that everyone called her Cinderella.

  One day when the father was going to the fair, he asked the two stepdaughters what he should bring back for them. “Beautiful dresses,” one of them said. “Pearls and jewels,” said the other.

  “But you, Cinderella,” he asked. “What do you want?”

  “Father,” she said, “break off the first branch that brushes against your hat on your way home and bring it to me.”

  And so he bought beautiful dresses, pearls, and jewels for the two stepsisters. On the way home, while he was riding through a thicket of green bushes, a hazel branch brushed against him and knocked his hat off. When he arrived home, he gave his stepdaughters what they had asked for, and to Cinderella he gave the branch from the hazel bush. Cinderella thanked him, went to her mother’s grave, and planted the hazel sprig on it. She wept so hard that her tears fell to the ground and watered it. It grew to become a beautiful tree. Three times a day Cinderella went and sat under it and wept and prayed. Each time a little white bird would also fly to the tree, and whenever she made a wish, the little bird would toss down what she had wished for.

  It happened that one day the king announced a festival that was to last for three days. All the beautiful young ladies in the land were invited so that his son could choose a bride. When the two stepsisters discovered that they had been invited, they were in high spirits. They called Cinderella and said: “Comb our hair, brush our shoes, and fasten our buckles. We’re going to the wedding at the king’s palace.”

  Cinderella did as she was told, but she felt sad, for she too would have liked to go to the ball, and she begged her stepmother to let her go.

  “Cinderella,” the stepmother said. “How can you possibly go to a wedding when you’re constantly covered with dust and dirt? How can you plan to go to a ball when you have neither a dress nor shoes?”

  Cinderella kept pleading with her stepmother, and she finally relented: “Here, I’ve dumped a bowl of lentils into the ashes. If you can pick out the lentils in the next two hours, then you may go.”

  Cinderella went into the garden through the back door and called out: “Oh tame little doves, little turtledoves, and all you little birds in the sky, come and help me put

  the good ones into the little pot,

  the bad ones into your little crop.”

  Two little white doves came flying in through the kitchen window, followed by little turtledoves. And finally all the birds in the sky came swooping and fluttering and settled down in the ashes. The little doves nodded their heads and began to peck, peck, peck, peck, and then the others began to peck, peck, peck, peck and put all the good lentils into the bowl. Barely an hour had passed when they were done and flew back out the window.

  Cinderella brought the bowl to her stepmother and was overjoyed because she was sure that she would now be allowed to go to the wedding. But the stepmother said: “No, Cinderella, you have nothing to wear, and you don’t know how to dance. Everyone would just laugh at you.”

  When Cinderella began to cry, the stepmother said: “If you can pick out two bowls of lentils from the ashes in the next hour, then you can go.”

  But she thought to herself: “She’ll never be able to do it.”

  After the stepmother had dumped the two bowls of lentils into the ashes, the girl went into the garden through the back door and called out: “Oh tame little doves, little turtledoves, and all you little birds in the sky, come and help me put

  the good ones into the little pot,

  the bad ones into your little crop.”

  Two little white doves came flying in through the kitchen window, followed by little turtledoves. And finally all the birds in the sky came swooping and fluttering and settled down in the ashes. The little doves nodded their heads and began to peck, peck, peck, peck, and then the others began to peck, peck, peck, peck and put all the good lentils into the bowl. Barely a half hour had passed when they were finished and flew back out the window.

  The girl brought the bowls back to her stepmother and was overjoyed because she was sure that she would now be able to go to the wedding. But her stepmother said: “It’s no use. You can’t come along because you don’t have anything to wear and you don’t know how to dance. You would just embarrass us.” Turning her back on Cinderella, she hurried off with her two proud daughters.

  Now that no one else was left at home, Cinderella went to her mother’s grave und
er the tree and cried:

  “Shake your branches, little tree,

  Toss gold and silver down on me.”

  The bird threw down to her a dress of gold and silver, along with slippers embroidered with silk and silver. Cinderella quickly slipped on the dress and left for the wedding. Her sisters and her stepmother had no idea who she was. She looked so beautiful in the dress of gold that they thought she must be the daughter of some foreign king. It never occurred to them that it could be Cinderella, for they were sure that she was still at home, sitting in the dirt and picking lentils out of the ashes.

  The prince approached Cinderella, took her by the hand, and danced with her. He didn’t intend to dance with anyone else there and never even let go of her hand. Whenever anyone else asked her to dance, he would just say: “She’s my partner.”

  Cinderella danced well into the night, and then she wanted to go home. The prince said: “I will go with you as your escort,” for he was hoping to find out something about the family of this beautiful young woman. But Cinderella managed to slip away from him, and she bounded into a dovecote. The prince waited until Cinderella’s father arrived and told him that the strange girl had disappeared into the dovecote. The old man thought: “Could it be Cinderella?” He sent for an ax and pick and broke into the dovecote, but no one was inside it. And when they returned home, there was Cinderella, lying in the ashes in her filthy clothes with a dim little oil lamp burning on the mantel. Cinderella had jumped down from the back of the dovecote and had run over to the little hazel tree, where she slipped out of her beautiful dress and then put it on the grave. The bird took the dress back, and Cinderella put on her gray smock and settled back into the ashes in the kitchen.