The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

by Jacob Grimm

  The Old Beggar-Woman

  THERE WAS once an old woman, but you have surely seen an old woman go a-begging before now? This woman begged likewise, and when she got anything she said: “May God reward you.” The beggar-woman came to a door, and there by the fire a friendly rogue of a boy was standing warming himself. The boy said kindly to the poor old woman as she was standing shivering thus by the door: “Come, old mother, and warm yourself.” She came in, but stood too near the fire, so that her old rags began to burn, and she was not aware of it. The boy stood and saw that, but he ought to have put the flames out. Is it not true that he ought to have put them out? And if he had not any water, then he should have wept all the water in his body out of his eyes, and that would have supplied two pretty streams with which to extinguish them.

  The Three Sluggards

  A CERTAIN KING had three sons who were all equally dear to him, and he did not know which of them to appoint as his successor after his own death. When the time came when he was about to die, he summoned them to his bedside and said: “Dear children, I have been thinking of something which I will declare unto you; whichsoever of you is the laziest shall have the kingdom.” The eldest said: “Then, father, the kingdom is mine, for I am so idle that if I lie down to rest, and a drop falls in my eye, I will not open it that I may sleep.” The second said: “Father, the kingdom belongs to me, for I am so idle that when I am sitting by the fire warming myself, I would rather let my heel be burnt off than draw back my leg.” The third said: “Father, the kingdom is mine, for I am so idle that if I were going to be hanged, and had the rope already round my neck, and any one put a sharp knife into my hand with which I might cut the rope, I would rather let myself be hanged than raise my hand to the rope.” When the father heard that, he said: “You have carried it the farthest, and shall be King.”

  The Twelve Idle Servants

  TWELVE SERVANTS who had done nothing all the day would not exert themselves at night either, but laid themselves on the grass and boasted of their idleness. The first said: “What is your laziness to me, I have to concern myself about mine own. The care of my body is my principal work, I eat not a little and drink still more. When I have had four meals, I fast a short time until I feel hunger again, and that suits me best. To get up early is not for me; when it is getting near mid-day, I already seek out a resting-place for myself. If the master call, I do exactly as if I had not heard him, and if he call a second time, I wait awhile before I get up, and then go to him very slowly. In this way life is endurable.”

  The second said: “I have a horse to look after, but I leave the bit in his mouth, and if I do not want to, I give him no food, and I say he has had it already. I, instead, lay myself in the oat-chest and sleep for four hours. After this I stretch out one foot and move it a couple of times over the horse’s body, and then he is combed and cleaned. Why should anyone go to much trouble about that? This job is irksome enough as it is.”

  The third said: “Why plague oneself with work? Nothing comes of it! I laid myself in the sun, and fell asleep. It began to rain a little, but why should I get up? I let it rain on in God’s name. At last came a splashing shower, so heavy indeed, that it pulled the hair out of my head and washed it away, and I got a hole in the skull; I put a plaster on it, and then it was all right. I have already had several injuries of that kind.”

  The fourth said: “If I am to undertake some work, I first loiter about for an hour that I may save up my strength. After that I begin quite slowly, and ask if there isn’t someone there who could help me. Then I let him do most of the work, and in reality only look on; but even that is still too much for me.”

  The fifth said: “That’s nothing! Just think, I am to take away the manure from the horse’s stable, and load the cart with it. I begin slowly, and if I have taken anything on the fork, I only half-raise it up, and then I rest just a quarter of an hour before I quite throw it in. It is more than enough if I take out a cartful in the day. I have no fancy for killing myself with work.”

  The sixth said: “Shame on you; I am afraid of no work, but I lie down for three weeks, and never once take my clothes off. What is the use of buckling your shoes on? For all I care they may fall off my feet, it makes no difference to me. If I am going up some steps, I drag one foot slowly after the other on to the first step, and then I count the rest of them that I may know where I must rest.”

  The seventh said: “I don’t think much of that; my master looks after my work, only he is not at home the whole day. But I neglect nothing, I run as fast as it is possible to crawl. If I am to move at all, four sturdy men must push me with all their might. I came where six men were lying sleeping on a bed beside each other. I lay down by them and slept too. There was no wakening me again, and when they wanted to have me home, they had to carry me.”

  The eighth said: “I see plainly that I am the only active fellow; if a stone lie before me, I do not trouble to raise my legs and step over it I lay myself down on the ground, and if I am wet and covered with mud and dirt, I stay lying until the sun has dried me again. At the very most, I only turn myself so that it can shine on me.”

  The ninth said: “That is the right way! To-day the bread was before me, but I was too idle to take it, and nearly died of hunger! Moreover a jug stood by it, but it was so big and heavy that I did not like to lift it up, and preferred bearing thirst. Just to turn myself round was too much for me, I remained lying like a log the whole day.”

  The tenth said: “Laziness has brought misfortune on me, a broken leg and swollen calves. Three of us were lying in the road, and I had my legs stretched out. Someone came with a cart, and the wheels went over me. I might indeed have drawn my legs back, but I did not hear the cart coming, for the midges were humming about my ears, and creeping in at my nose and out again at my mouth; who would take the trouble to drive the vermin away?”

  The eleventh said: “I walked out of my job yesterday. I had no fancy for carrying heavy books to my master any longer or fetching them away again. There was no end of it all day long. But to tell the truth, he fired me, and would not keep me any longer, for his clothes, which I had left lying in the dust, were all moth-eaten, and a good thing, too.”

  The twelfth said: “To-day I had to drive the cart into the country, and made myself a bed of straw on it, and had a good sleep. The reins slipped out of my hand, and when I awoke, the horse had nearly torn itself loose, the harness was gone, the strap which fastened the horse to the shafts was gone, and so were the collar, the bridle and bit. Some one had come by, who had carried everything away. Besides this, the cart had got into a quagmire and stuck fast. I left it standing, and stretched myself on the straw again. At last the master himself came, and pushed the cart out, and if he had not come I should not be lying here but there, and sleeping in all tranquillity.”

  The Shepherd Boy

  THERE WAS once upon a time a shepherd boy whose fame spread far and wide because of the wise answers which he gave to every question. The King of the country heard of it likewise, but did not believe it, and sent for the boy. Then he said to him: “If you can give me an answer to three questions which I will ask you, I will look on you as my own child, and you shall dwell with me in my royal palace.” The boy said: “What are the three questions?” The King said: “The first is, how many drops of water are there in the ocean?” The shepherd boy answered: “Lord King, if you will have all the rivers on earth dammed up so that not a single drop runs from them into the sea until I have counted it, I will tell you how many drops there are in the sea.” The King said: “The next question is, how many stars are there in the sky?” The shepherd boy said: “Give me a great sheet of white paper,” and then he made so many fine points on it with a pen that they could scarcely be seen, and it was all but impossible to count them; any one who looked at them would have lost his sight. Then he said: “There are as many stars in the sky as there are points on the paper; just count them.” But no one was able to do it. The King said: “The thi
rd question is, how many seconds of time are there in eternity?” Then said the shepherd boy: “In Lower Pomerania is the Diamond Mountain, which is two miles high, two miles wide, and two miles deep; every hundred years a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on it, and when the whole mountain is worn away by this, then the first second of eternity will be over.”

  The King said: “You have answered the three questions like a wise man, and shall henceforth dwell with me in my royal palace, and I will regard you as my own child.”

  The Star-Money

  THERE WAS once upon a time a little girl whose father and mother were dead, and she was so poor that she no longer had a room to live in, or bed to sleep in, and at last she had nothing else but the clothes she was wearing and a little bit of bread in her hand which some charitable soul had given her. She was good and pious, however. And as she was thus forsaken by all the world, she went forth into the open country, trusting in the good God. Then a poor man met her, who said: “Ah, give me something to eat, I am so hungry!” She handed him the whole of her piece of bread, and said: “May God bless you,” and went onwards. Then came a child who moaned and said: “My head is so cold, give me something to cover it with.” So she took off her hood and gave it to him; and when she had walked a little farther, she met another child who had no jacket and was frozen with cold. Then she gave it her own; and a little farther on one begged for a frock, and she gave away that also. At length she got into a forest and it had already become dark, and there came yet another child, and asked for a shirt, and the good little girl thought to herself: “It is a dark night and no one sees you, you can very well give your shirt away,” and took it off, and gave away that also. And as she so stood, and had not one single thing left, suddenly some stars from heaven fell down, and they were nothing else but hard smooth pieces of money, and although she had just given her shirt away, she had a new one which was of the very finest linen. Then she put the money into it, and was rich all the days of her life.

  The Stolen Farthings

  A FATHER WAS one day sitting at dinner with his wife and his children, and a good friend who had come on a visit ate with them. And as they thus sat, and it was striking twelve o’clock, the stranger saw the door open, and a very pale child dressed in snow-white clothes came in. It did not look around, and it did not speak; but went straight into the next room. Soon afterwards it came back, and went out at the door again in the same quiet manner. On the second and on the third day, it came also exactly in the same way. At last the stranger asked the father to whom the beautiful child that went into the next room every day at noon belonged. “I have never seen it,” said he, neither did he know to whom it could belong. The next day when it again came, the stranger pointed it out to the father, who however did not see it, and the mother and the children also all saw nothing. At this the stranger got up, went to the room door, opened it a little, and peeped in. Then he saw the child sitting on the ground, and busily digging and seeking about between the boards of the floor, but when it saw the stranger, it disappeared. He now told what he had seen and described the child exactly, and the mother recognized it, and said: “Ah, it is my dear child who died a month ago.” They took up the boards and found two farthings which the child had once received from its mother that it might give them to a poor man; it, however, had thought: “You can buy yourself a biscuit for that,” and had kept the farthings, and hidden them in the openings between the boards; and therefore it had had no rest in its grave, and had come every day at noon to seek for these farthings. The parents gave the money at once to a poor man, and after that the child was never seen again.

  Looking for a Bride

  THERE WAS once a young shepherd who wanted very much to marry, and was acquainted with three sisters who were all equally pretty, so that it was difficult for him to make a choice, and he could not decide to give the preference to any one of them. Then he asked his mother for advice, and she said: “Invite all three, and set some cheese before them, and watch how they eat it.” The youth did so; the first swallowed the cheese with the rind on; the second hastily cut the rind off the cheese, but she cut it so quickly that she left much good cheese with it, and threw that away also; the third peeled the rind off carefully, and cut neither too much nor too little. The shepherd told all this to his mother, who said: “Take the third for your wife.” This he did, and lived contentedly and happily with her.

  The Hurds

  THERE WAS once on a time a maiden who was pretty, but idle and negligent. When she had to spin she was so out of temper that if there was a little knot in the flax, she at once pulled out a whole heap of it, and strewed it about on the ground beside her. Now she had a servant who was industrious, and gathered together the bits of flax which were thrown away, cleaned them, spun them fine, and had a beautiful gown made out of them for herself. A young man had wooed the lazy girl, and the wedding was to take place. On the eve of the wedding, the industrious one was dancing merrily about in her pretty dress, and the bride said: “Ah, how that girl does jump about, dressed in my hurds.” The bridegroom heard that, and asked the bride what she meant by it. Then she told him that the girl was wearing a dress made of the flax which she had thrown away. When the bridegroom heard that, and saw how idle she was, and how industrious the poor girl was, he gave her up and went to the other, and chose her as his wife.

  The Sparrow and His Four Children

  A SPARROW HAD four young ones in a swallow’s nest. When they were fledged, some naughty boys pulled out the nest, but fortunately all the birds got safely away in the high wind. Then the old bird was grieved that as his sons had all gone out into the world, he had not first warned them of every kind of danger, and given them good instruction how to deal with each.

  In the autumn a great many sparrows assembled together in a wheatfield, and there the old bird met his four children again, and full of joy took them home with him. “Ah, my dear sons, how I have been worrying about you all through the summer, because you got away in the wind without my teaching; listen to my words, obey your father, and be well on your guard. Little birds have to encounter great dangers!” And then he asked the eldest where he had spent the summer, and how he had supported himself. “I stayed in the gardens, and looked for caterpillars and small worms, until the cherries were ripe.” “Ah, my son,” said the father, “tit-bits are not bad, but there is great risk about them; on that account take great care of yourself henceforth, and particularly when people are going about the gardens who carry long green poles which are hollow inside and have a little hole at the top.” “Yes, father, but what if a little green leaf is stuck over the hole with wax?” said the son. “Where have you seen that?” “In a merchant’s garden,” said the youngster. “Oh, my son, merchant folks are smart folks,” said the father. “If you have been among the children of the world, you have learned worldly craftiness enough, only see that you use it well, and do not be too confident.”

  Then he asked the next: “Where have you passed your time?” “At court,” said the son. “Sparrows and silly little birds are of no use in that place—there one finds much gold, velvet, silk, armor, harnesses, sparrow-hawks, screech-owls and lanners; keep to the horses’ stable where they winnow oats, or thresh, and then fortune may give you your daily grain of corn in peace.” “Yes, father,” said the son, “but when the stable-boys make traps and fix their gins and snares in the straw, many a one is caught.” “Where have you seen that?” said the old bird. “At court, among the stable-boys.” “Oh, my son, court boys are bad boys! If you have been to court and among the lords, and have left no feathers there, you have learnt a fair amount, and will know very well how to go about the world, but look around you and above you, for the wolves often devour the wisest dogs.”

  The father examined the third also: “Where did you seek your fortune?” “I have cast my tub and rope on the cart-roads and highways, and sometimes met with a grain of corn or barley.” “That is indeed dainty fare,” said the father, “but take c
are what you are about and look carefully around, especially when you see anyone stooping and about to pick up a stone, for then you have not much time to waste.” “That is true,” said the son, “but what if anyone should carry a bit of rock, or ore, ready beforehand in his breast or pocket?” “Where have you seen that?” “Among the miners, dear father; when they get out of the pit, they generally take little bits of ore with them.” “Mining folks are working folks, and clever folks. If you have been among mining lads, you have seen and learnt something, but when you go thither beware, for many a sparrow has been brought to a bad end by a mining boy throwing a piece of cobalt.”

  At length the father came to the youngest son: “You, my dear chirping nestling, were always the silliest and weakest; stay with me, the world has many rough, wicked birds which have crooked beaks and long claws, and lie in wait for poor little birds and swallow them. Keep with those of your own kind, and pick up little spiders and caterpillars from the trees, or the houses, and then you will live long in peace.” “My dear father, he who feeds himself without injury to other people fares well, and no sparrow-hawk, eagle, or kite will hurt him if he commits himself and his lawful food, evening and morning, faithfully to God, who is the Creator and Preserver of all forest and village birds, who likewise heareth the cry and prayer of the young ravens, for no sparrow or wren ever falls to the ground except by his will.” “Where have you learnt this?” The son answered: “When the great blast of wind tore me away from you I came to a church, and there during the summer I have picked up the flies and spiders from the windows, and heard this discourse preached. The Father of all sparrows fed me all the summer through, and kept me from all misfortune and from ferocious birds.” “Indeed, my dear son, if you take refuge in the churches and help to clear away spiders and buzzing flies, and chirp unto God like the young ravens, and commend yourself to the eternal Creator, all will be well with you, and that even if the whole world were full of wild malicious birds.