The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (35 page)

After a while the three of them traveled together and came to an anthill. The two oldest wanted to smash it and watch the little ants crawl around in fright and carry away their eggs, but Simpleton said, “Leave the little creatures in peace. I won't let you disturb them.”

So they continued on their way and came to a lake where a great many ducks were swimming. The two brothers wanted to catch a few and roast them, but Simpleton said again, “Leave the creatures in peace. I won't let you kill them.”

Finally, they came to a beehive, and there was so much honey in the hive that it had dripped down the tree trunk. The two older brothers wanted to build a fire beneath it and suffocate the bees to get at the honey. However, Simpleton prevented them again and said, “Leave the creatures in peace. I won't let you burn them.”

Soon the three brothers came to a castle, and they saw nothing but stone horses standing in the stables. Not a living soul could be seen. They went through all the halls until they reached the end, where there was a door with three locks hanging on it. In the middle of the door there was a peephole through which one could look into the room, and they saw a little gray man sitting at a table. They called to him once, then twice, but he didn't hear them. Finally, they called a third time, and he got up and came out. However, he didn't say a word. Instead, he just led them to a table richly spread with food, and after they had something to eat and drink, he brought each one to his own bedroom.

The next morning the little gray man went to the oldest brother, beckoned to him, and conducted him to a stone tablet on which were inscribed three tasks that had to be performed if the castle was to be disenchanted. The first task involved gathering one thousand pearls that were lying in the moss of the forest. They belonged to the king's daughter and had to be picked up from the moss before sundown. If one single pearl were to be missing, the seeker would be turned to stone.

The prince went to the moss and searched the entire day, but when the day drew to an end, he had found only a hundred. Consequently, he was turned into stone. The next day the second brother undertook the adventure, but he didn't fare much better than the oldest: he found only two hundred pearls and was turned into stone. Finally, it was Simpleton's turn to search for the pearls in the moss. However, since it was so difficult to find them and everything went so slowly, he sat down on a stone and began to weep. While he was sitting on the stone and weeping, the king of the ants whose life he had once saved came along with five thousand ants, and it didn't take long before the little creatures had gathered the pearls together and stacked them in a pile.

Now, the second task involved fetching the key to the bedroom of the king's daughter from the lake. When Simpleton came to the lake, the ducks whose lives he had once saved came swimming toward him and then dived down to fetch the key from the bottom of the lake.

Next came the third task, which was the hardest. The king had three daughters who lay asleep, and Simpleton had to pick out the youngest and the loveliest. However, they all looked exactly alike, and the only difference between them was that they each had eaten a different kind of sweet before falling asleep: the oldest had eaten a piece of sugar, the second a little syrup, the youngest a spoonful of honey. Just then the queen bee whom Simpleton had protected from the fire came along and tested the lips of all three princesses. At last she settled on the mouth of the princess who had eaten honey, and thus the prince was able to recognize the right daughter. Now the magic spell was broken, and everyone was set free from the deep sleep. All those who had been turned into stone regained their human form. Simpleton married the youngest and loveliest daughter and became king after her father's death, while his two brothers were married to the other two sisters.

The Three Feathers

Once upon a time there was a king who decided to send his three sons off into the world. Whoever would bring him the finest woven linen was to take over the realm after his death. Consequently, he went outside in front
of the castle and blew three feathers into the air so that they would know in what direction they should go, and he told each one to follow the flight of his feather.

One feather flew to the west and was followed by the eldest son. The next to the east was followed by the second son. However, the third feather flew and fell on a stone not far from the palace. So the third son, the Simpleton, had to remain behind. His two brothers made fun of him and said that he should search for the linen beneath the stone.

Meanwhile Simpleton sat down on the stone and wept, and as he swayed back and forth, the stone slid away, and beneath it was a marble slab with a ring on top. Simpleton lifted the slab and discovered some stairs that led below. So he went down and came to a subterranean vault, where he found a maiden sitting and weaving flax. She asked him why his eyes were so wet from tears, and he revealed his sorrows to her and told her that he had to find the finest woven linen and had not been able to set out and search for it. Then the maiden reeled off her yarn, and all at once he saw the most splendid woven linen, and she told him to bring it up to his father.

When he came up from the ground, he had already been gone for a long time, and his brothers had just returned and thought that they had surely brought the finest woven linen back to their father. However, after each one of them showed their linen, Simpleton's turned out to be much finer, and the realm would have been his, but the two brothers were not satisfied and insisted that their father set another condition. So the king demanded the most beautiful carpet and once again blew three feathers into the air, and the third fell on the stone again. So Simpleton was prevented from setting out while the others went to the east and the west.

Simpleton lifted the stone and went down to the vault again and found the maiden weaving a marvelously beautiful carpet out of blazing colors, and when she was done, she said: “I made this for you. Carry it up to your father. No one in the world will have such a magnificent carpet.”

So he appeared before his father and once again surpassed his brothers, who had brought the most beautiful carpets from many different countries. And they insisted again that their father set another condition as to who would inherit the realm, and the king now demanded that they must
bring the most beautiful woman back home. The feathers were blown once more, and Simpleton's landed on the stone. So he went beneath the ground and complained to the maiden how his father had once more set a difficult condition. But the maiden said that she would gladly help him. All he had to do was to go farther into the vault, and he would find the most beautiful woman in the world.

Simpleton went down the vault and came to a room glimmering and flickering with gold and jewels, but instead of a beautiful woman, there was a nasty frog sitting in the middle. The frog called out to him: “Embrace me, and immerse yourself!”

But he didn't want to do this. So the frog called out a second time: “Embrace me, and immerse yourself!”

So Simpleton grabbed hold of the frog and carried it above to a pond where he jumped into the water with the frog. However, no sooner did they touch the water than he held the most beautiful woman in his arms. Then they climbed out of the water, and he brought her to his father, and she was a thousand times more beautiful than the women whom the other princes had brought with them. Once again the realm would have belonged to Simpleton, but the two brothers made a racket and demanded that whoever's beautiful woman could jump up to the ring that was hanging in the middle of the hall should inherit the realm. The eldest son's woman could jump only halfway; the second son's woman jumped a bit higher; but the third son's woman jumped right up to the ring. So the two elder brothers finally had to agree that Simpleton would inherit the realm after their father's death, and when the father died, Simpleton became king and ruled with wisdom for a long time.

The Golden Goose

Once upon a time there was a man who had three sons. However, the youngest was a simpleton. One day the eldest son said: “Father, I want to go into the forest and chop wood.”

“Let it be,” the father said. “Otherwise you'll come home with a bandaged arm.”

But the son didn't pay attention to his father and thought he knew how to take care of himself. He put some cake in his pocket and went into the forest, where he met a little old gray man who said: “I'm so hungry. Give me a piece of the cake that you have in your pocket.”

However, the clever son responded: “Why should I give you a piece of my cake? Then I'll have nothing for myself. Get out of here!”

The son went off with his axe and began to chop down a tree. It didn't take long, however, for him to make a slip with the axe, and he cut himself in the arm. So he had to go home and have his arm bandaged. This was all because of the little old gray man.

Some time later the second son went into the forest, where the little man asked him for a piece of cake, too. He also refused and consequently struck himself in the leg so that he had to be carried back home. Finally, Simpleton went out into the forest, and the little man spoke to him just as he had to the others and asked for a piece of cake.

“You can have the entire thing,” said Simpleton and gave it to him.

Then the little man spoke: “Chop this tree down, and you'll find something.”

Simpleton began hacking away, and when the tree fell, a golden goose was sitting there. He took the bird with him and went to an inn, where he wanted to spend the night. He didn't want to stay in the large room. Rather, he wanted a room for himself alone. Once there he set the goose down in the middle of the room. The innkeeper's daughters had seen the goose and were curious and would have liked to have had a feather from the goose. Then the eldest daughter said: “I'll go upstairs, and if I don't return soon, then come after me.”

Upon saying this she went to the goose, but no sooner did she touch the feather than she found herself attached to the goose. Now, since she didn't come back downstairs, the second sister went to look after her, and as soon as she saw the goose, she couldn't resist the desire to pluck a feather. The eldest sister tried her best to warn her not to do this, but nothing helped. Her sister grabbed hold of the goose and was soon attached to the feather. Now, after the third daughter had waited long enough below, she finally went upstairs, and her sisters called out to her
and warned her for heaven's sake not to come near the goose. However, she didn't listen to them and was set on having one of the feathers and got stuck to it.

The next morning Simpleton took the goose in his arm and went off. The three daughters were tightly attached to the goose and had to follow him. When they came to a field, they met the parson, who cried out at them: “Phooey! Naughty girls! What are you doing running after this young fellow, in public no less? Shame on you!”

Upon saying this he grabbed one of the girls by the hand and tried to yank her away. However, as soon as he touched her, he became stuck to her and now had to run along behind them.

Shortly after this happened, the sexton came and cried out: “Hey, parson, where are you off to in such a hurry? We still have a christening today!”

The sexton ran up to him, grabbed him by the arm, and became attached. As the five of them marched one after the other after Simpleton, two farmers with their hoes came from the field. The parson called them over to help detach themselves, but no sooner did they touch the sexton than they got stuck, and so now there were seven who ran after Simpleton with the goose.

Soon he came to a city ruled by a king who had a daughter so serious that nobody could get her to laugh. Consequently, the king issued a decree declaring that whoever made the princess laugh would have her for his bride. When Simpleton heard this, he went to the king's daughter and took along the goose with the group of people attached to the bird. As soon as the princess saw this parade, she began to laugh boisterously and couldn't stop. Therefore, Simpleton demanded to have her for his bride, but the king made all kinds of excuses and said Simpleton would first have to bring him a man who could drink up all the wine in a cellar. So Simpleton went into the forest to the spot where he had chopped down the tree, and he saw a man sitting there with a sad face. So Simpleton asked him what had caused him to have such a heavy heart.

“Oh! I'm so thirsty and can't get enough to drink. I've already emptied a barrel of wine, but that's only a like a drop on a hot stone!”

“Well, I can help you,” Simpleton said. “Come with me. You'll be able to drink until you are full.”

Simpleton led him to the king's cellar, and the man set to work on the large barrels. He drank and drank until his lips began to hurt him, and before the day was over, he had drunk up everything in the cellar.

Now Simpleton demanded his bride, but the king was annoyed that a common fellow whom everyone called Simpleton should carry off his daughter, and so he set a new condition: Simpleton had to produce a man who could eat a mountain of bread. So Simpleton returned to the forest, and there was a man sitting at the spot of the tree that he had cut down, and this man was tightening a belt around his waist and making an awful face.

“I've eaten an oven full of coarse bread, but what good is that when I'm still enormously hungry? I don't feel a thing in my body and must tighten my belt if I'm not to die of hunger.”

As soon as Simpleton heard this, he was cheerful and said: “Get up and come with me. You'll eat until you're full.”

Simpleton led the man to the king, who had all the flour of the entire kingdom gathered and baked into an enormous mountain, but the man from the forest took a place in front of it, and he caused the entire mountain to vanish in a day and a night. Once again, Simpleton asked for his bride, but the king sought a way out again and demanded a ship that could sail on water and on land. If he produced this ship, then he could have the princess right away. So Simpleton went into the forest once more and met the little gray man to whom he had given his cake.