by
the Grimm Brothers
There was once upon a time an old goat who had seven
little kids, and loved them with all the love of a mother for her children. One
day she wanted to go into the forest and fetch some food. So she called all
seven to her and said, "Dear children, I have to go into the forest, be on
your guard against the wolf, if he comes in, he will devour you all - skin,
hair, and everything. The wretch often disguises himself, but you will know him
at once by his rough voice and his black feet."
The kids said, "Dear mother, we will take good
care of ourselves, you may go away without any anxiety." Then the old one
bleated, and went on her way with an easy mind.
It was not long before some one knocked at the
house-door and called, "Open the door, dear children, your mother is here,
and has brought something back with her for each of you." But the little
kids knew that it was the wolf, by the rough voice.
"We will not open the door," cried they,
"you are not our mother. She has a soft, pleasant voice, but your voice is
rough, you are the wolf."
Then the wolf went away to a shopkeeper and bought
himself a great lump of chalk, ate this and made his voice soft with it. The he
came back, knocked at the door of the house, and called, "Open the door,
dear children, your mother is here and has brought something back with her for
each of you."
But the wolf had laid his black paws against the
window, and the children saw them and cried, "We will not open the door,
our mother has not black feet like you, you are the wolf."
Then the wolf ran to a baker and said, "I have
hurt my feet, rub some dough over them for me. And when the baker had rubbed
his feet over, he ran to the miller and said, "Strew some white meal over
my feet for me." The miller thought to himself, the wolf wants to deceive
someone, and refused, but the wolf said, "If you will not do it, I will
devour you." Then the miller was afraid, and made his paws white for him.
So now the wretch went for the third time to the
house-door, knocked at it and said, "Open the door for me, children, your
dear little mother has come home, and has brought every one of you something
back from the forest with her."
The little kids cried, "First show us your paws
that we may know if you are our dear little mother."
Then he put his paws in through the window, and when
the kids saw that they were white, they believed that all he said was true, and
opened the door. But who should come in but the wolf. The kids were terrified
and wanted to hide themselves. One sprang under the table, the second into the
bed, the third into the stove, the fourth into the kitchen, the fifth into the
cupboard, the sixth under the washing-bowl, and the seventh into the
clock-case. But the wolf found them all, and used no great ceremony, one after
the other he swallowed them down his throat. The youngest, who was in the
clock-case, was the only one he did not find. When the wolf had satisfied his
appetite he took himself off, laid himself down under a tree in the green
meadow outside, and began to sleep.
Soon afterwards the old goat came home again from the
forest. Ah, what a sight she saw there. The house-door stood wide open. The
table, chairs, and benches were thrown down, the washing-bowl lay broken to
pieces, and the quilts and pillows were pulled off the bed. She sought her
children, but they were nowhere to be found. She called them one after another
by name, but no one answered.
At last, when she came to the youngest, a soft voice
cried, "Dear Mother, I am in the clock-case." She took the kid out,
and it told her that the wolf had come and had eaten all the others. Then you
may imagine how she wept over her poor children.
At length in her grief she went out, and the youngest
kid ran with her. When they came to the meadow, there lay the wolf by the tree
and snored so loud that the branches shook. She looked at him on every side and
saw that something was moving and struggling in his gorged belly. Ah, heavens,
she thought, is it possible that my poor children, whom he has swallowed down
for his supper, can be still alive?
Then the kid had to run home and fetch scissors, and a
needle and thread and the goat cut open the monster's stomach, and hardly had
she make one cut, than one little kid thrust its head out, and when she cut
farther, all six sprang out one after another, and were all still alive, and
had suffered no injury whatever, for in his greediness the monster had
swallowed them down whole.
What rejoicing there was! They embraced their dear
mother, and jumped like a sailor at his wedding. The mother, however, said,
"Now go and look for some big stones, and we will fill the wicked beast's
stomach with them while he is still asleep." Then the seven kids dragged
the stones thither with all speed, and put as many of them into his stomach as
they could get in, and the mother sewed him up again in the greatest haste, so
that he was not aware of anything and never once stirred.
When the wolf at length had had his fill of sleep, he
got on his legs, and as the stones in his stomach made him very thirsty, he
wanted to go to a well to drink. But when he began to walk and move about, the
stones in his stomach knocked against each other and rattled. Then cried he,
"What
rumbles and tumbles
Against my poor bones?
I thought 'twas six kids,
But it feels like big stones."
And when he got to the well and stooped over the water
to drink, the heavy stones made him fall in, and he had to drown miserably.
When the seven kids saw that, they came running to the
spot and cried aloud, "The wolf is dead, the wolf is dead," and
danced for joy round about the well with their mother.
der
BrĂ¼der Grimm
There was once a
poor peasant who sat in the evening by the hearth and poked the fire, and his
wife sat and spun. Then said he, "How sad it is that we have no children.
With us all is so quiet, and in other houses it is noisy and lively."
"Yes,
replied the wife, and sighed, "even if we had only one, and it were quite
small, and only as big as a thumb, I should be quite satisfied, and we would
still love it with all our hearts."
Now it so
happened that the woman fell ill, and after seven months gave birth to a child,
that was perfect in all its limbs, but no longer than a thumb. Then said they,
"It is as we wished it to be, and it shall be our dear child." And
because of its size, they called it Tom Thumb. Though they did not let it want
for food, the child did not grow taller, but remained as it had been at the
first. Nevertheless it looked sensibly out of its eyes, and soon showed itself
to be a wise and nimble creature, for everything it did turned out well.
One day
the peasant was getting ready to go into the forest to cut wood, when he said
as if to himself, "How I wish that there was someone who would bring the
cart to me."
"Oh
father," cried Tom Thumb, "I will soon bring the cart, rely on that.
It shall be in the forest at the appointed time."
The man
smiled and said, "How can that be done? You are far too small to lead the
horse by the reins."
"That's
of no consequence, father, if my mother will only harness it, I shall sit in
the horse's ear and call out to him how he is to go."
"Well,"
answered the man, "for once we will try it."
When the
time came, the mother harnessed the horse, and placed Tom Thumb in its ear, and
then the little creature cried, "Gee up, gee up." Then it went quite
properly as if with its master, and the cart went the right way into the
forest. It so happened that just as he was turning a corner, and the little one
was crying, "gee up," two strange men came towards him.
"My word,"
said one of them, "what is this? There is a cart coming, and a driver is
calling to the horse and still he is not to be seen."
"That
can't be right," said the other, "we will follow the cart and see
where it stops."
The cart,
however, drove right into the forest, and exactly to the place where the wood
had been cut. When Tom Thumb saw his father, he cried to him, "Do you see,
Father, here I am with the cart, now take me up." The father got hold of
the horse with his left hand and with the right took his little son out of the
ear. Tom Thumb sat down quite merrily on a straw, but when the two strange men
saw him, they did not know what to say for astonishment.
Then one
of them took the other aside and said, "Listen, the little fellow would
make our fortune if we exhibited him in a large town, for money. We will buy
him." They went to the peasant and said, "Sell us the little man. He
shall be well treated with us."
"No,"
replied the father, "he is the apple of my eye, and all the money in the
world cannot buy him from me."
Tom Thumb,
however, when he heard of the bargain, had crept up the folds of his father's
coat, placed himself on his shoulder, and whispered in his ear, "Father do
give me away, I will soon come back again."
Then the
father parted with him to the two men for a handsome sum of money. "Where
will you sit?" they said to him.
"Oh
just set me on the rim of your hat, and then I can walk backwards and forwards
and look at the country, and still not fall down." They did as he wished,
and when Tom Thumb had taken leave of his father, they went away with him. They
walked until it was dusk, and then the little fellow said, "Do take me
down, it is necessary."
"Just
stay up there," said the man on whose hat he sat, "it makes no
difference to me. The birds sometimes let things fall on me."
"No,"
said Tom Thumb, "I know what's manners, take me quickly up." The man
took his hat off, and put the little fellow on the ground by the wayside, and
he leapt and crept about a little between the sods, and then he suddenly
slipped into a mousehole which he had sought out. "Good evening,
gentlemen, just go home without me," he cried to them, and mocked them.
They ran thither and stuck their sticks into the mousehole, but it was all in
vain. Tom Thumb crept still farther in, and as it soon became quite dark, they
were forced to go home with their vexation and their empty purses.
When Tom
Thumb saw that they were gone, he crept back out of the subterranean passage.
"It is so dangerous to walk on the ground in the dark," said he,
"how easily a neck or a leg is broken." Fortunately he stumbled
against an empty snail-shell. "Thank God," said he, "in that I
can pass the night in safety." And got into it.
Not long
afterwards, when he was just going to sleep, he heard two men go by, and one of
them was saying, "How shall we set about getting hold of the rich pastor's
silver and gold?"
"I
could tell you that," cried Tom Thumb, interrupting them.
"What
was that?" said one of the thieves in fright, "I heard someone speaking."
They stood
still listening, and Tom Thumb spoke again, and said, "Take me with you,
and I'll help you."
"But
where are you?"
"Just
look on the ground, and observe from whence my voice comes," he replied.
There the
thieves at length found him, and lifted him up. "You little imp, how will
you help us?" they said.
"Listen,"
said he, "I will creep into the pastor's room through the iron bars, and
will reach out to you whatever you want to have."
"Come
then," they said, "and we will see what you can do."
When they
got to the pastor's house, Tom Thumb crept into the room, but instantly cried
out with all his might, "Do you want to have everything that is
here?"
The
thieves were alarmed, and said, "But do speak softly, so as not to waken
any one."
Tom Thumb
however, behaved as if he had not understood this, and cried again, "What
do you want? Do you want to have
everything that is here?"
The cook,
who slept in the next room, heard this and sat up in bed, and listened. The
thieves, however, had in their fright run some distance away, but at last they
took courage, and thought, "The little rascal wants to mock us." They
came back and whispered to him, "Come be serious, and reach something out
to us."
Then Tom
Thumb again cried as loudly as he could, "I really will give you
everything, just put your hands in."
The maid
who was listening, heard this quite distinctly, and jumped out of bed and
rushed to the door. The thieves took flight, and ran as if the wild huntsman
were behind them, but as the maid could not see anything, she went to strike a
light. When she came to the place with it, Tom Thumb, unperceived, betook
himself to the granary, and the maid after she had examined every corner and
found nothing, lay down in her bed again, and believed that, after all, she had
only been dreaming with open eyes and ears.
Tom Thumb
had climbed up among the hay and found a beautiful place to sleep in. There he
intended to rest until day, and then go home again to his parents. But there
were other things in store for him. Truly, there is much worry and affliction
in this world. When the day dawned, the maid arose from her bed to feed the
cows. Her first walk was into the barn, where she laid hold of an armful of
hay, and precisely that very one in which poor Tom Thumb was lying asleep. He,
however, was sleeping so soundly that he was aware of nothing, and did not
awake until he was in the mouth of the cow, who had picked him up with the hay.
"Ah,
heavens," cried he, "how have I got into the fulling mill." But
he soon discovered where he was. Then he had to take care not to let himself go
between the teeth and be dismembered, but he was subsequently forced to slip
down into the stomach with the hay. "In this little room the windows are
forgotten," said he, "and no sun shines in, neither will a candle be
brought."
His
quarters were especially unpleasing to him, and the worst was that more and
more hay was always coming in by the door, and the space grew less and less.
When at length in his anguish, he cried as loud as he could, "Bring me no
more fodder, bring me no more fodder!"
The maid
was just milking the cow, and when she heard some one speaking, and saw no one,
and perceived that it was the same voice that she had heard in the night, she
was so terrified that she slipped off her stool, and spilt the milk.
She ran in
great haste to her master, and said, "Oh heavens, pastor, the cow has been
speaking."
"You
are mad," replied the pastor, but he went himself to the byre to see what
was there. Hardly, however had he set his foot inside when Tom Thumb again
cried, "Bring me no more fodder, bring me no more fodder!"
Then the
pastor himself was alarmed, and thought that an evil spirit had gone into the
cow, and ordered her to be killed. She was killed, but the stomach, in which
Tom Thumb was, was thrown on the dunghill. Tom Thumb had great difficulty in
working his way out. However, he succeeded so far as to get some room, but just
as he was going to thrust his head out, a new misfortune occurred. A hungry
wolf ran thither, and swallowed the whole stomach at one gulp.
Tom Thumb
did not lose courage. "Perhaps," thought he, "the wolf will
listen to what I have got to say." And he called to him from out of his
belly, "Dear wolf, I know of a magnificent feast for you."
"Where
is it to be had?" said the wolf.
"In
such and such a house. You must creep into it through the kitchen-sink, and
will find cakes, and bacon, and sausages, and as much of them as you can
eat." And he described to
him exactly his father's house.
The wolf
did not require to be told this twice, squeezed himself in at night through the
sink, and ate to his heart's content in the larder. When he had eaten his fill,
he wanted to go out again, but he had become so big that he could not go out by
the same way. Tom Thumb had reckoned on this, and now began to make a violent
noise in the wolf's body, and raged and screamed as loudly as he could.
"Will
you be quiet?" said the wolf, "you will waken up the people."
"What
do I care?" replied the little fellow, "you have eaten your fill, and
I will make merry likewise." And began once more to scream with all his
strength.
At last
his father and mother were aroused by it, and ran to the room and looked in
through the opening in the door. When they saw that a wolf was inside, they ran
away, and the husband fetched his axe, and the wife the scythe.
"Stay
behind," said the man, when they entered the room. "When I have given
the blow, if he is not killed by it, you must cut him down and hew his body to
pieces."
Then Tom
Thumb heard his parents, voices and cried, "Dear father, I am here, I am
in the wolf's body."
Said the
father, full of joy, "Thank God, our dear child has found us again."
And bade the woman take away her scythe, that Tom Thumb might not be hurt with
it. After that he raised his arm, and struck the wolf such a blow on his head
that he fell down dead, and then they got knives and scissors and cut his body
open and drew the little fellow forth.
"Ah,"
said the father, "what sorrow we have gone through for your sake."
"Yes
father, I have gone about the world a great deal. Thank heaven, I breathe fresh
air again."
"Where
have you been, then?"
"Ah,
father, I have been in a mouse's hole, in a cow's belly, and then in a wolf's
paunch. Now I will stay with you.
"And
we will not sell you again, no not for all the riches in the world," said
his parents, and they embraced and kissed their dear Tom Thumb. They gave him
to eat and to drink, and had some new clothes made for him, for his own had
been spoiled on his journey.
by the Grimm Brothers
First Tale
A shoemaker, by no fault of his own, had become so
poor that at last he had nothing left but leather for one pair of shoes. So in
the evening, he cut out the shoes which he wished to begin to make the next
morning, and as he had a good conscience, he lay down quietly in his bed,
commended himself to God, and fell asleep.
In the morning, after he had said his prayers, and was
just going to sit down to work, the two shoes stood quite finished on his
table. He was astounded, and knew not what to think. He took the shoes in his
hands to observe them closer, and they were so neatly made, with not one bad
stitch in them, that it was just as if they were intended as a masterpiece.
Before long, a buyer came in, and as the shoes pleased him so well, he paid
more for them than was customary, and, with the money, the shoemaker was able
to purchase leather for two pairs of shoes. He cut them out at night, and next
morning was about to set to work with fresh courage, but he had no need to do
so for, when he got up, they were already made, and buyers also were not
wanting, who gave him money enough to buy leather for four pairs of shoes.
Again the following morning he found the pairs made, and so it went on
constantly, what he cut out in the evening was finished by the morning, so that
he soon had his honest independence again, and at last became a wealthy man.
Now it befell that one evening not long before
Christmas, when the man had been cutting out, he said to his wife, before going
to bed, "What think you if we were to stay up to-night to see who it is
that lends us this helping hand?"
The woman liked the idea, and lighted a candle, and
then they hid themselves in a corner of the room, behind some clothes which
were hanging up there, and watched. When it was midnight, two pretty little
naked men came, sat down by the shoemaker's table, took all the work which was
cut out before them and began to stitch, and sew, and hammer so skilfully and
so quickly with their little fingers that the shoemaker could not avert his
eyes for astonishment. They did not stop until all was done, and stood finished
on the table, and they ran quickly away.
Next morning the woman said, "The little men have
made us rich, and we really must show that we are grateful for it. They run
about so, and have nothing on, and must be cold. I'll tell you what I'll do, I
will make them little shirts, and coats, and vests, and trousers, and knit both
of them a pair of stockings, and you make them two little pairs of shoes."
The man said, "I shall be very glad to do
it." And one night, when everything was ready, they laid their presents
all together on the table instead of the cut-out work, and then concealed
themselves to see how the little men would behave.
At midnight they came bounding in, and wanted to get
to work at once, but as they did not find any leather cut out, but only the
pretty little articles of clothing, they were at first astonished, and then
they showed intense delight. They dressed themselves with the greatest
rapidity, put on the beautiful clothes, and sang,
"Now we are
boys so fine to see,
Why should we longer cobblers be?"
Then they danced and skipped and leapt over chairs and
benches. At last they danced out of doors. From that time forth they came no
more, but as long as the shoemaker lived all went well with him, and all his
efforts prospered.
Second Tale
There was once a poor servant-girl who was industrious
and cleanly and swept the house every day, and emptied her sweepings on the
great heap in front of the door.
One morning when she was just going back to her work,
she found a letter on this heap, and as she could not read, she put her broom
in the corner, and took the letter to her employers, and behold it was an
invitation from the elves, who asked the girl to hold a child for them at its
christening. The girl did not know what to do, but, at length, after much
persuasion, and as they told her that it was not right to refuse an invitation
of this kind, she consented.
Then three elves came and conducted her to a hollow
mountain, where the little folks lived. Everything there was small, but more
elegant and beautiful than can be described. The baby's mother lay in a bed of
black ebony ornamented with pearls, the covers were embroidered with gold, the
cradle was of ivory, the bath-tub of gold. The girl stood as godmother, and
then wanted to go home again, but the little elves urgently entreated her to
stay three days with them. So she stayed, and passed the time in pleasure and
gaiety, and the little folks did all they could to make her happy.
At last she set out on her way home. But first they
filled her pockets quite full of money, and then they led her out of the
mountain again. When she got home, she wanted to to begin her work, and took
the broom, which was still standing in the corner, in her hand and began to
sweep. Then some strangers came out of the house, who asked her who she was,
and what business she had there. And she had not, as she thought, been three
days with the little men in the mountains, but seven years, and in the meantime
her former masters had died.
Third Tale
A certain mother had her child taken out of its cradle
by the elves, and a changeling with a large head and staring eyes, which would
do nothing but eat and drink, lay in its place.
In her trouble she went to her neighbor, and asked her
advice. The neighbour said that she was to carry the changeling into the
kitchen, set it down on the hearth, light a fire, and boil some water in two
egg-shells, which would make the changeling laugh, and if he laughed, all would
be over with him.
The woman did everything that her neighbor bade her.
When she put the egg-shells with water on the fire, Goggle-eyes said, "I
am as old now as the Wester
Forest, but never yet
have I seen anyone boil anything in an egg-shell."
And he began to laugh at it. Whilst he was laughing,
suddenly came a host of little elves, who brought the right child, set it down
on the hearth, and took the changeling away with them.
English translation
by Margaret Hunt