Grimm's Household Tales

There was once a young fellow who had learned the trade of locksmith and told his father he would now go out into the world and seek his fortune. “Very well,” said the father, “I am quite content with that,” and he gave him some money for his journey. So he traveled about and looked for work. After a time he resolved not to follow the trade of locksmith anymore, for he no longer liked it, but he took a fancy to hunting. Then he met, in his rambles, a huntsman dressed in green, who asked where he came from and where he was going. The youth said he was a locksmith’s apprentice but that the trade no longer pleased him and he had a liking for huntsmanship, and he asked whether the huntsman would teach it to him. “Oh, yes,” said the huntsman, “if you will go with me.” Then the young fellow went with him, bound himself to him for some years, and learned the art of hunting. After this he wished to try his luck elsewhere, and the huntsman gave him nothing in the way of payment but an air gun, which had, however, this property: it hit its mark without fail whenever he shot with it. Then he set out and found himself in a very large forest, which he could not get to the end of in one day. When evening came, he sat down in a high tree to escape from the wild beasts. Toward midnight it seemed to him as if a tiny little light glimmered in the distance. Then he looked down through the branches toward it and kept well in mind where it was. But first he took off his hat and threw it down in the direction of the light, so that he could go to the hat as a mark when he had descended. Then he got down, went to his hat, put it on again, and went straight forward. The farther he went, the larger the light grew, and when he got close to it, he saw that it was an enormous fire and that three giants were sitting by it, who had an ox on the spit and were roasting it. After a while one of them said, “I must just taste whether the meat will soon be fit to eat,” and he pulled a piece off and was about to put it in his mouth when the huntsman shot it out of his hand. “Well, really,” said the giant, “if the wind has not blown the bit out of my hand!” and he helped himself to another. But when he was just about to bite into it, the huntsman again shot it away from him. At this the giant gave the one who was sitting next to him a box on the ear and cried angrily, “Why are you snatching my piece away from me?” “I have not snatched it away,” said the other. “A sharpshooter must have shot it away from you.” The giant took another piece but could not keep it in his hand, for the huntsman shot it out. Then the giant said, “That must be a good shot, to shoot the bit out of one’s very mouth. Such a one would be useful to us.” And he cried aloud, “Come here, you sharpshooter, sit down at the fire beside us and eat your fill. We will not hurt you, but if you will not come and we have to bring you by force, you are a lost man!” At this the youth went up to them and told them he was a skilled huntsman and that whatever he aimed at with his gun, he was certain to hit. Then they said that if he would go with them, he would be well treated, and they told him that outside the forest there was a great lake, behind which stood a tower, and in the tower was imprisoned a lovely princess, whom they wished very much to carry off. “Yes,” he said, “I will soon get her for you.” Then they added, “But there is still something else. There is a tiny little dog that begins to bark the moment anyone goes near, and as soon as it barks, everyone in the royal palace wakes up, and for this reason we cannot get there. Can you undertake to shoot it dead?” “Yes,” he said, “that will be a little bit of fun for me.” After this he got into a boat and rowed over the lake, and as soon as he landed, the little dog came running out and was about to bark, but the huntsman took his air gun and shot it dead. When the giants saw that, they rejoiced and thought they already had the king’s daughter safe, but the huntsman wished first to see how matters stood and told them that they must stay outside until he called them. Then he went into the castle, and all was perfectly quiet inside, and everyone was asleep. When he opened the door of the first room, a sword made of pure silver was hanging on the wall, and there was a golden star on it and the name of the king, and on a table near it lay a sealed letter, which he broke open. Inside it was written that whoever had the sword could kill everything that opposed him. So he took the sword from the wall, hung it at his side, and went onward. Then he entered the room where the king’s daughter was lying asleep, and she was so beautiful that he stood still and, holding his breath, looked at her. He thought to himself, “How can I give an innocent maiden into the power of the wild giants, who have evil in their minds?” He looked around further, and under the bed stood a pair of slippers. On the right one was her father’s name with a star, and on the left one her own name with a star. She also wore a great neckerchief of silk embroidered with gold, and on the right side was her father’s name, and on the left her own, all in golden letters. Then the huntsman took a pair of scissors, cut the right corner off, and put it in his knapsack, and then he also took the right slipper with the king’s name and thrust that in. Now the maiden still lay sleeping, and she was quite sewn into her nightdress, and he cut a morsel from this also and thrust it in with the rest, but he did it all without touching her. Then he went out and left her lying asleep, undisturbed, and when he came to the gate again, the giants were still standing outside waiting for him and expecting that he was bringing the princess. But he called to them to come in, for the maiden was already in their power. He said that he could not open the gate to them, but there was a hole through which they must creep. Then the first approached, and the huntsman wound the giant’s hair around his hand, pulled the head in, and cut it off with one stroke of his sword, and then drew the rest of him in. He called to the second and cut his head off likewise, and then he killed the third also, and he was well pleased that he had freed the beautiful maiden from her enemies. He cut out their tongues and put them in his knapsack. Then he thought, “I will go home to my father and let him see what I have already done, and afterward I will travel about the world. The luck that God is pleased to grant me will easily find me.”

But when the king in the castle awoke, he saw the three giants lying there dead. So he went into his daughter’s bedroom, woke her, and asked who could have killed the giants. Then she said, “Dear father, I do not know. I have been asleep.” But when she got up and was about to put on her slippers, the right one was gone, and when she looked at her neckerchief, it was cut, and the right corner was missing, and when she looked at her nightdress, a piece was cut out of it. The king summoned his whole court together, soldiers and everyone else who was there, and asked who had set his daughter at liberty and killed the giants. Now it happened that he had a captain, a one-eyed and hideous man, and the captain said that he had done it. Then the old king said that since he had accomplished this, he was to marry his daughter. But the maiden said, “Rather than marry him, dear father, I will go away into the world as far as my legs can carry me.” But the king said that if she would not marry him, she was to take off her royal garments and wear peasant’s clothing and go out, and that she was to go to a potter and begin a trade in earthenware vessels. So she took off her royal apparel, went to a potter, and borrowed crockery enough for a stall, and she also promised him that if she had sold it by the evening, she would pay for it. Then the king said she was to sit down in a corner with it and sell it, and he arranged with some peasants to drive over it with their carts, so that everything would be broken into a thousand pieces. So when the king’s daughter had set up her stall in the street, the carts came by and broke everything she had into tiny fragments. She began to weep and said, “Alas, how will I ever pay for the pots now?” The king had wished by this to force her to marry the captain, but instead of that she went to the potter again and asked him whether he would lend to her once more. He said no, that she must first pay for the things she had already had. Then she went to her father and cried and lamented and said she would go out into the world. Then he said, “I will have a little hut built for you in the forest outside, and in it you must stay all your life long and cook for everyone, and you must take no money for it.” When the hut was ready, a sign was hung on the door on which was written, “Today given, tomorrow sold.” There she remained a long time, and it was rumored throughout the world that a maiden was there who cooked without asking for payment, and that this was stated on a sign outside her door. The huntsman heard of it too and thought to himself, “That would suit you. You are poor and have no money.” So he took his air gun and his knapsack, in which all the things that he had earlier carried away with him from the castle as tokens of his truthfulness were still lying, and went into the forest and found the hut with the sign, “Today given, tomorrow sold.” He had put on the sword with which he had cut off the heads of the three giants, and so he entered the hut and ordered something to eat. He was charmed by the beautiful maiden, who was indeed as lovely as any picture. She asked him where he came from and where he was going, and he said, “I am roaming about the world.” Then she asked him where he had gotten the sword, for her father’s name was really on it. He asked her whether she was the king’s daughter. “Yes,” she answered. “With this sword,” he said, “I cut off the heads of three giants.” And he took their tongues out of his knapsack as proof. Then he also showed her the slipper and the corner of the neckerchief and the bit of the nightdress. At this she was overjoyed and said that he was the one who had delivered her. Then they went together to the old king and fetched him to the hut, and she led him into her room and told him that the huntsman was the man who had really set her free from the giants. And when the aged king saw all the proofs of this, he could no longer doubt and said that he was very glad to know how everything had happened and that the huntsman was to have her as his wife, at which the maiden was glad at heart. Then she dressed the huntsman as if he were a foreign lord, and the king ordered a feast to be prepared. When they went to the table, the captain sat on the left side of the king’s daughter, but the huntsman was on the right, and the captain thought he was a foreign lord who had come on a visit. When they had eaten and drunk, the old king said to the captain that he would set before him something that he must guess. “Suppose someone said that he had killed the three giants, and he were asked where the giants’ tongues were, and he were forced to go and look, and there were none in their heads. How could that happen?” The captain said, “Then they cannot have had any.” “Not so,” said the king. “Every animal has a tongue.” And then he asked likewise what anyone would deserve who made such an answer. The captain replied, “He ought to be torn in pieces.” Then the king said that he had pronounced his own sentence, and the captain was put in prison and then torn into four pieces, but the king’s daughter was married to the huntsman. After this he brought his father and mother, and they lived with their son in happiness, and after the death of the old king he received the kingdom.