Grimm's Household Tales

Once upon a time there was a princess who was extremely proud. If a suitor came, she gave him some riddle to guess, and if he could not find the answer, he was sent away with contempt. She also had it made known that whoever solved her riddle would marry her, no matter who he might be. At length three tailors met one another. The two eldest of them thought they had done so many skillful pieces of work successfully that they could not fail to succeed in this also. The third was a little useless vagabond who did not even know his trade but thought he must have some luck in this venture, for where else was it to come from? Then the other two said to him, “Just stay at home; you cannot do much with your little bit of understanding.” The little tailor, however, did not let himself be discouraged. He said that for once he had set his head to work on this and would manage well enough, and he set out as if the whole world were his.

All three announced themselves to the princess and said that she should propound her riddle to them, and that the right persons had now come, whose understandings were so fine that they could be threaded in a needle. Then the princess said, “I have two kinds of hair on my head. What color is it?” “If that is all,” said the first, “it must be black and white, like the cloth that is called pepper and salt.” The princess said, “You guessed wrong. Let the second answer.” Then the second said, “If it is not black and white, then it is brown and red, like my father’s company coat.” “You guessed wrong,” said the princess. “Let the third give the answer, for I see very well that he knows it for certain.” Then the little tailor stepped boldly forward and said, “The princess has silver hair and golden hair on her head, and those are the two different colors.” When the princess heard that, she turned pale and nearly fell down with terror, for the little tailor had guessed her riddle, and she had firmly believed that no man on earth could discover it. When her courage returned, she said, “You have not won me by that yet; there is still something else that you must do. Below, in the stable, is a bear with which you will spend the night, and when I get up in the morning, if you are still alive, you will marry me.” She expected, however, that she would thus get rid of the tailor, for the bear had never yet left anyone alive who had fallen into his clutches. The little tailor did not let himself be frightened away but was greatly delighted and said, “Boldly ventured is half won.”

When evening came, our little tailor was taken down to the bear. The bear was about to set upon the little fellow at once and give him a hearty welcome with his paws. “Softly, softly,” said the little tailor, “I will soon make you quiet.” Then, quite composedly and as if he did not have a care in the world, he took some nuts out of his pocket, cracked them, and ate the kernels. When the bear saw that, he was seized with a desire to have some nuts too. The tailor felt around in his pockets and handed him a handful; they were not nuts, however, but pebbles. The bear put them in his mouth but could get nothing out of them, no matter how hard he bit. “Eh!” he thought, “what a stupid blockhead I am! I cannot even crack a nut!” and then he said to the tailor, “Here, crack the nuts for me.” “There, see what a stupid fellow you are!” said the little tailor, “to have such a great mouth and not be able to crack a small nut!” Then he took the pebble and nimbly put a nut in his mouth in its place, and—crack!—it was in two! “I must try the thing again,” said the bear. “When I watch you, I think I ought to be able to do it too.” So the tailor once more gave him a pebble, and the bear tried and tried to bite into it with all the strength of his body. But no one will suppose that he succeeded. When that was over, the tailor took out a violin from beneath his coat and played a piece on it for himself. When the bear heard the music, he could not help beginning to dance, and when he had danced for a while, he liked it so much that he said to the little tailor, “Listen. Is the fiddle heavy?” “Light enough for a child. Look, with the left hand I lay my fingers on it, and with the right hand I stroke it with the bow, and then it goes merrily, hop sa sa vivallalera!” “So,” said the bear, “fiddling is a thing I would like to understand too, so that I could dance whenever I felt like it. What do you think of that? Will you give me lessons?” “With all my heart,” said the tailor, “if you have a talent for it. But just let me see your claws. They are terribly long; I must cut your nails a little.” Then a vise was brought, and the bear put his claws in it, and the little tailor screwed it tight and said, “Now wait until I come with the scissors.” He let the bear growl as much as he liked, lay down in the corner on a bundle of straw, and fell asleep.

When the princess heard the bear growling so fiercely during the night, she believed that he was growling for joy and had finished off the tailor. In the morning she got up carefree and happy, but when she peeped into the stable, the tailor stood cheerfully before her and was as healthy as a fish in water. Now she could not say another word against the wedding because she had given a promise before everyone, and the King ordered a carriage to be brought in which she was to ride to church with the tailor, and there she was to be married. When they had gotten into the carriage, the other two tailors, who had false hearts and envied his good fortune, went into the stable and unscrewed the bear again. The bear, in great fury, ran after the carriage. The princess heard him snorting and growling. She was terrified, and she cried, “Ah, the bear is behind us and wants to get you!” The tailor was quick: he stood on his head, stuck his legs out of the window, and cried, “Do you see the vise? If you do not go away, you will be put into it again.” When the bear saw that, he turned around and ran away. The tailor rode quietly to church, and the princess was married to him at once, and he lived with her as happy as a woodlark. Whoever does not believe this must pay a thaler.