Grimm's Household Tales

Once upon a time there was a soldier who had served the King faithfully for many years, but when the war came to an end, he could serve no longer because of the many wounds that he had received. The King said to him, “You may return to your home. I need you no longer, and you will not receive any more money, for only someone who renders me service receives wages.” Then the soldier, who did not know how to earn a living, went away greatly troubled and walked the whole day, until in the evening he entered a forest. When darkness came on, he saw a light, went up to it, and came to a house where a witch lived. “Please give me lodging for one night, and a little to eat and drink,” he said to her, “or I will starve.” “Oho!” she answered. “Who gives anything to a runaway soldier? Yet I will be compassionate and take you in, if you will do what I wish.” “What do you wish?” said the soldier. “That you dig all around my garden for me tomorrow.” The soldier consented, and the next day he labored with all his strength but could not finish by the evening. “I see well enough,” said the witch, “that you can do no more today, but I will keep you yet another night, and in payment for it you must chop me a load of wood tomorrow and make it small.” The soldier spent the whole day doing it, and in the evening the witch proposed that he stay one night more. “Tomorrow you only have to do a very trifling piece of work for me. Behind my house there is an old dry well, into which my light has fallen. It burns blue and never goes out, and you will bring it up again for me.” The next day the old woman took him to the well and let him down in a basket. He found the blue light and made a signal to her to draw him up again. She did draw him up, but when he came near the edge, she stretched down her hand and wanted to take the blue light away from him. “No,” he said, perceiving her evil intention, “I will not give you the light until I am standing with both feet on the ground.” The witch flew into a rage, let him down again into the well, and went away.

The poor soldier fell without injury on the moist ground, and the blue light went on burning, but of what use was that to him? He saw very well that he could not escape death. He sat for a while very sorrowfully; then suddenly he felt around in his pocket and found his tobacco pipe, which was still half full. “This will be my last pleasure,” he thought. He pulled it out, lit it at the blue light, and began to smoke. When the smoke had circled around the cavern, suddenly a little black dwarf stood before him and said, “Lord, what are your commands?” “What commands do I have to give you?” replied the soldier, greatly astonished. “I must do everything you command me,” said the little man. “Good,” said the soldier. “Then, first of all, help me out of this well.” The little man took him by the hand and led him through an underground passage, but the soldier did not forget to take the blue light with him. On the way the dwarf showed him the treasures that the witch had collected and hidden there, and the soldier took as much gold as he could carry. When he was above ground, he said to the little man, “Now go and bind the old witch and carry her before the judge.” In a short time she came riding by with frightful cries, as swift as the wind, on a wild tomcat, and it was not long after that before the little man reappeared. “It is all done,” he said, “and the witch is already hanging on the gallows. What further commands does my lord have?” inquired the dwarf. “At this moment, none,” answered the soldier. “You may return home, but be at hand immediately if I summon you.” “Nothing more is needed than that you light your pipe at the blue light, and I will appear before you at once.” Then he vanished from his sight.

The soldier returned to the town from which he had come. He went to the best inn, ordered himself handsome clothes, and then told the landlord to furnish a room for him as handsomely as possible. When it was ready and the soldier had taken possession of it, he summoned the little black man and said, “I have served the King faithfully, but he has dismissed me and left me to go hungry, and now I want to take my revenge.” “What am I to do?” asked the little man. “Late at night, when the King’s daughter is in bed, bring her here in her sleep. She will do servant’s work for me.” The little man said, “That is an easy thing for me to do, but a very dangerous thing for you, for if it is discovered, you will fare badly.” When twelve o’clock had struck, the door sprang open, and the little man carried in the princess. “Aha! Are you there?” cried the soldier. “Get to your work at once! Fetch the broom and sweep the room.” When she had done this, he ordered her to come to his chair, and then he stretched out his feet and said, “Pull off my boots for me,” and then he threw them in her face and made her pick them up again and clean and polish them. She, however, did everything he told her, without opposition, silently and with half-shut eyes. When the first cock crowed, the little man carried her back to the royal palace and laid her in her bed.

The next morning, when the princess got up, she went to her father and told him that she had had a very strange dream. “I was carried through the streets with the speed of lightning,” she said, “and taken into a soldier’s room, and I had to wait on him like a servant, sweep his room, clean his boots, and do all kinds of menial work. It was only a dream, and yet I am just as tired as if I really had done everything.” “The dream may have been true,” said the King. “I will give you a piece of advice. Fill your pocket full of peas and make a small hole in it, and then if you are carried away again, they will fall out and leave a track in the streets.” But unseen by the King, the little man was standing beside him when he said that and heard everything. At night, when the sleeping princess was again carried through the streets, some peas certainly did fall out of her pocket, but they left no track, for the crafty little man had scattered peas just beforehand in every street there was. And again the princess was compelled to do servant’s work until cockcrow.

The next morning the King sent his people out to look for the track, but it was all in vain, for in every street poor children were sitting, picking up peas and saying, “It must have rained peas last night.” “We must think of something else,” said the King. “Keep your shoes on when you go to bed, and before you come back from the place where you are taken, hide one of them there. I will soon manage to find it.” The little black man heard this plot, and at night, when the soldier again ordered him to bring the princess, he revealed it to him and told him that he knew of no way to counteract this trick, and that if the shoe were found in the soldier’s house, it would go badly with him. “Do what I tell you,” replied the soldier, and on this third night the princess was again obliged to work like a servant, but before she went away, she hid her shoe under the bed.

The next morning the King had the entire town searched for his daughter’s shoe. It was found at the soldier’s house, and the soldier himself, who at the entreaty of the dwarf had gone outside the gate, was soon brought back and thrown into prison. In his flight he had forgotten the most valuable things he had, the blue light and the gold, and had only one ducat in his pocket. And now, loaded with chains, he was standing at the window of his dungeon when he happened to see one of his comrades passing by. The soldier tapped on the pane of glass, and when this man came up, he said to him, “Be so kind as to fetch me the small bundle I left lying in the inn, and I will give you a ducat for doing it.” His comrade ran there and brought him what he wanted. As soon as the soldier was alone again, he lit his pipe and summoned the little black man. “Have no fear,” said the latter to his master. “Go wherever they take you, and let them do what they will, but take the blue light with you.” The next day the soldier was tried, and though he had done nothing wicked, the judge condemned him to death. When he was led out to die, he begged a last favor of the King. “What is it?” asked the King. “That I may smoke one more pipe on my way.” “You may smoke three,” answered the King, “but do not imagine that I will spare your life.” Then the soldier pulled out his pipe and lit it at the blue light, and as soon as a few wreaths of smoke had risen, the little man was there with a small cudgel in his hand and said, “What does my lord command?” “Strike to the ground that false judge there and his constable, and do not spare the King, who has treated me so badly.” Then the little man fell on them like lightning, darting this way and that, and whoever was so much as touched by his cudgel fell to the ground and did not venture to stir again. The King was terrified; he threw himself on the soldier’s mercy, and merely to be allowed to live at all, he gave him his kingdom as his own and the princess as his wife.