Grimm's Household Tales

There was once a poor man who had four sons, and when they were grown up, he said to them, “My dear children, you must now go out into the world, for I have nothing to give you. So set out, go some distance away, learn a trade, and see how you can make your way.” So the four brothers took their sticks, said farewell to their father, and went through the town gate together. When they had traveled for some time, they came to a crossroads, where the road branched off in four different directions. Then the eldest said, “Here we must separate, but four years from today we will meet each other again at this spot, and in the meantime we will seek our fortunes.”

Then each of them went his own way, and the eldest met a man who asked him where he was going and what he intended to do. “I want to learn a trade,” he replied. Then the other said, “Come with me and be a thief.” “No,” he answered, “that is no longer regarded as a reputable trade, and the end of it is that one has to swing on the gallows.” “Oh,” said the man, “you need not be afraid of the gallows; I will teach you only to get such things as no other man could ever lay hands on, and no one will ever detect you.” So he allowed himself to be talked into it, and while he was with the man, he became an accomplished thief, and so dexterous that nothing was safe from him if he once desired to have it. The second brother met a man who asked him the same question: what he wanted to learn in the world. “I don’t know yet,” he replied. “Then come with me and be an astronomer; there is nothing better than that, for nothing is hidden from you.” He liked the idea and became such a skillful astronomer that when he had learned everything and was about to travel on, his master gave him a telescope and said to him, “With that you can see whatever takes place either on earth or in the heavens, and nothing can remain concealed from you.” A huntsman took the third brother into training and gave him such excellent instruction in everything that related to the huntsman’s craft that he became an experienced hunter. When he went away, his master gave him a gun and said, “It will never fail you; whatever you aim at, you are certain to hit.” The youngest brother also met a man who spoke to him and asked what his intentions were. “Would you not like to be a tailor?” the man said. “Not that I know of,” said the youth; “sitting doubled up from morning till night, driving the needle and the goose back and forth, is not to my taste.” “Oh, but you are speaking in ignorance,” answered the man; “with me you would learn a very different kind of tailoring, which is respectable and proper, and for the most part very honorable.” So he let himself be persuaded and went with the man and learned his art from the very beginning. When they parted, the man gave the youth a needle and said, “With this you can sew together whatever is given you, whether it is as soft as an egg or as hard as steel, and it will all become one piece of material, so that no seam will be visible.”

When the appointed four years were over, the four brothers arrived at the same time at the crossroads, embraced and kissed each other, and returned home to their father. “So now,” he said, quite delighted, “the wind has blown you back to me again.” They told him all that had happened to them and that each had learned his own trade. Now they were sitting just in front of the house under a large tree, and the father said, “I will put you all to the test and see what you can do.” Then he looked up and said to his second son, “Between two branches up at the top of this tree there is a chaffinch’s nest. Tell me how many eggs there are in it.” The astronomer took his telescope, looked up, and said, “There are five.” Then the father said to the eldest, “Fetch the eggs down without disturbing the bird that is sitting on them to hatch them.” The skillful thief climbed up and took the five eggs from beneath the bird, which never noticed what he was doing and remained quietly sitting where she was, and he brought them down to his father. The father took them and put one of them on each corner of the table and the fifth in the middle, and said to the huntsman, “With one shot you are to shoot the five eggs in two, through the middle.” The huntsman aimed and shot the eggs, all five as the father had desired, and that with one shot. He certainly must have had some of the powder for shooting around corners. “Now it’s your turn,” said the father to the fourth son; “you are to sew the eggs together again, and the young birds that are inside them as well, and you must do it so that they are not hurt by the shot.” The tailor brought his needle and sewed them as his father wished. When he had done this, the thief had to climb up the tree again, carry them to the nest, and put them back under the bird without her being aware of it. The bird sat for her full time, and after a few days the young ones crept out, and they had a red line around their necks where they had been sewn together by the tailor.

“Well,” said the old man to his sons, “I begin to think you are worth a great deal; you have used your time well and learned something good. I can’t say which of you deserves the most praise. That will be proved if you have an early opportunity to use your talents.” Not long after this, there was a great uproar in the country, for the King’s daughter had been carried off by a dragon. The King was greatly troubled about it, both day and night, and had it proclaimed that whoever brought her back would have her as his wife. The four brothers said to each other, “This would be a fine opportunity for us to show what we can do!” and they resolved to go out together and liberate the King’s daughter. “I will soon know where she is,” said the astronomer, and he looked through his telescope and said, “I see her already; she is far away from here on a rock in the sea, and the dragon is beside her, watching her.” Then he went to the King and asked for a ship for himself and his brothers, and sailed with them over the sea until they came to the rock. There the King’s daughter was sitting, and the dragon was lying asleep on her lap. The huntsman said, “I dare not fire; I would kill the beautiful maiden at the same time.” “Then I will try my art,” said the thief, and he crept there and stole her away from under the dragon, so quietly and dexterously that the monster never noticed it but went on snoring. Full of joy, they hurried off with her on board the ship and steered out into the open sea; but the dragon, who, when he awoke, had found no princess there, followed them and came snorting angrily through the air. Just as he was circling above the ship and about to descend on it, the huntsman shouldered his gun and shot him through the heart. The monster fell down dead, but he was so large and powerful that his fall shattered the whole ship. Fortunately, however, they took hold of a couple of planks and swam about on the wide sea. Then again they were in great peril, but the tailor, who was not idle, took his marvelous needle and with a few stitches sewed the planks together, and they sat on them and collected all the fragments of the vessel. Then he sewed these together so skillfully that in a very short time the ship was seaworthy once more, and they could go home again in safety.

When the King saw his daughter again, there was great rejoicing. He said to the four brothers, “One of you shall have her as his wife, but which of you it is to be you must settle among yourselves.” Then a heated contest arose among them, for each of them put forward his own claim. The astronomer said, “If I had not seen the princess, all your arts would have been useless, so she is mine.” The thief said, “What would have been the use of your seeing if I had not gotten her away from the dragon? So she is mine.” The huntsman said, “You and the princess and all of you would have been torn to pieces by the dragon if my bullet had not hit him, so she is mine.” The tailor said, “And if I, by my art, had not sewn the ship together again, you would all have been miserably drowned, so she is mine.” Then the King pronounced this judgment: “Each of you has an equal right, and since all of you cannot have the maiden, none of you shall have her, but I will give each of you half a kingdom as a reward.” The brothers were pleased with this decision and said, “It is better this way than for us to be at odds with each other.” Then each of them received half a kingdom, and they lived with their father in the greatest happiness as long as it pleased God.