Grimm's Household Tales

A peasant had a faithful horse that had grown old and could do no more work, so his master would no longer give him anything to eat. The master said, “I can certainly make no more use of you, but I still wish you well. If you prove yourself still strong enough to bring me a lion here, I will keep you, but for now, take yourself out of my stable.” With that he chased him into the open country. The horse was sad and went to the forest to seek a little protection there from the weather. Then the fox met him and said, “Why do you hang your head like that and go about all alone?” “Alas,” replied the horse, “avarice and fidelity do not dwell together in one house. My master has forgotten the services I have performed for him for so many years, and because I can no longer plow well, he refuses to give me any more food and has driven me out.” “Without giving you a chance?” asked the fox. “The chance was a bad one. He said that if I were still strong enough to bring him a lion, he would keep me, but he knows very well that I cannot do that.” The fox said, “I will help you. Just lie down, stretch yourself out as if you were dead, and do not move.” The horse did as the fox asked, and the fox went to the lion, whose den was not far away, and said, “A dead horse is lying out there. Just come with me, and you can have a rich meal.” The lion went with him, and when they were both standing by the horse, the fox said, “After all, it is not very comfortable for you here. I tell you what: I will fasten it to you by the tail, and then you can drag it into your cave and devour it in peace.”

This advice pleased the lion. He lay down, and so that the fox could tie the horse firmly to him, he kept quite still. But the fox tied the lion’s legs together with the horse’s tail and twisted and fastened everything so well and so strongly that no strength could break it. When he had finished his work, he tapped the horse on the shoulder and said, “Pull, white horse, pull.” Then the horse sprang up at once and pulled the lion away with him. The lion began to roar so loudly that all the birds in the forest flew up in terror, but the horse let him roar and pulled him and dragged him across the countryside to his master’s door. When the master saw the lion, he had a change of heart and said to the horse, “You will stay with me and live well,” and he gave him plenty to eat until he died.