Grimm's Household Tales

There were once two brothers who both served as soldiers; one of them was rich, and the other poor. Then the poor one, to escape from his poverty, took off his soldier’s coat and became a farmer. He dug and hoed his bit of land and sowed it with turnip seed. The seed came up, and one turnip grew there that became large and vigorous and visibly grew bigger and bigger and seemed as if it would never stop growing, so that it might have been called the princess of turnips, for no such turnip had ever been seen before, and none like it will ever be seen again.

At length it was so enormous that by itself it filled a whole cart, and two oxen were required to pull it, and the farmer had not the least idea what he was to do with the turnip or whether it would be a fortune or a misfortune to him. At last he thought, “If you sell it, what will you get for it that is of any importance? And if you eat it yourself, why, the small turnips would do you just as much good. It would be better to take it to the King and make him a present of it.”

So he placed it on a cart, harnessed two oxen, took it to the palace, and presented it to the King. “What strange thing is this?” said the King. “Many wonderful things have come before my eyes, but never such a monster as this! From what seed can this have sprung? Or are you a child of luck who came upon it by chance?” “Ah, no!” said the farmer, “I am no child of luck. I am a poor soldier who, because he could no longer support himself, hung his soldier’s coat on a nail and took up farming. I have a brother who is rich and well known to you, Lord King, but I, because I have nothing, am forgotten by everyone.”

Then the King felt compassion for him and said, “You shall be raised from your poverty, and you shall have such gifts from me that you will be equal to your rich brother.” Then he bestowed on him much gold, and lands, and meadows, and herds, and made him immensely rich, so that the wealth of the other brother could not be compared with his. When the rich brother heard what the poor one had gained for himself with a single turnip, he envied him and thought in every way how he too could get hold of a similar piece of luck. He would, however, set about it in a much wiser way, and he took gold and horses and carried them to the King, feeling sure that the King would give him a much larger present in return. If his brother had received so much for one turnip, what would he not carry away in return for such beautiful things as these? The King accepted his present and said he had nothing to give him in return that was rarer and more excellent than the great turnip. So the rich man was obliged to put his brother’s turnip on a cart and have it taken to his home. When he got home, he did not know on whom to vent his rage and anger, until bad thoughts came to him, and he resolved to kill his brother. He hired murderers, who were to lie in ambush, and then he went to his brother and said, “Dear brother, I know of a hidden treasure. We will dig it up together and divide it between us.” The other agreed to this and accompanied him without suspicion. While they were on their way, however, the murderers fell on him, bound him, and were about to hang him from a tree. But just as they were doing this, loud singing and the sound of a horse’s hooves were heard in the distance. At this their hearts were filled with terror, and they pushed their prisoner head first into the sack, hung it on a branch, and took to flight. He, however, worked away up there until he had made a hole in the sack through which he could put his head. The man who was coming by was none other than a traveling student, a young fellow who rode on his way through the woods, joyfully singing his song. When the man who was up in the tree saw that someone was passing below him, he called out, “Good day! You have come at a lucky time.” The student looked around on every side but did not know where the voice came from. At last he said, “Who calls me?” Then an answer came from the top of the tree: “Raise your eyes; here I sit aloft in the Sack of Wisdom. In a short time I have learned great things; compared with this, all schools are a joke. In a very short time I shall have learned everything, and I shall come down wiser than all other men. I understand the stars, the signs of the Zodiac, the paths of the winds, the sand of the sea, the healing of illness, and the powers of all herbs, birds, and stones. If you were once inside it, you would feel what noble things come forth from the Sack of Knowledge.”

When the student heard all this, he was astonished and said, “Blessed is the hour in which I found you! May I not also enter the sack for a while?” The man above replied, as if unwillingly, “I will let you get into it for a short time, if you reward me and speak kindly to me, but you must wait an hour longer, for one thing remains that I must learn before I do it.” When the student had waited a while, he became impatient and begged to be allowed to get in at once; his thirst for knowledge was so very great. So the man above at last pretended to yield and said, “In order that I may come out of the house of knowledge, you must let it down by the rope, and then you shall enter it.” So the student let the sack down, untied it, and set him free, and then said, “Now pull me up at once,” and was about to get into the sack. “Halt!” said the other, “that won’t do,” and he took him by the head and put him into the sack upside down, fastened it, and hoisted the disciple of wisdom up the tree by the rope. Then he swung him in the air and said, “How are you doing, my dear fellow? Look, you already feel wisdom coming, and you are gaining valuable experience. Keep perfectly quiet until you become wiser.” After that he mounted the student’s horse and rode away, but in an hour’s time he sent someone to let the student out again.