Grimm's Household Tales

No one should ever say that a poor tailor cannot do great things and win high honors. All that is needed is for him to go to the right smithy and, most important, to have good luck. A polite, adroit tailor’s apprentice once went out traveling and came into a great forest, where, since he did not know the way, he got lost. Night fell, and there was nothing left for him to do but to look for a bed in this dismal solitude. He could certainly have found a good bed on the soft moss, but fear of wild beasts gave him no rest there, and at last he had to make up his mind to spend the night in a tree. He sought out a tall oak, climbed to the top of it, and thanked God that he had his pressing iron with him, for otherwise the wind that blew over the top of the tree would have carried him away.

After he had spent some hours in the darkness, not without fear and trembling, he saw the glimmer of a light a very short distance away. Thinking that a human dwelling might be there, where he would be better off than on the branches of a tree, he climbed carefully down and went toward the light. It guided him to a small hut woven together of reeds and rushes. He knocked boldly. The door opened, and by the light that came out he saw a little white-haired old man who wore a coat made of bits of colored cloth sewn together. “Who are you, and what do you want?” asked the man in a grumbling voice. “I am a poor tailor,” he answered, “whom night has overtaken here in the wilderness, and I earnestly beg you to take me into your hut until morning.” “Be on your way,” replied the old man in a surly voice. “I will have nothing to do with vagabonds. Look for shelter elsewhere.” After these words he was about to slip into his hut again, but the tailor held him so tightly by the corner of his coat and pleaded so piteously that the old man, who was not as ill-natured as he wished to appear, finally softened and took him into the hut with him. There he gave him something to eat and then pointed out a very good bed in a corner.

The weary tailor needed no rocking. He slept sweetly until morning, and even then would not have thought of getting up if a great noise had not awakened him. A violent sound of screaming and roaring forced its way through the thin walls of the hut. The tailor, full of unaccustomed courage, jumped up, put on his clothes in haste, and hurried out. Then, close by the hut, he saw a great black bull and a beautiful stag, which were just preparing for a violent struggle. They rushed at each other with such extreme rage that the ground shook with their trampling and the air resounded with their cries. For a long time it was uncertain which of the two would win. At last the stag thrust his horns into his adversary’s body, and the bull fell to the ground with a terrifying roar and was killed outright by a few strokes from the stag.

The tailor, who had watched the fight in astonishment, was still standing there motionless when the stag came bounding up to him at full speed and, before he could escape, swept him up on its great horns. He had little time to collect his thoughts, for the stag raced off over stump and stone, mountain and valley, wood and meadow. He held on to the tops of the horns with both hands and resigned himself to his fate. It seemed to him, however, just as if he were flying away. At last the stag stopped in front of a wall of rock and gently let the tailor down. The tailor, more dead than alive, needed longer than that to pull himself together. When he had somewhat recovered, the stag, which had remained standing beside him, pushed its horns with such force against a door in the rock that it sprang open. Flames of fire shot out, followed by a great cloud of smoke that hid the stag from his sight. The tailor did not know what to do or which way to turn to get out of this wilderness and back to human beings again. While he was standing there undecided, a voice sounded out of the rock and cried to him, “Enter without fear. No evil will befall you.” He hesitated, but, driven by a mysterious force, he obeyed the voice and went through the iron door into a large, spacious hall. Its ceiling, walls, and floor were made of shining, polished square stones, each of which was carved with letters unknown to him. He looked at everything with admiration and was on the point of going out again when he once more heard the voice say to him, “Step on the stone that lies in the middle of the hall, and great good fortune awaits you.”

His courage had already grown so great that he obeyed the order. The stone began to give way under his feet and sank slowly down into the depths. When it was firm again and the tailor looked around, he found himself in a hall that resembled the first one in size. Here, however, there was more to look at and to admire. Hollow places were cut into the walls, and in them stood vases of transparent glass filled with colored alcohol or with a bluish vapor. On the floor of the hall two great glass chests stood opposite each other, and they at once excited his curiosity. When he went up to one of them, he saw inside it a handsome structure like a castle, surrounded by farm buildings, stables, and barns, and a quantity of other good things. Everything was small but made exceedingly carefully and delicately, and it seemed to have been cut out with the greatest exactitude by a dexterous hand.

He might not have turned his eyes away from the contemplation of this rarity for some time if the voice had not once more made itself heard. It ordered him to turn around and look at the glass chest that stood opposite. How his admiration grew when he saw inside it a maiden of the greatest beauty! She lay as if asleep, wrapped in her long fair hair as in a precious mantle. Her eyes were tightly shut, but the brightness of her complexion and a ribbon that her breathing moved to and fro left no doubt that she was alive. The tailor was looking at the beauty with a beating heart when she suddenly opened her eyes and started up at the sight of him in joyful terror. “Righteous Heaven!” she cried. “My deliverance is at hand! Quick, quick, help me out of my prison! If you push back the bolt of this glass coffin, I will be free.” The tailor obeyed without delay, and she immediately lifted the glass lid, came out, and hurried into the corner of the hall, where she covered herself with a large cloak. Then she sat down on a stone, ordered the young man to come to her, and, after she had pressed a friendly kiss on his lips, said, “My long-desired deliverer, kind Heaven has guided you to me and put an end to my sorrows. On the very day when they end, your happiness will begin. You are the husband chosen for me by Heaven, and you will pass your life in unbroken joy, loved by me and rich to overflowing in every earthly possession. Sit down and listen to the story of my life:

“I am the daughter of a rich count. My parents died when I was still in my tender youth, and in their last will they entrusted me to my older brother, who brought me up. We loved each other so tenderly and were so alike in our way of thinking and in our inclinations that we both embraced the resolution never to marry but to stay together to the end of our lives. Our house was never without company; neighbors and friends visited us often, and we showed the greatest hospitality to everyone. So it happened one evening that a stranger came riding to our castle and, under the pretext of being unable to get on to the next place, begged for shelter for the night. We granted his request with ready courtesy, and during supper he entertained us in the most agreeable manner with conversation mixed with stories. My brother liked the stranger so much that he begged him to spend a couple of days with us, and after some hesitation the stranger consented. We did not rise from the table until late in the night. The stranger was shown to his room, and, because I was tired, I hurried to lay my limbs in my soft bed. I had slept only a short time when the sound of faint and delightful music awoke me. Because I could not imagine where it came from, I wanted to call my waiting maid, who slept in the next room, but to my astonishment I found that an unknown force had taken away my speech. I felt as if a mountain were weighing down my breast, and I was unable to make the slightest sound. Meanwhile, by the light of my night lamp, I saw the stranger enter my room through two doors that were firmly bolted. He came to me and said that by the magic arts that were at his command he had caused the lovely music to sound in order to awaken me, and that he now forced his way through all fastenings with the intention of offering me his hand and heart. My repugnance toward his magic arts, however, was so great that I did not deign to give him an answer. He stood for a time without moving, apparently waiting for a favorable decision, but since I continued to keep silent, he angrily declared that he would take revenge and find a way to punish my pride, and he left the room. I passed the night in the greatest disquiet and fell asleep only toward morning. When I awoke, I hurried to my brother but did not find him in his room, and the attendants told me that he had ridden out with the stranger to the hunt at daybreak.

“I immediately suspected that no good would come of it. I dressed quickly, ordered my riding horse to be saddled, and, accompanied by only one servant, rode at full gallop to the forest. The servant fell with his horse and could not follow me, for the horse had broken its foot. I continued on my way without stopping, and in a few minutes I saw the stranger coming toward me with a beautiful stag that he led by a cord. I asked him where he had left my brother and how he had come by this stag, from whose great eyes I saw tears flowing. Instead of answering me, he began to laugh loudly. I fell into a great rage at this, pulled out a pistol, and fired it at the monster, but the bullet rebounded from his breast and went into my horse’s head. I fell to the ground, and the stranger muttered some words that deprived me of consciousness.

“When I came to my senses again, I found myself in this underground cave in a glass coffin. The magician appeared once again and said that he had changed my brother into a stag; that he had diminished my castle, with all that belonged to it, in size by his arts and shut it up in the other glass chest; and that he had confined my people, who had all been turned into smoke, in glass bottles. He told me that if I now complied with his wish, it would be easy for him to put everything back in its former state, since he had nothing to do but open the vessels, and everything would return once more to its natural form. I answered him as little as I had done the first time. He vanished and left me in my prison, where a deep sleep came over me. Among the visions that passed before my eyes, the most comforting was the one in which a young man came and set me free, and when I opened my eyes today, I saw you and found my dream fulfilled. Help me to accomplish the other things that happened in those visions. The first is that we lift the glass chest in which my castle is enclosed onto that broad stone.”

As soon as the stone was loaded, it began to rise on high with the maiden and the young man, and it went up through the opening in the ceiling into the upper hall, from where they could then easily reach the open air. Here the maiden opened the lid, and it was marvelous to see how the castle, the houses, and the farm buildings that were enclosed in the chest stretched out and grew to their natural size with the greatest rapidity. After this, the maiden and the tailor returned to the cave beneath the earth and had the vessels that were filled with smoke carried up by the stone. The maiden had scarcely opened the bottles when the blue smoke rushed out and changed into living men, in whom she recognized her servants and her people. Her joy increased still more when her brother, who had killed the magician while the magician was in the form of the bull, came out of the forest toward them in his human form. On that very day the maiden, in accordance with her promise, gave her hand at the altar to the lucky tailor.