Grimm's Household Tales

A certain tailor who was great at boasting but poor at doing took it into his head to go abroad for a while and look about the world. As soon as he could manage it, he left his workshop and wandered on his way, over hill and dale, sometimes this way, sometimes that, but ever on and on. Once when he was out, he saw in the blue distance a steep hill, and behind it a tower reaching to the clouds that rose up out of a wild dark forest. “Thunder and lightning,” cried the tailor, “what is that?” As he was strongly goaded by curiosity, he went boldly toward it. But what made the tailor open his eyes and mouth when he came near it was to see that the tower had legs, leaped in one bound over the steep hill, and was now standing before him as an all-powerful giant. “What do you want here, you tiny fly’s leg?” cried the giant, in a voice that seemed to thunder on every side. The tailor whimpered, “I just want to look about and see if I can earn a bit of bread for myself in this forest.” “If that is what you are after,” said the giant, “you may have a place with me.” “If it must be, why not? What wages shall I receive?” “You shall hear what wages you shall have: every year three hundred and sixty-five days, and when it is a leap year, one more into the bargain. Does that suit you?” “All right,” replied the tailor, and he thought to himself, “A man must cut his coat according to his cloth. I will try to get away as fast as I can.” On this the giant said to him, “Go, little ragamuffin, and fetch me a jug of water.” “Had I not better bring the well itself at once, and the spring too?” asked the boaster, and he went with the pitcher to the water. “What! The well and the spring too,” growled the giant in his beard, for he was rather oafish and stupid, and he began to be afraid. “That rascal is no fool; he has a wizard in his body. Be on your guard, old Hans; this is no servant for you.” When the tailor had brought the water, the giant told him to go into the forest and cut a couple of blocks of wood and bring them back. “Why not the whole forest at once, with one stroke? The whole forest, young and old, with all that is there, both rough and smooth?” asked the little tailor, and he went to cut the wood. “What! The whole forest, young and old, with all that is there, both rough and smooth, and the well and its spring too,” growled the credulous giant in his beard, and he was still more terrified. “The rascal can do much more than bake apples and has a wizard in his body. Be on your guard, old Hans; this is no servant for you!” When the tailor had brought the wood, the giant ordered him to shoot two or three wild boars for supper. “Why not rather a thousand at one shot, and bring them all here?” inquired the ostentatious tailor. “What!” cried the timid giant in great terror. “Let well enough alone tonight, and lie down to rest.”

The giant was so terribly alarmed that he could not close an eye all night long, because he kept thinking about the best way to get rid of this accursed sorcerer of a servant. Time brings counsel. The next morning the giant and the tailor went to a marsh around which stood a number of willow trees. Then the giant said, “Listen, tailor, seat yourself on one of the willow branches. I long above all things to see if you are big enough to bend it down.” All at once the tailor was sitting on it, holding his breath and making himself so heavy that the bough bent down. When, however, he was compelled to draw breath, it flung him (for unfortunately he had not put his pressing iron in his pocket) so high into the air that he was never seen again, and this to the great delight of the giant. If the tailor has not fallen down again, he must still be hovering about in the air.