Selected Tales of the Brothers Grimm(14)

“Sure, if you’ve got the money to wager.”

“I’ve got plenty of money,” he replied, “but your balls aren’t round enough.” So he took the skulls, screwed them in his lathe, and pressed them into shape. “Now they’ll roll better,” he said, “up an’ at ’em! Now let’s have some fun!” He played along and lost some of his money, but at the strike of twelve everything disappeared before his eyes. He lay down and fell fast asleep.

The following morning the king came and inquired, “So how did it go this time?”

“I played ninepins,” the boy replied, “and lost a penny or two.”

“Weren’t you afraid?”

“Not on your life,” he said. “I had a ball. Oh, if only I knew fear.”

The third night he sat himself down again on his bench and grumbled, “If only I knew fear!” When it got late, six big men came in carrying a coffin. Then the boy said, “By God, that must be my cousin who died a few days ago,” waved his finger, and called out, “Come, little cousin, come!” The men set the coffin down on the ground and the boy went up to it and lifted the lid – a dead man lay stretched out in it. He felt his face, but it was cold as ice. “Just wait,” he said, “I’ll warm you up a little.” He went to the fire, warmed his hands, and lay them on the face, but the dead man remained cold. Then he took him out of the coffin, sat himself down beside the fire, lay him on his lap, and rubbed his arms to make the blood flow again. When that didn’t work, it occurred to him that when two people lie in bed together they warm each other, so he brought him to the bed, pulled the covers up, and lay himself down beside him. After a while the dead man got warmed up and started moving around. Then the boy said, “See, cousin, imagine if I hadn’t warmed you!”



Whereupon the dead man sat up and said, “Now I’m going to strangle you!”

“What?” said the boy. “Is that how you show your gratitude? Back in your box you go!” And he picked him up, flung him back into the coffin, and shut the lid. Then the six men came and carried him off again. “It’s just no use,” said the boy to himself. “I’m not going to learn fear here.”

Then a man came in, he was bigger than all the others and looked awful. He was old and had a long white beard. “You poor fool,” he cried out, “you’re about to learn fear, prepare to die!”

“Not so fast,” replied the boy. “If I’m to die, I have to be there to experience it.”

“I’ll see to that all right,” said the fiend.

“Keep your shirt on, mister, don’t puff up your chest. I’m at least as strong as you and a whole lot stronger.”

“We’ll see about that,” said the old man. “If you’re stronger than me, I’ll let you live. Come on, let’s give it a go.”

So he led him down dark corridors to a blacksmith’s fire, took an ax, and with a single blow sunk the anvil into the ground.

“That’s nothing,” said the boy and went over to the other anvil – the old man went over to watch with his white beard hanging down. Then the boy grabbed and swung the ax, split the anvil in a single blow, and managed to catch hold of the beard. “Now I’ve got you,” said the boy, “and it’s your turn to die.” So he grabbed an iron bar and struck the old man until he whimpered and whined and begged him to stop, promising him great riches if he did. The boy pulled back the ax and let him loose.

Then the old man led him back to the castle and took him to a cellar with three chests full of gold, and said, “One chest belongs to the poor, one to the king, and the third one is yours.”

At the stroke of midnight, the demon disappeared, and the boy found himself standing alone in the dark. “I’ll find my way out all right,” he said to himself, tapped around him, and found his way back to the room, where he fell asleep by the fire.

The next morning the king came by again and said, “So, have you finally learned fear?”

“No,” he replied. “What’s the big deal? My dead cousin dropped by, and so did a bearded old man, who took me down to the cellar and showed me a stash of gold, but nobody taught me what fear is.”

Then spoke the king, “You freed the castle from its curse and so will have my daughter as your bride.”

“That’s all well and good,” replied the boy, “but I still haven’t learned what fear is.”

So the gold was fetched and the wedding celebrated, but much as he loved his bride and glad as he was, the young king kept saying, “If only I knew fear, if only I knew fear.” Which finally made the princess mad.