Selected Tales of the Brothers Grimm(20)

That would be something for a guy like me, thought the little tailor. It isn’t every day you’re offered a pretty princess and half a kingdom. “Very well,” he replied, “I’ll put those giants in their place, and I don’t need the help of a hundred cavalrymen to do it – he who can fell seven with one blow needn’t worry about two.”

So the little tailor set out and the hundred cavalrymen followed him. When he got to the edge of the forest, he said to his retinue, “You just stay here, I’ll make short shrift of the giants on my own.” Then he leapt into the forest and peered to the right and to the left. A little while later he spotted the two giants – they lay asleep under a tree, snoring so hard the branches bent up and down. Without dawdling, the little tailor filled both his pockets with stones and climbed the tree. Once he’d reached the middle, he slipped down a branch, until he was seated directly over the sleepers, and let fall one stone after another on the chest of one of the giants. For the longest time the giant felt nothing, but finally he woke up, poked his partner, and said, “Why are you hitting me?”

“You’re dreaming,” said the other. “I haven’t touched you.”

As soon as they went back to sleep, the tailor tossed stones down on the second giant.

“What’s the idea!” the latter cried out. “Why are you throwing things at me?”



“I’m not throwing anything at you,” the other grumbled.

They squabbled for a while, but seeing as they were tired, they soon made up and their eyes fell shut again. Then the little tailor began his game again. He searched for the heaviest stone he could find and hurled it with all his might at the chest of the first giant.

“That does it!” he cried, and leaping up like a lunatic, shoved his partner so hard against the tree trunk that it trembled. The other giant responded in like manner, and they got so angry they tore up trees and pummeled each other until finally both lay dead on the ground. Whereupon the little tailor leapt down from his perch. “Lucky thing,” he said, “they didn’t tear up the tree in which I sat, or else I would have had to leap like a squirrel to another tree – but a guy like me has got to stay on his toes!” He pulled out his sword and dealt each of the giants a mighty stroke in the chest, whereupon he went back to the cavalrymen and reported, “The job is done, I finished them both off. Though they put up a fight and tore up trees to defend themselves, it was no use against a guy like me who can fell seven with one blow.”

“Aren’t you even wounded?” asked the cavalrymen.

“Not a scratch,” replied the tailor. “They didn’t ruffle a hair on my head.”

The cavalrymen did not want to believe him and rode into the forest. There they found the giants bathed in blood, and ’round about them lay the uprooted trees.

So the little tailor demanded his just reward from the king, who, however, regretted his promise and pondered how to get rid of the hero. “Before you can get my daughter and half of my kingdom,” said the king, “you must still accomplish one more heroic act. In the forest there is a unicorn running wild and wreaking havoc. You’ve got to catch it first.”

“I’m far less afraid of a unicorn than of two giants. Seven with one blow, that’s my motto.”

The little tailor took along an ax and a rope and went to the forest, and again he told his retinue to wait for him. He didn’t have to search for long before the unicorn came charging right at him as though it meant to spear him through with a single thrust.

“Not so fast,” he said, “you’ll have to do better than that.” Then he stood stock-still, waited until the beast was almost upon him, whereupon he spryly leapt behind a tree. The unicorn ran with all its might against the tree and got its horn stuck so fast in the trunk that it didn’t have the strength to pull it out again, and so was trapped. “Now I’ve got the bird in the bag,” said the tailor, stepping forth from behind the tree. First he tied the rope around the unicorn’s neck, then with a heave of his ax cut the horn from the tree, and once he was done he led the creature and brought it before the king.

But the king would still not grant him the promised reward and made a third demand. Before the wedding could take place the tailor had to catch the wild boar that was wreaking havoc in the forest. The king’s hunters would lend him a hand.

“Gladly,” said the tailor. “That’s child’s play.”

The little tailor did not take the hunters with him into the forest, and they were right pleased about that, for the wild boar had already more than once welcomed them with its tusks, so that they had no desire to stalk it. When the boar spotted the tailor, it lunged at him with foaming mouth and gnashing teeth and wanted to mow him down, but the fleet-footed hero slipped inside a chapel that stood nearby and promptly leapt back out a window. The boar ran in after him, but the little tailor hopped to it outside and slammed the door shut behind the boar, and being much too heavy and cumbersome to jump out the window, the seething beast was trapped inside. The little tailor called for the hunters to come see the captive creature with their own eyes, while the hero made tracks to the king, who now, whether he wanted to or not, had to keep his promise and hand over his daughter and half his kingdom. Had he known that it was no war hero but a lowly little tailor standing there before him, he would have regretted it even more. The wedding was held with great pomp and little joy, whereupon the tailor became a king.