The Brave Little Tailor

One summer's morning a little tailor sat on his table by the window. He was in good spirits and sewed with all his might. Then a peasant woman came down the street calling, "Good jam for sale! Good jam for sale!" This rang sweetly in the little tailor's ears, and he poked his slender head out of the window and called, "Up here, dear woman; here you can be rid of your goods." The woman climbed the three flights of stairs to the tailor with her heavy basket, and she had to unpack every one of her pots in front of him. He inspected them all, lifted them up, held his nose to them, and at last said, "The jam seems good to me. Weigh me out four ounces, dear woman — and if it comes to a quarter pound, that makes no difference to me." The woman, who had hoped to make a good sale, gave him what he asked, but she went away quite cross and grumbling.

"Now, God bless this jam for me," cried the little tailor, "and give me strength and vigor." He fetched the bread from the cupboard, cut himself a slice right across the whole loaf, and spread the jam over it. "That won't taste bitter," he said, "but first I'll finish this jacket before I take a bite." He laid the bread beside him, sewed on, and in his joy made bigger and bigger stitches.

Meanwhile the smell of the sweet jam rose up to the wall, where a great many flies were sitting, and they were drawn to it and came down upon it in swarms. "Well now, who invited you?" said the little tailor, and drove the uninvited guests away. But the flies, who understood no German, would not be turned aside; they came back in ever greater companies. At last the little tailor lost all patience, reached into the nook under his table for a scrap of cloth, and — "Wait, I'll give it to you!" — struck them without mercy. When he drew the cloth away and counted, no fewer than seven lay dead before him with their legs stretched out. "What a fellow you are!" he said, and could not help admiring his own bravery. "The whole town shall hear of this!" And in his haste the little tailor cut himself a belt, stitched it, and embroidered on it in large letters: "Seven at one stroke!" "The town — bah!" he went on. "The whole world shall hear of it!" And his heart wagged for joy like a little lamb's tail.

The tailor buckled the belt around his waist and set out to see the world, for he thought his workshop was too small for his valor. Before he left, he searched all through the house to see if there was anything he could take along, but he found nothing except an old cheese, which he tucked into his pocket. Just outside the gate he noticed a bird that had caught itself in a thicket, and it went into his pocket along with the cheese. Then he took to the road boldly, and since he was light and nimble, he felt no weariness.

The road led him up a mountain, and when he had reached the highest peak, there sat a mighty giant, gazing about him quite at his ease. The little tailor went up to him boldly, spoke to him, and said, "Good day, comrade. So there you sit, surveying the whole wide world? I'm just on my way out into it myself, to try my luck. Have you a mind to come along?" The giant looked at the tailor with contempt and said, "You ragamuffin! You miserable little creature!"

"Is that so?" answered the little tailor, and he unbuttoned his coat and showed the giant his belt. "There you can read what kind of man I am." The giant read, "Seven at one stroke," and supposed these were men the tailor had slain, and he began to feel a little respect for the small fellow. Still, he wanted to test him first. He took a stone in his hand and squeezed it until water dripped from it. "Do that too," said the giant, "if you have any strength." "Is that all?" said the little tailor. "For one of us that's mere child's play." He reached into his pocket, took out the soft cheese, and squeezed it until the liquid ran out. "There now," he said, "that was a little better, wasn't it?"

The giant did not know what to say, and could hardly believe it of the little man. Then the giant picked up a stone and threw it so high that the eye could barely follow it. "Now, you little dab of a man, do that too." "Well thrown," said the tailor, "but the stone had to fall back to the ground after all. I'll throw you one that never comes back." He reached into his pocket, took out the bird, and flung it into the air. The bird, delighted with its freedom, rose up, flew away, and did not come back. "How do you like that little trick, comrade?" asked the tailor. "Throw you can," said the giant, "but now let's see whether you can carry something proper."

He led the little tailor to a mighty oak tree that lay felled on the ground and said, "If you're strong enough, help me carry this tree out of the forest." "Gladly," answered the little man. "Just take the trunk on your shoulder, and I'll lift and carry the branches with all the twigs — that's the heaviest part, after all." The giant took the trunk on his shoulder, but the tailor sat himself down on a branch, and the giant, who could not look behind him, had to carry the whole tree, and the little tailor into the bargain. Back there the tailor was merry and cheerful, and he whistled the little song, "Three tailors rode out through the gate," as though carrying the tree were child's play. The giant, after he had dragged the heavy load a good part of the way, could go no further and cried, "Listen, I have to let the tree fall!" The tailor sprang nimbly down, seized the tree with both arms as though he had been carrying it, and said to the giant, "A great big fellow like you, and you can't even carry the tree!"

They went on together, and as they passed a cherry tree, the giant took hold of the crown, where the ripest fruit was hanging, bent it down, put it into the tailor's hand, and told him to eat. But the little tailor was much too weak to hold the tree, and when the giant let go, the tree sprang up and the tailor was flung into the air along with it. When he had come down again without harm, the giant said, "What's this? Aren't you strong enough to hold a slender little branch?" "There's no lack of strength," answered the little tailor. "Do you think that's anything for a man who has struck seven at one stroke? I jumped over the tree because the hunters down there are shooting into the thicket. Jump after me, if you can." The giant made the attempt but could not clear the tree, and stayed hanging in the branches — so here too the little tailor kept the upper hand.

The giant said, "If you're such a brave fellow, come along to our cave and spend the night with us." The little tailor was willing and followed him. When they reached the cave, other giants were sitting there by the fire, and each one held a roasted sheep in his hand and was eating from it. The little tailor looked around and thought, "It's much roomier here than in my workshop." The giant showed him a bed and told him to lie down and sleep. But the bed was too big for the little tailor; he did not lie down in it, but crept into a corner instead. When it was midnight, and the giant thought the little tailor was fast asleep, he got up, took a great iron bar, and with one blow cut clean through the bed, sure that he had finished off the little grasshopper. At the earliest dawn the giants went off into the forest, having forgotten the little tailor entirely — when all at once he came strolling up, merry and bold as could be. The giants were terrified, afraid he would strike them all dead, and ran away in great haste.

The little tailor went on, always following his own pointed nose. After he had wandered a long time, he came to the courtyard of a royal palace, and since he felt weary, he lay down on the grass and fell asleep. While he lay there, people came and looked him over from every side, and read on his belt, "Seven at one stroke." "Ah," they said, "what does this great warrior want here in the middle of peacetime? He must be a mighty lord." They went and reported him to the king, and gave it as their opinion that if war broke out, this would be an important and useful man who must on no account be allowed to leave. The advice pleased the king, and he sent one of his courtiers to the little tailor, to offer him military service when he woke. The messenger stood beside the sleeper, waited until he stretched his limbs and opened his eyes, and then laid the offer before him. "That is the very reason I came here," he answered. "I am ready to enter the king's service." So he was received with honor, and a house of his own was assigned to him.

But the soldiers were set against the little tailor and wished him a thousand miles away. "What will come of this?" they said among themselves. "If we get into a quarrel with him and he lays about him, seven of us will fall at every stroke. Not one of us can stand against him." So they came to a decision, went in a body to the king, and asked to be discharged. "We are not made," they said, "to stay beside a man who strikes seven at one stroke." The king was sorry to lose all his faithful servants for the sake of one man; he wished he had never set eyes on the tailor and would gladly have been rid of him again. But he did not dare dismiss him, for he was afraid the tailor might strike him and all his people dead and set himself upon the royal throne. He turned it over in his mind for a long while, and at last he found a plan.

He sent to the little tailor with this message: since he was such a great warrior, the king wished to make him an offer. In a forest of his kingdom lived two giants who did great harm with their robbing, murdering, burning, and ravaging, and no one could go near them without risking his life. If the tailor could overcome and kill these two giants, the king would give him his only daughter in marriage and half the kingdom as her dowry, and a hundred horsemen should ride with him to lend their aid. "That's just the thing for a man like me," thought the little tailor. "A beautiful princess and half a kingdom aren't offered to you every day." "Oh yes," he replied, "I'll soon tame those giants, and I don't need the hundred horsemen to do it. A man who strikes seven at one stroke has nothing to fear from two."

The little tailor set out, and the hundred horsemen followed him. When he came to the edge of the forest, he said to his companions, "Just stay here and wait; I'll finish off the giants myself." Then he sprang into the forest and looked about, right and left. After a little while he caught sight of the two giants. They lay sleeping under a tree and snored so hard that the branches swung up and down. The little tailor, not one to be idle, gathered both his pockets full of stones and climbed up the tree with them. When he was halfway up, he slid along a branch until he sat right above the sleepers, and then let one stone after another fall on the chest of one of the giants. For a long while the giant felt nothing, but at last he woke, nudged his companion, and said, "Why are you hitting me?" "You're dreaming," said the other. "I'm not hitting you." They lay down to sleep again, and then the tailor threw a stone down on the second one. "What's this?" cried the second. "Why are you pelting me?" "I'm not pelting you," growled the first. They quarreled about it for a while, but since they were tired, they let it be, and their eyes closed once more.

Then the little tailor began his game again, picked out the biggest stone, and threw it with all his might onto the chest of the first giant. "That's too much!" he screamed, and sprang up like a madman and shoved his companion against the tree so hard that it shook. The other paid him back in the same coin, and they flew into such a rage that they tore up trees and battered each other, until at last they both fell dead to the ground at the same moment. Then the little tailor jumped down. "It's a lucky thing," he said, "that they didn't tear up the tree I was sitting in, or I'd have had to spring to another one like a squirrel — but then, one of us is quick on his feet." He drew his sword and gave each of them a couple of good thrusts in the chest, then went out to the horsemen and said, "The work is done. I've finished off both of them — but it was hard going. In their distress they tore up whole trees and defended themselves with them, but none of that is any use when a man like me comes along, who strikes seven at one stroke." "Aren't you wounded?" the horsemen asked. "No fear of that," answered the tailor. "They haven't bent a single hair on my head." The horsemen would not believe him and rode into the forest, and there they found the giants swimming in their own blood, with the uprooted trees lying all around.

The little tailor demanded of the king the promised reward, but the king now regretted his promise and pondered once more how he might rid himself of the hero. "Before you receive my daughter and half the kingdom," he said to him, "you must perform one more heroic deed. In the forest roams a unicorn that does great harm, and you must catch it first." "I fear one unicorn even less than two giants. Seven at one stroke — that's my sort of business." He took a rope and an axe with him, went out into the forest, and once again told those sent with him to wait outside. He did not have to search long. The unicorn soon came along and charged straight at the tailor, as though it meant to spear him on its horn without ceremony. "Gently, gently," he said. "It can't be done as fast as that." He stood still and waited until the beast was quite close, and then sprang nimbly behind the tree. The unicorn ran against the tree with all its force and drove its horn so fast into the trunk that it had not the strength to pull it out again, and so it was caught. "Now I've got my bird," said the tailor. He came out from behind the tree, put the rope around the unicorn's neck, then hewed the horn out of the tree with his axe, and when all was in order, he led the beast away and brought it to the king.

Still the king would not grant him the promised reward, but made a third demand. Before the wedding, the tailor was to catch a wild boar that was doing great damage in the forest, and the huntsmen should lend him their aid. "Gladly," said the tailor. "That's child's play." He did not take the huntsmen with him into the forest, and they were well content that he did not, for the boar had received them more than once in such a way that they had no wish to lie in wait for it. When the boar caught sight of the tailor, it ran at him with foaming mouth and gnashing tusks, meaning to throw him to the ground; but the nimble hero sprang into a chapel that stood nearby, and in a single bound out again through the window. The boar came running in after him, but the tailor skipped around the outside and slammed the door behind it. There the raging beast was trapped, far too heavy and clumsy to leap out through the window. The little tailor called the huntsmen over so that they might see the prisoner with their own eyes. Then the hero went to the king, who now — whether he liked it or not — had to keep his promise and hand over his daughter and half the kingdom. Had he known that it was no warrior hero, but only a little tailor, who stood before him, it would have grieved his heart still more. So the wedding was held with great splendor and little joy, and out of a tailor a king was made.

Some time later the young queen heard her husband talking in his sleep at night: "Boy, make me the doublet and patch me the breeches, or I'll rap the yardstick over your ears." From this she guessed in what back street the young lord had been born, and the next morning she went to her father with her sorrow and begged him to help her be free of her husband, who was nothing but a tailor. The king comforted her and said, "Leave your bedroom door open tonight. My servants will stand outside, and when he has fallen asleep they'll go in, tie him up, and carry him aboard a ship that will take him off into the wide world." The wife was satisfied with this. But the king's armor-bearer, who had heard the whole thing, was fond of the young lord and reported the entire plot to him. "I'll bolt the door on that scheme," said the little tailor.

That evening he went to bed with his wife at the usual time, and when she thought he had fallen asleep, she got up, opened the door, and lay down again. But the little tailor, who was only pretending to sleep, began to cry out in a clear voice: "Boy, make me the doublet and patch me the breeches, or I'll rap the yardstick over your ears! I have struck seven at one stroke, killed two giants, led away a unicorn, and caught a wild boar — and am I to be afraid of those standing outside my chamber?" When the men heard the tailor speak like this, a great fear came over them, and they ran as though the wild host were at their heels, and none of them dared venture anything more against him. So the little tailor was, and remained, a king all the days of his life.