Household Tales, Jacob Grimm [the unexpected everything txt] 📗

that, the fishes came and served themselves up. “And when I got to the fifth flight, I peeped through the keyhole of a door, and there, godfather, I saw you, and you had long, long horns.”

“Oh, that is a lie!” The man became alarmed, and ran out, and if he had not, who knows what the godfather would have done to him.

Frau Trude

There was once a little girl who was obstinate and inquisitive, and when her parents told her to do anything, she did not obey them, so how could she fare well? One day she said to her parents, “I have heard so much of Frau Trude, I will go to her some day. People say that everything about her does look so strange, and that there are such odd things in her house, that I have become quite curious!”

Her parents absolutely forbade her, and said, “Frau Trude is a bad woman, who does wicked things, and if thou goest to her; thou art no longer our child.” But the maiden did not let herself be turned aside by her parent’s prohibition, and still went to Frau Trude.

And when she got to her, Frau Trude said, “Why art thou so pale?”

“Ah,” she replied, and her whole body trembled, “I have been so terrified at what I have seen.”

“What hast thou seen?”

“I saw a black man on your steps.”

“That was a collier.”

“Then I saw a green man.”

“That was a huntsman.”

“After that I saw a blood-red man.”

“That was a butcher.”

“Ah, Frau Trude, I was terrified; I looked through the window and saw not you, but, as I verily believe, the devil himself with a head of fire.”

“Oho!” said she, “then thou hast seen the witch in her proper costume. I have been waiting for thee, and wanting thee a long time already; thou shalt give me some light.” Then she changed the girl into a block of wood, and threw it into the fire. And when it was in full blaze she sat down close to it, and warmed herself by it, and said, “That shines bright for once in a way.”

Godfather Death

A poor man had twelve children and was forced to work night and day to give them even bread. When therefore the thirteenth came into the world, he knew not what to do in his trouble, but ran out into the great highway, and resolved to ask the first person whom he met to be godfather. The first to meet him was the good God who already knew what filled his heart, and said to him, “Poor man, I pity thee. I will hold thy child at its christening, and will take charge of it and make it happy on earth.”

The man said, “Who art thou?”

“I am God.”

“Then I do not desire to have thee for a godfather,” said the man; “thou givest to the rich, and leavest the poor to hunger.” Thus spoke the man, for he did not know how wisely God apportions riches and poverty. He turned therefore away from the Lord, and went farther.

Then the Devil came to him and said, “What seekest thou? If thou wilt take me as a godfather for thy child, I will give him gold in plenty and all the joys of the world as well.”

The man asked, “Who art thou?”

“I am the Devil.”

“Then I do not desire to have thee for godfather,” said the man; “thou deceivest men and leadest them astray.”

He went onwards, and then came Death striding up to him with withered legs, and said, “Take me as godfather.”

The man asked, “Who art thou?”

“I am Death, and I make all equal.”

Then said the man, “Thou art the right one, thou takest the rich as well as the poor, without distinction; thou shalt be godfather.”

Death answered, “I will make thy child rich and famous, for he who has me for a friend can lack nothing.”

The man said, “Next Sunday is the christening; be there at the right time.”

Death appeared as he had promised, and stood godfather quite in the usual way.

When the boy had grown up, his godfather one day appeared and bade him go with him. He led him forth into a forest, and showed him a herb which grew there, and said, “Now shalt thou receive thy godfather’s present. I make thee a celebrated physician. When thou art called to a patient, I will always appear to thee. If I stand by the head of the sick man, thou mayst say with confidence that thou wilt make him well again, and if thou givest him of this herb he will recover; but if I stand by the patient’s feet, he is mine, and thou must say that all remedies are in vain, and that no physician in the world could save him. But beware of using the herb against my will, or it might fare ill with thee.”

It was not long before the youth was the most famous physician in the whole world. “He had only to look at the patient and he knew his condition at once, and if he would recover, or must needs die.” So they said of him, and from far and wide people came to him, sent for him when they had anyone ill, and gave him so much money that he soon became a rich man. Now it so befell that the King became ill, and the physician was summoned, and was to say if recovery were possible. But when he came to the bed, Death was standing by the feet of the sick man, and the herb did not grow which could save him.

“If I could but cheat Death for once,” thought the physician, “he is sure to take it ill if I do, but, as I am his godson, he will shut one eye; I will risk it.” He therefore took up the sick man, and laid him the other way, so that now Death was standing by