The Valiant Little Tailor Page #3

"The Valiant Little Tailor" is a famous fairy tale by The Brothers Grimm, which follows the intriguing journey of a clever, confident tailor who outwits giants, a king, and a powerful unicorn using only his wit and cunning. After killing seven flies with one blow, he boasts about his seeming great strength and courage, garnering attention and dramatic challenges that he must strategically overcome to save his own life and win the hand of a princess. This tale is one of ingenuity and survival against larger-than-life odds.

• Children

								

that it had not the strength enough to draw it out again, and thus it
was caught. ‘Now, I have got the bird,’ said the tailor, and came out
from behind the tree and put the rope round its neck, and then with his
axe he hewed the horn out of the tree, and when all was ready he led the
beast away and took it to the king.

The king still would not give him the promised reward, and made a third
demand. Before the wedding the tailor was to catch him a wild boar that
made great havoc in the forest, and the huntsmen should give him their
help. ‘Willingly,’ said the tailor, ‘that is child’s play!’ He did not
take the huntsmen with him into the forest, and they were well pleased
that he did not, for the wild boar had several times received them in
such a manner that they had no inclination to lie in wait for him. When
the boar perceived the tailor, it ran on him with foaming mouth and
whetted tusks, and was about to throw him to the ground, but the hero
fled and sprang into a chapel which was near and up to the window at
once, and in one bound out again. The boar ran after him, but the tailor
ran round outside and shut the door behind it, and then the raging
beast, which was much too heavy and awkward to leap out of the window,
was caught. The little tailor called the huntsmen thither that they
might see the prisoner with their own eyes. The hero, however, went to
the king, who was now, whether he liked it or not, obliged to keep his
promise, and gave his daughter and the half of his kingdom. Had he known
that it was no warlike hero, but a little tailor who was standing before
him, it would have gone to his heart still more than it did. The wedding
was held with great magnificence and small joy, and out of a tailor a
king was made.

After some time the young queen heard her husband say in his dreams at
night: ‘Boy, make me the doublet, and patch the pantaloons, or else I
will rap the yard-measure over your ears.’ Then she discovered in what
state of life the young lord had been born, and next morning complained
of her wrongs to her father, and begged him to help her to get rid of
her husband, who was nothing else but a tailor. The king comforted her
and said: ‘Leave your bedroom door open this night, and my servants
shall stand outside, and when he has fallen asleep shall go in, bind
him, and take him on board a ship which shall carry him into the wide
world.’ The woman was satisfied with this; but the king’s armour-bearer,
who had heard all, was friendly with the young lord, and informed him of
the whole plot. ‘I’ll put a screw into that business,’ said the little
tailor. At night he went to bed with his wife at the usual time, and
when she thought that he had fallen asleep, she got up, opened the door,
and then lay down again. The little tailor, who was only pretending to
be asleep, began to cry out in a clear voice: ‘Boy, make me the doublet
and patch me the pantaloons, or I will rap the yard-measure over your
ears. I smote seven at one blow. I killed two giants, I brought away one
unicorn, and caught a wild boar, and am I to fear those who are standing
outside the room.’ When these men heard the tailor speaking thus, they
were overcome by a great dread, and ran as if the wild huntsman were
behind them, and none of them would venture anything further against
him. So the little tailor was and remained a king to the end of his
life.
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