GRIMM
The Five Servants
SOME time ago there reigned in a country many thousands of miles off, an old queen who was very spiteful and delighted in nothing so much as mischief. She had one daughter, who was thought to be the most beautiful princess in the world; but her mother only made use of her as a trap for the unwary; and whenever any suitor who had heard of her beauty came to seek her in marriage, the only answer the old lady gave to each was, that he must undertake some very hard task and forfeit his life if he failed. Many, led by the report of the princess’s charms, undertook these tasks, but failed in doing what the queen set them to do. No mercy was ever shown them; but the word was given at once, and off their heads were cut. Now it happened that a prince who lived in a country far off, heard of the great beauty of this young lady, and said to his father, ‘Dear father, let me go and try my luck.’ ‘No,’ said the king; ‘if you go you will surely lose your life.’ The prince, however, had set his heart so much upon the scheme, that when he found his father was against it he fell very ill, and took to his bed for seven years, and no art could cure him, or recover his lost spirits: so when his father saw that if he went on thus he would die he said to him with a heart full of grief; ‘If it must be so, go and try your luck.’ At this he rose from his bed, recovered his health and spirits, and went forward on his way light of heart and full of joy. Then on he journeyed over hill and dale, through fair weather and foul, till one day, as he was riding through a wood, he thought, he saw afar off some large animal upon the ground, and as he drew near he found that it was a man lying along upon the grass under the trees; but he looked more like a mountain than a man, he was so fat and jolly. When this big fellow saw the traveller, he arose, and said, ‘If you want anyone to wait upon you, you will do well to take me into your service.’ ‘What should I do with such a fat fellow as you?’ said the prince. ‘It would be nothing to you if I were three thousand times as fat,’ said the man, ‘so that I do but behave myself well,’ ‘That’s true,’ answered the prince; ‘so come with me, I can put you to some use or another I dare say.’ Then the fat man rose up and flowed the prince, and by and by they saw another man lying on the ground with his ear close to the’ turf. The prince said, ‘What are you doing there?’ ‘I am listening,’ answered the man. ‘To what?’ ‘To all that is going on in the world, for I can hear every thing, I can even hear the grass grow.’ ‘Tell me,’ said the prince, ‘what you hear is going on at the court of the old queen, who has the beautiful daughter?’ ‘I hear,’ said the listener, ‘the noise of the sword that is cutting off the head of one of her suitors.’ ‘Well’ said the prince, ‘I see I shall be able to make you of use; — come along with me!’ They had not gone far before they saw a pair of feet, and then part of the legs of a man stretched out; but they were so long that they could not see the rest of the body, till they had passed on a good deal farther, and at last they came to the body, and, after going on a while farther, to the head; ‘Bless me!’ said the prince, ‘what a long rope you are!’ ‘Oh!’ answered the tall man, ‘this is nothing; when I choose to stretch myself to my full length, I am three times as high as any. mountain you have seen on your travels, I warrant you; I will willingly do what I can to serve you if you will let me.’ ‘Come along then,’ said the prince, ‘I can turn you to account in some way.’ The prince and his train went on farther into the wood, and next saw a man lying by the road aide basking in the heat of the sun, yet shaking and shivering all over, so that not a limb lay still. ‘What makes you shiver’ said the prince, ‘while the sun is shining so warm?’ ‘Alas!’ answered the man, ‘the warmer it is, the colder I am; the sun only seems to me like a sharp frost that thrills through all my bones;’ and on the other hand, when others are what you call cold I begin to be warm, so that I can neither bear the ice for its heat nor the fire for its cold.’ ‘You are a queer fellow,’ said the prince; ‘but if you have nothing else to do, come along with me.’ The next thing they saw was a man standing, stretching his neck and looking around him from hill to hill. ‘What are you looking for so eagerly?’ said the prince. ‘I have such sharp eyes,’ said the man, ‘that I can see over woods and fields and hills and dales; — in short, all over the world.’ ‘Well,’ said the prince, ‘come with me if you will, for I want one more to make up my train.’ Then they all journeyed on, and met with no one else till they came to the city where the beautiful princess lived. The prince went straight to the old queen, and said, ‘Here I am, ready to do any task you set me, if you will give your daughter as a reward when I have done.’ ‘I will set you three tasks,’ said the queen; ‘and if you get through all, you shall be the husband of my daughter. First, you must bring me a ring which I dropped in the red sea.’ The prince went home to his friends and said, ‘The first task is not an easy one; it is to fetch a ring out of the red sea, so lay your beads together and say what is to be done.’ Then the sharp-sighted one said, ‘I will see where it lies,’ and looked down into the sea, and cried out, ‘There it lies upon a rock at the bottom.’ ‘I would fetch it out,’ said the tall man, ‘if I could but see it.’ ‘Well!’ cried out the fat one, ‘I will help you to do that,’ and laid himself down and held his mouth to the water, and drank up the waves till the bottom of the sea was as dry as a meadow. Then the tall man stooped a little and pulled out the ring with his hand, and the prince took it to the old queen, who looked at it, and wondering said, ‘It is indeed the right ring; you have gone through this task well: but now comes the second; look yonder at the meadow before my palace; see! there are a hundred fat oxen feeding there; you must eat them all up before noon: and underneath in my cellar there are a hundred casks of wine, which you must drink all up.’ ‘May I not invite some guests to share the feast with me?’ said the prince. ‘Why, yes!’ said the old woman with a spiteful laugh; ‘you may ask one of your friends to breakfast with you, but no more.’ Then the prince went home and said to the fat man, ‘You must be my guest to-day, and for once you shall eat your fill.’ So the fat man set to work and ate the hundred oxen without leaving a bit, and asked if that was to be all he should have for his breakfast? and he drank the wine out of the casks without leaving a drop, licking even his fingers when he had done. When the meal was ended, the prince went to the old woman and told her the second task was done. ‘Your work is not all over, however,’ muttered the old hag to herself; ‘I will catch you yet, you shall not keep your head upon your shoulders if I can help it.’ ‘This evening,’ said she, ‘I will bring my daughter into your house and leave her with you; you shall sit together there, but ...
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