The Brave Little Tailor

One summer morning a little tailor sat at his table by the window, sewing away happily with all his might. Just then a peasant woman came down the street calling, "Good jam for sale! Cheap jam!" The tailor liked the sound of that; he stuck his delicate head out of the window and called: "Up here, dear woman! I'll buy some of your wares!" The woman climbed the three steps to the tailor with her heavy basket and had to open every single jar. The tailor inspected them all, lifted them up and sniffed them, and finally said, "This jam looks good to me. Weigh me out four ounces, dear woman, even a quarter of a pound would do." The woman, who had hoped for a big sale, gave him what he asked for and went off grumbling.

"May God bless this jam and give me health and strength," said the tailor, and he took a loaf from the cupboard, cut a slice and spread jam on it. "It won't taste bad, but first I'll finish this jacket before I eat it," he said, putting the bread beside him and sewing on happily. The smell of the jam reached the flies on the wall, and they came in swarms and settled on the bread. "Hey, who invited you?" said the tailor, and he chased the uninvited guests away. But the flies did not understand him, and the more he chased them, the more of them came. At last the tailor lost his patience, grabbed a piece of cloth and, saying "Just wait, I'll show you!", struck at them without mercy. When he lifted the cloth and counted, there before him lay no fewer than seven flies with their legs in the air. "What a fellow you are!" he said, marvelling at his own bravery. "The whole town must hear of this!"

At once the tailor cut himself a belt, sewed it and embroidered on it in big letters: "Seven at one blow!" "The town? The whole world must hear of it!" he said, and his heart wagged with joy like a lamb's tail. He put the belt on and decided to go out into the world, for he felt that his workshop was too small for his courage. Before he left, he looked around the house for something to take with him, but found nothing but an old cheese, which he put in his pocket. In front of the door he saw a bird caught in a bush, and he put that in his pocket with the cheese.

Bravely he set off on his way. Because he was light and nimble, he never grew tired. The road led him up a mountain. When he reached the top, there sat a huge giant, looking around contentedly. The little tailor went boldly up to him and called: "Good day, comrade! Are you sitting there looking out at the wide world? I'm on my way out into it to try my luck. Would you like to come with me?" The giant looked at the tailor scornfully: "You miserable little wretch!" The tailor unbuttoned his coat and showed him the belt: "Read that and you'll see what kind of man I am." The giant read, "Seven at one blow," thought the tailor had killed seven men, and began to have a little respect for the little fellow.

Still, he wanted to test him first. He took a stone in his hand and squeezed it until water dripped out. "Do that, if you're strong," he said. "Is that all?" said the tailor. "That's child's play for me." He put his hand in his pocket, took out the soft cheese and squeezed it until the whey ran out. "That's better, isn't it?" The giant did not know what to say. He picked up another stone and threw it so high that the eye could hardly follow it. "Now, little man, you do that." "Well thrown," said the tailor, "but the stone fell back to earth. I'll throw you one that will never come back." He took the bird out of his pocket and threw it into the air. The bird, glad to be free, flew up and never came back.

The giant invited the tailor to his cave. At night he gave the tailor a bed. But the bed was far too big for the tailor; he did not lie in it, but curled up in a corner. At midnight the giant, thinking the tailor was fast asleep, got up and struck the bed with a huge iron bar, splitting it in two. The next morning, when the giants went into the forest and saw the little tailor walking along cheerfully and fearlessly, they were horrified and ran away.

The little tailor went on his way and came to the courtyard of a king's palace. Being tired, he lay down on the grass and fell asleep. People came and read the words on his belt: "Seven at one blow! Oh, what is this great war hero doing here in peacetime? He must be a mighty lord." They went and told the king. The king wanted to take him into his army. When the tailor woke up, he accepted the offer. But the soldiers were jealous of him: "If we quarrel with him and he strikes out, seven of us will fall at every blow." They went to the king and said they wanted to leave the army. The king did not want to lose thousands of soldiers, so he looked for a way to get rid of the tailor.

The king had an idea. He sent a messenger to the tailor with this message: "In my kingdom there are two giants who do great harm by robbing and burning. If you defeat them, I will give you my daughter for your wife and half my kingdom as her dowry. A hundred horsemen will go with you to help." "Should someone who killed seven at one blow be afraid of two giants?" said the tailor. "I don't need the horsemen."

When he reached the forest, the tailor told the horsemen to wait at its edge. He looked around and found the two giants sleeping and snoring under a tree. He filled his pockets with stones and climbed the tree, sitting on a branch right above the giants. Then he began dropping stone after stone onto the chest of one of them. The giant woke up and nudged his companion: "Why are you hitting me?" "You're dreaming. I'm not hitting you," said the other. They went back to sleep. Then the tailor threw a stone at the second giant. "What's this? Why are you throwing stones at me?" "I'm not throwing stones at you," growled the first. They quarrelled for a while, but being tired, they went back to sleep. The tailor threw his biggest stone with all his strength onto the first giant's chest. "This is too much!" roared the giant, and he jumped up and shoved his companion against the tree so hard that it shook. The other paid him back in the same coin. They fought with such fury that they tore up trees by the roots and beat each other with them, until at last both of them fell to the ground and lay still.

The tailor climbed down and went to the horsemen: "The job is done. I've finished them both. But it wasn't easy; when they were in trouble, they tore trees out by the roots. But they can't do anything against someone who killed seven at one blow." The horsemen rode into the forest and found the giants lying on the ground.

The tailor went to the king and asked for his reward. But the king regretted his promise and once again looked for a way to get rid of him. "Before you have my daughter and half the kingdom, you must perform one more heroic deed. In the forest there is a unicorn that does great harm. You must catch it." The tailor took a rope and an axe and went into the forest. The unicorn soon came and charged at the tailor. The tailor stood in front of a tree and waited until the animal was very close, then nimbly slipped behind the tree. The unicorn ran at the tree with all its strength and drove its horn so deep into the trunk that it could not pull it out. The tailor tied the rope around the animal's neck, freed the horn from the tree with his axe and led the animal to the king.

Then the king asked him to catch a wild boar. The tailor chased the boar into a little chapel in the forest, jumped out of the window himself, shut the door, and the boar was trapped inside. In the end the king had to keep his promise. The wedding was held with great splendour but little joy, and the tailor became a king.

Some time later the young queen heard her husband talking in his sleep at night: "Boy, sew my jacket and patch my trousers, or I'll box your ears with my yardstick!" The queen realised that her husband was a tailor. Her father made a plan to get rid of him: one night men would wait outside the bedroom door, and when the tailor was asleep, they would go in and tie him up. But the king's armour-bearer was a young man who liked the tailor, and he warned him of the plan.

That night the tailor pretended to be asleep and began to speak loudly: "Boy, sew my jacket, or I'll box your ears with my yardstick! I killed seven at one blow, I slew two giants, I caught a unicorn and a wild boar. Should I be afraid of those standing outside my door?" When the men outside heard this, they were so terrified that they ran as if a wild army were after them, and nobody ever dared to lay a hand on him again.

And so the little tailor remained a king for the rest of his life. And he never forgot this: courage sometimes begins with something as small as a fly, but when it is joined with wits, it can defeat even giants.