The Two Travellers (Grimm)
Short summary
A tailor and a shoemaker met while traveling.
They traveled together through towns where the tailor earned more. Entering a forest with two paths, they disagreed on provisions. The tailor took bread for two days, trusting God, while the shoemaker took a week's worth. When the tailor's food ran out, the shoemaker refused to share.
Then the shoemaker said to him, 'I will give thee a bit of bread today, but in return for it, I will put out thy right eye.'
The shoemaker blinded both eyes for bread and abandoned the tailor at the gallows. The tailor overheard hanged men discussing healing dew, restored his sight, and reached the capital. He helped a foal, stork, ducks, and bees who promised future aid. He became court-tailor. The shoemaker, now court-shoemaker, set impossible tasks: retrieving a lost crown, copying the palace in wax, creating a fountain, and bringing a son. The grateful animals helped the tailor succeed. He married the princess while the shoemaker was banished and died blind in the forest.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The meeting of two travelers and their contrasting natures
Hill and vale do not come together, but the children of men do, good and bad. In this way a shoemaker and a tailor once met with each other in their travels.
The tailor was a cheerful soul who greeted the approaching shoemaker with a mocking song about his trade, singing about sewing seams and knocking nails.
The shoemaker took offense at this jest, pulling a sour face and making threatening gestures.
However, the tailor quickly offered his bottle to share, and after drinking, the shoemaker's mood improved enough that he agreed to travel together.
The forest ordeal: hunger, cruelty, and loss of sight
The two craftsmen traveled together, seeking work in towns. The tailor's cheerful nature and red cheeks won him favor everywhere, while the shoemaker grew increasingly resentful of his companion's success. When they reached a great forest with two paths leading to the capital, they had to choose between a seven-day route and a two-day one, though neither knew which was shorter. The shoemaker cautiously packed bread for a week, while the tailor optimistically took only two days' worth, trusting in God and his luck.
They chose the wrong path. After three days, the tailor's bread was gone, and his cheerful spirit began to fade. The shoemaker mockingly refused to share his food, watching his companion grow weak with hunger. On the fifth morning, the shoemaker made a cruel bargain: he would give the tailor bread in exchange for his right eye. Desperate to survive, the tailor agreed, and the shoemaker put out his eye with a sharp knife. The next day, facing starvation again, the tailor was forced to surrender his left eye for another piece of bread.
Miraculous recovery and acts of kindness to animals
The shoemaker led the blind tailor to a gallows and abandoned him there. During the night, the tailor overheard two hanged men speaking.
The dew which this night has fallen down over us from the gallows, gives everyone who washes himself with it his eyes again.
The tailor immediately used his handkerchief to collect the dew and washed his eye sockets. Miraculously, his sight was restored with healthy new eyes.
He threw himself on his knees, thanked God for the mercy he had shown him, and said his morning prayer.
Now able to see again, the tailor encountered several animals in need. A young foal begged to be spared, promising future help.
Though hungry, the tailor also spared a stork and a family of ducks, as well as a colony of bees, each promising to repay his kindness someday.
Rise to court tailor and the shoemakers first revenge
The tailor reached the royal city and quickly established himself as a skilled craftsman. His reputation grew until the King appointed him court tailor. By coincidence, the shoemaker also became court shoemaker on the same day. Seeing that the tailor had regained his sight, the shoemaker's conscience troubled him, and he plotted revenge. He told the King that the tailor had boasted he could recover the ancient lost gold crown.
The King commanded the tailor to retrieve the crown or leave forever. Desperate, the tailor went to the pond where he had spared the ducks. The grateful mother duck and her twelve young ones dove into the water and retrieved the magnificent crown, which gleamed like a hundred thousand carbuncles in the sunlight.
The impossible tasks: wax palace and magical fountain
Undeterred by his first failure, the shoemaker told the King that the tailor had boasted he could create a perfect wax model of the royal palace. When the King demanded this impossible task, the tailor sought help from the bees he had spared. The Queen-bee and her workers flew to the palace, inspected every detail, and created an exact wax replica that was delicate, white as snow, and sweet as honey.
For his third attempt at revenge, the shoemaker claimed the tailor had promised to make water spring up in the castle courtyard. Facing execution if he failed, the tailor was saved by the foal he had once spared, now grown into a beautiful chestnut horse. The horse galloped three times around the courtyard, and on the third circuit, a fragment of earth shot into the air followed by a crystal-clear fountain.
Final triumph and the shoemakers downfall
The shoemaker made one final attempt, claiming the tailor could bring the King a son through the air. The stork he had spared came to his aid, delivering a beautiful baby prince to the Queen. As reward, the tailor received the King's eldest daughter in marriage.
Whoever trusts in God and only has good luck, can never fail.
The shoemaker was banished forever and took the road leading to the forest and the gallows. Exhausted by anger and heat, he fell asleep beneath the gallows.
The two crows flew down from the heads of the men who were hanging there, and pecked his eyes out.
In his madness, the blind shoemaker ran into the forest where he died of hunger, never to be seen or heard from again.