The Rather Grimm Origin of our Fairy Tales by Dima

     If you could not tell from the terrible pun in the title this blog is going to be about the Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tale. It is a collection of the fairy tales we all know and love written by the brother Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. These fairy tales were written back when caring about children's mental health and not murdering people in children's books was not something many people cared about. These were stories meant to instill messages in kids' minds, one way or another. As you can probably tell these made the fairy tales I read in this book rather grim, I'm sorry that's the last pun. Another thing to note is the fact that the brothers did not make up most of these stories, someone else did. The brothers made a collection of tales they got from other people, which they then did some edits to. So with that all established, let's get into one of the weirdest stories I've read.

    The first story I want to discuss is The Gallant Tailor which was published in 1812. The reason I find so strange is due to the moral being so odd. The story starts off with a jelly selling lady who the Tailor calls over, orders a quarter pound of jelly, and does not pay. From there he leaves it open, flies swarm, and he kills seven of them with one blow, which he then etches on a belt. He then takes cheese and a live bird he just sort of found, in his bag with him on an adventure. The first thing he does is approach a giant, where this encounter plays out 'You can read there whether I am a man or not.' The giant read, 'Seven at one blow!'  And thinking it means men that the tailor had killed he at once felt more respect for the little fellow"(Grimm 191). After this the tailor and the giant square off in a few challenges. In the first, the giant crushes a rock, and the tailor crushes the cheese, the giant throws a rock high,  and the tailor releases a bird, and finally, the tailor sits on a tree pretending to carry it while the giant does all the work. The Giant, after seeing how strong and powerful the tailor is invites him over to his den. The tailor finding the bed too big sleeps in a corner, and at midnight the giant hit the bed the tailor was supposed to be in, which would have killed him.

    After scaring off the giants the tailor arrives at the court of a great king. This is when the king makes the classic fairy tale blunder "But that if the tailor should overcome and slay both giants the King would give him his only daughter in marriage and half his kingdom as dowry"(Grimm 195). With the kingdom as motivation, the Tailor beats the challenge to defeat two giants in an odd way. he drops stones on them until they beat each other to death. From there he is tasked by the king, now backpedaling, to go after a unicorn. The tailor gets the unicorn to stab into a tree, trapping itself. The king now panicking now tasks him to get rid of a boar. The tailor then gets the boar to chase him into a chapel, where he jumps out of the window and locks the door.

    The king finally has to go through with his promise, but his daughter is obviously not happy. The king sends guards to kill him, but the tailor bluffs, and the guards run off. And that's it, that's the whole story the tailor just gets away with it all. This a complete and utter turn of character from most Grimm fairy tales. Usually, the trickster and liar is the one punished at the end of the story. But in this story, we are made to root for him and he wins everything. Not only that but the king and the princess are just made to go through all of this madness. Overall, I have no idea what the moral is and what even is the point of this story at all.