Grimm’s Fairy Tale No. 146 The Carrot King
Once there lived two brothers, both serving as soldiers. One brother was
rich, the other poor. The poor one, seeking to alleviate his dire need,
took off his soldier’s uniform and became a farmer. Now he spent his time
digging, hoeing and hacking his little acre and sowed a row of carrots.
The seed sprouted and a carrot soon grew that was so large and strong and
noticeably thicker than the others. In fact, it would not stop growing.
One could even say it was the Crown Prince or Ruler of all Carrots because
never again has there been such a carrot (nor, I suspect, shall there ever
be another one like it). Finally it was so big that it filled up an entire
wagon and two oxen were required to pull it. The farmer did not know what
to do with the thing, and he wondered whether the carrot was his fortune
or misfortune. Finally he thought to himself “If you sell it, what great
reward will you fetch? And the smaller carrots are just as good for
eating. It is best that you present it to the king and honor him with the
gift.”
So he loaded the carrot on his wagon, hitched up two oxen and drove to
court to present the carrot to the king. “What kind of strange thing
have you brought?” the king asked. “I have seen many odd things in my
day, but never such a monster. From what type of seed could this have
grown? Or perhaps, the vegetable has only grown this way for you because
you are a child of fortune.”
“Oh no,” the farmer replied. “I am no fortune’s child. I am a poor
soldier who could no longer feed himself. So I hung my soldier’s uniform
on a nail and now tend the soil. I have a brother who is rich, whom you
certainly know. But I have nothing and have been forgotten by the
world.”
The king felt compassion for him and said “You shall overcome your
poverty and will receive presents from me so that you shall be the equal
of your rich brother.”
The king gave him enormous amounts of gold, farmland, fields and cattle
and made him stone-rich, so that the riches of his brother did not
compare. When his brother heard what had been accomplished with a single
carrot, he was overcome with jealously and plotted how he, too, could
secure such fortune for himself. But he wanted to do it in a much
smarter way so he took gold and horses and brought them to the king. He
thought the king would give him much greater riches in return, because
his brother had received so much for a single carrot. The king received
the brother’s gift and said, he did not know what to give him in return
that could be rarer or better than the large carrot. So the rich brother
had to accept his brother’s carrot as present from the king. He put it
in his wagon and drove home. At home he did not know on whom he could
take out his rage and anger until finally an evil thought came to him.
He decided to kill his brother and so he hired murderers, who were
instructed to lay in waiting. He now went to his brother and said “Dear
brother, I know a secret treasure. Let us go out together, unearth it
and share it.”
The brother let himself be convinced and innocently went along. But
when they were walking, the murderers fell upon him, tied him up and
wanted to hang him on a tree. They were just about to carry out the evil
deed when the sound of song and the beating of hooves could be heard in
the distance. Such a terror seized them, that in their haste they pushed
their prisoner into a sack, hung it on a tree and took flight. But the
prisoner worked nimbly with his fingers until there was a hole in the
sack, through which he could stick his head. But who should be the next
one to come down the path but a wandering student, a young fellow who
rode through the forest singing loudly. When the one hanging in the sack
noticed that someone was passing below he called out “Greetings to you
in this fine hour.”
The student looked all around and did not know from where the voice
came. Finally he said “Who is calling me?” From the treetop the prisoner
now called “Raise your eyes. I am sitting up here in the sack of wisdom.
In only a short amount of time I have learned many things, among them
that all learning is as elusive as the wind. Soon I will have mastered
everything, will come down and be wiser than all humankind. I understand
the stars and can read the signs of the heavens, can decipher the
blowing of the winds, the sand in the sea, know all manner of healing
sickness, recognize the powers of herbs, birds and stones. If you sat
here in my place, you too would soon understand the wonder that flows
out of my sack of wisdom.”
When the student heard all this he was amazed and said “Blessed be the
hour when I found you. Couldn’t I too sit a while in the sack?” From
above the prisoner replied as if he did not relish the idea. “I will let
you sit here for a very short time in return for a reward and good
words. But you must wait another hour; I still have to learn a bit
more.”
When the student had waited a bit, he began to be restless. The time
seemed too long and he begged immediate entry to the sack; his thirst
for wisdom was far too great to wait any longer. The prisoner in the
sack pretended he had finally given in and said “So that I can emerge
from this cocoon of wisdom, you must lower the sack by that rope tied to
the tree. Then you can crawl inside.”
The student lowered the sack, opened it and freed the man inside. Then
he called out eagerly “Now pull me up into the tree quickly!” He wanted
to walk into the sack standing upright. “Stop!” cried out the other.
“That won’t do at all!” He grabbed him by the head and pushed him in
backwards, tied the opening around his head and pulled the disciple of
wisdom up into the tree, where he swayed back and forth in the air. “How
do you fare up there my dear fellow? See, don’t you already feel wisdom
dawning with experience? Now sit quietly until you become much smarter
than you already are.”
And so he mounted the student’s horse, rode away and after an hour sent
out someone to let the fellow out of the tree.
