Die goldene Gans

The Golden Goose

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A man has three sons; the youngest, called Dummling, is mocked by everyone. The eldest son goes into the forest to cut wood with a fine egg cake and wine from his mother; a little grey old man asks him for a bite and a sip, he refuses, and soon his axe slips into his arm. The second son refuses too and cuts his leg. Dummling gets only an ash cake and sour beer, but he shares them gladly: they turn into an egg cake and good wine, and the little man tells him to cut down an old tree. In its roots sits a goose with feathers of pure gold. At an inn the innkeeper's three daughters each try to pull out a golden feather and stick fast, one to the goose and the others to each other. Next morning Dummling walks off with the goose and the girls must run behind him; the parson who tries to pull the youngest away sticks fast, then the sexton, then two farmers: seven run behind him. In a town the king's daughter is so serious that no one can make her laugh, and whoever does may marry her; at the sight of the seven she laughs and laughs. But the king does not want Dummling and sets tasks: a man who can drink a cellar full of wine, a man who can eat a mountain of bread, and a ship that sails on land and water. Each time Dummling goes back to the place where he cut the tree and finds the help he needs, the ship from the little grey man himself, because he was kind to him. The king can refuse no longer; Dummling marries the princess, inherits the kingdom after the king's death and lives long and happily with his wife.

Retold from Kinder- und Haus-Märchen, Band 1, 7. Auflage (Ausgabe letzter Hand, 1857), KHM 64 by Brüder Grimm (public domain).