Die zertanzten Schuhe

The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes

A king has twelve daughters who sleep in one hall; every night he locks the door, and every morning their shoes are danced to pieces. He proclaims that whoever finds out where they dance may choose one of them for his wife and be king after him, but whoever fails within three days and nights loses his life. A king's son tries, falls asleep each night and is beheaded, and many others after him. A poor wounded soldier meets an old woman on the road, who tells him not to drink the wine he is brought at night and to pretend to sleep, and gives him a little cloak that makes him invisible. At the castle the eldest brings him wine; he lets it run into a sponge under his chin and snores. The princesses dress in their finest clothes; only the youngest feels that something is wrong. The eldest knocks on her bed, it sinks into the ground, and they go down a stair; the invisible soldier follows and steps on the youngest's dress. They pass through avenues of trees with leaves of silver, gold and diamonds, where he breaks off a twig each time with a loud crack, and cross a great water in twelve little boats rowed by twelve princes to a shining castle, where they dance until their shoes are worn through. The soldier goes along three nights and takes a cup as proof. Before the king he tells everything and shows the twigs and the cup, and the daughters must confess. He chooses the eldest, because he is no longer young; the wedding is held that very day and he is promised the kingdom. The princes are cursed again for as many days as they had danced nights with the twelve.

Retold from Kinder- und Haus-Märchen, Band 2, 7. Auflage (Ausgabe letzter Hand, 1857), KHM 133 by Brüder Grimm (public domain).