The Dragon and his Grandmother
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The Dragon and his Grandmother or The Devil and His Grandmother is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, number 125.
Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book.
A version of this tale also appears in A Book of Dragons by Ruth Manning-Sanders.
It is Aarne-Thompson type 812, the devil's riddle.
[edit] Synopsis
Three soldiers could not live on their pay, and so attempted to desert by hiding in a cornfield, but when the army did not march on, were soon caught between starving there or emerging to execution. A dragon flew by, offered to save them if they served it for seven years, and when they agreed, carried them off. It was, however, the devil; he gave them a whip with which they could make money, but said at the end of seven years, they were his, unless they could guess a riddle, in which case they would be free and could have the whip.
At the end of the seven years, two of the soldiers were morose at the thought of their fate. An old woman advised them to go down to a cottage for help. The third soldier, who had not feared the riddle, went down and met the devil's grandmother. She was pleased with his manner and hid him in the cellar. When the dragon came, she questioned him, and the soldier learned the answers.
The dragon found them at the end of the seven years, and told he would take them to hell and give them a meal, and the riddles were what was the meat, the silver spoon, and the wineglass for that meal. The answers were a dead sea-cat in the North Sea, a whale rib, and an old horse's hoof.
So the soldiers escaped him and kept the whip.
[edit] See also
- Bearskin
- The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs
- The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars
- The Prince and the Princess in the Forest
