German Folktale

Retold by The Legendary Connection

TLC#00206

Once upon a time, there was a father with two sons. The older son was smart and capable—he could handle any task that came his way. The younger son, however, was quite different. He didn’t seem to understand things the way his brother did, and he struggled to learn new skills. People often said, “That boy will give his father a headache and cause all sorts of trouble!”

Whenever there was work to be done, it was always the older brother who did it. However, if he was asked to go out at night, especially if it meant passing by the spooky churchyard, he would shake his head and say, “I can’t do it! That place gives me the creeps and makes me shiver!” Even around the fire, when scary stories were told, everyone would say, “Oh, it makes me shiver!” But the younger son didn’t understand. He would sit in the corner, wondering, “What do they mean by shiver? I’ve never felt that.”

One day, his father said to him, “You’re growing up now. You need to learn something useful so you can earn a living. Look at your brother! But you, you don’t even earn your salt.”

“Well, Father,” he replied, “I’m willing to learn. In fact, I’d really like to learn how to shiver! I don’t understand what that’s all about.”

His older brother laughed. “What a silly thing to want to learn!” he thought.

His father sighed. “If you want to know what it’s like to shiver, you’ll find out soon enough,” he said. But he worried that his younger son would never earn his keep.

Soon after, the town’s sexton, who looked after the church, visited their home. The father explained his worries, saying, “My younger son doesn’t know anything useful, and when I asked what he wanted to learn, he said he wanted to know how to shiver!”

The sexton chuckled and said, “If that’s all he wants, I can help. Send him to me, and I’ll teach him what it’s like to shiver.”

So the younger son went to stay with the sexton. His first job was to ring the church bell, which he did eagerly. After a few days, the sexton woke him up in the middle of the night and sent him up the tower to ring the bell. The sexton secretly followed and, once the boy reached the top, the sexton dressed as a ghost stood silently in the shadows.

“Who’s there?” called the boy, but the figure didn’t move or answer. “If you don’t speak up, I’ll throw you down the stairs!” he warned.

The sexton stayed silent, hoping to frighten him. But the boy didn’t flinch. He ran right at the “ghost,” and pushed it down the stairs! The sexton tumbled down, breaking his leg.

The next morning, the sexton’s wife came to fetch her husband. When she found him hurt, she hurried to the boy’s father and cried, “Your son has injured my husband! You need to take him back—he’s nothing but trouble!”

The father was furious. “What were you thinking?” he scolded. But the boy replied, “I warned him! He looked like a troublemaker, so I gave him a push.”

His father shook his head. “Go on and learn whatever you want. Here’s some money.  Find out what it means to shiver if you must.  Just don’t tell anyone you are my son.”

The boy took the money and set out on his journey. As he walked, he kept saying, “If only I knew how to shiver!”  The boy soon met a man who heard him mumbling.  The man pointed to a tree with seven bodies hanging from the tree and said, “If you want to shiver, wait under that tree until nightfall. Then you’ll know.”

So, the boy sat under the tree until night. When the wind blew cold, the boy felt sorry for the seven bodies hanging from the tree and took them down to warm by his fire. But they were too cold to respond, so he hung them back up, thinking, “They just didn’t know how to enjoy the warmth.” Then he slept by the fire, and when he woke, he was disappointed that he still hadn’t learned to shiver.

The next day, he arrived at an inn, and the innkeeper told him about a haunted castle.  “Spend three nights there, and you’ll surely know how to shiver. If you succeed, the king has promised his daughter’s hand in marriage and a treasure.”  The innkeeper told him that no one had ever been able to last one night let alone three.

The boy was eager to try.  So he went to the King and told him that he wanted to try to learn how to shiver by staying in the haunted castle.  The king was happy to have a volunteer and had everything the boy needed brought to the castle. When night came, the boy went inside, started a warm fire, and set up a cutting board with a knife beside it. He sat by the fire and said, “If only I knew how to shiver! I guess I won’t learn it here, either.”

Around midnight, as he was tending the fire, he suddenly heard a voice from the corner of the room say, “Oh, it’s so cold!” The boy looked over and saw two big black cats leap out and sit on either side of him. They had glowing eyes and stared at him.

“If you’re cold, then come warm yourselves by the fire,” the boy said. The cats did, and once they were warmer, they asked him, “Do you want to play cards with us?”

“Sure, but let me see your paws first,” he replied. The cats stretched out their paws, showing long, sharp claws. The boy grabbed them, clipped their claws, and said, “You’re not fit to play!” Then he threw them out the window.

As he was settling back down, more black cats and even black dogs with red-hot chains poured into the room. They barked and yowled, tearing at the fire and trying to put it out. The boy watched them for a moment, then grabbed his knife and chased them off. When the room was quiet again, he fixed the fire and warmed himself until he felt sleepy. He saw a big bed in the corner, climbed in, and closed his eyes.

Suddenly, the bed started moving all around the room, rolling like a wagon. “This is fun!” the boy said, until it tipped over, pinning him underneath. He pushed the bed aside, threw off the pillows and blankets, and then lay down by the fire, where he finally got some rest.

The next morning, the king came to check on him. Seeing the boy lying on the ground, he thought the boy might be hurt, but the boy woke up and said, “I’m fine. I guess I’ll be here another night.”

That night, the boy sat by the fire again, saying, “If only I could learn how to shiver!” Just then, he heard a loud thumping sound, which grew louder and louder. Suddenly, half of a man fell down the chimney!

“Hello!” said the boy. “Where’s the rest of you?” Soon, the other half of the man came down, too, and the boy helped him fit back together. But when the man tried to take the boy’s spot by the fire, the boy pushed him away and said, “That’s my place!”

Then more strange men appeared, carrying old bones and two skulls. They set up a game of bowling and played with the skulls as if they were bowling balls. The boy asked if he could join, and they agreed. But first, he took the skulls and smoothed them out so they could roll better. He played until midnight, then the strange men disappeared, and the boy went to sleep.

The next morning, the king returned and asked, “Did you shiver this time?”

“No,” the boy replied, “but I had a good game of bowling!”

On the third night, the boy was sad. “Will I ever learn how to shiver?” he wondered. Suddenly, six tall men walked in carrying a coffin. The boy looked inside and saw a cold, lifeless body. He thought, “Maybe I can warm him up,” and he pulled the man out and held him by the fire. When that didn’t work, he took the man to bed and lay down beside him until he warmed up and began to move.

“See, I’ve warmed you up!” the boy said. But the man sat up angrily, ready to strangle him. The boy threw him back into the coffin, closed the lid, and the six men carried him away.

Finally, an old man with a long, white beard appeared and said, “I’ll teach you how to shiver.” He took the boy to the forge and struck an anvil with his hammer, sinking it into the ground. “Your turn,” the old man challenged. The boy took the hammer, split the anvil in two, and trapped the old man’s beard in the crack. He let the old man go only after the man promised to give him lots of gold.

The old man led him to a room full of treasures, but as soon as the clock struck midnight, he disappeared, leaving the boy alone in the dark with the treasure. The boy slept by his fire once more.

The next morning, the king came and said, “You have saved the castle and earned my daughter’s hand in marriage!”

The boy replied, “That’s nice, but I still don’t know how to shiver!”

He married the princess, but he kept saying, “If only I could learn to shiver!” His wife, determined to help him, dumped cold water with wriggling fish over him one night while he slept. The boy jumped up, shivering all over. “Oh! Now I know what it feels like to shiver!” he cried, finally satisfied. And they lived happily ever after.

Original Source: “Grimms’ Fairy Tales.” Gutenberg.org, 2021, www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2591/pg2591-images.html#link2H_4_0060. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.