(Note: the tale is published in the original translation by Elek Benedek.)
Once upon a time, across seven and seven countries, there was a poor man and his two sons. The eldest was a clever, clever boy, but the other was a half-witted, half-wit, and a colossus, who did nothing but annoy his father.
The only fault of the older boy was that he could not be sent anywhere at night, he was so shy and especially when he had to pass by the cemetery, his teeth would chatter with fear. But the younger one was not afraid.
If he heard that this or that person was frightened of this or that, he wondered terribly. He often said. If nothing else, it's that one craft I would like to learn.
Well, if he felt like it, he soon had the opportunity. His father told him:
- Do you hear, you are big enough and strong enough to learn something yourself. You see, your brother is always working, and you are always lazy from morning till night. Surely thou deservest not to have God's blessed day fall upon thee.
- 'Very well, father,' said the boy, 'I am willing to learn, and if it pleases you, I would like to learn fear. For that I know not.
The older boy heard this speech and laughed a great laugh.
- Oh, you fool, you, what are you saying! But go on, you'll soon learn this trade.
But the poor man did not laugh. He sighed and said:
- Oh, you clumsy one, you! You want to know fear? You'll not earn your bread with that.
Well, all right, as will be, so will be, we'll see how it goes. Just then the bell-ringer found himself walking by, came into the courtyard, spoke to the poor man, asked him how he was, how were things going?
Yes, he was asking the right questions, because the poor man had not run out of complaints. Poverty is so great, when there is bread and when there is not, his youngest son just hangs back and forth all day, he can't get a grip on it, he doesn't want to learn anything.
- Of course I do! - "I just said I want to learn fear.
- Well, hello? Am I not right? - said the poor man.
- 'Let none of your seed grow,' said the bell-ringer. - 'Give me this boy. He shall have good work with me, and may learn this trade, if he is so inclined.
No more words, no more talk, let him go with God's news, thought the poor man, and the boy went with great joy, and joined the bell-ringer in his service.
- 'Well,' thought the bell ringer to himself, 'you'll learn fear from me. He took her up to the tower, taught her to ring the bell, and after two days, when she understood the bell, at midnight, he shook her out of bed and sent her up to the tower to ring the bell.
The boy got up, went to the tower, took hold of the rope, but just as he was about to pull it, he saw someone sitting in the window of the tower, dressed in a white sheet.
- Hey, who are you? - called the boy - but the man in the white sheet said nothing, and said it slowly, and did not move.
- Answer me, or come here," cried the boy. "You have nothing to do here at night.
But the one with the white sheet (it was the bell-ringer!) didn't move, so the boy would think it was a ghost.
The boy spoke to her a third time:
- Hey, guy, tell me who you are, or I'll throw you down the stairs!
- You're not going to eat that, the bell-ringer thought to himself, and didn't move, let alone speak.
Hey, the boy is angry. In a moment or two he sprang to the window of the tower, seized the "ghost" and threw it down the stairs, so that it gave him a great yelp, and now he really did not move, for he could not move.
And the boy paid no more attention to him, rang the bell, and then went home, went to bed, said not a word, not a word to anyone, and fell asleep.
Meanwhile, the bell-keeper was waiting, waiting for her master, but she could wait, moaning and wailing in the corner. Then, when she had heard her waiting, she shook the boy and asked:
- You, do you know where my lord is? He went up to the tower before you, why doesn't he come?
- 'I didn't see him,' said the boy, 'but there was a man in a white coat standing in the window of the tower. I called him three times, he didn't answer, so I took him and threw him down on his garadiers. Go and see if he is not the bell-ringer.
The woman ran without a thought, and there indeed lay her husband in a corner, moaning, wailing: alas, my leg, alas!
Except that he dislocated his leg in the big fall. With great difficulty the woman got her husband to his feet, helped him home, and then ran to the poor man with a shout and a wail:
- Oh dear, oh dear! Come out, come out! Do you know what has happened? The kend's son on the gallows has thrown my lord down the tower's garret! My lord's leg is broken. Get that rope thing out of the house at once! Did you hear that, kend?!
For the poor man needed no encouragement, he ran to the bell-ringer, the boy had his bones crunched into him.
- "Don't hit me, kend!" the boy shouted. I called him three times, why didn't he answer?
- Silence, you wicked one, you! Get out of my sight, and I'll never see you again!
- All right, all right, said the boy, I won't stay here, I'll just wait for morning, I'll go and not rest until I know fear.
- Well, go on, I don't care what you do, just don't let me see you. Here, here's fifty thalers, go away, and tell no one where you come from, whose son you are, so that I need not be ashamed of you.
- "Don't be afraid, father," said the boy, "I will not make you ashamed of me again. God bless you!
As soon as the sun rose, the boy got up, pocketed the fifty thalers and went out into the world. He walked, he walked, and as he walked he kept sighing in a loud voice: "Oh, if I could only learn fear! Oh, if I could only learn fear!
As he sighs to himself, a man comes to him, hears what he is sighing about and says to him:
- What are you saying, boy? You want to learn fear? Do you see that tree over there? Take a good look! It's a gallows. Seven men hanging from it. Go sit under the gallows, sleep there tonight, and in the morning you'll learn fear.
- "Sure, if I learn," said the boy, "I'll give Kend my fifty thalers, if he'll only come here in the morning.
They offered each other to God, and the man went his way, the boy to the gallows, and when he reached there he sat under it and waited quietly for the sun to set.
Well, the sun has gone down, it's sinking in, and suddenly there's a cold wind, but it's so cold that the boy's teeth are chattering. Suddenly he gathered twigs and boughs, built a fire, and sat down beside it, but at midnight the wind grew stronger, and he froze beside the fire. He looks up at the gallows and sees that the wind is tossing and tossing the hanged men to and fro.
He thinks to himself: oh, oh, I'll freeze to death here by the fire, and so will those poor people up there! He had a ladder at the bottom of the gallows, he leaned it against the gallows, climbed up and untied one body after another, brought down all seven and laid them neatly by the fire.
Then he poked at the fire, to make it burn better, and even gathered wood and put it on top of it, and the fire blazed and crackled, and his soul was so glad that now those poor people were not cold. They were not cold, but as they lay still, their clothes caught fire.
- Hey, brothers, said the boy, watch out, or I'll suspend you again.
To them he could speak, but they heard not a word, they lay still, and all at once their clothes burst into flame. Oh, the boy is angry!
- What, am I talking to you in vain?! Do you want me to burn with you? There is no such thing!
He took them in a row and took them up to where they were, and let them hang around and play. Then he lay down by the fire and slept like a log. In the morning the man came, and he was glad of the fifty thalers, but his lips were hanging down.
- So, have you learned fear? - he asked.
- Not me, how could I have learned? Perhaps from these people who have not even opened their mouths?
- Well, said the man to himself, I've never seen anything like it in my life.
On the boy went, and as he went he went, and all he could do was sigh: hey, if only I could learn fear! Hey, if I could only learn! Just behind him a trucker came, heard him sighing and asked:
- Who are you, boy?
- I don't know.
- Where are you from?
- I don't know.
- Who is your father?
- I'm not allowed to say.
- What are you always moping about?
- I want to learn fear and there is no one to teach me.
- Of course! Come with me, I'll teach you.
The boy joined him immediately, and they went on together, staying at an inn for the night. As soon as he entered the room, his first words were, "Oh, if I could only learn fear! The mutt hears this, laughs and says:
- Well, if that's all you want to do, you'll learn it here!
- Shut up, said the skater! Many people have been here before. It would be a pity for those pretty eyes if they didn't see the sun in the morning.
- But," said the boy, "however difficult it may be, I want to learn fear. That's why I went out into the world.
He left the mutt no peace until he told him that not far from here was a cursed castle where he could learn fear if he spent three nights there. Then he told her that the king had promised his daughter to anyone who dared to spend three nights in the castle.
There are many treasures there, guarded by evil spirits, and he who gets rid of them can throw away his worries for life, and become rich. Many have tried their luck, but so far they have all left their teeth behind.
The boy could hardly wait for the dawn to break before he went to the king and reported himself:
- I commend my life and death into your hands, if you would let me, my king, I would spend three nights in the cursed castle.
- Very well, said the king, go. Three things you may freely choose and take with you.
The boy said:
- Thank you, your Majesty, so just give me a fire, a lathe, a planing-table and a hatchet..
All that the boy wanted, the king took him to the castle by day, and when evening came, the boy went up to the castle, built a fire in one room, put the woodpile beside him, and sat on the other. And then he began to sigh: hey, if only I could learn fear! But there's no one here who can!
Towards midnight, the fire was cut down, he poked it, the fire burst into flame, and at that moment he hears a whimper from one corner of the room: yow, yow, yow! Oh, we are cold! We'll freeze!
- What are you whining about, you fools! cried the boy. If you're cold, come here, and warm yourselves by the fire.
Well, if he called, two big black cats came, or what I say: they came! They sprang up and settled themselves by the fire, one on the boy's right, the other on his left, and then looked at him with a terrible fierce, terribly fierce look. Then, when they were warm, they asked the boy:
- Buddy, you want to play cards with us?
- Why not? Let me see your nails first.
Without a word, the cats stuck out their legs and showed their nails.
- 'Oh, you have long fingernails,' said the boy. Why is that? Wait, let me cut it first.
He didn't even wait for a reply, he pinched the cats' necks, put them on your planer, pushed their feet in, and then, what did he think, what didn't he think, he said: well, I've had a good look at your nails, I'm not playing cards with you - he swatted them both and threw them out of the window.
He sat down again by the fire, that is to say, he wanted to sit down, for suddenly the big black cats and the even bigger black dogs came into the room in droves; the cats meowed, the dogs barked terribly, gritted their teeth, their eyes were so full of sparks that they vomited. There were so many that the boy didn't know which way to turn.
- Oh, so-and-so gave it to him, he thought to himself, enough of this joke, let me put an end to it. He took his axe, and struck between them, and the one that did not jump aside in time, he struck them all and threw them out of the window.
Then he rekindled the fire, and sat quietly by it, warming himself. Suddenly he began to blink and blink, wanting to go to bed and sleep. He looked this way and that, wondering if there was a bed. Yes, there was a big bed in one corner.
- "Well, that's just fine, I'll get into that," he muttered to himself, and went to bed. But just as he was about to close his eyes, the bed moved, and he started to walk round the castle.
- Go on, he said to the bed, if you have nothing better to do.
The bed was going, it didn't need any encouragement, it ran like six horses in front of it, up the stairs, down the stairs, and then it just toppled over.
- "But we didn't bargain like that," said the boy. He shrugged his shoulders, pushed the bed aside, climbed up, went back to the fire, lay down and slept like a log until morning.
The king comes in the morning and sees her lying on the ground.
- Now, that must have been killed by ghosts, he says to himself. It's a pity, a real pity for this beautiful boy.
But at this the boy moved, looked up at the king, and said:
- Don't be sad, my King, I'm all right!
The king stared, amazed, not believing his eyes or his ears.
- How did you manage to stay alive?" she asked the boy.
- Well, my King, I have stayed as I have stayed. It is enough that one night has passed, and the other two will somehow pass.
Then he went to the skater. But at least he kept his eyes and mouth shut.
- Well, he said, I didn't think I'd see you alive again. Have you learned what fear is?
- "No, I didn't, I didn't," said the boy sadly. I may never learn.
In the evening he went up to the castle again, sat down by the fire, and began to sigh: "Oh, if I could only learn fear! He looks this way and that way, but sees nothing, and as he turns his head this way and that, a half-man falls down before him with a terrible cry.
- Hey! "Hey!" cried the boy, "another half-man is going to die here - that's not enough.
Then there was a great noise, shrieking, screaming, shouting, and the other half-man fell down before him.
- "Wait a minute," said the boy, "I'll just stir the fire a little.
And while he was poking and prodding the fire, the two halves stuck together and became a big, horrible man, and sat down in the boy's place.
- Hey, brother, hey! cried the boy, this is my bench!
But that awful big man didn't say it was over, he just sat on the bench. So the boy was angry, and took the man in the truth of God, and pushed him aside as if he had not been there. No sooner had he pushed him aside than more men fell into the room, and those men brought with them two skulls and a host of human bones, and began to play with them.
The boy was also in the mood for a game and asked:
- Hey, can you hear me? Can I play with you?
- Yes, if you have money.
- Money is the least of it, said the boy, but your balls are not round enough.
With that he took the death's heads and turned them on the lathe into a good round.
- So la! Now they will roll better. So let the games begin.
They were playing, the floor was banging, but as soon as the clock struck midnight, everything disappeared, as if swallowed up by the earth. What could he do but go to bed and sleep till morning like a baby.
The king came early in the morning, wondering, but wondering greatly, and asking what he had been doing all night.
- "I did," he said, "I was a little bit of a fiddler, and I lost a few pennies, but that's all right, I still had enough money left.
- And were you not afraid?
- I wasn't afraid, I wasn't afraid. I've never had so much fun. Hey, if I could only learn what fear is!
The third night he sat down again on his bench and sighed: hey, if I could only learn fear! Towards midnight he went to bed, and as he lay by the fire, six tall men came in with a coffin.
The boy said, "Well, that's certainly my uncle, who died a few days ago. Jere, uncle, jere!" he beckoned to him. The men put the coffin down on the ground, and he went over and opened the lid of the coffin. He bent down and touched his face, but it was very cold.
- Wait, he said, I'll warm you up.
He turned back to the fire, warmed his hands and then touched the dead man's face. But even then it was only cold. Then he took her out of the coffin and carried her to the fire, cradling her in his arms to see if her blood would move. When he saw that it was no use, he said, "Perhaps if we lay in bed together, it would warm me up," and he took her to the bed, laid her in it, and lay down beside her.
And indeed, after a little while, the body of the dead man began to warm up and move.
- There, uncle, you see how you've warmed up! - the boy rejoiced!
But the dead man got up and shouted loudly:
- Well, now I'm going to strangle you!
- What!? the boy jumped up, - is this thanks and gratitude? Go back to the coffin!
He picked her up, carried her, threw her into the coffin, slammed the lid on. Then the six men came again, lifted the coffin and took it away. And the boy sighed, "Hey, hair, that didn't scare me either! I shall never learn fear!
Then a man came in who was bigger than all of them, and it was horrible to look at. He was an old, very old man, and his long white beard beat the ground.
- Well, you guy, now you can learn fear, because you're going to die.
- Take your time, the boy said. I'll be there too, if I have to die.
- "I'll take you there," said the old man.
- Slowly, slowly, not so fast; I am as strong as you, even stronger.
- "We'll soon see," said the old man, "which is stronger. Come on, let's wrestle.
They went to the courtyard of the castle, to the lead vein in the courtyard of the castle, and there the old man picked the boy up and cut him down so that he sank into the ground up to his armpits.
In that instant the boy sprang up, seized the old man, spun him round in the air, and struck him so that he was neck-deep in the ground. In vain he struggled, but could not get out.
- Well, now I have your life in my hands, said the boy.
- Don't kill me, the old man begged. If you get me out of here, I'll make you rich for life.
The boy had mercy on the old man, who led him back to the castle, down to the cellar. There were three barrels, all three full of gold.
The old man said:
- Of this, one part belongs to the poor, one to the king, and the third part is yours.
At that moment the clock struck twelve, the old man disappeared, and the boy was left alone in the dark. He felt around and with great difficulty made his way out of the cellar, up into the room and lay down by the fire.
In the morning the king came and asked:
- Well, my boy, have you just learned what fear is?
- No, replied the boy. My dead brother was here, and then there was a man with a long white beard, and he showed me the treasures in the cellar, but I never learned fear, none of them told me about it.
- You are a man, my son, said the king. You have freed my castle from the curse, you have my daughter and half my kingdom.
- Good, good, said the boy, that's very nice, but I still don't know what fear is.
Meanwhile they brought up the gold from the cellar and held the feast that very day. The boy liked the princess, but all he could do was sigh, "If only I could learn fear! Now that made his wife very angry. She told her maid:
- Do you hear, we must do something to teach my master to be afraid.
- I'll help you with that, said the maid.
In the evening he brought a basin of water from the stream, and when the little king was fast asleep, he pulled the blanket off him and poured the water over him. There were little fishes in the water, and all of them were wriggling their cold bodies on his breast.
Ah, the little king woke up, he roared loudly, he began to tremble like a jelly, and he cried with a great cry, "Oh, I'm frightened! Oh, I am afraid, my sweet wife! Oh, oh, now I know what fear is!
This is the end, run away from it.
(Collected works of the Brothers Grimm, translated into Hungarian by Elek Benedek)
