Array The Brothers Grimm - Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm - A New English Version

In his fourth year of wandering, he arrived at an inn. The landlord wouldn’t let him in, and even refused him a place in the stable in case he frightened the horses. But when Bearskin put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a handful of cash, the landlord relented a little and let him stay in a lean-to in the yard, on condition that he didn’t show his face to anyone.

One night he was sitting alone in there, heartily wishing that his seven years were up, when he heard someone sobbing with misery in a nearby room. Bearskin was a kind-hearted man, and wanting to help, he opened the door and saw an old man weeping bitterly and striking his fists together. As soon as the old man saw Bearskin he struggled up and tried to run away, but on hearing a human voice he stopped and let the monster talk to him.

Bearskin spoke kindly and got the old fellow to sit down again and tell him his troubles. It seemed that little by little he’d lost what money he had, and now he and his daughters were on the brink of starvation. He couldn’t pay his bill to the landlord, and he was sure to be sent to prison.

‘If money’s your only problem,’ said Bearskin, ‘I’ve got enough to help you.’

He called for the landlord and paid the bill, and then he put a bag of gold into the old man’s pocket. When the old man saw that all his troubles were over, he didn’t know how to thank his strange helper.

‘Come home with me,’ he said. ‘Come and meet my daughters. They are all wonderfully beautiful, and you must choose one of them to be your wife. When they hear what you’ve done for me, they won’t refuse you. You do look a bit, well, eccentric, but whichever one you choose will soon have you looking neat and tidy.’

Bearskin liked the sound of the daughters, so he went home with the old man. However, when the eldest daughter saw him, she screamed and ran away. The second daughter looked him up and down and said, ‘You expect me to marry a thing like that? He doesn’t even look like a man. I’d sooner marry that bear who came here once, you remember; they’d shaved all his fur off and he was wearing a hussar’s uniform and white gloves. I could have got used to him .’

The youngest daughter, however, said, ‘Father dear, he must be a good man if he helped you like that. And if you promised him a bride, I’m ready to keep your word.’

It was a shame that Bearskin’s face was covered in hair and dirt, because otherwise father and daughter would have seen how joyfully his heart leaped at those words. He took a ring from his finger, broke it in two and gave her one half, keeping the other for himself. He wrote her name in his half, and his name in hers, and asked her to take good care of it.

‘I’ve got to be off now,’ he said. ‘I’ve got three more years’ wandering to get through. If I don’t come back after then, you’re free, because I shall be dead. But I hope you’ll pray to God and ask him to keep me alive.’

The poor bride dressed herself all in black, and when she thought about her future bridegroom, tears came to her eyes. From her sisters all she had for the next three years was scorn and ridicule.

‘Better be careful,’ said the elder sister. ‘If you give him your hand, he’ll crush it in his paw.’

‘Watch out,’ said the second sister, ‘bears like sweet things. If he takes a fancy to you, you’ll be down his gullet in a moment.’

‘And you better do as he tells you. I wouldn’t care to be you if he starts to growl.’

‘But the wedding will be fun. Bears always dance well.’

The bride-to-be said nothing and didn’t let them upset her. As for Bearskin, he wandered all over the world, doing good wherever he could and giving generously to the poor so that they’d pray for him.

Finally, at dawn on the very last day of the seven years, he went once more to the heath and sat down under the circle of trees. Quite soon the wind began to howl, and there was the Devil again, scowling at him.

‘Here’s your jacket,’ he said, throwing Bearskin’s old jacket to him. ‘Now give me back my green one.’

‘Not so fast,’ said Bearskin. ‘First of all you’re going to clean me up. I want four tubs of water, from very hot to lukewarm, and four kinds of soap, from that yellow stuff they scrub the floors with to the finest Parisian savon de luxe . As for shampoo, I want several kinds of that, from the sort they use on horses to the most delicate stuff scented with lavender. Then I want a gallon of eau de cologne.’

And whether the Devil wanted to or not, he had to bring water and soap and several kinds of cosmetic product and wash Bearskin from head to foot, cut his hair, comb it neatly, shave his beard and trim his nails. After that, Bearskin looked like a dashing soldier once more; in fact, he looked more handsome than ever.

When the Devil had vanished, complaining bitterly, Bearskin felt joyful. He strode into the town, bought a splendid velvet jacket, hired a carriage drawn by four white horses, and drove to the house of his bride. Of course, no one recognized him. The father assumed he was a distinguished officer, a colonel at least, and led him into the dining room where his daughters were sitting.

He took a seat between the two eldest. They made a real fuss of him. They poured wine for him, they chose the finest morsels to put on his plate, they flirted and simpered and thought they’d never seen a more handsome man. But the youngest daughter sat across the table from him, not raising her eyes, not saying a word.

Finally Bearskin asked the father if he’d let him choose one of the daughters for a wife. At that the two eldest daughters leaped up from the table and raced to their bedrooms to put on their finest dresses. Each one thought she was the one Bearskin wanted.

As soon as he was alone with his bride-to-be, the visitor brought out his half of the broken ring and dropped it into a glass of wine, which he handed to her across the table. She took the wine and drank it, and when she found the half-ring in the bottom of the glass, her heart beat faster; and she took the other half which she wore on a ribbon around her neck, and put them together. And the two halves matched perfectly.

The stranger said, ‘I’m your bridegroom, whom you knew as Bearskin. By the grace of God, I’ve found my clean human form again.’

He embraced her and kissed her warmly. And at that moment the two sisters came in wearing all their finery, and when they saw Bearskin and their sister together, and realized who he was and what had happened, they went mad with fury. They ran outside, and one of them drowned herself in the well, and the other hanged herself from a tree.

That evening there was a knock at the door. Bearskin opened it, and there was the Devil in his green jacket.

‘What do you want?’ said Bearskin.

‘I’ve just come to thank you. I’ve now got two souls to play with, instead of your one.’

Tale type:ATU 361, ‘Bear-Skin’

Source:a story told to the Grimm brothers by the von Haxthausen family and a tale by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, ‘Vom Ursprung des Namens Bärnhäuter’ (‘The Origin of the Name Bearskin’; 1670)

Similar stories:Katharine M. Briggs: ‘The Coat’ ( Folk Tales of Britain ); Italo Calvino: ‘The Devil’s Breeches’ ( Italian Folktales )

This seems a curious bargain for the Devil to make. Surely there should be easier and less expensive ways of getting the soldier’s soul. Still, the soldier is a pious and charitable fellow, and might not be easy to seduce in the usual diabolical manner. The damnation of the two sisters seems harsh, but after all, there are those long years of mockery to be taken account of.