Lesser Known Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales Quiz

Answer: Make haste slowly

"Make haste slowly" is actually the last line in the story. "The Nail" is about a man who, in his rush home, pays no heed to the fact that his horse has a nail stuck in its horseshoe. The horse's leg eventually breaks, and the man is forced walk home with all of his possessions fastened to his back.

Answer: for beating and cursing his wife

In "Sharing Joy and Sorrow," a tailor is arrested for beating his kind and pious wife. After he has gone to prison, he is advised that he needs to learn to share joy and sorrow with his wife. He is released and is soon back to his old ways. After he is brought forth once again to the judges, he advises them that he has in fact shared joy and sorrow "...whenever I hit her I was full of joy, and she of sorrow; and if I missed her, then she was joyful, and I sorry." The judges give him what he deserves.

Answer: a nightingale

Jorinda and Joringel were lost in the woods. They came upon a witch's castle which caused Joringel to stand still, unable to move, and Jorinda to be transformed into a nightingale. The witch sets Joringel free, but not after capturing Jorinda. Joringel is despondent, pining for his lost love.

He dreams of a blood red flower that has the power to break any spell. He finds the flower, breaks the spell, and Jorinda and Joringel live happily ever after.

Answer: because a woman uses the ears to clean her child's dress

When God himself roamed the earth, corn stalks produced 400 to 500 ears of corn per stalk. After the Lord sees the woman use His beautiful ears of corn to clean her child's frock, he decides that men no longer deserve His heavenly gifts. The woman and the bystanders plead for the innocent birds who would now starve because of her mistake.

The Lord pities the birds, and leaves the corn stalks to grow 50 to 60 ears, like they do today.

Answer: false

A cunning princess declares that she can guess any riddle posed by any suitor in 3 days time. If she answers correctly, the suitor loses his head. If not, she has to marry him.
The princess does solve the riddle in "The Riddle," but she questions the King's son while he is sleeping or else she never could have guessed the answer. The King's son provides proof that she did this, and the arrogant princess is obligated to marry him. The end...

Answer: A bit of four leaf clover

In "The Beam" a magician has a rooster pick up a seemingly heavy beam as if it were light as a feather. A girl, after having come across a bit of a four leaf clover uncovers the deception, thus the magician is run out of town. He swears revenge. On her wedding day, she comes across a wide brook without a bridge, and proceeds to lift her dress so she might cross it.

The bitter magician appears, laughing, as HE uncovers the deception, "AHA! Where are thine eyes that thou takest that for water?" She is standing in the middle of a field, with people surrounding her...with her dress hiked up.

She is laughed out of town.

Answer: their house catches fire, and they live in poverty and misery with plagued consciences

The man's wife, while trying to help him after he faints over his guilt, accidentally starts a house fire, "and the rest of the years they had to live they passed in poverty and misery, tormented by the pangs of conscience."

Answer: to go to Heaven

Hansel does not ask to go to Heaven, he asks for the cards and the dice with which he can use to win every game. He asks for a tree whereon every kind of fruit would grow, and from which no one who climbs up can come down again unless Hansel wills it so. Using these tools, he cheats the Lord, Death, and Lucifer, until finally he is thrown down and his soul fragments and inhabits all of the "gambling vagabonds who are living this very day."

Answer: wild boar

A wild boar is ransacking a certain country, and the King declares that whoever can kill the beast will have his daughter's hand in marriage. Two brothers, the youngest kind and good, the oldest lazy and arrogant, go forth into the wood, and the good brother slays the beast with the aid of a little fairy.

The wicked brother kills his youngest brother and takes the boar to the King. After he is married, a herdsman finds the younger man's bone and uses it as a mouthpiece for his horn. When he plays it, the bone sings the whole sordid tale, and the story comes to light.

The evil brother is drowned, and the youngest brother's body is properly buried.

Answer: because he is very greedy

"The Ungrateful Son" is about a greedy boy who hides a piece of chicken from his father so that he can have it all to himself. The chicken turns into a toad, and attaches itself to the boy's face. The boy cannot remove it, so he must feed the toad, or else it feeds on his face. Yummy!

Answer: because he is so old he can hardly eat without spilling anything

"The Old Grandfather's Corner" is about a young couple that grow tired of caring for the husband's old father. At the dinner table, no one can stand to look at him, as he is always spilling something out of his bowl or out of his mouth. One day, while eating, the old man drops and breaks his bowl.

The wife, who is fed up by now, buys him a cheap wooden bowl. Some time after, the husband and wife come upon their son, who is attempting to fasten pieces of wood together. When they ask what he is doing, he replies, "I am making a little bowl for mamma and papa to eat their food in when I grow up." The man and wife cry, and the old man is invited back to the table.

Answer: Bluebeard

"Fitcher's Bird" is very similar to Perrault's "Bluebeard." In "Fitcher's Bird" 3 sisters are cautioned not to go into a certain room in an evil wizard's castle. They are each given a key AND an egg. All 3 sisters go into the forbidden room, but only two drop the egg, and are met with an undesirable fate. The third sister is able to outwit the wizard, and save her 2 sisters.

Answer: they fall in a well

After the little brother and sister fall in the well, the fairy demands they work for her. They are treated poorly, and the children manage to escape with the aid of a brush, a comb, and a looking glass.

Answer: its mouth is always at one side

After the sole loses a race against the carp, the herring, the gudgeon, and the rest, he becomes very spiteful and rude. His punishment for this behavior results in all soles forever having their mouths to one side...like they do to this day.

Answer: The Fox and the Goat

"The Fox and the Goat" is not a Grimm's fairy tale. The Grimm Brothers have also written "The Fox and the Geese," "The Wolf and the Fox," and "Gossip Wolf and the Fox"--how's that for a weird title?

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