Germany Stamps 2019 Fairy Tale: The Brave Little Tailor

The brothers Jacob Greene and William Green were German fairy tale collectors and language and culture researchers. Because of their common interests, they collaborated in the study of linguistics, the collection and collation of folk fairy tales and legends, so they were called "Brothers Grimm". From 1812 to 1815, their collection of Fairy Tales for Children and Families was published. The book laid the foundation for the fascinating "Grimm" narrative of folk fairy tales, and had a profound impact on world children's literature since the 19th century.

The motif of this stamp is inspired by the German Brothers Grimm fairy tale: The Brave Little Tailor

One summer morning, the little tailor was sewing clothes when he suddenly heard someone shouting, "Sell good jam!" Sell good jam yo! "It turned out that it was a big lady selling jam who was shouting." Please come here, my dear mother-in-law, I will buy your jam. The little tailor said. So the eldest lady went up four floors and came to the little tailor's house. The little tailor said to the big lady, "I want to buy two or two, and if I weigh it up to two and a half, I don't care!" "The eldest lady was a little upset to see that the little tailor had bought too little. But he still weighed the little tailor in half, and the little tailor said, "Okay! God has blessed me with happiness, let me enjoy it! He spread the jam on the bread and said to himself, "Let's sew the clothes before eating." He started sewing clothes again, and out of pleasure he sewed more and more clothes. The smell of the jam attracted many flies, and they all flew over to eat the jam, and the little tailor saw it, got angry, and yelled at them: "Who invited you to come?" "But the flies could not understand people's words, and the little tailor, in a fit of rage, picked up a piece of cloth and beat it hard, and he picked up the cloth and looked at it, and there were seven flies lying on the cloth, with their feet facing the sky! The little tailor was very proud, and in order to let everyone know that he was brave, he sewed six big words on his clothes, "Kill seven at once", and he said: "I want the whole city to know how strong I am, no!" What is the whole city, I want the whole world to know. When it was time to leave, he found a piece of cheese at home, found a bird in the tree that was entangled in the bushes, put it in his pocket, and so he set off happily.

He walked halfway up the mountain and saw a giant sitting on a large rock. The little tailor said to him, "Hello! partner! How about following me into the world? The giant looked at the little tailor and scolded him, "You little one, you poor worm." "Don't say that, you can see who I am by looking at what is written on my clothes." The giant saw the six words written on his clothes and thought he had killed seven people at once, and he had a little respect for him. But the giant wanted to test him first, he picked up a stone, squeezed it with his hand, the stone flowed out of the water, the little tailor took out the piece of cheese, and also squeezed it with his hand, and the water flowed out, you see! partner! Isn't that better done? The giant looked at it, and without saying a word, he picked up another stone and threw it out with his hand! The stone disappeared, and it took a long time to return to him, and the little tailor took out the bird in his pocket and threw it into the sky, and the bird was freed, flew away happily, and never returned. The giant picked up another tree and said to the little tailor: If you have the strength, move this tree home with me! The little tailor said, no problem! Leave it to me, you carry the front, I carry the back. So the giant picked up the tree and carried it all the way away. And the little tailor? But he sat on the shoulders of the giants and sang the song "Three Tailors Riding Into the City".

It seems that carrying trees is a game to play too! Soon the giant was tired, and he put the tree down, at which point the little tailor jumped off the giant's shoulders, pretended to carry the tree, and said to the giant, "What's wrong?" You big guy, how come you can't even move a tree? The giant saw the spirit of the little tailor trembling, admired the five bodies, and invited him to his home as a guest. At night, the giant took up a stick and beat the bed on which the little tailor slept. It turned out that the little tailor thought that the bed was too big, so he slept under the table, and the next day, the giant went out hunting, and had already forgotten the little tailor, and he saw that the little tailor was still following him, and thought that the little tailor would kill himself, and ran fast on the forest. The little tailor came to a large tree and lay there asleep. The king's two guards found him, saw the little tailor's clothes with the words "Kill seven" written on it, and said to the king: If war breaks out, this man will certainly be useful to us, and the king thinks they are right, so he keeps the little tailor, and the little tailor tells the king that he is very willing to serve the king. One day the king said to the little tailor, "There are two wicked giants in the forest, and they kill, set fires, rob, and do no evil, and if you kill these two giants, I will marry you the princess, and there will be a dowry of half the country." ”

The little tailor was overwhelmed. The king also sent 100 knights to assist him. The little tailor said, "Don't need the help of these knights, let them watch the battle from the side, is it so useless to kill seven people at once?" "The little tailor smashed the two giants with stones, and the two giants blamed each other, and then quarreled, and finally took the uprooting of the tree as a weapon, and the two fought to the death, and finally died together. The little tailor quickly ran to the 100 knights and said that he had killed the giants, and the knights did not believe it, and the little tailor led the knights to look at the two giants who had been killed, and the trees that had been uprooted around them. When the king heard the news, he regretted his promise and asked the little tailor to catch the evil unicorns in the forest alive. The little tailor said: Compared to two giants, a unicorn, what is it? He brought a rope and an axe.

The king still sent 100 knights to assist him. The little tailor called 100 knights outside the forest, and went in by himself, and the little tailor went away not long ago, and he met the unicorn, and the unicorn saw the little tailor and rushed towards him, but the little tailor was alert and hid behind the tree, and the unicorn's horn also hit the tree, and he couldn't pull it out. The little tailor came out from behind the tree, took out an axe and cut off the unicorn's horn, and gave the unicorn to the king. The king had nothing more to say, and he had to marry the princess to him and give him half the country. The wedding was lavish, but not much joy, and if the king knew that it was a tailor, not a fighter, who was standing in front of him, he would be even more saddened. One evening, the princess heard her husband say a dream: Dude! You sew me clothes, you mend my pants, or I'll slap you with a ruler. The princess knew of her husband's origins, and the next morning she went to the king to complain, asking him to get rid of her tailor-born husband. The king comforted her and said, "Tonight you keep the door open and let my servants stand outside, and as soon as he falls asleep, let them in, tie him up, carry him to a wooden boat, and let the wooden boat take him far away."

Fortunately, one of the king's guards heard about the plan, and he admired the spirit of the little tailor, and he had a good feeling for the little tailor, so he told the little tailor about the plan. I'm going to make their plot untenable, says the little tailor. At night, the little tailor went to bed with his wife as usual, and when the little tailor pretended to be asleep, the princess opened the door and let the king's servant in, and when he was about to do it, the little tailor said: Man! You sew me clothes, you mend my pants, or I'll slap you with a ruler, I'll kill seven people at once, subdue two giants, catch a unicorn alive, and fear these people at your door? When these people heard the little tailor's words, they ran away in fright, and from then on, no one came to provoke the little tailor, so the little tailor became the king for a lifetime.