The Brothers Grimm Lunch Break: The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

In this very short tale, the wolf disbelieves the fox, and discovers that a man is a very strong creature indeed.

A disgruntled soldier assembles a team of extraodinary characters, who set out to make their way in the world.

Three sons go out into the world to earn their fortune, with only a rooster, a scythe, and a cat.

A witch lures young maidens to her forest castle and changes them into birds, which she keeps in cages. After capturing hundreds of maidens this way, the betrothed of her latest catch dreams of a way to free them all from the spell.

A man prays for guidance on a career for his son, receives a sign that he should become a thief, and so apprentices him out to a master thief.

A prince fails to keep his promise to marry a princess, instead becoming engaged to another. The spurned princess and eleven lookalikes disguise themselves as huntsmen and try to win him back.

A short tale where a hare kidnaps a maiden so he can marry her, she escapes, and he becomes sad.

In his grief over losing his beautiful wife, a king sets to marry his beautiful daughter, who reminds him of the wife he lost. She escapes, disguises herself, and hides in another king's castle. Before long, she is discovered by that king, who makes her his queen.

Unlike his clever brothers, a simple fellow is nice to a dwarf. His kindness gets repaid many times over, and he eventually becomes a king.

Three princes, the youngest a simpleton, are given a contest by their father to see who would become the next king. The two older brothers dismiss the youngest, but with the help of a magical toad, he wins the contest.

After a simple prince keeps his two older brothers from harming ants, ducks, and bees, the animals re-pay his kindness when they find a kingdom where everyone has been turned to stone.

The poorest farmer in the village becomes the town's richest, and only, resident.

This is the longest fairy tale in the collection. Two young twin brothers eat the magical heart and liver of a golden bird, which bestows upon them the gift of a gold coin under their pillow each monring. Their father believes it to be the work of the devil, so he abandons them in the forest. A huntsman finds them, adopts them as his own, and teches them to be huntsmen as well. When they set out as young adults to make their way in the world, they collect a menageria of talking animals. Eventually, they go their separate ways, splitting their animals among them. One brother makes his way to a kingdom emperiled by a seven-headed dragon. The kingdom is down to its last virgin, the king's daughter, to appease the dragon. The king promises his daughter and the kingdom to whoever can slay the dragon. The brother and his animals do this, but the king's marshal kills the young huntsman and takes credit for the victory. The brother is resurected with the help of his animals (though his head is temporarily put on backwards). The brother exposes the lie and takes his rightful place as the prince of the kingdom. One day, while out hunting, the brother and his animals are set upon by a witch, who turns them all to stone. The other brother wanders by at this time, and is able to rescue the first brother and his animals, revive them, and kill the witch. And everyone lives happily ever after.

A young groom is vexed by the not-so-bright actions of his wife. This is essentially a longer version of the tale presented in Episode 34: Clever Else.

A merchant runs over a dog in the road, and the dog's friend, a sparrow, gets revenge.

A young prince manages to, despite ignoring almost all of the consistently correct advice given by a talking fox, obtain a golden bird, a golden horse, a beautiful princess, and a kingdom.

A beutiful maiden barely escapes with her life and her sweetheart from her stepmother, who is a real witch. They must outwit her several times thereafter, but along the way the maiden nearly loses everything she holds dear.

A miller's daughter is locked in rooms full of straw by a greedy king after her father brags that she can spin straw into gold. She can't, of course, but along comes a strangely named little man who can.

A down on his luck traveller finds a magical tablecloth. He uses that to trick three others and steal a knapsack, a hat, and a horn. All three have magical military powers. He uses them to overthrow a king and seize the kingdom for himself.

The classic story of a witch queen's jeolousy of her beautiful step daughter princess. Also, seven dwarfs.

A princess is overly critical and disrespectful of all of her potential suitors. In a fit of anger, her father marries her off to the first beggar who comes along, a travelling minstrel. The minstrel teaches her humility.

A wood cutter finds a child lost in the woods, and raises him as his own.

An offended witch curses a young princess to die from pricking her finger on a spindle on her 15th birthday. A good witch blunts the curse by instead having her fall asleep for 100 years.

A king is tricked by a witch into losing his six sons and his daughter. Through the witch's magic, the boys are turned into swans. The young princess sets out to undo the magic, though it takes seven years and nearly costs her her life.

A farmer decides his old dog is too useless to keep around any longer. The dog, along with his frind the wolf, come up with a plan to convince him otherwise. The pair later get into a feud, and at a duel, a bear and a cat are their seconds.

An evil stepmother kills her step-son, cooks him into a stew, and serves the stew to the boy's father. Her daughter witnesses the whole thing, and buries the boy's bones beneath a juniper tree. The boy returns as an enchanted bird, and the stepmother finds justice.

An evil warlock has a long history of kidnapping and murdering beutiful young women. One of his intended victims manages to escape and exact revenge.

A little man, no bigger than a thumb, goes out into the wide world.

A man chooses Death to be godfather of his 13th child. When he grows older, Death grants the child the power to heal the sick, under certain conditions. Trouble happens when those conditions are broken.

A young girl disobeys her parents' instructions not to go visit the home of an evil witch, and comes to a bad end.

A mysterious man grants a poor man the power to heal the sick or tell when their death is inevitable.

A hen and a rooster go visit Herr Korbes. Along the way, they're joined by several other animals and ordinarily inanimate objects who also want to go visit the man.

A miller promises his daughter to the first semmingly nice man who come courting, but he turns out to be a robber and murderer. The bride to be is able to escape the terrible plans he has in store.

Three short stories of the elves interacting with our world, including the story of elves helping the poor shoemaker while he sleeps.

Two tales of Mrs. Fox remarrying after her beloved Mr. Fox passes away. The first time, though, he was only pretending to have died.

A farmer and his wife have a son perfect in every way, but no bigger than a thumb.

A tailor's three sons go out into the world and acquire three useful magical items. The main story is bookended with another story about an ornery goat.

A tailor bluffs his way into heaven, where he causes trouble.

A husband and wife have a clever daughter who must prove how smart she is before her suitor will marry her.

A count's son has trouble learning anything of use, but he does learn how to talk to dogs, frogs, and birds. Those skills end up coming in handy for the fellow.

A young man loses his bride by being not that bright.

A maiden loses her hands when her father bargained her away to the devil. The girl escapes the devil and evenually marries a king. The devil continues to cause her trouble, but she eventually lives happily ever after.

A louse and a flea set up a happy home together, but things very quickly go terribly wrong one day while they are brewing beer.

A boy is born as fortune's favorite, destined to marry the king's daughter. The king didn't care for the idea, and did what he could to prevent it. The boy ends up going to hell and back to fulfill his destiny.

A murdered man's bones sing the story of his betrayal.

A donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster are no longer appreciated by their human owners, so they all run off to make a new life for themselves as musicians in the town of Bremen. Along the way, they encounter a band of theives.

A girl known for wearing her little red hat takes a basket of treats to her grandmother's house, though the woods. A big bad wolf has other plans.

In a fit of anger, a father curses his seven sons and they turn into ravens. Their younger sister travels to the end of the earth to lift the curse.

A widow spoils her daughter, and makes her stepdaughter do all the work. The stepdaughter falls down a well and discovers the home of Mother Holle (who rules the weather). While their, her industriousness earns her a reward of gold. After returning home, the other daughter tries to follow in her step-sister's footsteps, but her idle nature earns her nothing but pitch.

A mouse, a bird, and a sausage meet and set up house. Everything is happy until the bird gets convinced he's being taken advantage of. He tries for a different arrangement with disasterous results.