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11 Lesser-Known Fairy
Tales
By Tasia Bass
Jul 11, 2021

PEOPLEIMAGES /ISTOCK VIA GETTY IMAGES /

PEOPLEIMAGES /ISTOCK VIA GETTY IMAGES

Generations of parents have told their children

fairy tales—stories imparting moral lessons that
are easier to remember when a princess or evil
ogre is involved. The Brothers Grimm, Hans
Christian Andersen, and other folklorists
dedicated their lives to collecting these tales. Some
of these stories became common household
names, like Snow White and Cinderella. But there
are many weird, quirky, and sometimes incredibly
dark stories you may not know. Here are 11 of the
lesser-known ones.

1. The Three Spinning Women

This Brothers Grimm tale stars a lazy girl who

doesn’t want to work on her spinning wheel. Her
mother punishes her. The queen happens to be
passing by their home and asks why the girl is
crying. The mother says it's because she actually
loves spinning but is too poor to a!ord flax. The
queen, who happens to have a houseful of flax, says
the girl can marry her oldest son if she can spin it
all in three days. Three old crones decide to help
the girl, who still refuses to work, and in exchange,
she invites them to the wedding. This lighthearted
tale shows that, sometimes, laziness does pay o!.

2. Hans-My-Hedgehog

A couple wants a child so badly they'd settle for a

hedgehog in this Grimm tale. They soon learn to
be careful what they wish for: They have a half-
human, half-hedgehog son they name Hans-My-
Hedgehog, and, disturbed by his appearance, make
him sleep behind the stove for years. One day, the
child asks for bagpipes and a rooster, promising he
will leave and never return if he can have them.
When his father acquiesces, the boy goes to live in
the forest, playing his bagpipes and tending to his
animals. Soon a king, who is lost, comes across the
boy; Hans-My-Hedgehog promises to show the
king his way back home in exchange for his
daughter. The king agrees, but has no intention of
following through on the promise. Eventually,
Hans-My-Hedgehog takes bloody revenge on the
deceitful king. Then another king comes across the
boy and the same o!er is given. This king is
honorable and sends his daughter, who is
frightened by the boy’s appearance. But on their
wedding night, Hans sheds his hedgehog skin and
becomes a handsome prince.

3. The Ungrateful Son

This short Grimm story teaches the dangers of

selfishness when a man decides to hide a giant
roasted chicken from view when his elderly father
visits his house. After his father departs, the man
attempts to resume eating the chicken, but it turns
into a giant toad and latches onto his head. He
spends the rest of his days feeding the toad so it
won't devour his face.

4. Cat and Mouse in Partnership

An extremely dark Grimm tale in which a cat and a

mouse decide to live together for the winter. They
buy a pot of fat to share and leave it in a safe place
—behind the alter of a church. But throughout the
winter, the cat lies to the mouse and claims that he
must attend to his godchildren. He goes to the
church and eats the fat. The mouse finally realizes
the cat's game, and just as she is about to
reprimand him, the cat eats the mouse—for that is
how nature works.

5. The Girl Without Hands

This truly Grimm story is, um, a handful, so stay

with us. The devil, apparently feeling super-bored,
decides to trick a poor miller. He o!ers him riches
for the whatever is behind his mill. The miller,
thinking he means a large apple tree, agrees to the
request. However, the devil actually means the
miller’s daughter, who's sweeping the floor there.
Three years later, the devil comes to collect the
daughter—but because she's so pious, he can’t
appropriate her.

So, he demands that she stop washing herself, to

reach a state of filth suitable for the devil's
girlfriend, but she cries in her hands, keeping them
too clean. The devil tells the miller to put a stop to
this by chopping o! her hands. The miller, not
wanting to be further harassed, chops them o!.
The girl leaves home (who can blame her) and
soon comes across the king, who marries her even
though she doesn’t have hands. They have a child,
and the devil, annoyed at her good fortune, makes
everyone think the king wants her and the son
dead. The king’s mother sends them away for their
own safety. She finds a small house and lives there
for seven years, and her piety causes her hands to
grow back. Eventually, the king finds them again,
and they live happily ever after.

6. Hans, Who Made the Princess Laugh

In this Norwegian tale recorded by Peter Christen

Asbjørnsen, a beautiful princess never laughs and
is uninterested in every man who asks for her
hand. The king declares that anyone who can make
his daughter laugh will get her hand in marriage
and half of the kingdom. Many try and fail. A man
who lives near the castle decides that his three
sons will try their luck, but the first two strike out.
Hans, the youngest, then goes to the castle, but
instead of attempting to make the princess laugh,
he obtains a golden goose. If anyone touches the
goose, they stick to it. Numerous passers-by get
stuck, and finally Hans arrives at the princess's
window with a trail of unfortunate hangers-on
covered in goose feathers. The princess laughs for
the first time and Hans inherits half the kingdom.

7. The Story of a Boy Who Went Forth to

Learn Fear

A man has two sons, according to the Grimms. The

older one is smart and skilled; the younger is a
burden and unable to learn anything. The father
sends his younger son out to learn a trade. He
decides to learn how to shudder because he has
never been afraid before. As people try to scare
him, he gets more annoyed, complaining that no
one is teaching him how to shudder. The king of
the land has a haunted castle and promises his
daughter’s hand in marriage to the man who stays
in the castle for three nights. The boy takes him up
on it, hoping to get the heebie- jeebies, but just
gets upset that his sleep is being interrupted. After
the third night, the king lets him marry the
princess. At this point the poor guy still is fixated
on learning fear, so a maid pours a bucket of cold
water and wriggling minnows over him while he
sleeps. He wakes up, shuddering for the first time
in his life.

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8. The Death of the Little Red Hen

In this Grimmly depressing tale, a hen is choking

on a nut and her rooster friend goes to a well to get
her a drink of water. But the well demands that the
rooster get a piece of red silk from a young woman.
The woman will only give up the silk if the rooster
gets her a wreath from a willow. Thanks to this
convoluted quest, the hen dies waiting for the
water. Sad at the lost of his friend, the rooster sobs
and all the nearby animals hear it. They try to help
the rooster bury her across the river. Then
everyone but the rooster dies trying to cross the
river. And once the rooster buries the hen, he is
alone and cries until he too dies. But hey, the well
got its red silk and lived happily ever after, we
guess.

9. The Shadow

Imagine if, one day, your shadow asks you to take

its place and then convinces the whole world that
you’ve lost your marbles. That’s exactly what
happens in this whirlwind Hans Christian
Andersen tale. A man’s shadow disappears, and he
begins to grow a new one. Then years later, his old
shadow shows up as an actual person of flesh and
blood. The shadow is the opposite of the man, only
seeing the bad in the world instead of the good.
After a while the man begins to fall ill and the
shadow o!ers to send him to a pond that will cure
him, but only if the man becomes the shadow’s
shadow for some time. The man agrees, but then
the shadow meets a princess and becomes
engaged. The man is upset and the shadow tries to
bribe him into being the shadow forever. The man
refuses, so the shadow convinces everyone that the
man is a shadow that has gone crazy believing he is
actually a real man. The princess executes the man,
thinking he is really a shadow, and the shadow
marries the princess. Moral of the story? Never be
a shadow of yourself.

10. The Red Shoes

In this Hans Christian Andersen story, a little girl

named Karen is so poor she walks around barefoot.
One day a lady in the village gives Karen a pair of
red shoes. Soon, Karen’s mother dies and another
villager takes Karen in; she assumes it's because of
her red shoes. Instead, she learns the lady hates
them and has them destroyed. Years later, the lady
buys Karen new red shoes, thinking they are black
thanks to her poor eyesight. Karen becomes
obsessed with her bright red shoes, continuously
wearing them to church even thought she isn’t
supposed to. A mysterious old soldier calls them
“pretty dancing shoes,” and forever after, Karen
cannot stop dancing when she wears them. But
eventually, Karen becomes desperate to escape the
red shoes, which cleave to her feet and can't be
removed. An angel tells Karen that she’s a lesson
for other vain children. At wit's end, Karen
convinces the town executioner to cut o! her feet.
She spends the rest of her life repenting her vanity,
while working as a servant for a clergyman. Right
before she dies, the angel returns to let her know
she’s been forgiven.

11. The Enchanted Maiden

This Portuguese story from Zófimo Consiglieri

Pedroso involves three beautiful daughters. The
first two marry rich princes, but the youngest
marries a poor man, and the older sisters shun her
because of it. As the youngest daughter is giving
birth, fairies in the vicinity bless her baby with
beauty and riches. The child grows up, and her
beauty catches the eye of a prince who's already
engaged to a daughter of the mean older sisters.
His fiancée, in a fit of rage, blinds the enchanted
maiden and assumes her identity. But she gives her
rival her eyes back in exchange for flowers for the
wedding. The enchanted maiden visits the prince
and begs him not to go through with the marriage.
The prince weighs his options and puts the
question to his wedding guests. “I lost something,
and instead I bought another. I have now
recovered that which I lost. Which ought I to make
use of—that which I lost, or what I bought?” When
all the guest vote for that which he's recovered, he
marries the enchanted maiden.

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