Explore every episode of the podcast The Brothers Grimm Lunch Break: The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

A huntsman helps an old woman and is rewarded with an unusual way to get gold coins and a cloak of teleportation. A witch steals them from him but he outsmarts her with lettuce that turns people into donkeys and marries her daughter to live happily ever after.

An extremely cocky prince goes out to adventure in the world, and it seems to pay off for him when a friendly lion defends him from a troublesome giant. The story ends with an awkward usage of the color black equating being cursed.

Three traveling journeymen agree to a strange request from the devil.

Seven guys from southern Germany set out across the world to have adventures.

Three surgeons brag they know all there is to know about surgery when in reality they have a magic salve. Their boasts come back to haunt them.

A stubborn child is killed by the lord, and apparently only a spanking can give him peace.

A wounded soldier is dismissed by an uncaring king. He finds a magical friend and gets revenge.

A poor wandering tailer robs and kills a fellow traveller.The victim’s last words were “the bright sun will bring it to light”. It took many years, but eventually, with the help of the bright sun, the tailor’s crime became known.

An unassuming little tailor correctly answers a princess’s riddle and is then entitled to marry her, but he must first spend a night with a bear.

A young prince is kidnapped by foreign king and must pass a series of challenges. If he fails, he will be put to death, but if he succeeds, he will win one of the king’s daughters for his bride.

A farmer drops a turnip seed and it grows into a tree that reaches all the way up into heaven. So, naturally, he climbs it.

With the aid of a magical gun, a huntsman tricks and kills three evil giants. In doing so, he wins the hand of a princess.

Warning! This story contains offensive racial stereotypes from another era, and is not suitable for all audiences. A journeyman apprentice is granted magical items and powers after being kind to a dwarf, but he later uses them to toment a jew he meets along the road.

A beloved boy dies, and returns to tell his mother to stop crying.

A farmer and his wife give birth to a son who is half boy, and hedgehog. He grows up to play the bagpipes, ride a rooster, and inherit a kingdom.

Two craftsmen, one a tailor and the other a shoemaker, one good and the other bad, travel together through the country.

A miller is nearing retirement age and has no family to pass his mill down to. He tells his three hired men that whichever goes out into the world and brings back the best horse can have the mill. One of them, a very simple man, finds a magical cat along the way.

Three very short and sad tales (fragments, really) about toads.

Good-hearted but dim-witted people get taken advantage of by greedy people.

A cautionary tale about having a magic item but forgetting how to use it.

A chronicle of the short war between the animals that walk and the animals that fly.

A desolate soldier is given a proposition by the devil: live for seven years like a beast and be set for life, or forfeit his soul. The soldier passes the challenge and finds a wife in the process, but the devil also comes out a winner.

A down and out discharged soldier gets hired on to become the Devil’s assistant. He serves well enough for seven years, and is well paid for his service.

A student discovers a mean spirit in a glass bottle. He outsmarts the spirit, and once he sets the spirit free, he is rewarded with a magical item that sets him and his poor father up for life.

A farmer asks a doctor how he too could become a doctor. The doctor gives him a sarcastic response, but the farmer follows it anyway. He then lucks into fame and fortune.

A King lies dying, and only the hard to find Water of Life can save him. His three sons, two wicked ones and one younger good one, go out to find it. Along the way, everyone gets what they have coming.

Three sisters marry a king and two of his ministers. The new queen births three children, but her two sisters conspire to throw the babies into the river. They are rescued by a fisherman, and with the help of a magical bird, all is made right.

A farmer’s wife and a priest have an affair, and the farmer’s neighbor helps him learn the truth.

A king is impressed by a farmer’s daughter’s cleverness.

After a princess is accidentally turned into a raven, and woodsman faces many challenges to break her from the spell.

A rich merchant loses his riches, but a dwarf offers to restore them in exchange for a mystery item. That item turns out to be the merchant’s own son. Instead of becoming a slave to the dwarf, the boy manages to escape and have a number of adventures, including becoming king of a distant kingdom.

After eating an apple off their father’s favorite tree, three princesses are magically cursed to be deep undreground where they must pick lice off dragons. Three huntsmen brothers, while searching for the princesses, stumble upon a gnome who lives in those same underground caverns. The two wicked eldest brothers try to cheat the youngest out of the reward for rescuing the princesses.

A young farmer’s son, who was no bigger than a thumb, suckles at the breast of a giant and becomes a giant himself (and quite a bit ill-mannered, too). He then goes out to make his way in the world.

A meek princess is usurped by her servant and is forced to tend to the geese in silence. A talking horse witnesses the events and, despite being killed, helps bring the usurper to justice.

A story of enchantment with lions, dragons, griffins, talking doves, true love, gifts from the sun, moon, and the four winds, and more.

The Lord was travelling the world disduised as a simple man, as he often used to do. He was treated very differently by a rich man and a poor man, and each received an appropriate reward.

A hungry fox happens upon a meadow full of young, plump geese.

This is kind of a greatest hits remix story, involving a talking wish-granting golden fish, golden brothers with matching golden lillies and horses, travels through the wide world, a sudden marriage, and a witch in the woods who can turn men to stone. And they all live happily ever after.

A poor farmer uses homonyms to convince a rich farmer to let him marry the rich man’s daughter.

Hans, who must have been born under a lucky star, starts a journey with a nugget of gold the size of his head and is able to trade along the way until he ends up with what he really wanted most of all.

Hans has such a gambling problem, he continues his habit right into the afterlife.

A discharged soldier impresses St. Peter (who is disguised as a soldier). But as they travel together, St. Peter sours on the man. After having many adventured, the man arrives at heaven to find St. Peter barring the gates to him.

You can tell from the title that this isn't a happy tale, but it's worse than you think. The last line is "And then, everyone was dead." You have been warned.

A very short tale about children who are captured by, and then escape from, a creature at the bottom of a well.

A four year old boy must remind his parents to respect their elders.

A fashionable cook, who is also a bit of a lush, eats all of the dinner she was supposed to serve to her master and his guest, so she quickly has to think of a story to cover her deeds.

An evil cook learns what should have been an obvious lesson:don't kidnap a prince who has the power to make his own wishes come true.

The fox is extremely rude to the cat, but the cat gets her revenge thanks to a huntsman's dogs.

The fox continues to vex his cousins, the wolves.

The wolf bosses the fox around and constantly threatens to eat him. The cunning fox thinks up a few plans to trick the wolf into being caught by humans so he can finally live in peace.