Berta Lask, 1921, trans. Jack Zipes
A boy and a girl walked together on a country road. They were carrying books and pencils in their knapsacks and heading toward school. Along the way the boy said, “We have our history lesson today. That’s neat! The teacher will tell us again how the Germans fought the French. I love to hear all about it. You know, when I grow up, I’ll go to war and kill all the French.”
The Girl replied. “Please don’t kill all of them. Perhaps there are some good people among them. Then you’ll have killed the good with the bad.”
But the boy answered, “What do you mean? There are no good ones. I’m going to kill them all.”
They continued along their way for a while, and the young girl asked, “What sort of stories did your mother tell you? She knows so many.”
The young boy said, “Yesterday, she told me about Siegfried and how he killed a dragon. And the day before she told me about little Roland and how he killed a giant. You know, when I grow up, I’m going to kill a dragon and a giant or many dragons and giants. And there are evil knights who kidnap princesses and hold them prisoner. I’m going to kill all of the evil knights, too, and free all the princesses.”
“That’s terrific,” the girl said. “And I’ll help you.”
The young boy laughed and said, “You want to help me? But you’re just a girl. Girls can’t kill dragons. Boys are the only ones who know how to do that.”
Then the girl responded, “Well, you can at least show me the dragon after you’ve killed one. I want to see if it’s a real one. Still, I’ll do something that’s just as good as killing dragons.”
“What’s that?” the boy asked.
“I don’t know yet. I still have time.”
Just at that moment they arrived in front of the school.
Several years later the young boy was grown up and no longer went to school. So he bought a gun and ammunition and marched along the country road – “ left, right, left, right,” snappy, like a soldier. He was now ready to fight against the French. But when he asked people where he could find the enemy forces of the French, they laughed at him and said, “The war with the French ended many years ago. There’s nothing to fight against now.”
When the young man heard this, he returned sadly to his home and placed the ammunition in a drawer and the gun in a closet. “I can’t fight the French now,” he thought, “but I can still kill a dragon and evil knights who kidnap princesses.”
The following day the young man wandered along the country road again. He wore a fine suit made out of smooth blue cloth and a warm overcoat. Under the coat he carried a large sharp sword that he wanted to use to kill dragons and evil knights. After some time he arrived in a city. And as he went through the streets, he heard a soft clappety-clap. Hey, the young man thought, it clatters like iron armour. There must be a knight around here somewhere. And he listened carefully to the clattering noise that came out of a cellar. The young man crouched and looked through a window; he saw a young girl with a pale, sad face. Hey, the young man thought, she must be a princess. I’m going to go right down there and kill the iron knight and free the princess.
The young man went down some steps and entered a small, dark cellar. An old woman sat on a stool and peeled potatoes, and a sewing machine stood at the window. There sat the pale girl whom the young man had seen from outside. She was sewing as fast as she could and did not even look up at the young man as he entered. The young man was puzzled by this and said, “I thought you were a kidnapped princess because you looked so sad and pale, and I thought an evil knight was guarding you because I heard rattling like an iron armour.”
You fool, the girl wanted to say, but then she stopped sewing for a moment and looked up at him. And when she noticed that his face was good and honest, the girl laughed a little and said, “My iron sewing machine is the evil knight that keeps me prisoner. I have to sew from early morning until late at night and can hardly leave the room. If it were a knight it would fall asleep every now and then or die. But the sewing machine neither sleeps nor dies.”
The young man then drew his sword from beneath his coat and said, “I’m going to chop the sewing machine into a thousand pieces so that it will no longer hold you prisoner.”
But the girl became very annoyed and cried, “You foolish thing, if you destroy my sewing machine, my mother and I will starve.”
“But what are you sewing?” the young man asked.
“I sew fine suits like the one you have on,” the girl said.
“But why must you sit like a prisoner and work day and night in a small dark room?” the young man asked.
“I don’t know why,” the girl said. “I don’t have time to trouble myself to find out why. But if you are a good, brave lad, then you could take the time and trouble to find out”.
“Yes,” the young man said. “I’ll do it, and when I know how to help you, I’ll return.”
The young girl laughed again and then quickly continued to sew as the young man departed.
I’d rather fight against a knight than against a sewing machine, the young man thought, but now I don’t know what to do. And he continued on his way steeped in thought. After some time he left the city and came to a patch of wood. There, in the distance, he could see a large factory with two tall chimneys puffing thick, black smoke into the air. Suddenly women, girls, and little children emerged and headed toward the factory. The stragglers were running. Why are they running like that, the young man thought; perhaps there’s a wild animal running after them, perhaps a dragon. And he called to the women, “Don’t be afraid of the dragon. I’ll handle him.”
“What’s that? What shouldn’t we be afraid of?” the women asked.
“The dragon who’s after you,” the young man replied.
The women and girls laughed loudly. But one of the women went over to the young man. She led two children by the hand and told him, “There’s no dragon after us. But there is a dragon in front of us, waiting for us. Do you see the flames coming out of his mouth?”
Through an open door of the factory the young man saw a gigantic furnace filled with glowing red coal. That was what the woman meant by flames coming out of the dragon’s mouth.
“And do you see the black smoke he puffs out of his nose? That’s the dragon. He drags me away from my children every day.”
“Do you always have to go to the dragon?”
“Every day, from early morning until late at night.”
“And what do you do there the entire day?”
“We make nice warm cloth like the cloth of your coat,” the woman said.
“I don’t want to wear a warm coat anymore if you have to leave your children alone because of it,” the young man said. “I’m going to start a large fire and burn down the entire factory. Then the dragon won’t be able to drag you away.”
“No,” the woman said, “that’s the one thing you shouldn’t do. Otherwise, my children and I shall starve. But if you’re a smart, brave lad, think of a way you can help us.
Upon saying that, the woman went with the others into the factory. The children remained outside, and many cried because their mothers had gone away. Just then a young woman carrying a basked came out of the woods. It was the girl who had gone to school with the young man some years ago. Upon catching sight of the young woman, the children stopped crying and ran toward her. She began telling them beautiful stories, and she played with them. And when the children became hungry, she took some bread and milk from the basket so that they could eat and drink.
The young man was surprised and watched for some time. He no longer thought about the sword under his coat, and it slipped to the ground without his noticing it. But the young woman cried out to him, “You’ve lost your sword. Come over here and bring it with you.”
The young man turned around and said, “Let it lie there. I don’t need it now.”
The young woman laughed and asked him whether he had killed all of the dragons. “Why didn’t you bring me one?”
“I haven’t killed one single dragon yet,” the young man said. “It’s more difficult than I thought. The real dragon that causes evil keeps on hiding. But I’ll find him one day, and then I’ll fight it out with him.”