Grimm Reviews – “Old Hildebrand”

My introductory post.  

“Old Hildebrand”

There once was a parson who wished to spend a day with Hildebrand’s wife. The wife was also keen on this. So one day the parson told her to pretend to be sick for several days. When he gave his sermon for that week, the parson would tell of a place in a distant land where they sold laurel-leaves that would cure the sick.

The wife took to her bed, and on Sunday her husband heard about the laurel-leaves. As soon as he had set off to get the laurel-leaves for his “sick” wife, she and the parson were together.

As Hildebrand traveled, he met an egg-merchant who asked where he was going in such a hurry and peasant explained about his sick wife. But the egg-merchant knew what was really going on.

So the egg-merchant had Hildebrand climb into his egg basket and carried him home, where he saw that his wife had killed all the animals and was making merry with the parson.

The egg-merchant asked to spend the night because he was tired of carrying his eggs home. He went in and set his basket down, and soon the parson and the wife were singing. And then the egg-merchant and Hildebrand joined in, and Hildebrand drove the parson from his home.

#

Either Hildebrand was rather small to fit in an egg basket and have someone carry him, or the egg-merchant was rather strong. And what happened with the wife? Did the shame of being found out change her so she became a good wife, or did Hildebrand kick her out too? How did she expect to get away with killing all their animals?