The Tale of a Youth who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was
Tale of a Youth who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, The (Von einem, der auszog, das Gruseln zu lernen),a prize‐winning puppet film based on the Grimms, and used for teaching Nazi values. In its written form the story is about a young man who has a tender heart but is such a simpleton that he cannot even understand what people mean when they talk about something ‘giving them the shivers’. Reproached for his stupidity by his father, he protests that he is very willing to learn, and would like to start by finding out how to get the shivers. A sexton guarantees to frighten him inside a church tower at midnight, but that has no effect. Nor does sleeping under a gibbet from which seven bodies are hanging. The youth even passes three nights in a haunted castle, thereby winning the king's daughter in marriage, without anything giving him the shivers. Finally his new wife solves the problem by emptying a bucket of small fish...
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